Omega-3 supplements seem to slow down biological ageing
Taking a daily omega-3 supplement appears to slow down the rate of biological ageing by three months – and even more so if you also take vitamin D and exercise
By Carissa Wong
3 February 2025
Omega-3 supplements could be a simple way to slow down ageing
Evgeniia Siiankovskaia/Getty Images
A daily omega-3 supplement seems to slow biological ageing in older people, particularly if combined with vitamin D and exercise.
We already knew that omega-3s – “good” fats found in seeds, nuts and some fish – can boost our immunity, heart health and brain function.
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They have also been linked to changes in epigenetic markers, chemical tags on DNA that alter the activity of genes and, in turn, how cells behave. This suggests that omega-3s reduce the pace of biological ageing, often defined as a measure of how quickly someone’s body is deteriorating compared with the general population’s.
To explore this further, Heike Bischoff-Ferrari at the University of Zurich and her colleagues split 777 people in Switzerland, aged 70 to 91, into eight groups. They also wanted to find out how omega-3 may work alongside vitamin D supplements and exercise.
“Omega-3 plays on multiple pathways of ageing, such as being anti-inflammatory. Similarly, vitamin D and exercise have multiple benefits,” says Bischoff-Ferrari. “We thought, if you play on each of these differential pathways, do you get an additive benefit?”
