Reverse the Clock: How Vitamin D Holds the Key to Youthful Aging
Can vitamin D change your 'biological age'?..............
The short answer is – YES. Chronological age measures how many years you have been around – and biological age measures how good you look after spending that time here. The amount of damage and repair that your body is capable of causing, and the quality of that repair work, will determine how well you age. Some people eat the right things, manage stress, and keep their biological age low. These people look younger. Other people’s cells age more quickly through poor lifestyle choices and look much older than they are.
In this article, we will share a few tricks to help you manage how Vitamin D switches your DNA on and off. This process allows you to influence your body's repair systems, ultimately reducing your aging rate and biological age.
What is your “Biological Age”?
We all have that friend who just never gets older. They have amazing skin and healthy muscles. They radiate health. And we also know that person who lives an unbalanced lifestyle, and at the age of 25 looked like they were 50. Both people have biological ages that are at odds with their chronological age. One looks much younger than they are, and one looks much older.
Biological age refers to the physiological integrity of an individual compared to the average for that chronological age. It is a measure of how well your overall maintenance systems are working in your body and the amount of cumulative damage your body has incurred through time.
Genetic factors play a significant role here. DNA methylation (which we will explore further in relation to Vitamin D) and the integrity of chromosomes (specifically telomere length) are key factors that govern how well your cells work and repair themselves and the body. Understanding these mechanisms, particularly how Vitamin D relates to their functioning, can help reduce your rate of biological aging.
What is DNA Methylation?
DNA is a chain of molecules combined in the famous helix shape that transmits genetic information. If we imagine the inside of the molecule to contain the code, methylation of parts of the outside of the molecule can make it difficult/impossible for a gene to be read/activated and, if methylation occurs in a different place, it can increase the chances of a gene being activated/read.
As our bodies develop, starting from a fusion of sperm and egg, different cell types are determined by methylation events that activate or inactivate genes. Within the DNA code sequences, there are regions known as promoters that
encourage a gene to be active at a specific level. Where and how a gene promoter is methylated determines the degree of expression of that gene. For example, skin cells may produce melanin, resulting in different skin tones, depending on the strength of the promoters that encourage melanin production. This adaptation determines how well an individual can live in different environments.
Within our cells we also have genes that are responsible for housekeeping in the cell – repairing cellular issues, keeping the cell organized, and preventing mutations. If for some reason, the promoter regions of these genes are methylated in the wrong places, the ability of a cell to repair itself can decline. At some later point, this lack of repair work can result in promoter areas of genes that encourage cell growth to get switched on, and then the cell grows too fast and becomes a cancer. We want to avoid all of this.
How can Vitamin D help to promote healthy DNA methylation, and avoid unhealthy DNA methylation?
Increasing research is demonstrating the role of Vitamin D in maintaining healthy DNA methylation patterns, empowering individuals in their health management. According to the World Health Organization, colon cancer is the third most common age-related cancer, accounting for about 10% of all recorded cancers. A significant clinical study with a large number of participants led by Dr. Wang and his team at Sun Yat-Sen University in China found that the methylation of certain vitamin D-linked genes could indicate the likelihood of developing colorectal cancer (Wang et al., 2023). By maintaining healthy Vitamin D levels, individuals could potentially reduce the risk of these DNA-linked modifications that predispose one to this cancer.
Vitamin D and Inflammaging
Dr. Pahwa and his colleague define inflammation - “Inflammation is part of the body's defense mechanism. It is the process by which the immune system recognizes and removes harmful and foreign stimuli and begins the healing process. Inflammation can be either acute or chronic.” Acute inflammation occurs because of injury, infection, etc, and normally can be treated and will fade in a week or two. Chronic inflammation however tends to have a longer action or be permanent (Pahwa et al., 2024).
Age-related decline in body functionality can lead to certain types of inflammation, and this process of age-related inflammation is commonly referred to as inflammaging (Fantini et al., 2023). In terms of how we age, keeping inflammaging tendencies at a low level is critical to aging well. Dr. Fantini and colleagues reviewed Vitamin D's powerful effects in regulating the factors that cause aging. In summary, Vitamin D intake, ensuring a healthy blood level of Vitamin D compounds, helps to regulate many factors that would accelerate aging if Vitamin D was not present. All those little aches and pains we get as we get older are probably nature’s way of suggesting we increase our Vitamin D intake.
Vitamin D and your Immune System
One of the most important ways to reduce aging is to avoid getting sick! Every time we get Flu or any one of a host of similar viruses, the impacts on our overall
Dr. Chung and his colleagues provide a beautiful explanation of how vitamin D regulates and enables Cathelicidin, the antibiotic we produce naturally, to be produced and be effective (Chung et al., 2020). This is one of our most important lines of defense against a range of infectious agents. Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) are a major source of stress, weakening the body, especially in the elderly. The vitamin D-linked Cathelicidin molecule is an important line of defense against UTIs such as those caused by pathogenic strains of Escherichia coli - E.coli (Chromek et al., 2006).
In Conclusion
Vitamin D is an essential family of fat-soluble vitamins that help to encourage healthy DNA methylation patterns, healthy immune function, and a healthy endocrine system, as well as all the usual things we know about it – healthy bones, skin, etc. Vitamin D is responsible for the functioning of so many interlinking systems in the body that its absence causes people to fall apart. Vitamin D levels should be tested yearly to ensure you are maintaining healthy levels, and it is essential to get enough time in the sun and eat foods rich in Vitamin D, such as mushrooms left in the sun and wild-caught salmon. Vitamin D supplements and Vitamin D-enriched milk products can also assist in maintaining healthy serum levels of Vitamin D.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr Garth Cambray, PhD in Microbiology.
Bibliography
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Chung, C., Silwal, P., Kim, I., Modlin, R. L., & Jo, E.-K. (2020). Vitamin D-Cathelicidin Axis: At the Crossroads between Protective Immunity and Pathological Inflammation during Infection. Immune Netw, 20(2). https://doi.org/10.4110/in.2020.20.e12
Fantini, C., Corinaldesi, C., Lenzi, A., Migliaccio, S., & Crescioli, C. (2023). Vitamin D as a Shield against Aging. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 24(5). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24054546
Pahwa, R., Goyal, A., & Jialal, I. (2024). Chronic Inflammation. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing.
Wang, Y.-F., Li, L., Deng, X.-Q., Fang, Y.-J., & Zhang, C.-X. (2023). Association of DNA methylation of vitamin D metabolic pathway related genes with colorectal cancer risk. Clinical Epigenetics, 15(1), 140.