Individual and additive effects of Vitamin D, Omega-3 and Exercise on Ageing

 Bischoff-Ferrari, H.A., Gängler, S., Wieczorek, M. et al. Individual and additive effects of vitamin D, omega-3 and exercise on DNA methylation clocks of biological aging in older adults from the DO-HEALTH trial. Nat Aging (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-024-00793-y

The article below is to a large extent excerpted from the research paper cited above.

A clinical trial testing  omega-3, vitamin D, and exercise has found that omega -3 alone and  in combination with vitamin D and exercise slows biological aging. The DO-HEALTH trial with 777 participants in Europe on the effect of vitamin D (2,000 IU per day) and/or omega-3 (1 g per day) and/or a home exercise program that took place over a three year period. The participants who were all between 70 and 91 years old were divided into eight groups and told to take a various combination or placebo pills, omega-3, vitamin D and 30 minutes of at home strength training  three times a week. After three years the researchers found that aging was slowed about 10% in the group taking omega-3, vitamin D and exercising.

Aging was measured by four next-generation DNA methylation (DNAm) measures of biological aging (PhenoAge, GrimAge, GrimAge2 and DunedinPACE) over 3 years. Omega-3 alone slowed the DNAm clocks PhenoAge, GrimAge2 and DunedinPACE, and all three treatments had additive benefits on PhenoAge. Overall, from baseline to year 3, standardized effects ranged from2.9–3.8 months less in aging. The trial indicates a small protective effect of omega-3 treatment on slowing biological aging over 3 years across several clocks, with an additive protective effect of omega-3, vitamin D and exercise based on PhenoAge.

My husband has been taking omega-3, 2,000 IU vitamin D, and integral strength training for twenty years. He has been proved right, once again. Though the effects may seem small, but if it carries through proportionally, that is 2 years for my husband in a time when people are falling apart rapidly. Both I and his doctor will attest to my husband wearing his age lightly.

Other studies have found that Daily omega-3 supplementation reduced the age-acceleration or pace-of-aging and inspired his regime. Previously in in  study of  2,157 participants, the same research group reported that omega-3 alone reduced the rate of infections by 13% and the rate of falls by 10% and all three interventions combined showed a significant additive benefit on reducing prefrailty by 39% and incident invasive cancer by 61% over a 3-year follow-up.

The aim of the DNAm analysis in the current study was to measure the effects of the interventions at the molecular level. Three of the four DNAm measures showed the clearest signal for omega-3, highlighting a specific and notable epigenetic response. This specificity is encouraging and supports the idea that targeted nutritional strategies can have distinct epigenetic aging effects.  Eating well and exercising will slow aging. Not exactly a revolutionary concept, but I guess I will be adding omega-3 to my program, though I am somewhat comforted by our family eating salmon at least twice a week, and often adding nuts to my steel cut oats.