{"id":866727,"date":"2025-08-20T23:15:27","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T04:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/20\/groundbreaking-study-reveals-that-vitamin-d-may-slow-biological-aging\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T23:15:27","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T04:15:27","slug":"groundbreaking-study-reveals-that-vitamin-d-may-slow-biological-aging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/20\/groundbreaking-study-reveals-that-vitamin-d-may-slow-biological-aging\/","title":{"rendered":"Groundbreaking Study Reveals That Vitamin D May Slow Biological Aging"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Doctor<\/a>
A major clinical trial has uncovered compelling evidence that vitamin D supplementation helps preserve telomeres, the DNA structures that protect chromosomes and shorten with age. Credit: Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A large clinical trial suggests vitamin D may slow biological aging by preserving telomeres.<\/h3>\n

Findings from the VITAL randomized controlled trial show that vitamin D supplementation can help preserve telomeres, the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes. These structures naturally shorten with age, a process linked to the onset of many health conditions.<\/p>\n

The study, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition<\/div>\n

The <em>American Journal of Clinical Nutrition<\/em> is a leading peer-reviewed journal in the field of human nutrition. It publishes research on nutrient metabolism, dietary interventions, and their impact on health and disease prevention. <em>AJCN<\/em> is widely used by clinicians, public health experts, and policymakers.<\/div>\n

” data-gt-translate-attributes=”[{“attribute”:”data-cmtooltip”, “format”:”html”}]” tabindex=”0″ role=”link”>American Journal of Clinical Nutrition<\/span><\/em>, draws on data from a VITAL sub-study led jointly by researchers at Mass General Brigham and the Medical College of Georgia. The results highlight vitamin D\u2019s potential to slow one of the biological mechanisms associated with aging.<\/p>\n

\u201cVITAL is the first large-scale and long-term randomized trial to show that vitamin D supplements protect telomeres and preserve telomere length,\u201d said co-author JoAnn Manson, MD, principal investigator of VITAL and chief of the Division of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system. \u201cThis is of particular interest because VITAL had also shown benefits of vitamin D in reducing inflammation and lowering risks of selected chronic diseases of aging, such as advanced cancer and autoimmune disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Are Telomeres?<\/h4>\n

Telomeres consist of repeating DNA<\/div>\n

DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a molecule made of two long strands of nucleotides twisted into a double helix. It serves as the hereditary material in humans and nearly all other organisms, encoding the genetic instructions used for development, functioning, and reproduction. Most DNA resides in the cell nucleus (nuclear DNA), while a smaller portion is found in mitochondria (mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA).<\/div>\n

” data-gt-translate-attributes=”[{“attribute”:”data-cmtooltip”, “format”:”html”}]” tabindex=”0″ role=”link”>DNA<\/span> sequences (base pairs) that serve as buffers, preventing chromosome ends from deteriorating or attaching to other chromosomes. Over time, telomeres naturally shorten, and this process has been strongly tied to a greater likelihood of developing age-related illnesses.<\/p>\n

\"JoAnn<\/a>
JoAnn Manson, MD, and other VITAL faculty and staff at a research team meeting at BWH. Credit: JoAnn Manson, Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A few short-term, small-scale studies have suggested that vitamin D or omega 3 fatty acid<\/div>\n

An acid is a chemical substance that releases hydrogen ions (H\u207a) when dissolved in water, resulting in a low pH (below 7). Acids are often characterized by their sour taste and their ability to react with bases to form salts and water. They play essential roles in biology, industry, and environmental processes.<\/div>\n

” data-gt-translate-attributes=”[{“attribute”:”data-cmtooltip”, “format”:”html”}]” tabindex=”0″ role=”link”>acid<\/span> supplementation may help support telomeres, but results have been inconsistent. VITAL is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of vitamin D3 (2,000 IU\/day) and omega-3 fatty acid (1 g\/day) supplementation that tracked U.S. females aged 55 years and older and males aged 50 years and older for five years. The VITAL Telomere sub-study included 1,054 of these participants, whose telomere length in white blood cells was assessed at baseline and at Year 2 and Year 4.<\/p>\n

Compared with taking a placebo, taking vitamin D3 supplements significantly reduced telomere shortening over four years, preventing the equivalent of nearly three years of aging compared with placebo. Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation had no significant effect on telomere length throughout follow-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur findings suggest that targeted vitamin D supplementation may be a promising strategy to counter a biological aging process, although further research is warranted,\u201d said Haidong Zhu, PhD, first author of the report and a molecular geneticist at the Medical College of Georgia, Augusta University.<\/p>\n

Reference: \u201cVitamin D3 and marine \u03c9-3 fatty acids supplementation and leukocyte telomere length: 4-year findings from the VITamin D and OmegA-3 TriaL (VITAL) randomized controlled trial\u201d by Haidong Zhu, JoAnn E Manson, Nancy R Cook, Bayu B Bekele, Li Chen, Kevin J Kane, Ying Huang, Wenjun Li, William Christen, I-Min Lee and Yanbin Dong, 21 May 2025, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition<\/i>.
\nDOI: 10.1016\/j.ajcnut.2025.05.003<\/a><\/p>\n

This work was supported by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (R01 HL131674-01). The parent VITAL trial is supported by R01 AT011729.<\/p>\n

Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\t\t\t Mass General Brigham
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A major clinical trial has uncovered compelling evidence that vitamin D supplementation helps preserve telomeres, the DNA structures that protect chromosomes and shorten with age. Credit: Shutterstock A large clinical trial suggests vitamin D may slow biological aging by preserving telomeres. Findings from the VITAL randomized controlled trial show that vitamin D supplementation can help<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":866728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22345,3437],"tags":[13635,8870],"class_list":{"0":"post-866727","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-groundbreaking","8":"category-study","9":"tag-groundbreaking","10":"tag-study"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}