It is a little long post. But bear with me.
First the question of the long living creatures. Why do they live long?
There are few such creatures that are analyzed by the scientists. One is Storm petrel and another is the naked mole rat
Some scientists are of the view the peroxidation in the membranes of the cells is the main culprit in the aging.
http://rsbl.royalsoc...nt/4/4/351.full
Fowl play and the price of petrel: long-living Procellariiformes have peroxidation-resistant membrane composition compared with short-living Galliformes
William A Buttemer*, Harry Battam and A.J Hulbert
+ Author Affiliations
Almost full documentation is there.
Naked mole rat is the creature that is totally without a vitamin D in the body. Yet it
The Naked Mole-Rat: A New Long-Living Model for Human Aging Research
http://biomedgeronto...1/1369.abstract
Subterranean mole-rats naturally have an impoverished calciol status, yet synthesize calciol metabolites and calbindins
http://www.eje-onlin...tract/130/4/402
But it can process the vitamin D as any other mammal
http://joe.endocrino...stract/138/1/59
But how does this creature survive without the vitamin D in the body? Any other creature without the vitamin D would have rickets and other vitamin Def syndromes. Yet, instead of dying young, these creatures live long!
So I just checked if long living Leach's Storm-Petrel is also nocturnal.
Yes it is.
Next I checked the famed bats who are nocturnal mammals long living? Yes they are. Small sized bats of the size of small rodents live for more than 30 years. Whereas the same sized rodents would die in a year or two!
But does vitamin D is cause of the aging? So I checked if the hypervitaminosis of the Vitamin D produces aging phenotypes. Yes they are.
http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/18177265
Klotho as a regulator of oxidative stress and senescence.
Klotho is a very important factor in the Vitamin D metabolism.
http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/16731043
Trends Mol Med. 2006 Jul;12(7):298-305. Epub 2006 May 30.
Hypervitaminosis D and premature aging: lessons learned from Fgf23 and Klotho mutant mice.
The essential role of low levels of vitamin D during aging is well documented. However, possible effects of high levels of vitamin D on the aging process are not yet clear. Recent in vivo genetic-manipulation studies have shown increased serum level of vitamin D and altered mineral-ion homeostasis in mice that lack either fibroblast growth factor 23 (Fgf23) or klotho (Kl) genes. These mice develop identical phenotypes consistent with premature aging. Elimination or reduction of vitamin-D activity from Fgf23 and Kl mutant mice, either by dietary restriction or genetic manipulation could rescue premature aging-like features and ectopic calcifications, resulting in prolonged survival of both mutants. Such in vivo experimental studies indicated that excessive vitamin-D activity and altered mineral-ion homeostasis could accelerate the aging process.
But vitamin D is membrane antioxidant
http://www.ncbi.nlm..../pubmed/8325381
Vitamin D is a membrane antioxidant. Ability to inhibit iron-dependent lipid peroxidation in liposomes compared to cholesterol, ergosterol and tamoxifen and relevance to anticancer action.
Wiseman H.
But Vitamin D is very much processed by Klotho. But the Klotho production falls as we age. So as we age, more vitamin D remains as not processed which can lead to aging.
Second, the vitamin D is not a very good membrane antioxidant. This may produce byproducts which lead to aging. Against Vitamin D, these nocturnal mammals and birds have evolved a different membrane antioxidant and mineral fixing chemical which leads to slower aging or even reversal of aging as we see in the storm petrel growing the telomeres as they age.
So, I think Vitamin D is the culprit. Let me clarify and reiterate. First is the case of the Naked Mole rats who do not depend on the vitamin d to fix the calcium. The grow the teeth so fast and they have to constantly dig to reduce the size of their teeth. But they have no vitamin d in their body and they live 9 times more than similarly sized rodents. It is hypothesized that there might be someother vitamin d analogue that is produced by its own body with out the need of the sun to create the vitamin d.
Second is the case of vitamin d overdose that is produced by the klotho gene absence and the symptoms are very similar to progeria.
But there are many nocturnal animals and birds that do not come in the sun and have the same or better and longer life span of the animals of the same size. These nocturnal animals/birds have no rickets or vitamin d deficiency. If so, they would not have evolved at all.
So here is my hypothesis. Vitamin D is a necessary part of the evil of aging. without the Vitamin D, humans cannot survive. But the very fact of the vitamin d in the metabolism produces the factors that should be implicated in the aging.
There are animals that have developed the nocturnal behaviour fall in two categories. One that eat other animals to get their vitamin d. another set that are Naked mole rat and storm petrels that are having a vitamin d independent metabolism with a specific analog (let us say that is yet to be discovered)
So the sunlight is the culprit. That is what is making us age. But the answer is the find the analog that is helping the storm petrels and nmrats to survive without the vitamin D.
So it may be true that the vampires are afraid of sunlight! Now we know why !