4 replies to this topic

[hamishm00]

Not a bad result for the old 'multi:




Multivitamin use is positively associated with telomere length in women, a National Institute of Health study has found.

A telomere is a DNA region at the end of a chromosome that protects the end from destruction. Longer length has been positively correlated with longevity. In the study, the relative telomere length of leukocyte DNA was on average 5.1% longer among daily multivitamin users, compared to nonusers.

Multivitamin supplements represent a major source of micronutrients, which may affect telomere length by modulating oxidative stress and chronic inflammation.

Source: The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (March 11, 2009), doi:10.3945/ajcn.2008.26986

[nancyd]

Not a bad result for the old 'multi:




Multivitamin use is positively associated with telomere length in women, a National Institute of Health study has found.

A telomere is a DNA region at the end of a chromosome that protects the end from destruction. Longer length has been positively correlated with longevity. In the study, the relative telomere length of leukocyte DNA was on average 5.1% longer among daily multivitamin users, compared to nonusers.

Multivitamin supplements represent a major source of micronutrients, which may affect telomere length by modulating oxidative stress and chronic inflammation.

Source: The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (March 11, 2009), doi:10.3945/ajcn.2008.26986

The people who took the multivitamins probably have healthier habits overall than people whom don't take vitamins. They probably eat more vegetables, exercise more, etc.. (This is a dumb question but did the telomere length increase during the study? I don't really know how fast it could change.)

[TianZi]

Not a bad result for the old 'multi:




Multivitamin use is positively associated with telomere length in women, a National Institute of Health study has found.

A telomere is a DNA region at the end of a chromosome that protects the end from destruction. Longer length has been positively correlated with longevity. In the study, the relative telomere length of leukocyte DNA was on average 5.1% longer among daily multivitamin users, compared to nonusers.

Multivitamin supplements represent a major source of micronutrients, which may affect telomere length by modulating oxidative stress and chronic inflammation.

Source: The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (March 11, 2009), doi:10.3945/ajcn.2008.26986

Noticed this in the news. There is only an abstract publicly available of the study with very little solid information in it besides a pithy ultimate conclusion.

I'd like to know how other lifestyle choices that influence telomere length were accounted for in the study, such as exercise, sleep, smoking and stress. I'd also like to know what dosages of particular supplements the participants in the study were taking, and whether longer telomere length was found on average in those people taking higher doses, etc.

You'd think the NIH would ensure that the full text of study would be available to anyone, rather than requiring an expensive subscription in order to see it.

Edited by TianZi, 22 March 2009 - 10:45 AM.

[hamishm00]

I was hoping someone here would be able to shed some more light on this, as I know some of you guys have access to the subscription sites. I was throwing it in the ring so to speak.

It's of course useless to talk about "multivitamin use" without knowing what doses we're talking about. We also know nothing about the control group, and what the underlying study was actually about.

[TianZi]

I was hoping someone here would be able to shed some more light on this, as I know some of you guys have access to the subscription sites. I was throwing it in the ring so to speak.

It's of course useless to talk about "multivitamin use" without knowing what doses we're talking about. We also know nothing about the control group, and what the underlying study was actually about.

It would be nice if someone with access to the full text could give us a quick summary addressing the points we've identified as important and missing from the abstract, as well as anything else noteworthy. We have a few students here--Shephard, etc.--who could check on this if they had time.