Common supplement could prolong your life by slowing down biological clock

A study has indicated that taking a common supplement could prolong someone's life by slowing down the aging process.

It was carried out by Mass General Brigham, and examined a data set from people who had been test subjects in a randomised clinical trial.

The data was mainly sourced from older adults in the trial, and looked at biological aging in a number of different measurements which were based in DNA.

The results, which were published in Nature Medicine, suggested that taking a particular multivitamin could be linked to slowing down the aging process.

It did clarify that the reduction is small, but it could be useful in biological age.

This different to someone's actual age, like when you see how someone is 60 years old but their 'biological age' is 45, or the other way round where they're 30 and their biological age is 50.

Biological age is different to your actual age (Halfpoint Images/Getty)

Participants in the science study were given multivitamins, which are often taken by people in their day-to-day life, and those who had taken the multivitamins for two years exhibited slower biological aging, so slowing down their biological clock.

And there was one group which seemed to benefit the most in the study as well.

This was those who had begun the study with a biological age which was higher than their actual age.

Howard Sesso, ScD, MPH, is associate director of the Division of Preventive Medicine in the Mass General Brigham Department of Medicine and a senior author on the study.

Sesso said: "There is a lot of interest today in identifying ways to not just live longer, but to live better.

"It was exciting to see benefits of a multivitamin linked with markers of biological aging. This study opens the door to learning more about accessible, safe interventions that contribute to healthier, higher-quality aging."

Study authors said that the full impact needs further study (Olga Pankova/Getty)

But despite the potentially exciting finds, more research is needed to determine what clinical application these findings might have in the future.

Yanbin Dong, MD, PhD, is director of Georgia Prention Institute, Medical College of Georgia at Augusta Univeristy, and collaborated and co-authored the study.

Dong clarified that there are now plans for more work on this, saying: "We plan to do follow-up research to determine if the slowing of biological aging -- observed through these five epigenetic clocks, and additional or new ones -- persists after the trial ends.

Sesso went on to explain that they want to understand more about the potential benefits of taking multivitamins, saying: "A lot of people take a multivitamin without necessarily knowing any benefits from taking it, so the more we can learn about its potential health benefits, the better."