Raccourcissement des télomères, vieillissement accéléré et comment l’inverser - Partie 2 ( anglais + français

https://doorlesscarp953.substack.com/p/telomere-shortening-accelerated-aging-578?

Telomere shortening, accelerated ageing, and how to reverse it - Part 2

Learn how to unleash your superpowers

May 25, 2026

En français:
https://doorlesscarp953-substack-com.translate.goog/p/telomere-shortening-accelerated-aging-578?_x_tr_sl=en&_x_tr_tl=fr&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp&_x_tr_hist=true
(Sélectionnez votre langue en haut de la page)

Any extracts used in the following article are for non-commercial research and educational purposes only and may be subject to copyright from their respective owners.


“Splendid morning seascape of Adriatic sea. Sunny summer view of small beach in famous resort - Brela, Croatia, Europe. Beautiful world of Mediterranean countries.” By Andrew Mayovskyy

Contents

1.0 Introduction

2.0 Discussion

3.0 Parting shots

4.0 Concluding remarks

5.0 Disclaimer

6.0 References


1.0 Introduction

By manipulating her cells at a genetic level, Anais Gaia (RoboCop: Alpha Commando) can also control her telomeres, aging and de-aging herself at will. Power/Ability to: manipulate telomeres.” https://powerlisting.fandom.com/wiki/Telomere_Manipulation
Seran Stem Cell Lab
“You know what? Telomere Effect: Reversing the Biological Clock” https://us-seranclinic.imweb.me/

What did we learn from Part 1?

A quick recap:

  • Human diploid cells can proliferate a limited number of times in cell culture. Once they reach the “Hayflick limit”, they undergo morphological and biochemical changes that eventually lead to arrest of cell division and a transition to the senescent state.

  • Sensescent cells of the SASP phenotype (Senescence-Associated Secretory Phenotype) are marked by a complex, toxic, cancer-promoting mix of inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors.

  • Telomeres normally shorten with each round of cell division, bringing the cell ever closer to the Hayflick limit.

  • However, this process may be reversed by an enzyme called telomerase.

  • The process may be slowed or even reversed by modifying our diet and lifestyle in order to better support telomerase activity.

  • Other factors affecting telomere health include our well-being, oxidative stress, inflammation, metabolism, DNA repair, toxins, calorific load, and our microbiome.

  • Part 1 reviewed the literature and clinical trial reports supporting the positive role of vitamin D in telomere health.

  • The mother’s health, vitamin D status, and telomere status are also reflected in the newborn, with lifelong implications.

Part 2 continues the discussion and reviews the effects of other vitamins, minerals, and agents on telomere status—both good and bad.


2.0 Discussion

Emphasis is mine in bold, and some passages are lightly reformatted for legibility.

2.1 The association between therapeutics and telomere length (continued)

“Diagram of c-myc induction of telomerase.” Telomere Extension
“Fig. 11. Re-establishment of telomere with the help of telomerase” https://www.anticancer.net/en/basis/

B Vitamins

B12 deficiency is associated with telomere shortening. This is thought to be due, in part, to elevated serum homocysteine levels and the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which lead to DNA damage. Folate (vitamin B9) deficiency serves as a critical, indirect functional marker for B6 and B12 deficiencies, due to their interconnected roles in one-carbon metabolism, often referred to as the "folate trap”.

From “The Relationship Between Vitamin B12 and Telomere Length: A Systematic Review“ (2023) by Yıldırım & Ekici:1

The Role of Vitamin B12 in Telomere Length

The regulation of telomere length and mitochondrial DNA structure involves epigenetic mechanisms, namely methylation and histone modifications. These epigenetic processes can be influenced by dietary micronutrients, including vitamin B12 (Ma et al., 2019). Vitamin B12 is an essential cofactor required for two enzymatic reactions in the human body.

One important aspect is that vitamin B12 serves as a cofactor in the remethylation process of homocysteine to methionine, which is facilitated by the enzyme methionine synthase.

On the other hand, vitamin B12 is the cofactor for the isomerization of methylmalonyl CoA to succinyl CoA by the enzyme methylmalonyl CoA mutase (Pusceddu et al., 2019). Figure 2 shows the reactions related to the recruitment of vitamin B12 as a cofactor.

Homocysteine due to its role in one-carbon metabolism; folate is considered a functional marker of vitamin B6 and B12 availability. The inadequate presence of any of these vitamins might impede the process of homocysteine detoxification, resulting in hyperhomocysteinemia.

This condition can lead to an imbalance in oxidative reactions and an elevated production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), including peroxides and free radicals. ROS has the capability to induce detrimental effects on DNA, such as causing damage to DNA bases, breaking DNA strands, and hastening the process of telomere shortening (Herrmann and Herrmann, 2022).

In a cross-sectional study evaluating the relationships between telomere length and serum folate, vitamin B12 and homocysteine; Serum homocysteine levels due to low-grade systemic inflammation and the presence of adequate folate and vitamin B12 were found to be inversely related to leukocyte telomere length.

The research further proposed the maintenance of circulating homocysteine and C-reactive-protein (CRP) levels within the range of normal values as a potential strategy for postponing biological aging in individuals who are in good health (Herrmann and Herrmann, 2022).

It has been shown that plasma folate and vitamin B12 levels in elderly individuals may affect the integrity of the mitochondrial genome, telomere length, and epigenetic regulation of telomere length through DNA methylation (Chou et al., 2007).

Plasma folate and vitamin B12 levels may influence aging by stabilizing telomere length and mitochondrial DNA copy number. (Praveen et al., 2020).

According to the findings of Pusceddu et al. (2019), individuals exhibiting either a deficiency or an excess of vitamin B12 display certain features that are linked to increased death rates when compared to those individuals with intermediate levels of vitamin B12.

Insufficient vitamin B12 levels and hyperhomocysteinemia appear to be associated with overall DNA methylation and telomere length.

More: https://agrifoodscience.com/index.php/TURJAF/article/view/6381/3088


DNA methylation (DNAm) acts as an “epigenetic clock” that tracks biological ageing, generally showing increased hypermethylation at specific gene promoters and overall hypomethylation with age. Overall, DNA methylation levels decline with age, and this is associated with genomic instability and telomere shortening.

“… Two people, blue and red, born at the same time, will always share the same chronological age (gray arrow timeline measured in years). However, because of genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors and lifestyle choices, they may progress through the functional decline that characterizes biological aging at different rates.”

Figure 3. Chronological versus Biological Age and Their Assessment by Methylation Clocks (A) Two people, blue and red, born at the same time, will always share the same chronological age (gray arrow timeline measured in years). However, because of genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors and lifestyle choices, they may progress through the functional decline that characterizes biological aging at different rates. Shown here, red ages biologically more quickly than blue, likely associated with earlier onset of lethal disease. As illustrated, in early life, red and blue are assumed to have the same biological age. (B) By definition, a perfect chronological clock (left), whether based on DNA methylation or any other molecular parameter, measures time elapsed since birth. Therefore, it cannot distinguish between individuals that biologically age fast (red) or slow (blue). In contrast, a biological clock (center) can distinguish between unhealthy (red) versus healthy (green) aging but is a less accurate chronological clock. A hybrid clock (right) tracks closely with chronological age, but deviation from the position of the 45 perfect chronological clock is a reflection of biological age. However, the hybrid clock is likely a less accurate predictor of age and disease than a bona fide biological clock. The human clocks calibrated against chronological age are likely hybrid clocks (Hannum et al., 2013; Horvath, 2013; Weidner et al., 2014). The colors of the filled circles indicate the donor, red or blue, from (A).” https://www.cell.com/molecular-cell/pdf/S1097-2765(18)30642-7.pdf

A clinical study from 2016 helps to support the findings of the previous paper:

Prospective study of telomere length and LINE-1 methylation in peripheral blood cells: the role of B vitamins supplementation (2016)

Abstract

Purpose: Deficiencies of folate, vitamins B12 and D are common age-related conditions. Vitamin B12 and folate are necessary for DNA methylation. Telomeres appear to be regulated by DNA methylation. Here, we study the effect of B vitamins supplementation on telomere length and global DNA methylation in a prospective study.

Methods: In total, 60 elderly subjects were supplemented for 1 year with either vitamin B12, B6, folate, vitamin D and calcium (group A n = 31) or only vitamin D and calcium (group B n = 29). LINE-1 methylation, relative telomere length (T/S), vitamin B12, folate, homocysteine (tHcy) , 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (5-methylTHF), S-adenosylhomocysteine (SAH), S-adenosylmethionine (SAM), cystathionine and vitamin D were quantified before and after supplementation.

Results: … After supplementation in group B but not in group A, LINE-1 methylation correlated inversely with T/S, and LINE-1 methylation variation was an independent predictor of T/S variation. B vitamins decreased tHcy significantly in group A.

Multiple backward regression analysis showed 5-methylTHF in group A and tHcy in group B were significant predictors for LINE-1 methylation. At baseline, the lower LINE-1 methylation observed in subjects with 5-methylTHF >10 nmol/l was in agreement with a reduced methyl group transfer due to a lower SAM formation. In group B, an increase in telomere length was correlated with lower LINE-1 methylation.

Subjects with hyperhomocysteinemia >12 µmol/L had compared to those with normal tHcy a reduced LINE-1 methylation accompanied by a higher SAM and SAH (that inhibits demethylation of SAM) as well as lower 5-methylTHF. Additionally, subjects with tHcy > 12 µmol/L had longer telomeres when compared with subjects having tHcy < 12 µmol/L.

Conclusions: The results suggest a possible effect of B vitamins for telomere biology in blood cells. Suboptimal B vitamins status and hyperhomocysteinemia are associated with altered DNA methylation and telomere length. These data have to be confirmed in future studies.

