The Main Ways Vitamin D Promotes Longevity & Cellular Health

Improving your health may seem daunting, but some fundamental principles are universally accepted: consuming plenty of vegetables, emphasizing protein intake, and staying active regularly.

On a more detailed note, ensuring sufficient vitamin D levels is essential for overall health. With ongoing research, the recognized benefits of vitamin D continue to expand.

From bone health to muscle strength, immune function, and gut health, there are few areas of well-being where vitamin D doesn't play a key role. And this jack-of-all-trades is particularly important for healthy aging.

Longevity is a hot topic these days, and if we're talking about living a long, healthy, happy life, we simply can't ignore genomic health and stability. You know, our genes and the stuff they're made of: DNA.

After all, DNA is the bread and butter of life and whole-body health! Let's discuss where D plays a part, shall we?

1. Antioxidant activity

Make room, vitamin C—there's one more essential vitamin that shares the title of potent antioxidant. Though many focus on vitamin D's more siloed benefits (e.g., musculoskeletal integrity, immune function, etc.), longevity is one that shouldn't be ignored. 

A 2019 Pharmacological Research meta-analysis found that vitamin D supplementation helps increase total antioxidant capacity1 and serum levels of master antioxidant glutathione, both of which are vastly beneficial for promoting oxidative balance (i.e., antioxidants beating out oxidants) throughout the body.* Vitamin D signaling pathways protect proteins, fatty acids, and DNA2 (more on that later) from oxidation by combating reactive oxygen species (ROS).* 

Unfortunately, our nation's vitamin D status problem massively affects whether or not your body is able to fully utilize these antioxidant actions. Considering 41% of U.S. adults are insufficient in vitamin D33 and 29% deal with frank vitamin D deficiency, it's obvious that being intentional about getting enough vitamin D on a daily basis plays a big part in your body's antioxidant network and ability to fight free radicals.*

2. DNA protection

While antioxidant activity is an ever-vital (and valid) feature of healthy aging, promoting cellular integrity and protecting our genes is the other significant part of the longevity equation. One accurate way to look at the rate of cellular aging and overall longevity is by measuring telomeres.

Telomeres are sequences of proteins that essentially "cap" the ends of DNA strands. They protect our DNA from free radicals, modern toxins, and other potential stressors that can affect our genomic stability. When it comes to longevity, longer telomeres help protect DNA and buffer oxidative stress. 

In other words, telomere length (again, longer is better) is a viable biomarker for longevity—and vitamin D plays a part in increasing the activity of the telomerase enzyme4 to maintain telomere length and strength and protect cellular DNA and cells' ability to replicate.

With the vast health benefits bolstered by healthy vitamin D status, it's exceedingly clear that achieving vitamin D sufficiency (and keeping it there!) is important for whole-body health throughout the life span. The problem? It's just not possible to get enough quality vitamin D from diet and sunshine alone. Enter: vitamin D supplementation.

mbg's vitamin D3 potency+ provides 5,000 IU of organic vitamin D3 derived from sustainable, vegan algal oil, plus a trio of organic oils (avocado, flax, and olive, to be exact) to optimize bioavailability and absorption.* (All in one gelcap, mind you.)