Many anti-aging recommendations are based on known effects of vitamins as it effects processes like oxidation and inhibits the actions of free radicals. The thinking goes that if the negative chemistry is prevented cells with stay healthy longer and hence, “younger.” The March 11, 2009, edition of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published the first real biochemical study of the effects of multivitamin use.

What the researchers found was that telomeres, a kind of cap on the end of chromosomes that protect them from damage, were longer in women who take multivitamins regularly. Telomeres were also found to be longer in women who had higher intakes of vitamin C and E containing foods whether or not they took multivitamins.

His Take: What makes this interesting is that this is the first real in vivo (in live people) demonstration of the benefits of vitamins at the cellular level. Telomeres matter because they represent the ongoing ability of cells to reproduce, produce DNA and RNA and stay healthy. It was shown in this 2002 paper that age could be estimated based on telomere length. Now, longer telomeres from multivitamins might one day have your doctor saying, “You have the telomeres of a 22 year-old.”