More: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26293976/


Subclinical inflammation, telomere shortening, homocysteine, vitamin B6, and mortality: the Ludwigshafen Risk and Cardiovascular Health Study (2019)

Abstract

Purpose

Short telomeres and B vitamin deficiencies have been proposed as risk factors for age-related diseases and mortality that interact through oxidative stress and inflammation. However, available data to support this concept are insufficient. We aimed to investigate the predictive role of B vitamins and homocysteine (HCY) for mortality in cardiovascular patients. We explored potential relationships between HCY, B vitamins, relative telomere length (RTL), and indices of inflammation.

Methods

Vitamin B6, HCY, interleukin-6 (IL-6), high-sensitive-C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), and RTL were measured in participants of the Ludwigshafen Risk and Cardiovascular Health Study. Death events were recorded over a median follow-up of 9.9 years.

Results

All-cause mortality increased with higher concentrations of HCY and lower vitamin B6. Patients in the 4th quartile of HCY and vitamin B6 had hazard ratios (HR) for all-cause mortality of 2.77 (95% CI 2.28–3.37) and 0.41(95% CI 0.33–0.49), respectively, and for cardiovascular mortality of 2.78 (95% CI 2.29–3.39) and 0.40 (95% CI 0.33–0.49), respectively, compared to those in the 1st quartile.

Multiple adjustments for confounders did not change these results. HCY and vitamin B6 correlated with age-corrected RTL (r = − 0.086, p < 0.001; r = 0.04, p = 0.031, respectively), IL-6 (r = 0.148, p < 0.001; r = − 0.249, p < 0.001, respectively), and hs-CRP (r = 0.101, p < 0.001; r = − 0.320, p < 0.001, respectively).

Subjects with the longest telomeres had a significantly higher concentration of vitamin B6, but lower concentrations of HCY, IL-6, and hs-CRP. Multiple regression analyses identified HCY as an independent negative predictor of age-corrected RTL.

Conclusions

In conclusion, hyperhomocysteinemia and vitamin B6 deficiency are risk factors for death from any cause. Hyperhomocysteinemia and vitamin B6 deficiency correlate with increased mortality. This correlation might, at least partially, be explained by accelerated telomere shortening induced by oxidative stress and systemic inflammation in these circumstances.

More: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7230054/


If you drink about this many pints, you will definitely meet your dietary RDAs for B6.

I’m always pleased to support my telomerase.

Hold My Beer Iron On Patch Funny "Hold My Beer" Iron-On Embroidered Patch -  Perfect For Jackets, Bags & DIY Hold My Beer Embroidered Patch For Jackets

Your pint could come with a surprising health benefit

Drinking the odd pint of beer can provide “substantial levels” of an essential brain-boosting vitamin in your diet, according to new research in a respected journal, external.

The vitamin B6 is good for the brain, blood and immune system and is found in a wide variety of foods.

A beer “serving” might meet around 15% of your daily B6 requirement, the authors say, and even alcohol-free lager could have the same effect.

Many of the raw ingredients used to make beer, including barley, wheat and brewer’s yeast, contain vitamin B6 and the brewing process doesn’t kill it all off, research suggests.

B6 is an essential nutrient that we get through food. Good sources of B6 are meat and fish, but it’s also present in other foods, including porridge oats, potatoes and chickpeas. Many breakfast cereals have added B6 too.

Being truly deficient in B6 is rare, although sometimes levels can be a bit low, often alongside a lack of other B vitamins, such as B12, which can leave you feeling tired and nauseous.

The study, which tested 65 different beers bought from local supermarkets in Germany, found:

  • Bock beer had the highest B6 content followed by lagers, dark lagers, and wheat beers

  • Rice beers had the least B6 content

  • Non-alcoholic beers with their ethanol removed after full fermentation had higher vitamin B6 levels than those made using yeasts that produce less ethanol

  • An average lager in the study provided 20% of recommended dietary allowance for vitamin B6

  • One of the non-alcoholic lagers they tested provided nearly 59%

Men need about 1.4mg a day and women 1.2mg of vitamin B6, according to the NHS. A litre of beer can contain anywhere between 0.3mg and 1mg, the research suggests.

If you stick within recommended alcohol limits, that’s not enough for regulators to allow you to put a sticker on the front of a bottle hailing its vitamin content, but it’s still a measurable amount, says study author Prof Michael Rychlik.

The findings are useful “only for consumers who want to optimise their vitamin intake”, he adds.

More: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvglqw709k1o


Vitamin K

Green vegetables rich in vitamin K on black slate.

Higher dietary intake of vitamin K is statistically positively associated with telomere length:

Association between dietary vitamin K and telomere length: Based on NHANES 2001 to 2002 (2024)

Abstract

As an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant, vitamin K has the potential to reduce telomere attrition. However, the correlation between dietary vitamin K and telomere length (TL) has not been reported. We aimed to investigate the association between these 2 variables.

This study included 3754 participants from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2001-2002 database. We used multivariate linear regression and restricted cubic splines to assess the relationship between dietary vitamin K intake and TL.

Subgroup analyses and interaction tests were utilized to examine the stability of the results. After adjusting for all variables, each unit increase in daily dietary intake of vitamin K lengthened telomeres by 0.22 base pairs (β = 0.22, 95% CI: 0.09-0.36, P = .001).

Individuals with the highest dietary vitamin K intake had significantly longer TL (β = 80.27, 95% CI: 20.83-139.71, P = .008). Subgroup analyses suggested that this association persisted in populations stratified by gender, age, diabetes, cardiovascular disease (CVD), body mass index and total energy intake (P for interaction > .05).

A linear relationship between dietary vitamin K intake and TL was observed in restricted cubic splines (P for nonlinear = .554). In conclusion, our findings suggest that dietary vitamin K intake is positively associated with TL, providing recent evidence to guide the management of healthy diets.

… Figure 2.

Figure 2.
Restricted cubic splines for the association between dietary vitamin K intake and telomere length.

5. Conclusion

Dietary vitamin K intake was linearly and positively correlated with TL. This study provides a new perspective on the dietary management of aging and aging-related diseases. Further prospective studies are required to demonstrate a causal relationship.

More: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39432594/


Vitamin C

Vitamin C in fruits and vegetables

A cross-sectional data study from 2023 showed that vitamin C was positively correlated with telomere length, and they discuss some of the potential mechanisms:

Association between dietary vitamin C and telomere length: A cross-sectional study (2023)

Abstract

Background

Currently, telomere length is known to reflect the replication potential and longevity of cells, and many studies have reported that telomere length is associated with age-related diseases and biological aging.

Studies have also shown that vitamin C acts as an oxidant and free radical scavenger to protect cells from oxidative stress and telomere wear, thus achieving anti-aging effects. At present, there are few and incomplete studies on the relationship between vitamin C and telomere length, so this study aims to explore the relationship between vitamin C and telomere length.

Methods

This study used cross-sectional data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) database from 1999 to 2002, a total of 7,094 participants were selected from all races in the United States. Male participants accounted for 48.2% and female participants accounted for 51.8%.

The correlation between vitamin C and telomere length was assessed using a multiple linear regression model, and the effect of dietary vitamin C on telomere length was obtained after adjusting for confounding factors such as age, gender, race, body mass index (BMI), and poverty income ratio (PIR).

Results

This cross-sectional study showed that vitamin C was positively correlated with telomere length, with greater dietary vitamin C intake associated with longer telomeres (β = 0.03, 95% CI: 0.01–0.05, P = 0.003).

Conclusion

This study shows that vitamin C intake is positively correlated with human telomere length, which is of guiding significance for our clinical guidance on people’s health care, but our study need to be confirmed by more in-depth and comprehensive other research results.

FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 2
The curve fitting of leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and vitamin C.

FIGURE 3.

FIGURE 3
The scatter plot of leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and vitamin C.

… In this study, after adjusting for multiple linear regression and confounding factors, dietary vitamin C intake was positively correlated with LTL. We found that when model 2 adjusted for covariates including BMI and diabetes prevalence, the correlation significance decreased, while when model 3 added other covariates, the correlation significance increased.

It suggests that vitamin C may influence telomere length through a number of potential pathways, and the following studies can explain the association found. Previous studies have shown that vitamin C activates telomerase activity, so that the shortened DNA sequence can be repaired to a certain extent.

Fraga et al. (15) pointed out that ascorbate can prevent DNA damage in cells with high proliferation and differentiation ability.

… In fact, telomerase is rarely expressed or not very active in most normal cells, which is not conducive to maintaining a proper range of telomere length (16). The shortening of LTL also means that the cell proliferation ability is reduced, that is, cell senescence (17).

Tsoukalas et al. (18) used a natural telomere activator that contains vitamin C and found an increase in telomerase expression in the brains of mice; The study of Wei et al. (19). Also proved that vitamin C can increase human telomerase activity.

Although the specific mechanism by which vitamin C can improve telomerase activity is not clear, which may be related to the increased expression of enzyme modified proteins, there is a possibility that vitamin C can prolong the shortened DNA sequence after cell division by increasing telomerase activity.

More: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9908946/


Other investigations into dietary vitamins and minerals intake and telomere length

From “Figure 1. Physiological, lifestyle, and environmental causes contributing to TL shortening. Legend: IL-6—interleukin 6; IL-12—interleukin 12; IL-1β—interleukin 1β; TNFα—tumour necrosis factor alpha; DNA—deoxyribonucleic acid; ↓—decrease; ↑—increase.” Pharmacotherapeutic Considerations on Telomere Biology: The Positive Effect of Pharmacologically Active Substances on Telomere Length

A statistical analysis of 10,568 participants in a study in the USA from 1999-2001 found a positive correlation between mineral and vitamin consumption and telomere length:

Mineral and vitamin consumption and telomere length among adults in the United States (2017)

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Shorter leukocyte telomere length (TL) is associated with several chronic diseases, but only a few studies have assessed the associations of dietary components and dietary patterns with TL in adults in the United States (US).

OBJECTIVES

This study was aimed to determine the relation of dietary components and dietary patterns with TL among adults in the US.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) participants with data on dietary intake and TL measures from 1999 to 2001 were included. Daily intakes of 60 nutrients and bioactive compounds were calculated for each participant. Factor analysis, followed by a varimax rotation, was applied to derive the major nutrient patterns. All statistical analyses accounted for the survey design and sample weights.

