Increasing longevity by tuning up metabolism

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Posted on Aug 04, 2005, 10 a.m. By Bill Freeman

Our daily intake of the 40 essential micronutrients—vitamins, minerals and other biochemicals—is commonly thought to be adequate. Indeed, classic deficiency diseases, such as scurvy, beriberi and pernicious anaemia, are now rare among the citizens of developed countries. The optimum amount of vitamins, minerals and essential biochemicals is the amount that maximizes a healthy lifespan, and is likely to be higher than the amount needed to prevent acute deficiency disease. Evidence suggests, however, that much chronic metabolic damage occurs at levels above the level that causes acute micronutrient deficiency disease but below the recommended dietary allowances (RDAs). In addition, current RDAs may not be sufficient to prevent subtle metabolic damage: if one input in the metabolic network is inadequate, repercussions are felt in a large number of other systems. This could result in an increase in DNA damage (and cancer), neuron decay (and cognitive dysfunction) or mitochondrial decay (and accelerated ageing and degenerative diseases). In addition, the optimum amount of micronutrients varies with age and constitution—the requirements of the elderly for vitamins and metabolites are likely to be different from those of the young—and with genetic make-up. A tune-up of micronutrient metabolism should therefore markedly increase health at little cost. It is a distortion of priorities for much of the world's population to have an inadequate intake of vitamins or minerals—at great cost to health—when a year's supply of a daily multivitamin/mineral pill costs less than a few packs of cigarettes. The poor, in general, have the worst diets and have the most to gain from improving their multivitamin and mineral supplementation and diet.

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