12 replies to this topic

[1kgcoffee]

http://us2.campaign-...9d&e=9974fd2f33

[Louis]

A 19% increase in telomerase levels in vivo. Extremely impressive,

[ikaros]

Although this is a preliminary research (obese dark skinned individuals) in vit D3 effect on telomeres...it does seem to do the same thing as TA-65 and that is induce telomerase in immune cells...only difference being the horrendous price tag difference. Very interesting indeed.

Edited by ikaros, 13 December 2011 - 06:56 PM.

[DbCooper]

Outstanding.

[Mind]

Just a reminder that vitamin D is a hormone. Hormones are the most powerful regulators wrt human health/growth/development. I am not surprised by vitamin D's multiple benefits. Now I wish there wasn't such an extreme stigma wrt to the multitude of other hormones and their use. I have always felt that over-regulation of other hormones has limited our knowledge as to the potential life enhancing or extending benefits. I don't use some of the more powerful hormones, only vitamin D and melatonin, but I don't like to see other people prevented from experimenting. Hopefully vitamin D will continue to be widely available.

[niner]

I wouldn't read too much into this. These were obese people with vitamin D deficiency. Basically, they were sick. We know that stress shortens telomeres; it stands to reason that getting healthier is going to help some. That doesn't mean that vitamin D is a substitute for cycloastragenol. Cycloastragenol and other astragalus compounds can increase telomere lengths in healthy people, and there is no evidence that vitamin D will do that. I'm not really sure what they mean by telomerase activity anyway. What does it mean for telomerase activity to increase 19%? How is "activity" defined, what is the baseline, and how does it all relate to telomere length?

[DbCooper]

I wouldn't read too much into this. These were obese people with vitamin D deficiency. Basically, they were sick. We know that stress shortens telomeres; it stands to reason that getting healthier is going to help some. That doesn't mean that vitamin D is a substitute for cycloastragenol. Cycloastragenol and other astragalus compounds can increase telomere lengths in healthy people, and there is no evidence that vitamin D will do that. I'm not really sure what they mean by telomerase activity anyway. What does it mean for telomerase activity to increase 19%? How is "activity" defined, what is the baseline, and how does it all relate to telomere length?

This study doesn't say that it won't help healthy people, not all skinny people are healthy, and not all overweight people are sick. Whats a healthy person? How many Americans today are skinny and lead a stress free lifestyle? Either way this study does show that Vitamin D is at least helping people who need it the most, not the people who need it the least.

I'll simply summarize in saying that from a longevity standpoint, lengthening Telomeres by any amount is desirable.

Edited by DbCooper, 14 December 2011 - 04:50 AM.

[niner]

This study doesn't say that it won't help healthy people, not all skinny people are healthy, and not all overweight people are sick. Whats a healthy person? How many Americans today are skinny and lead a stress free lifestyle? Either way this study does show that Vitamin D is at least helping people who need it the most, not the people who need it the least.

I'll simply summarize in saying that from a longevity standpoint, lengthening Telomeres by any amount is desirable.

This study can't say anything about healthy people. They didn't look at any. Obese + vitamin D deficient = 'sick', in my book. Overweight is different from obese. Healthy people, for the sake of this argument, are vitamin D replete. Lengthening telomeres is great, but they didn't show that. They showed an "increase in telomerase activity". I would expect vitamin D to help people more if they have a D deficiency than if they don't, but so what? We still have no evidence that more D would lengthen telomeres in the sort of people who care about their telomere length, and are thus likely to be vitamin D replete. I'm not arguing against D for those who need it. I'm just saying don't get your hopes up too much on this.

[DbCooper]

This study doesn't say that it won't help healthy people, not all skinny people are healthy, and not all overweight people are sick. Whats a healthy person? How many Americans today are skinny and lead a stress free lifestyle? Either way this study does show that Vitamin D is at least helping people who need it the most, not the people who need it the least.

I'll simply summarize in saying that from a longevity standpoint, lengthening Telomeres by any amount is desirable.

This study can't say anything about healthy people. They didn't look at any. Obese + vitamin D deficient = 'sick', in my book. Overweight is different from obese. Healthy people, for the sake of this argument, are vitamin D replete. Lengthening telomeres is great, but they didn't show that. They showed an "increase in telomerase activity". I would expect vitamin D to help people more if they have a D deficiency than if they don't, but so what? We still have no evidence that more D would lengthen telomeres in the sort of people who care about their telomere length, and are thus likely to be vitamin D replete. I'm not arguing against D for those who need it. I'm just saying don't get your hopes up too much on this.

Thank you for managing everyones hopes on this, I for one really appreciate it. Your post includes words like "in by book," or "I would expect." Such unsure footed statements do not specify a stance, what IS your position on vitamin D and TM length? Its ok to say if you dont know enough about something if you don't, I do it all the time. Do you have a counter study showing a decrease in TM activity that from vitamin D? Or are you trying to convey from a point of opinion that this data will not benefit human longevity?

Vitamin D continues to surpass the medical communities wildest expectations in study after study. I cannot think of a single reason "not to get my hopes up" about vitamin D.

Have a nice day.

[maxwatt]

vitamin D is great, but apparently the study did not show telomere lengthening per se, nor did it show anything about non-obese or caucasian subjects.

[stephen_b]

Thank you for managing everyones hopes on this, I for one really appreciate it. Your post includes words like "in by book," or "I would expect." Such unsure footed statements do not specify a stance, what IS your position on vitamin D and TM length?

The study only showed that "Vitamin D supplementation significantly increased PBMC telomerase activity in overweight African Americans". The rest is speculation.

[niner]

Thank you for managing everyones hopes on this, I for one really appreciate it. Your post includes words like "in by book," or "I would expect." Such unsure footed statements do not specify a stance, what IS your position on vitamin D and TM length? Its ok to say if you dont know enough about something if you don't, I do it all the time. Do you have a counter study showing a decrease in TM activity that from vitamin D? Or are you trying to convey from a point of opinion that this data will not benefit human longevity?

Along with the previous comments, I could add a bit more. We've seen studies linking telomere length to stress levels and also to multivitamin use. The recent discussion of Epitalon in the astragalus megathread, along with the stress connection suggests some sort of endocrine effect on telomerase. It's eminently reasonable, given all of this, to expect that correcting a vitamin D deficiency would have a positive effect on telomere length, given the rest of this. To expect that telomerase activity would continue to rise along with D levels when you are well beyond a healthy level of vitamin D already is speculative at best. I don't know of any published evidence regarding the relationship between telomerase activity and D levels in the upper ranges, so my statements on that relationship are only opinion, albeit an educated opinion.

I think that this data will in fact benefit human longevity if you are an obese person of African descent. There is now a large body of evidence which shows that the correction of vitamin D deficiency will have a beneficial effect on longevity for all people. That evidence also raises the bar on levels could be considered deficient. This doesn't mean that vitamin D levels should be raised to the sky. Like all substances, there are negative effects that show up at higher levels. The optimum level will be different for everyone, depending on their genetically driven risk for various diseases. If your greatest threat is CVD, your optimum D level will be a lot higher than if your greatest genetic risk is for prostate cancer.

[osris]

"Higher serum vitamin D concentrations are associated with longer leukocyte telomere length in women.":

 

"CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that higher vitamin D concentrations, which are easily modifiable through nutritional supplementation, are associated with longer LTL, which underscores the potentially beneficial effects of this hormone on aging and age-related diseases."

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/17991655