RESULTS

Of the 10 568 eligible participants, 48.0% (n = 5020) were men; the mean age was 44.1 years. Mean (adjusted for sex, age, and race) dietary intakes of carbohydrate, dietary fiber, total folate, vitamin B6, magnesium, iron, copper, polyunsaturated fatty acids 22:5, and vitamin C monotonically increased across TL quarters (P <0.05 for all), while total fat and caffeine decreased across TL quarters (P <0.05 for all).

Three food patterns together explaining 56.8% of the variance of the dietary nutrient consumption were identified. We found that the second food pattern, which was a representative of minerals and vitamins, monotonically increased across TL quarters and had a positive association with TL.

CONCLUSIONS

Higher mineral and vitamin consumption is associated with longer telomeres among adults in the US.

… An American cross ‑sectional study24 reported an inverse association between food groups and 2 different dietary patterns (fats and processed meat, whole grains and fruit). Inflammation and oxidative stress have been proposed as a possible explanation for the observed association between fat intake and the shortening of TL.25‑27 Chan et al28 reported an inverse association between TL and the intake of fats and oils in elderly Chinese women. The oils used were reported to be mainly maize and peanut oils, which are rich in MUFAs and PUFAs. We also found an inverse association between MUFAs and TL.

Correlations with polyunsaturates and monounsaturates (e.g., olive oil) are less clear and more inconsistent across studies. This may, in part, be due to long-term PUFA intake, which is associated with ROS formation, complicating the findings.

Healthwise, from better to worse, long-term data tend to suggest animal Omega-3s (n-3)>saturated fats>MUFAs>PUFAs (e.g. linoleic acid, a plant-sourced omega-6, n-6, polyunsaturated fatty acid).

The increasing dietary intakes of PUFA 22:5 across TL quarters in our study are at variance with findings from other published studies. A large cross ‑sectional study comprising control subjects of the Nurses’ Health Study found a high PUFA intake, and especially a high intake of linoleic acid, to be inversely associated with TL.16 The same study, however, found no association between n ‑3 fatty acids, total fatty acids, and SFAs or MUFAs and TL.16

We found the food pattern comprising minerals and vitamins to be positively associated with TL in adjusted models. Moreover, intakes of dietary fiber, total folate, vitamin B6 , magnesium, iron, copper, and vitamin C also increased across the quartiles of TL.

Our results are in line with recent findings by Marcon et al17 that a high intake of vegetables is positively associated with TL. Moreover, in a very recent meta‑‑analysis, Rafie et al29 reported the positive association of fruits or vegetables with TL.

Antioxidants, found in abundance in vegetables and fruits, seem to protect telomeres from attrition.30,31

However, several studies reported opposite findings. In a case‑control study conducted in Poland, which involved cancer patients aged 62 years or older and healthy controls, TL decreased with decreasing fruit intake in both groups, but not with vegetable intake.9

An association between fruit and vegetable intake and TL was not found either in a large cross‑sectional study assessing fruit and vegetable intakes combined15 or in studies assessing fruit and vegetable intakes separately.24,28

A large Belgian cross‑sectional study also found no association between TL and fruit and vegetable intake (combined), but when a low fruit and vegetable intake was assessed as part of an unhealthy lifestyle score, a positive association was found.15

Rafie et al29 supported the health benefits of adherence to Mediterranean diet for TL; furthermore, it has been indicated that specific food groups including processed meat, cereals, and sugar‑sweetened beverages may be related with shorter TLs.29

Available studies have also reported inconsistent associations between coffee consumption and TL.5,32 In an intervention study comprising 40 patients with chronic hepatitis C, TL was found to be significantly longer in patients during the experimental period of consuming 4 cups of coffee per day for 30 days.32

A cross‑‑sectional study found no significant association between coffee consumption and TL in 840 white, black, and Hispanic participants of the Multi ‑Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis24; however, the focus of the study was not specifically on coffee but on dietary patterns and food groups. On the other hand, the Nurses’ Health Study16 found an inverse relationship between caffeine and TL in women.

Some explanations have been proposed for contradictory findings of different studies regarding the effects of dietary pattern on TL. TL is controlled by genetic and inherent variances and the handful of available studies has been conducted in different countries with divergent ethnicities, which might have restricted the capability to detect relations between TL and dietary components.29,33 The divergent findings may have also resulted from differences in cooking procedures and amounts of foods used.

More: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28150689/


A cross-sectional analysis from 2009 found a positive correlation between multivitamin use and telomere length in women:

Multivitamin use and telomere length in women (2009)

Abstract

Background: Telomere length may be a marker of biological aging. Multivitamin supplements represent a major source of micronutrients, which may affect telomere length by modulating oxidative stress and chronic inflammation.

Objective: The objective was to examine whether multivitamin use is associated with longer telomeres in women.

Design: We performed a cross-sectional analysis of data from 586 early participants (age 35-74 y) in the Sister Study. Multivitamin use and nutrient intakes were assessed with a 146-item food-frequency questionnaire, and relative telomere length of leukocyte DNA was measured by quantitative polymerase chain reaction.

Results: After age and other potential confounders were adjusted for, multivitamin use was associated with longer telomeres. Compared with nonusers, the relative telomere length of leukocyte DNA was on average 5.1% longer among daily multivitamin users (P for trend = 0.002).

In the analysis of micronutrients, higher intakes of vitamins C and E from foods were each associated with longer telomeres, even after adjustment for multivitamin use. Furthermore, intakes of both nutrients were associated with telomere length among women who did not take multivitamins.

Conclusion: This study provides the first epidemiologic evidence that multivitamin use is associated with longer telomere length among women.

FIGURE 1.

Least-squares mean (±SE) telomere length according to the frequency of multivitamin use. Generalized linear models were used in the analysis, adjusted for age, race, BMI, education, cigarette smoking, presence of diabetes or cardiovascular diseases, energy intake, perceived stress level, self-reported health status, and physical activity. Numbers within the bars represents the sample size for each exposure group.

More: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19279081/


A more recent study also linked multivitamin use to protection against oxidative stress-associated shortening:

A Multivitamin Mixture Protects against Oxidative Stress-Mediated Telomere Shortening (2023)

… Numerous lifestyle factors have been identified that impact the rate of telomere shortening; high vitamin consumption has been associated with longer telomere length, whereas oxidative stress is associated with telomere shortening.

In this paper, we sought to determine if a multivitamin mixture containing both vitamins and a blend of polyphenolic compounds, could reduce telomere shortening consequent to an oxidative stress (10 uM H2O2 for 8 weeks) in a primary fibroblast cell culture model.

Under conditions of oxidative stress, the median and 20th percentile telomere length were significantly greater (p < 0.05), and the percentage of critically short telomeres (<3000 bp) was significantly less (p < 0.05) in cells treated with the multivitamin mixture at 4, 15 and 60 ug/ml compared to control (0 ug/ml).

Median and 20th percentile telomere shortening rate was also reduced under the same conditions (p < 0.05). Taken together, these findings demonstrate that the multivitamin mixture protects against oxidative stress-mediated telomere shortening in cell culture, findings which may have implications in human health.

Multivitamins really show their worth during periods of oxidative stress:

Results

Median telomere length

In the absence of an oxidative stress (i.e. standard conditions), the multivitamin mixture did not impart of a discernable, consistent effect on the median telomere length at any of the concentrations evaluated throughout the 8-week study (Figure 1).

Although compared to controls (0 ug/ml multivitamin mixture) the telomere shortening was reduced in cells treated with 1 ug/ml and 15 ug/ml multivitamin mixture after 2 weeks (Figure 1A), and telomere shortening was increased in cells treated with 250 ug/ml multivitamin mixture after 8 weeks (Figure 1D), these effects were not observed consistently throughout the duration of the experiments.

In contrast, the multivitamin mixture consistently reduced the median telomere shortening in cells exposed to an oxidative stress (Figure 2). In particular, the multivitamin mixture at 4 ug/ml, 15 ug/ml and 60 ug/ml significantly (p < 0.05) reduced the magnitude of telomere shortening after 4, 6 and 8 weeks of exposure to the oxidative stress. The multivitamin mixture also reduced telomere shortening at 250 ug/ml after 4 weeks of treatment (p < 0.05), but this effect was not observed at any other time point.

Figure 1. Median telomere shortening in cells under standard conditions after 2 weeks (A), 4 weeks (B), 6 weeks (C) and 8 weeks (D). Aalthough statistically significant differences in the magnitude of median telomere shortening was observed at multivitamin concentrations of 1 ug/ml and 15 ug/ml after 2 weeks, and 250 ug/ml after 8 weeks, there was no consistent pattern indicative of a persistent multivitamin treatment effect. Positive values on the y-axis indicate increased, while negative values indicate decreased telomere length. Tukey box plots: boxes contain the median value and inter-quartile range (IQR); whiskers contain the farthest data points within 1.5X the IQR. * p < 0.05 compared with control (0 ug/ml).
Figure 2. Median telomere shortening in cells exposed to oxidative stress for 2 weeks (A), 4 weeks (B), 6 weeks (C) and 8 weeks (D). the multivitamin concentration at 4 ug/ml, 15 ug/ml and 60 ug/ml significantly reduced the rate of telomere shortening after 4 weeks, 6 weeks and 8 weeks. A significant reduction in telomere shortening was also observed in cells treated with 250 ug/ml multivitamin mixture after 4 weeks. Positive values on the y-axis indicate increased, while negative values indicate decreased telomere length. Tukey box plots: boxes contain the median value and inter-quartile range (IQR); whiskers contain the farthest data points within 1.5X the IQR. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.0001 compared with control (0 ug/ml).

… In this work, we have shown that a multivitamin mixture significantly reduced oxidative stress-mediated telomere shortening rate in a cell culture model.

