14 DAY TRIAL // Sun lovers and cheese eaters got it: they will live longer than others. A new research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that vitamin D could act against aging and inflammation. The study made by a British-American team on over 2,100 female twin pairs aged 19-79 showed that higher vitamin D intake was connected to better genetic condition against aging and chronic stress.
The team investigated a DNA patch named leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and discovered that individuals consuming more vitamin D levels had longer LTL, linked to decreased inflammation and body stress.
Telomere shortening has been connected to aging processes, like heart disease and chronic inflammation. The telomere variation between those with the highest and lowest vitamin D levels was equivalent to 5 years of aging.
Telomere length can be influenced by several lifestyle factors (like obesity, smoking and sedentarism), but increasing the consumption of vitamin D could affect this DNA marker.
Vitamin D was linked for the beginning with the calcium metabolism in the organism, but recent researches connect it to a wide array of extra health benefits, coming with even more reasons not to neglect this essential nutrient.
Beyond strong bones and teeth, vitamin D also cuts off some cancers and autoimmune diseases, like type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis and appears to fight TBC.
The main diet sources of vitamin D, at least in the western world, are milk and dairy products. Amongst Americans, over 70 % of the calcium intake is delivered by these products. Three daily servings of low fat or fat-free milk deliver 900 mg of calcium, 300 IU of vitamin D and 80 mg of magnesium. Other sources of vitamin D are fish, mushrooms, eggs and yeast.
Moderate exposure to sun light produces vitamin D in the skin under the UV light action, but this is highly linked to season, geographic latitude, daytime, cloud cover, smog, that's why diet remains the most reliable source of vitamin D.