This transcript has been edited for clarity.
This is Dr JoAnn Manson, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. I’d like to talk with you about a recent report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that suggests vitamin D supplementation has a promising role in protecting telomeres and slowing telomere shortening, according to results of the VITAL randomized trial.
Telomeres are specialized chromatin structures located at the end of chromosomes and they play a role in maintaining the stability and the integrity of the chromosomes when cells divide. People who have very short telomeres are more likely to have cells undergoing senescence and apoptosis, and they’re more likely to have aging-related conditions such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and premature…