Although we speculate that the protective effects of the multivitamin mixture are mediated through the antioxidant properties of specific vitamins (i.e. vitamin C, vitamin E), the effects of vitamins acting as co-enzymes or substrates in pathways necessary in the maintenance of DNA integrity – for example, niacin as a precursor of NAD needed for DNA repair (Berger and Sikorski Citation1980), or vitamin C as a key component and regulator of DNA methylation pathways that promote genome stability (Brabson et al. Citation2021) also merit consideration.

Further research on the role of vitamins – including their antioxidant and non-antioxidant functions – will be instrumental not just in defining the specific biochemical functions of vitamins, but also in defining the necessity of consuming vitamins in the diet in order to optimize human health.

More: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36847305/


This study found that LTL was positively associated with vitamin C, folate, and potassium intake of the participants:

Longitudinal associations between micronutrient consumption and leukocyte telomere length (2017)

Abstract

Background: There are few studies on the association between nutrient intake and telomere length, which may reflect cumulative oxidative stress and indicate biological ageing. In the present study, we evaluated longitudinal associations between the consumption of micronutrients, including antioxidant nutrients and B vitamins involved in one-carbon transfer pathways, and leukocyte telomere length (LTL).

Methods: The study included 1958 middle-aged and older Korean men and women (age range at baseline: 40-69 years) from a population-based cohort. We collected dietary information at baseline using a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire (June 2001 to January 2003) and assessed the consumption of micronutrients, including vitamins A, B1 , B2 , B3 , B6 , B9 (folate), C and E, as well as calcium, phosphorus, potassium, iron and zinc. We measured LTL using a real-time polymerase chain reaction at the 10-year follow-up examination (February 2011 to November 2012).

Results: In the multiple regression model adjusted for potential confounders, LTL was positively associated with the consumption of vitamin C (P < 0.05), folate (P = 0.05) and potassium (P = 0.05) in all participants. In the age-stratified analysis, the association between the consumption of vitamin C (P < 0.01), folate (P < 0.05) and potassium (P < 0.05) with LTL was significant only among participants aged <50 years.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the earlier consumption of vitamin C, folate and potassium, which are abundant in fruits and vegetables, can delay biological ageing in middle-aged and older adults.

More: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27550625/


Fresh brown eggs

This study linked plant-sourced antioxidants and C intake to LTL, with the prevention of strokes being a prime motivation for the research.

Eggs are an excellent source of lutein, zeaxanthin, β-cryptoxanthin, canthaxanthin, lycopene, α- and γ-tocopherol, α- and β-carotene, and retinol, although amounts vary according to the hen’s diet.

Association between higher plasma lutein, zeaxanthin, and vitamin C concentrations and longer telomere length: results of the Austrian Stroke Prevention Study (2014)

Abstract

Objectives: To examine the association between plasma concentrations of antioxidative micronutrients and leukocyte telomere length (LTL) in elderly adults.

Design: Cross-sectional cohort study.

Setting: Austrian Stroke Prevention Study, a population-based cohort study on brain aging.

Participants: Individuals with a mean age of 66 ± 7 (n = 786; 58% female).

Measurements: Concentrations of vitamin C, lutein, zeaxanthin, β-cryptoxanthin, canthaxanthin, lycopene, α- and γ-tocopherol, α- and β-carotene, and retinol in plasma, advanced oxidation protein products as a measure of oxidative stress in serum, and LTL were measured. Vitamins and carotenoids were measured using high-performance liquid chromatography, advanced oxidation protein products using spectrophotometry, and telomere length using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction.

Results: Multiple linear regression analyses with adjustment for age and sex demonstrated that higher lutein, zeaxanthin, and vitamin C concentrations were strongly associated with longer telomere length. The associations were independent of body mass index, maximum oxygen uptake, and vascular risk factors and were not mediated by advanced oxidation protein products content.

Conclusion: This study provides first evidence that higher lutein, zeaxanthin, and vitamin C concentrations in plasma are associated with longer LTL in normal elderly persons and suggest a protective role of these vitamins in telomere maintenance.

Conclusion and Implications

The findings of a strong association between the antioxidative micronutrients Lu∼Zx, vitamin C, and LTL may have important preventive implications. LTL shortening is associated with advancing age and with age-related diseases such as stroke, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer.

If these associations are causal, one might assume that Lu∼Zx– and vitamin C–related LTL protection has the potential to prevent or modify the course of numerous widespread diseases that are among the major contributors to mortality and morbidity in aging societies.

More: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24428184/


Balanced clean eating nutrition, food rich in vitamin a

Vitamin A was found to demonstrate the most significant inverse correlation with telomere attrition in this study of Japanese female university students:

Association between nutrient intake and telomere length in Japanese female university students (2021)

Abstract

Objective: Telomere length can be a biomarker of cumulative oxidative stress and inflammation indicating biological aging. Previous studies examined association of nutrient intake with telomere length targeting middle-aged and elderly individuals. This study examined whether dietary macro- and micronutrient intake was associated with telomere length in young females.

Methods: Seventy-four Japanese young females (median (interquartile range) age was 19 (19 - 20) years) participated. We estimated their intake of nutrients (energy, protein, fat, carbohydrate, essential elements, vitamins, fatty acids, and dietary fibre) using a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire and measured telomere length (T/S ratio, the ratio of telomere repeat copy number (T) to single-copy gene number (S)) of DNA extracted from blood by qPCR. The association between telomere length and tertiles of nutrient intake were analysed.

Results: The median (interquartile range) of telomere length was 0.70 (0.52 - 0.98). Vitamin A intake was positively associated with telomere length (tertile 1 vs. 2, coefficient [95% confidence interval] = 0.42 [0.12, 0.71]; tertile 1 vs. 3, coefficient [95% confidence interval] = 0.33 [0.04, 0.62]) after adjusting for covariates (age, BMI, passive smoking, and drinking).

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that variation in vitamin A intake might influence telomere attrition in healthy individuals.

More (paywalled): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33393836/


In this study, nutraceutical supplements demonstrated efficacy. It looks like they used a good stack, apart from the 400 mg of linoleic acid. Although we need some in our diet, most of us already have far too much due to the food industry’s obsession with seed and vegetable oils.2

Association of nutraceutical supplements with longer telomere length (2019)

… . In this study, we evaluated the effects of a combination of nutraceutical supplements (NS) on telomere length (TL) in healthy volunteers with no medical history of any disease.

Participants (n=47) were selected from healthy outpatients visiting a private clinic and were divided into the experimental group (n=16), that received the NS and the control group (n=31). We estimated the length of single telomeres in metaphase spread leukocytes, isolated from peripheral blood, using quantitative-fluorescent in situ hybridization (Q-FISH) analysis.

The length of the whole telomere genome was significantly increased (P<0.05) for the mean, 1st quartile and median measurements in the experimental group.

Similar findings were observed for short TL (20th percentile) (P<0.05) for the median and 3rd quartile measurements in the NS group, compared to the control group.

The beneficial effects of the supplements on the length of short telomeres remained significant (P<0.05) following adjustment for age and sex. Telomeres were moderately longer in female patients compared to the male patients. On the whole, the findings of this study suggest that the administration of NS may be linked to sustaining the TL.

… Materials and reagents

One capsule of My Health (Lumis Research SA) contains the following: Mix Vitamin (ascorbic acid, vitamin E acetate 50% natural, niacin, vitamin B1, vitamin K2 Mena Q7 0.2%, vitamin B6, β-carotene, vitamin B12 1%), anti-caking agents (microcrystalline cellulose, mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids, magnesium stearate and silica dioxide.

One drop of vitamin D (Pure D3, Natural Doctor) contains 2,000 IU vitamin D.

One capsule of Complete D3&K2 Cofactors (Natural Doctor) contains 2,000 IU vitamin D3, 100 µg K2 and 56 mg magnesium.

Two capsules of Omega 3-6-9 (Lumis Research SA) contain the following: 740 mg fish oil, 740 mg linseed oil, 740 mg borage oil (Borrgo officinalis L.), 200 mg Krill oil, 370 mg alpha linolenic acid, 312,6 mg eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), 154,2 mg docosa-hexaenoic acid (DHA), 162,8 mg gamma linolenic acid (GLA), 400 mg linoleic acid and 273,8 mg oleic acid.

Four capsules of My Antioxidant (Lumis Research SA) contain the following: Mix Vitamin (ascorbic acid, calcium ascorbate, ascorbyl palmitate, natural vitamin E acetate 50%, vitamin B3, vitamin B12 1%, β-carotene, vitamin B5, vitamin B6, vitamin B2, vitamin B1, folic acid, vitamin D3 biotin),

One capsule of My Probiotics (Lumis Research SA) contains the following: Lyophilized kefir grains, Lactobacillus casei (LMG-S27763), Lactobscillus reuteri (LMG S-27759), Bifidobacterium bifidum (B. bifidum; LMG S-27761), Lactobacillus acidophilus (LMG S-27762), inulin, acacia fiber and hydroxypropyl cellulose.

One scoop of My Gastro (Lumis Research SA) contains the following: 2,500 mg L-glutamine (Kyowa®) and 500 mg oligo fructose (FOS). One capsule of My Ubiquinol (Q10) (Lumis Research SA) contains 50 mg of ubiquinol.

Figure 2.

Figure 2
Telomere length values (bases) for the whole telomere genome (TL) and the short telomeres (TLS) (<20th percentile) in the nutraceutical supplements group (NSG) and the control group (CG). Asterisks (*) indicate a significant difference of P<0.05 between the groups, resulting from linear regression analysis following adjustment for age and sex.

Figure 3.

Figure 3
Stacked bar chart of grouped median telomere lengths (in bases) of the control group (CG; light grey) and nutraceutical supplements group (NSG; dark grey). Each bar corresponds to a 5% increment in the grouped median telomere length. NSG group values tended to be higher in all studied percentiles than the CG group. TL, telomere length.

Figure 4.

Figure 4
Position of median TL in the nutraceutical supplements group (NSG) and control group (CG) in the nomograms of TL vs. age. On each pair of numbers located in chart, first number refers to age in years, second number refers to TL in kb. Error bars refer to age and TL dispersion (2x standard deviation). TL, telomere length.

