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Health News Archive 745 - Longevity
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Vitamin D Helps Promote Cellular Longevity

A new study has found that vitamin D-3 may slow aging by increasing the length of telomeres, the section of a chromosome that shortens as we age and when the body is subjected to increased inflammation.

Vitamin D is an antioxidant that is known to benefit skin, bone, and muscle. It also reduces inflammation.  Vitamin D’s benefits are thought to be due to its ability to help establish healthy C-reactive protein (CRP) levels in both healthy subjects and patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

When looking further into vitamin D, it is known that white blood cells called leukocytes have receptors for vitamin D. These white blood cells also contain processes called telomeres that, while normally shortening each time the cell divides, are unusually short in people with chronic inflammation due to the fact that inflammation increases leukocyte cell division.

As a result, leukocyte telomere length (LTL) has been suggested to be a marker of aging-related diseases since both LTL and vitamin D concentrations decrease and inflammatory mediators increase as we age. This study suggests that vitamin D supplementation may positively affect LTL and help promote longevity.

In the study, researchers looked at 2,160 women aged 18-79 from the UK Twins Study. This study examined several age-related diseases, including osteoporosis, obesity, diabetes, and visual, endocrine, and cardiovascular diseases. The researchers looked at body mass index, physical activity, smoking, and blood levels of insulin, C-reactive protein (CRP) - an inflammatory protein that has been associated with heart disease and stroke - and leptin, since these factors have been considered to significantly influence LTL. Finally, the researchers asked the patients about their vitamin D supplementation.

The researchers found that those in the highest 20% of vitamin D blood levels had an average of 108 more base pairs than those in the lowest 20%of vitamin D blood levels. This LTL difference equated to five years of chronological age. Vitamin D supplement users also had longer LTLs than did non-users (although exact supplement intakes were not stated).

The researchers concluded, “vitamin D, which is easily modifiable through supplementation, may possibly attenuate LTL degradation.”

Source: Richards JB, Valdes AM, Gardner JP, Paximadas D, Kimura M, Nessa A, Lu X, Surdulescu GL, Swaminathan R, Spector TD, Aviv A. Higher serum vitamin D concentrations are associated with longer leukocyte telomere length in women. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Nov;86(5):1420-1425.

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