Daily Omega-3s Could Shave Months Off Your Biological Age

Could the secret to aging slower lie in your daily routine? A major study has found that combining vitamin D, omega-3 supplements, and regular strength training significantly slows biological aging in people over 70.

Using state-of-the-art epigenetic clocks, researchers discovered that even just omega-3s alone could reduce biological age by several months, but the triple combo was the most powerful.

Exploring How to Slow Down Aging

Many people hope to delay, or even halt, the aging process. Research has shown that reducing calorie intake can slow aging in humans, while studies in animals suggest that vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids may also help slow biological aging. However, it remained unclear whether these effects would translate to people.

The DO-HEALTH study, led by Professor Heike Bischoff-Ferrari of the University of Zurich, had already shown that vitamin D, omega-3s, and regular physical activity can lower the risk of infections, falls, cancer, and frailty in older adults. Encouraged by these results, the researchers wanted to know: could these same therapies also slow biological aging itself?

Tracking Aging With Epigenetic Clocks

To explore this, the team turned to a tool known as the epigenetic clock, a method that measures aging by tracking chemical changes in DNA, called methylation. These changes reflect how quickly a person is aging biologically, compared to their actual age.

In a new phase of the DO-HEALTH study, Bischoff-Ferrari’s team collaborated with Steve Horvath, the scientist who developed these clocks, to test how well they respond to targeted interventions. The researchers studied 777 adults over age 70, testing eight different combinations of daily omega-3 supplements (1 gram from algae), vitamin D (2,000 IU), and simple at-home strength training (30 minutes, three times a week) over the course of three years.

Omega-3 and the Aging Clock

When the researchers analyzed the blood samples, they found that taking omega-3 fatty acids slowed down biological aging across several epigenetic clocks by up to four months, regardless of subjects’ gender, age, or body mass index. The combination of omega-3, vitamin D, and strength training proved to be even more effective, according to one of the four epigenetic clocks used.

“This result extends our previous findings from the DO-HEALTH study, in which these three factors combined had the greatest impact on reducing the risk of cancer and preventing premature frailty over a three-year period, to slowing down the biological aging process,” says Bischoff-Ferrari. Each of these measures works through different mechanisms that complement each other and, when combined, result in a heightened overall effect, according to the study author.

DO-HEALTH as a Validation Platform

At the same time, the research team draws attention to the limitations of the study. “There is no generally accepted gold standard for measuring biological age,” Bischoff-Ferrari explains. “However, we analyzed the best currently validated epigenetic clocks, which reflect the state of the art.” To further advance the clinical application of biological clocks, Bischoff-Ferrari, together with leading international researchers in the Global Health Span Extension Consortium, plans to use DO-HEALTH and other global intervention studies as a validation platform for novel biomarkers of aging.

The researchers also point out that the sample consists exclusively of Swiss participants and therefore does not represent the global population of older adults aged 70 years and older. In a next step, they plan to extend their analyses to all DO-HEALTH participants – including people from Germany, France, Austria, and Portugal – to account for a greater diversity of genetics and lifestyles.

Explore Further: Can One Gram of Omega-3 Really Slow Aging? Here’s What Science Says

Reference: “Individual and additive effects of vitamin D, omega-3 and exercise on DNA methylation clocks of biological aging in older adults from the DO-HEALTH trial” by Heike A. Bischoff-Ferrari, Stephanie Gängler, Maud Wieczorek, Daniel W. Belsky, Joanne Ryan, Reto W. Kressig, Hannes B. Stähelin, Robert Theiler, Bess Dawson-Hughes, René Rizzoli, Bruno Vellas, Laure Rouch, Sophie Guyonnet, Andreas Egli, E. John Orav, Walter Willett and Steve Horvath, 3 February 2025, Nature Aging.
DOI: 10.1038/s43587-024-00793-y

DO-HEALTH Trial

The 2157 study participants were randomized into eight different groups to test the individual and combined benefits of the interventions: Group 1 received 2000 IU of vitamin D3 per day (which is more than 200 percent of the amount currently recommended for older adults, 800 IU per day), 1 g of omega-3 fatty acids per day, and a simple home-based exercise program three times per week; Group 2 received vitamin D3 and omega-3 fatty acids; Group 3 received vitamin D3 and the exercise program; Group 4 received omega-3 fatty acids and the exercise program; Group 5 received vitamin D3 only; Group 6 received omega-3 fatty acids only; Group 7 received the exercise program only; and Group 8 received a placebo.

Participants received follow-up phone calls every three months and underwent standardized and comprehensive health and functional assessments, including lifestyle factors such as diet and physical activity, at the study centers at baseline, year 1, year 2, and year 3. The DO-HEALTH cohort and biobank is the largest study of healthy adults aged 70 years and older in Europe and is led by the University of Zurich. The DO-HEALTH study and its international network of researchers have been funded by the EU’s Seventh Framework Program for Research.

The epigenetic measurements were supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (principal investigator Bischoff-Ferrari).

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