Furthermore, as demonstrated in Fig. 5, and in more details in Table SI, there were no significant differences in TL among the age groups examined (P>0.500). P-values of TL vs. age were 0.964 for the 1st quartile, 0.908 for the median and 0.537 for the 3rd quartile, while P-values for TLS vs. age were 0.741 for the 1st quartile, 0.826 for the median and 0.912 for the 3rd quartile.

Figure 5.

Figure 5
Box plots graphs of TL and TLS among age groups using quartiles as length indicators from all data [control group (CG) and nutraceutical supplements group (NSG)]. The ○ symbol indicates an outlier. Asterisks (*) indicate a significant difference of P<0.05 between the groups, resulting from linear regression analysis following adjustment for sex and nutrient supplements groups. TL, telomere length; TLS, short telomere length.

More: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6559326/


This systematic review looked at the impact of diet on the TL of children and adolescents. As other studies have shown, a healthy diet is better for their telomeres.

The Impact of Foods, Nutrients, or Dietary Patterns on Telomere Length in Childhood and Adolescence: A Systematic Review (2022)

… The five selected studies were cross-sectional and conducted in children and adolescents aged 2 to 18 years.

The main results suggest that a higher consumption of fish, nuts and seeds, fruits and vegetables, green leafy and cruciferous vegetables, olives, legumes, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and an antioxidant-rich diet might positively affect TL.

On the contrary, a higher intake of dairy products, simple sugar, sugar-sweetened beverages, cereals, especially white bread, and a diet high in glycaemic load were factors associated with TL shortening.

More: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9570627/


Grilled chicken,chicken breast

Everything in moderation: White meat is better for you than red, whereas dietary fibre is protective:

Colonocyte telomere shortening is greater with dietary red meat than white meat and is attenuated by resistant starch (2012)

Abstract

Background & aims: Population studies indicate that greater red meat consumption increases colorectal cancer risk while dietary fibre is protective. Previous work in rats showed that diets high in protein, including red meat, increase colonocyte DNA strand breaks and that this effect is attenuated by resistant starches (RS). Telomeres are long hexamer repeats that protect against spontaneous DNA damage which would lead to chromosomal instability.

Telomere shortening is associated with greater risk of colorectal cancer. The current study aimed to determine the effects of cooked red and white meat intake on colonocyte telomere length in rats and whether dietary RS modified their effects.

Methods: After four weeks of feeding cooked beef or chicken at 15, 25 and 35% of diet with or without RS, colonocyte telomere length was measured.

Results: Telomere length decreased in proportion to red meat content of the diet. A similar trend was observed in the white meat group. Colonocyte telomere shortening due to increased dietary meat was attenuated by the inclusion of RS.

Conclusion: These data support previous findings of increased colonocyte DNA damage with greater red and white meat intake and also the protective effect of dietary fibre.

More (paywalled): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21963168/


Assorted nuts

Nuts and seeds are, in general, beneficial for TL:

Consumption of nuts and seeds and telomere length in 5,582 men and women of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) (2017)

… Results

Nuts and seeds intake was positively and linearly associated with telomere length. For each 1-percent of total energy derived from nuts and seeds, telomere length was 5 base pairs longer (F=8.6, P=0.0065). Given the age-related rate of telomere shortening was 15.4 base pairs per year (F=581.1, P<0.0001), adults of the same age had more than 1.5 years of reduced cell aging if they consumed 5% of their total energy from nuts and seeds.

Conclusions

Consumption of nuts and seeds accounts for meaningful decreases in biologic aging and cell senescence. The findings reinforce the recommendations of the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which encourage the consumption of nuts and seeds as part of a healthy diet.

Just having a category called “nuts and seeds” is not that informative, as there are over 50 commonly recognised edible culinary nut and seed varieties, and they aren’t all nutritionally equal. I would value them something like this:

Macadamia > pecans > hazelnuts > Brazil nuts > almonds > walnuts > pistachios > [but not peanuts, as these are a legume].

For the present investigation, the exposure variable was nuts and seeds. Consumption of nuts and/or seeds was recorded and quantified using three methods: 1) grams of nuts and seeds, 2) energy value of the nuts and seeds, and 3) energy value attributed to nuts and seeds divided by total energy intake, resulting in the percentage of each participant's total energy derived from nuts and seeds.

… The regression model estimate of the age-related rate of telomere shortening in the present sample was 15.4 base pairs per year. In other words, if two groups of the same chronological age differed by 30.8 telomere base pairs, then the group with the shorter telomeres would be estimated to have 2 additional years of cell aging compared to those with the longer telomeres.

Hence, interpretation of the findings of the present study suggests the following: U.S. adults of the same age would experience almost 2 years less biologic aging per 30 grams (1 oz) of nuts and seeds consumed per day.

The estimated biologic aging advantage would be nearly 1 year for each 100 kcal of nuts and seeds consumed per day. Moreover, when reported as a percentage of total energy, adults deriving 5% of their total energy from nuts and seeds would have approximately 1 2/3 years less cellular aging than non-consumers. Clearly, consumption of nuts and seeds accounts for meaningfully lower levels of biologic aging in U.S. men and women.

… Years of increased or decreased cellular aging associated with the consumption of nuts and seeds can be understood better when compared to other lifestyle variables. For example, in the present study, pack-years of smoking was significantly and inversely related to telomere length (F=14.3, P=0.0007), after adjusting for all the covariates.

For each pack-year reported, telomeres were approximately 4.2 base pairs shorter. Therefore, adults reporting 10 pack-years of smoking would tend to have about 2.7 years of advanced biologic aging.

Two glasses of red wine in the vineyard

Moderate alcohol drinkers had longer TLs than abstainers, ahem:

On the other hand, moderate alcohol drinkers had telomeres that were 22 base pairs longer than abstainers, resulting in a non-significant biologic aging advantage.

Given the associations between smoking, alcohol use, and telomere length as a reference, it appears that consumption of nuts and seeds accounts for meaningful decreases in biologic aging and cell senescence in U.S. adults.

… The hypothesis that nuts and seeds predict longer telomeres was based on research showing that these foods help reduce oxidative stress and inflammation. Oxidative stress and inflammation are reported as the primary mechanisms responsible for telomere shortening (30).

… Nuts and seeds have healthy concentrations of unsaturated fats, plant-based amino acids, vitamins, minerals, fiber, tocopherols, phytosterols, and polyphenols (7, 8, 10). They are recommended as part of a nutritious diet in multiple sections of the recently published Dietary Guidelines for Americans (2015-2020).

More: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1279770723000490


Chahe with black tea for Chinese tea drinking in the hands of the master over the table. Traditional Chinese tea drinking ceremony.

We conclude this section with 2 papers which discussed the beneficial effects of EGCG and Chinese tea consumption on TL.

TL;DR: Elderly Chinese men who regularly drink Chinese tea added the equivalent of 5 years of life to their TLs:

EGCG Containing Combined Dietary Supplement Affects Telomeres and Epigenetic Regulation (2017)

Objective: In vitro and in vivo studies in rodents have demonstrated many health promoting properties of individual phytochemicals including antioxidative and chemopreventive effects. Recently combination of substances is claimed to enhance activity. The objective of this study was to investigate health benefits of a daily consumption of a combination of a large variety of phytochemicals (TimeBlock ®). To assess potential changes we analyzed specific biomarkers that are associated with aging, oxidative stress and DNA stability: Methylation of LINE-1, c-Myc, IL-6, MLH1, DNMT1, ITGA2B and telomere length.

Methods: For this study 110 healthy participants of both sexes between 31-76 years were recruited, 101 subjects were included in further analysis. A small reference group (n=20) without intervention within the same age interval served as control.

Participants received a plant based dietary supplement (TimeBlock ®) for 6 months by oral administration. Ingredients included extracts from green tea (EGCG), wheatgrass (tocotrienols), barley grass (folic acid), tomatoes (lycopene), tagetes (zeaxanthin, lutein), algae, shiitake mushrooms (vitamin D) and grape seeds (resveratrol).

Capillary blood samples were collected from all participants before administration and within 6 days after the end of the study period following DNA extraction, bisulfite conversion and qPCR as well as high resolution melting curve analysis addressing analysis of LINE-1, c-Myc, IL-6, MLH1, DNMT1, ITGA2B and telomere length. Nutrition, lifestyle and health status were assessed with a standardized food and lifestyle questionnaire.

Results and discussion: Our results confirmed the positive effect of plant derived antioxidants on telomeres and inflammation frequency. An age-specific drift of analyzed markers could be observed.

While methylation of c-Myc-a key factor in telomerase regulation-was not affected by administration, total telomere length showed a significant increase, which we suggest to be linked with an increased cell turnover and accelerated apoptosis of senescent or mutated cells without enhancing telomerase activity.

Further, methylation of mismatch repair protein gene MLH1 showed a strong negative correlation with telomere length, supporting the influence of MMR on telomere regulation.

Conclusion: The results of the present study indicate that a combined administration of a variety of phytochemicals can be a potential preventive and therapeutic agent, as each substance exhibits different modes of action and in combination, health promoting effects could be potentiated. Addressing different mechanisms of aging, specific phytochemicals could be used as new therapeutic approach against age-related diseases.

Figure 2: Promoter DNA methylation changes after administration of EGCG containing combined dietary supplement..
Figure 3: Changes in telomere length after administration of EGCG containing combined dietary supplement in correlation to age.

More: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313063871_EGCG_Containing_Combined_Dietary_Supplement_Affects_Telomeres_and_Epigenetic_Regulation


Chinese tea consumption is associated with longer telomere length in elderly Chinese men (2009)

… The present study examined the association between food groups and TL in a sample of elderly Chinese. In a sample of 2006 Chinese (976 men and 1030 women) aged 65 years and over, TL was measured by quantitative real-time PCR and daily intake of food groups was assessed by a validated FFQ.

Linear regression and analysis of covariance were used to examine the association between food group intake and TL, with adjustment for demographic and lifestyle factors.

