Long life ‘link’ to low vitamin D
A surprising link has been found between long life spans and naturally low levels of vitamin D.
Scientists made the discovery after studying data on 380 families with members who survived into their nineties.
Previous research has shown that people lacking the “sunshine vitamin” are more at risk from a host of conditions including heart disease, diabetes, cancer, allergies and mental illness.
According to these studies, having too little vitamin D increases the chances of premature death.
In the new investigation, Dutch scientists examined data from the Leiden Longevity Study, which involved families with at least two very elderly siblings – either a brother aged at least 89, or a sister aged 91 and over.
A total of 1,038 offspring of the elderly siblings were also included, together with their partners.
Vitamin D is created in the skin by the action of sunlight, and also obtained from food or supplements, but genetic factors also influence blood levels in different individuals.
The scientists looked at the influence of genetic code alterations known as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in three genes associated with vitamin D levels.
Their findings are reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
The authors, led by Dr Diana van Heemst, from Leiden University Medical Centre, wrote: “We found that the offspring of nonagenarians who had at least one nonagenarian sibling had lower levels of vitamin D than controls, independent of possible confounding factors and SNPs associated with vitamin D levels.”
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