Scientists have discovered that vitamin D slows down aging

Sensational discovery: vitamin D slows down aging at the cellular level, protecting the genetic "youth timer"

Scientific work based on the large-scale VITamin D and OmegA-3 TriaL (VITAL) project has revealed the amazing ability of vitamin D to resist age-related changes. The study covered an impressive sample of 26 thousand participants - women over 55 years old and men over 50 years old. Volunteers were randomly assigned to groups receiving vitamin D, fish oil, a combination of these substances, or a placebo.

In a new study published in the prestigious American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, scientists identified a subgroup of 1054 participants living near the Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center in Boston. These volunteers gave blood three times over four years, allowing specialists to track the condition of their telomeres.

Telomeres are special protective DNA sequences at the ends of chromosomes, a kind of biological indicator of aging. When telomeres critically shorten, cells lose their ability to divide and die. An increase in the number of dying cells triggers the aging processes of the body.

At the initial stage of the study, the length of telomeres in all participants was the same. However, after four years of observations, it was found that in people who took 2000 international units of vitamin D daily, telomeres shortened significantly slower compared to the placebo group. Interestingly, fish oil did not demonstrate a statistically significant effect.

At the beginning of the experiment, the average length of DNA telomeres was 8700 base pairs. Regular intake of vitamin D allowed to preserve approximately 140 base pairs over the four-year observation period - an impressive result in the fight against natural aging.