In men, only Chinese tea consumption was significantly associated with TL after adjustment for demographics and lifestyle factors (P = 0·002). Mean difference in TL for those in the highest quartile of Chinese tea consumption (>3 cups/d or >750 ml/d) as compared with those in the lowest quartile of Chinese tea consumption ( ≤ 0·28 cups/d or ≤ 70 ml/d) was 0·46 kb, corresponding to approximately a difference of 5 years of life.

In women, intake of fats and oils was borderline and negatively associated with TL after adjustment for demographic and lifestyle factors (P = 0·037).

In conclusion, Chinese tea consumption was positively associated with TL in elderly Chinese men.

More: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-of-nutrition/article/chinese-tea-consumption-is-associated-with-longer-telomere-length-in-elderly-chinese-men/475D0D7390FB8B77A7EF3BD7C828F772


2.2 Telomere-shortening foods and chemicals to avoid

OK, we know which food groups to focus on, but what should we try to avoid or limit our exposure to?

This figure highlights the usual suspects, but by cheese, they mean the synthetic factory creations:

Figure 2
From “Figure 2. Processed and ultra-processed foods: implications for telomere biology and cellular aging. UPF: ultra-processed food.” Employing Nutrition to Delay Aging: A Plant-Based Telomere-Friendly Dietary Revolution

Arsenic and mercury

17 metals measured in toenail samples of Bangladeshi children were analysed. Arsenic and mercury showed the greatest correlations with TL shortening.

Zinc showed the greatest inverse correlation:

Exposure to metal mixtures and telomere length in Bangladeshi children (2024)

Telomere length is associated with chronic diseases and, in younger populations, may represent a biomarker of disease susceptibility. As growing evidence suggests that environmental factors, including metals, may impact telomere length.

We investigated the association between 17 metals measured in toenail samples and leukocyte relative telomere length (RTL), among 472 5- to 7-year-old children enrolled in the Bangladesh Environmental Research in Children’s Health (BiRCH) cohort.

In single-exposure linear regression models, a doubling of arsenic (As) and mercury (Hg) (μg/g) were associated with a −0.21 (95% CI, −0.032 to −0.010; P = .0005) and −0.017 (95% CI, −0.029 to −0.004; P = .006) difference in RTL, respectively.

In Bayesian Kernel Machine Regression (BKMR) mixture models, the overall metal mixture was inversely associated with RTL (P-for-trend < 0.001). Negative associations with RTL were observed with both log2-As and log2-Hg, while an inverted U-shaped association was observed for log2-zinc (Zn) with RTL.

We found little evidence of interaction among metals. Sex-stratification identified stronger associations of the overall mixture and log2-As with RTL among females compared to males.

Our study suggests that As and Hg may independently influence RTL in mid-childhood. Further studies are needed to investigate potential long-term impacts of metal-associated telomere shortening in childhood on health outcomes in adult life.

Extract from “Figure 1. Association of 17 metals with scaled, log2-transformed relative telomere length (RTL) estimated by Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) among all children (n = 472)…. (C) Individual metal effects on TL, comparing the median level of one metal while fixing the other metal mixture at the 25th (Q1), 50th, and 75th (Q3) percentile. Abbreviations: Aluminum (Al], arsenic (As], cadmium (Cd], chromium (Cr], cobalt (Co], copper (Cu], iron (Fe], lead (Pb], manganese (Mn], mercury (Hg], molybdenum (Mo], nickel (Ni], selenium (Se], tin (Sn], uranium (U], vanadium (V], and zinc (Zn].”

More: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12034834/


Lead

The previous study showed no significant correlation between lead and TL length in children, whereas this study of adult lead smelter workers confirmed a significant shortening of TL length. This may have been due to various factors, including the duration and intensity of exposure; the cumulative dose was higher.

They also analysed samples of whole blood instead of toenail clippings:

Telomere length, telomerase expression, and oxidative stress in lead smelters (2015)

Abstract

The negative health effects caused by lead (Pb) exposure are widely recognized; however, the molecular mechanisms remain unknown. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of occupational Pb exposure on telomere length and to investigate the potential mechanisms leading to telomere shortening.

A cohort of 334 male Pb smelters (exposed group) and 60 age-adjusted males unexposed to Pb (control group) were examined. Assessments of relative telomere length (rTL) and telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene expression were performed using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reactions.

Assessments of whole blood Pb (B-Pb) and whole blood cadmium (B-Cd) concentrations and serum selenium concentration (S-Se) were performed using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry.

We analyzed total oxidation status (TOS), lipid hydroperoxides (LHPs), malonylodialdehyde levels in serum (MDA) and in erythrocyte hemolysates (MDA-hgb), and 8-hydroxy-deoxy-guanosine (8-OHdG).

The Pb-exposed group had higher B-Pb values and shorter rTL than the control group. The arithmetic mean values calculated for B-Pb were 33 µg/dL versus 2.2 µg/dL (p < 0.0001), and the rTL values were 0.928 and 1.126 relative units (p = 0.001), respectively, for the Pb-exposed and control groups.

The rTL was found to gradually shorten in response to the increasing levels of Pb exposure. The Pb-exposed group also demonstrated a higher level of oxidative stress than the control group, which was indicated by increased TOS and MDA-hgb values. rTL was negatively associated with parameters that indicated increased oxidative stress, including TOS (Spearman’s rank coefficient (rS) = −0.16; p < 0.01) and MDA-hgb (rS = −0.17; p < 0.001).

No correlations were found between rTL and B-Cd and S-Se or smoking and MDA and LHP levels. Univariate analysis indicated that B-Pb was associated with decreased rTL (β =−0.0041; p = 0.0063) and that the association between B-Pb and rTL remained significant, even when adjusting for age (β = −0.0041; p = 0.0065) and in multivariable-adjusted model (β = −0.0042; p = 0.0063).

In conclusion, occupational Pb exposure resulted in decreased rTL and may represent a mechanism that contributes to Pb-related diseases.

More (paywalled): https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0748233715601758


Did Lead Poisoning Bring Down Ancient Rome?

Probably not, although it can’t have helped and was still over a hundred times more than the local spring water:

ScienceShot: Did Lead Poisoning Bring Down Ancient Rome?

Sediments downstream from Rome reveal health risks of empire’s plumbing

21 Apr 2014

When in ancient Rome, don’t drink as the Romans do. High-born Romans sipped beverages cooked in lead vessels and channeled spring water into their homes through lead pipes (pictured). Some historians argue that lead poisoning plagued the Roman elite with diseases such as gout and hastened the empire’s fall.

Now, a team of archaeologists and scientists has discovered just how contaminated Roman tap water was. The team dredged sediment downstream from Rome in the harbor basin at Portus, a maritime port of imperial Rome, and from a channel connecting the port to the Tiber River.

The researchers compared the lead isotopes in their sediment samples with those found in preserved Roman piping to create a historical record of lead pollution flowing from the Roman capital. Tap water from ancient Rome likely contained up to 100 times more lead than local spring water, the team reports online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

While the lead contamination was measureable, the team says the levels were unlikely high enough to be harmful, ruling out tap water as a major culprit in Rome’s demise.

The team’s thousand-year historical record included noticeable changes in lead pollution from Rome following major events such as the Gothic Wars in 535 C.E., Byzantine repairs to abandoned Roman aqueducts in 554 C.E., and the mid-9th century Arab sack of Rome. The team says this timeline can support historians studying the changing character of Rome and Portus during the turbulent post-empire years.

See more ScienceShots.

More: https://www.science.org/content/article/scienceshot-did-lead-poisoning-bring-down-ancient-rome


Protective effects of selenium against heavy-metal-induced TL shortening

Newborns may be protected, to some degree, by ensuring that the mother has sufficient dietary selenium intake:

Protective role of selenium in the shortening of telomere length in newborns induced by in utero heavy metal exposure (2020)

Abstract

The effects of toxic heavy metals, such as arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), and lead (Pb), on telomere length (TL) have been reported previously.

Although selenium (Se) is considered as an anti-oxidant which may detoxify the effects, there are no data on whether Se could protect against the TL-shortening effects of heavy metals. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the protective role of Se against heavy metal-induced TL shortening.

A birth cohort study was conducted in Myanmar in 2016, including 408 mother-infant pairs. First, pregnant women in the third trimester were interviewed concerning their socioeconomic, and pregnancy and birth characteristics using a pre-validated questionnaire.

Maternal spot urine samples were collected after the interview. During the follow-up period (1-3 months), blood samples were collected from the umbilical cord at birth by local health workers. Metal concentrations were measured using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS).

TL was measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Relative TL was calculated as the ratio of telomere genes to single-copy genes. To evaluate the effect of Se on TL shortening, molar ratios were calculated. Linear regression analyses were performed to examine the associations between heavy metals and TL, individually and after adjustment for Se level.

The effects of As, Cd, and Pb exposure on TL were smaller after adjustment for the Se level, especially for Pb (unadjusted β = -0.10; 95% CI: 0.18, -0.01; adjusted β = -0.03; 95% CI: 0.13, 0.05).

On stratifying the data by Se concentration, there was no significant association between Cd or Pb exposure and TL in the high-Se group.

Our study indicated a protective effect of Se against the TL shortening induced by heavy metal exposure, where the effect sizes were smaller after adjusting for the Se level, compared to individual metal exposure.

More (paywalled): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32045728/


Benefits of the Mediterranean diet

Mediterranean Diet food displayed on natural surfaces top view

The authors of this review conducted a PubMed review using “(Mediterranean diet OR polyphenols OR vitamins OR minerals OR fatty acids) AND telomere length AND diseases” as the search query, and screened the results before combining the evidence:

The Impact of the Mediterranean Diet on Telomere Biology: Implications for Disease Management—A Narrative Review (2024)

Abstract

Introduction:

Telomeres are nucleoprotein complexes at the ends of chromosomes that are under the control of genetic and environmental triggers. Accelerated telomere shortening is causally implicated in the increasing incidence of diseases.

