A new study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition revealed that vitamin D supplementation may slow biological aging by preserving the length of telomeres, the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes. Researchers in the VITAL Telomere study found that participants taking 2,000 International Units (IU) of vitamin D3 daily experienced less telomere shortening over four years compared to those who received a placebo.
The VITAL Telomere study is a sub-study of the larger VITAL trial, a randomized, placebo-controlled, and double-blind trial involving nearly 26,000 participants in the United States, including women aged 55 and older and men aged 50 and older, tracked for five years. In the sub-study, 1,054 adults participated, and the length of telomeres in their white blood cells was assessed at…