Multi-Vitamins May Prolong Life

Yale Study Finds Women Who Take Them Show Healthier DNA Component to Cells.

by Michael Rinaldi

Multivitamins may help women live longer by preventing parts of their DNA from shortening, a new study has found.

Telomeres, or the end portion of chromosomes, protect chromosomes from damage. Because telomeres shorten slightly when cells divide, researchers speculated that preventing this shortening could protect new cells and thus reduce the effects of aging.

"This study provides the first epidemiological evidence that multivitamin use is associated with longer leukocyte telomeres among women," said lead researcher Dr. Honglei Chen, head of the Aging & Neuroepidemiology Group at the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

They are quick to point out however that their findings do not suggest that taking vitamins DOES lead to a longer life; they admit that there just may have been an association between the women in their study and vitamin use that the women taking the vitamins may have been more likely to live healthier anyway.

However, from my knowledge of research, that chance being random was slim, as the study was conducted overy 12 years and examined women with cancer and their cancer-free siblings.

They found that multivitamin use was associated with longer leukocyte telomeres. Compared with nonusers, daily multivitamin users had, on average, 5.1 percent longer leukocyte telomeres.

This corresponds to about 9.8 years less age-related telomere shortening, the researchers noted.

Vitamins C and E from diet also were associated with longer telomeres, they added.  But, whether the vitamins preserved telomere length or actually lengthened life is not clear.

While most recent studies do not overwhelmingly support the efficacy of vitamin usage, this one appears to lend support.  There are other issues with the study, and future work needs to be done to answer the questions raised in this study, however proponents of healthy living and vitamin use no doubt will point to this as an "I told you so". 

It is my opinion that vitamin use is necessary as the vast majority of our diets are not planned for nutrition, but are instead planned out of convenience, willingness to cook or plan/prepare meals and personal preferences of the palate. 

Current recommendations are to have three reasonable meals a day with two light snacks in between.

Many people skip meals per day and end up gorging at dinner, "unable to get full". 

It is clear upon my interview with many people that nutritional supplementation is indicated as the vast majority of diets are inconsistent with guidelines for proper eating.

We use and recommend Lifesource Nutrition Multi-Vitamins as they are of exceptional quality at a reasonable price.  Also, rather than going to a health food store where vitamins may sit on a shelf for an extended time, Lifesource ships direct from their facility to endure freshness.