The Mediterranean diet has recently been identified as one that confers protection against diseases. This review aimed to identify the effect of each component of the Mediterranean diet on telomere length dynamics, highlighting the underlying molecular mechanisms.

Methods:

PubMed was searched to identify relevant studies to extract data for conducting a narrative review.

Results:

The Mediterranean diet alleviates clinical manifestations in many diseases. Focusing on autoimmune diseases, the Mediterranean diet can be protective by preventing inflammation, mitochondrial malfunction, and abnormal telomerase activity.

Also, each Mediterranean diet constituent seems to attenuate aging through the sustenance or elongation of telomere length, providing insights into the underlying molecular mechanisms.

Polyphenols, vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids seem to be essential in telomere homeostasis, since they inhibit inflammatory responses, DNA damage, oxidative stress, mitochondrial malfunction, and cell death and induce telomerase activation.

Conclusions:

The Mediterranean diet is beneficial for maintaining telomere dynamics and alleviating age-related illnesses. This review provides a comprehensive overview of cross-sectional, observational, and randomized controlled trials regarding the beneficial impact of every constituent in the Mediterranean diet on telomere length and chronic disease management.

… The MD, as a senolytic dietary strategy, is among the healthiest diets worldwide, and it has received a lot of interest throughout the last several decades. High intakes of vegetables, legumes, fruits, nuts, and cereals are the main characteristics of the traditional MD. Additionally, high consumption of olive oil and low intake of saturated lipids, moderately high intake of fish, low to moderate consumption of dairy products, low intake of meat and poultry, and regular but moderate intake of ethanol—mostly in the form of wine and usually during meals—are additional features of the standard MD [28,29]. Notably, combining a healthy diet and exercise can attenuate the progression of age-related disorders caused by telomere shortening [26,27].

Since the 1960s, the MD has gained attention as a suitable plant-based diet that lowers the possibility of several age-related illnesses, such as neurodegeneration, cancer, metabolic syndrome (MetS), diabetes, and CVD [30,31,32,33].

In this regard, a meta-analysis has highlighted the clinical importance of the MD dietary strategy in attenuating many chronic disorders like diabetes, cancer, cardiac events, neural disorders, and general mortality [34]. Accordingly, a recent systematic review has demonstrated that an MD dietary strategy can attenuate the risk of obesity, cardiac diseases, and mental disorders, thus mitigating telomere shortening and supporting longevity [35].

A vast body of research has highlighted the beneficial effects of the MD dietary strategy on several organs, including the circulatory system, the pancreas, the liver, the intestine, and skeletal muscle [36] (Figure 1).

Figure 1. The Mediterranean diet exerts a protective effect on organ systems. The Mediterranean diet ameliorates the function of the circulatory system, the pancreas, the intestine, the liver, and skeletal muscle. Abbreviations: GLP-1: glycagon-like-peptide-1; LDL: low-density lipoprotein; HDL: high-density lipoprotein. (Created with BioRender.com.)

… In specific demographic subgroups, leukocyte telomere length and MD adherence seem to have a favorable relationship [11,53]. For example, a group of nurses from southern Italy and nurses between the ages of 30 and 55 showed telomere length elongation depending on their adherence to the MD dietary plan [69]. After controlling for relevant unknown variables, longer telomeres were observed in women who adhered more strictly to the MD dietary plan [69].

The researchers revealed that even modest dietary adjustments could significantly impact telomere length [69]. In parallel with this, they found no evidence of statistical significance in the association of Western dietary habits with telomere length [69].

Furthermore, two Mediterranean populations—one on the island of Ikaria in Greece and the other in the Sicani Mountains of Sicily, Italy—showed that the two populations’ longevity was accomplished by following the MD dietary plan [70].

Elderly men living in Greece displayed longer telomeres and more antioxidant responses than elderly Dutch men who lived in a more stressful urban environment and consumed a diet lower in antioxidant elements, implying a causal connection between aging-related telomere length shortening and elevated oxidative stress [71].

In another cohort study of elderly Spanish individuals, telomere length elongation was observed at a greater extent when a high-quality diet was followed. Interestingly, individuals who were positively assessed using the Prime Diet Quality Score (PDQS), the Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS), and Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) had a lower probability of having short telomeres than those who followed a classical diet [72].

Consistent with this, Trichopoulou et al. invented the MD score to show the extent of adherence to the MD dietary plan [28]. In this regard, Italians also showed telomere length elongation according to their degree of compliance with healthy dietary habits [73]. The aforementioned examples support the idea that the populations’ strict compliance with the MD was tightly related to longevity.

… From a molecular perspective, the main mechanisms of action underlying the MD’s protective properties are based on its anti-inflammatory and antioxidative components. The beneficial effect of MD food components is ascribed to reductions in oxidative stress, inflammation, DNA damage, and telomerase induction (Figure 2) [73,77].

Figure 2. The molecular mechanisms underlying the protection by the Mediterranean diet. The benefits of the Mediterranean diet are ascribed to reductions in DNA damage, inflammation and oxidative stress, telomerase activation, and epigenetic modifications. Abbreviations: TNF−α: tumor necrosis factor−α; il−6: interleukin6; ROS: reactive oxygen species; O2: superoxide anions. (Created with BioRender.com.)

Better adherence to the MD dietary plan is related to reduced telomere shortening to a greater extent [87]. In particular, some micronutrients like vitamins (including folate and vitamins A, B12, C, D, and E), minerals (such as magnesium, zinc, and iron), and other dietary components (such as fatty acids and polyphenols) have been revealed to exert a significant impact on sustaining or elongating telomere length through several mechanisms [88] (Figure 3).

Figure 3. The protective effects of constituents included in the Mediterranean diet. The main components of the Mediterranean diet are polyphenols, polyunsaturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals. They can inhibit telomere shortening by attenuating inflammation, oxidative stress, DNA damage, mitochondrial dysfunction, and cell death. Abbreviations: ROS: reactive oxygen species; PUFAs: polyunsaturated fatty acids; MUFAs: monounsaturated fatty acids; Ca: calcium; K: potassium; Fe: iron; Mg: magnesium; Zn: zinc; Cu: copper. (Created with BioRender.com.)

More: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/16/15/2525


3.0 Parting shots

3.1 Wes throws his hat in the ring

Wesley Streeting has resigned as UK Health Secretary in order to challenge PM Kier Starmer for the top job. I suspect that he is happy to be out of it, given the state of the NHS.

A winner-takes-all gamble, but he will likely be offered a front-bench position by Burnham if it all goes wrong.

What can Wes Streeting’s successor learn from his record on the NHS and social care?

With Wes Streeting moving on from his role as the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Mark Dayan looks back at his tenure and picks out the key lessons that his successor would do well to heed.

Published: 14/05/2026

Whoever succeeds Wes Streeting as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care will follow one of the most prominent personalities to hold the office – and the only one from the previous six who leaves hoping that their next job might be an upward move. They will be tucked into what Conservative health secretary Ken Clarke called a “political deathbed”, responsible for decisions every day which cost or save lives, running the institution British people are most proud of at a time of public rancour.

Streeting’s triumphs and disasters across his 23 months in office have several lessons on how to stave off political demise, keep signs of NHS recovery going, and avoid the ongoing neglect of social care.

Get a grip on the torrent of targets

Streeting has talked about cutting down the number of targets in the English NHS – a service described academically as having a “priority thicket” of clashing goals and commitments, and by one of our recent interviewees for a report as plagued by “people who think it’s their job to look at the impossible pile of things to do and take their little rock and put it on top”.

Streeting deserves credit for facing up to this. Last year’s planning guidance for trusts and ICBs slimmed down goals for the NHS. He was right to say that the merging of NHS England into his department might make it easier to stop the avalanche of demands.

However, that only works if the Secretary of State themself does not announce targets that are too high or too many in number – and this has still been happening.

Only a few weeks ago, an ill-considered target for hospitals to bounce one in four referrals for certain conditions back to GPs had to be almost immediately scrapped, and while trusts improved to hit their flagship annual target for waiting lists after a late funded sprint, goals for A&E and ambulance waits proved a stretch too far. There will be political logic for the new incumbent to promise more, faster. Experience suggests they would regret it.

Resist the temptation of reorganisation

The strongest temptation facing a health and care Secretary of State seems to be reorganising the service’s structure. In his first few months, Streeting promised it was “the last thing I would do”. A few months later, he announced plans to abolish NHS England and multiple other safety and patient voice bodies; add multiple new models to shift care out of hospitals; and switch up the duties, size and power of ICBs.

Streeting could argue that this is minor compared to the reorganisations in the early years of New Labour, or those in 2012 and 2022. There is a real problem with distrust and duplication where DHSC and NHSE host teams doing overlapping jobs, and concrete cost savings are on the table.

But merging and restructuring public bodies, not just in health but beyond, distracts officials and staff from their day jobs while often doing little to resolve longstanding problems. In this case, the arbitrary 50% job cut requirement risks worsening matters. Reorganisations often drag out longer than expected: these changes were delayed by six months of deadlock over redundancy funding. Extra changes tend to get added and contribute to legislation being mired in controversy, as we see with the removal of independence for HSSIB and for patient voice organisations in the current NHS Modernisation Bill.

More: https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/news-item/what-can-wes-streeting-s-successor-learn-from-his-record-on-the-nhs-and-social-care


3.2 E-bull-ovirus and pantovirus shenanigans

Theatre Reviews
Beware of the pantovirus rats

The world doesn’t need more vaccines or fearporn. It certainly doesn’t need any more weaponised viruses released in the name of “vaccine development” or cancer prevention.

For the affected African villages, where is the focus on sanitation and nutrition? On public health education?

Where is the sensitivity to their cultural norms?

As ever, the answer lies in the needle and the pill jar.

Angry crowd sets Ebola hospital tents on fire in DR Congo

21 May 2026

Fire and smoke at the of burnt tents on the grounds of Rwampara General Hospital. A police officer with a gun can be seen to the right of the shot in front of other makeshift tents.
The unrest highlights the struggle authorities face as cases of the virus rise

An angry crowd set alight a section of a hospital at the epicentre of the Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after family and friends of a young man thought to have died from the virus were prevented from taking his body away for burial.

“They started throwing projectiles at the hospital. They even set fire to tents that were being used as isolation wards,” local politician Luc Malembe Malembe told the BBC about the scene he witnessed at Rwampara General Hospital.

In the chaos, police fired warning shots to disperse the crowd.

The body of a dead Ebola victim is highly infectious and the authorities need to ensure safe burial to stop the spread of the virus.

Medical workers at the Rwampara hospital, located near the city of Bunia in Ituri province, where almost all of the cases have been reported, were placed under military protection as the police moved in to restore order.

A healthcare worker was injured by stone-throwing protesters before law enforcement agents intervened, a hospital worker told the AFP news agency.

The man who died was a popular figure in the local community and those upset by his death did not “grasp the reality of the disease,” Jean Claude Mukendi, who is co-ordinating the security response to Ebola in Ituri, told the Associated Press.

Witnesses told Reuters the young man was a footballer who had played with several local teams. His mother told the news agency she believed her son had died of typhoid fever, not Ebola.

The outbreak has been caused by a rare species of Ebola known as Bundibugyo. There is currently no vaccine for this species and the WHO has said it could take up to nine months for a jab to be ready.

More: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp8p2g8yp8do


Tristan da Cunha is a tiny island in the middle of nowhere. Sporting a population of less than 260, its cottage hospital was ill-equipped to cope with a hantavirus patient, who became symptomatic after departing the Dutch-flagged cruise death-ship MV Hondius, which departed from Argentina.

This presented the perfect excuse for a publicity stunt for the lame-duck WHO-puppet, Starmer the boys to show what they can do.

Soldiers parachute in to help remote island

Two individuals in military gear are inside an aircraft, looking out over a cloudy sky. One person is wearing a helmet with a camera, gear, and patches with the UK flag. The interior of the aircraft shows various equipment and panels.

A fast-paced mission to parachute medical support to a remote South Atlantic island has shown the unique speed and reach offered by the Army’s airborne forces.

A team from 16 Air Assault Brigade (16 Air Asslt Bde) parachuted in to deliver medical supplies and clinicians to Tristan da Cunha, where a British national was suspected of contracting Hantavirus.

After being alerted on Thursday, 16 Air Asslt Bde formed a plan with the RAF, gathered specialist troops and kit, and flew them 7,000 miles to parachute on to Tristan da Cunha on Saturday.

“The arrival of paratroopers, medical personnel and medical supplies from the sky has hopefully reassured the people of Tristan da Cunha.”

Brigadier Ed Cartwright, 16 Air Assault Brigade

The operation demonstrates 16 Air Asslt Bde’s readiness to spring into action in its role as Defence’s global response force, and the unique speed and reach that only airborne forces can provide.

Isolated community under pressure

Tristan da Cunha is a group of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean and Britain’s most remote inhabited overseas territory. With a population of just over 200 people, it has no airstrip and is only accessible by a week-long boat crossing from South Africa.

With a seriously ill patient, oxygen supplies at a low level and the island’s two-person medical team stretched, an airdrop was the only method of delivering help in time.

A team of eight troops – six from Pathfinders, the brigade’s advance force, and a consultant anaesthetist and an intensive care nurse from 16 Medical Regiment - took off in an RAF A400M transport aircraft from RAF Brize Norton.

Refuelled by an RAF Voyager tanker, they flew more than 4,000 miles for a short stopover at RAF Ascension Island for final preparations. On Saturday lunchtime, they took off for the final 1,800-mile leg to Tristan da Cunha.

More: https://www.army.mod.uk/news/soldiers-parachute-in-to-help-remote-island/

Note: the nearest island with medical facilities is Saint Helena.

Not 7,000, not 4,000, but about 1,500 miles north of CdC.

Or you could use Cape Town, at 1,750 miles.

If the government had tapped them up instead, perhaps supplies could have been delivered in less than the 56 hours it took to execute the commando paradrop publicity stunt.

Brig Ed Cartwright, the commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade, said there was “7,000 miles and about 56 hours” between help being requested and “having those parachutists and those medical stores on the ground”.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/10/paratroopers-britain-overseas-territory-suspected-hantavirus-case


3.3 About those health service AI savings…

Teletubbies Running Away I'm Out GIF (894×500) - Running Away | GIFDB.com

Remind me who was leading the charge to modernise the NHS with a tech and AI shake-up.

UK.gov hikes health AI tender by 400% – and hundreds of millions – after a chat with suppliers

Maximum framework value sky-rockets from £150M to £600M after ‘an extensive intelligence gathering exercise’

The UK government has upped the maximum value of a health service AI framework agreement by £600 million following a conversation with tech suppliers.

The National Health Service’s Shared Business Services (NHS SBS), a purchasing quango under the Department for Health and Social Care, recently launched a competition for places on a framework for NHS AI and robotics worth a maximum of £750 million excluding tax. Back in January 2025, the same procurement was priced at a maximum of £150 million, excluding tax, in an early market engagement with suppliers.

An NHS SBS spokesperson said: “As with all our framework agreements, we conducted an extensive intelligence gathering exercise whilst bringing this framework to market. During this, both suppliers and customers indicated that a higher threshold was appropriate, and this has been approved by NHS England, the Cabinet Office and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.”

… Standing out from the list is Virtual and Robotic Health, a lot which “covers innovative solutions that are transforming the healthcare landscape by enhancing clinical capabilities, improving patient care, and driving operational efficiency.”

The tender also seeks AI tech for operational efficiency. It wants “platforms designed to enable data capture, analytics, and workflow automation to drive operational efficiencies within NHS and public sector environments.”

At face value, these may seem like reasonable aspirations, but it’s also worth pointing out that they don’t fully reflect what capabilities the NHS is looking for through this procurement or how success or failure would be measured.

Meanwhile, £750 million is a lot of money, especially considering NHS resident doctors – an early-career specialist training role – are still seeking pay restoration after a decline in earnings of around 21 percent in real terms since 2008.

UK government as a whole has pegged its hopes on AI to help extract it from an especially painful fiscal hole. The promise of tech investment in the NHS is just one strand of a thread through a cross-public sector approach which could save the public sector £45 billion, the government claimed. Experts later told MPs the figure was based on broad-brush guesswork.

UK taxpayers might hope the latest NHS spending vehicle is built on a more sturdy design.

More: https://www.theregister.com/ai-ml/2026/05/21/ukgov-hikes-health-ai-tender-by-400-and-hundreds-of-millions-after-a-chat-with-suppliers/5243377


4.0 Concluding remarks

What we can learn from these studies is that a healthy lifestyle, including fasting, regular physical activity, and sufficient sleep, is one of the best ways to support your LLPCs.

A nutritious, balanced, low-protein anti-inflammatory diet, complete with probiotics, further helps to tune the immune system, providing lasting protection against pathogens, cancers, and age-associated neurological and autoimmune diseases. The Mediterranean diet has been shown to be an effective model for healthy eating.

Most TL-friendly vitamins are antioxidants, but that’s not the whole story, as not all of their benefits stem from reducing ROS levels. They can also act as co-enzymes or substrates in DNA repair pathways.

You may take too much as well as too little of them. Some of the papers demonstrated a sweet spot for intake, above which there is little benefit, or even a risk of negative effects. Everything in moderation, as they say.

Cheers!

Two bartender enjoying of Cheers glass of wine for wine tasting event in a restaurant  at sunset. bartender, tasting, Dinner, Wine, beverage, dinner concept.


5.0 Disclaimer

This site is strictly an informational website that reviews research on potential therapeutic agents. It does not advertise, provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, nor does it promote any of these as potential treatments or make claims about efficacy. Its content is aimed at researchers, registered medical practitioners, nurses, or pharmacists. This content is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of something you have read on this website.

Always consult a qualified health provider before introducing or stopping any medications, as any possible drug interactions or effects will need to be considered.

Any extracts quoted in the previous article are for non-commercial research and educational purposes only and may be subject to copyright by their respective owners.

“Ceramic Dishes of Mezze Arranged on a Low Wooden Table in a Mediterranean Courtyard Garden - Scenic Nature and Outdoor Background” By l1gend

6.0 References

1

Yıldırım Z, Ekici EM. The Relationship Between Vitamin B12 and Telomere Length: A Systematic Review : Vitamin B12 and Telomere Length. Turkish Journal of Agriculture - Food Science and Technology. 2023;11(12):2485-2492. doi:10.24925/turjaf.v11i12.2485-2492.6381

2

Mercola J, D’Adamo CR. Linoleic Acid: A Narrative Review of the Effects of Increased Intake in the Standard American Diet and Associations with Chronic Disease. Nutrients. 2023;15(14):3129. doi:10.3390/nu15143129

Commentaires

  1. DoorlessCarp🐭
    @doorlesscarp
    Chercheur indépendant et co-auteur de BioMed : https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David-Cowley-10 SCIENCE IMMUNOLOGIE MÉDECINE

    "Mes études à l’Université du Hertfordshire comprenaient la pathologie végétale, la biochimie et la génétique. Je suis ensuite passé à l’étude de la biochimie et de la physiopathologie animales. Les thérapies végétales relient ces deux spécialités. En plus de co-écrire, j’écris une revue de la littérature BioMed et discute de divers sujets : oncologie, neurologie, MCV, immunologie, BioChem et thérapeutique : https://doorlesscarp953.substack.com/
    Compétences et expertise
    Interféron
    Vaccins
    Immunochimie
    Immunologie virale
    Oncologie "
    https://substack.com/@doorlesscarp

    RépondreSupprimer

Enregistrer un commentaire

Posts les plus consultés de ce blog

Jacques Attali : "L'avenir de la vie" 1981 - Extrait .....et rectifications

HCR-HCE - CE N'EST PAS VOUS QUI ĒTES FOU

Au moins cinq membres de la junte nigérienne ont été formés par les États-Unis