Anti-aging supplements: Vitamin C, collagen, and more
Vitamin C
Curcumin
Vitamin E
Collagen
Resveratrol
Omega-3 fatty acids
Summary
Aging is a part of life, and there are many different ways in which a person may experience the aging process, from skin aging to age-related diseases.
Many different vitamins, proteins, and compounds can support the aging process, protecting the body from damage caused by age-related diseases, and more.Vitamin C, or 'L-ascorbic acid,' is a water-soluble vitamin with antioxidant properties. This means it helps protect the body's cells from free radical damage. As the National Cancer Institute (NCI) explains, free radicals are unstable molecules that may play a role in certain diseases of aging, such as cancer, heart disease, and stroke.
Some studies have suggested that vitamin C's antioxidant effects may also influence markers of cellular aging. For example, it may affect the length of structures called telomeres, which sit at and protect the ends of chromosomes. As a 2022 review explains, telomeres shorten with each cell division, increasing the risk of cell damage and age-related diseases.
A 2023 study of more than 7,000 participants found that higher dietary intake of vitamin C links to an increase in telomere length. Specifically, each increase in vitamin C intake correlated with a modest increase in telomere length, suggesting a potential slowing of cellular aging. However, further research is necessary to confirm this effect. » Learn more about vitamin C
Curcumin belongs to a group of natural compounds called 'curcuminoids', which primarily derive from the underground stems or 'rhizomes' of the turmeric plant.
According to the NCI , curcumin may interfere with cell-signalling pathways to disrupt certain hallmarks of cellular aging and cancer development. Some of these pathways concern: inflammation
cell proliferation
cell death or 'apoptosis'
According to a 2024 review, evidence suggests that curcumin may alter levels of proteins involved in the natural aging process, thereby helping to slow age-related cellular changes. Specifically, curcumin may change levels of the proteins 'sirtuins' and 'AMPK', while inhibiting pro-aging proteins, such as 'NF-κB' and 'mTOR'.
According to the review, curcumin also has other aging support effects, including: reducing oxidative stress
reducing inflammation
increasing telomere length
However, the 2024 review notes that while curcumin shows promise as an aging support supplement, further clinical trials are necessary to investigate the long-term effects of curcumin supplementation on age-related pathology. Moreover, scientists must work to improve the bioavailability of curcumin without also increasing its risk of side effects.
As the NIH explains, vitamin E is the collective term for a group of fat-soluble compounds with antioxidant properties.
Some recent studies suggest that vitamin E may be particularly beneficial for reducing the signs of skin aging, especially when used in combination with other antioxidant supplements.
In addition, a 2024 review notes that some studies have linked vitamin E to reduced oxidative stress and increased telomere length. » Learn more about vitamin E
Collagen is a protein that provides structural support to various body tissues, including the skin, bones, muscles, and connective tissues. Collagen production declines with age, leading to visible signs of skin aging, such as wrinkles or sagging skin.
A 2024 study investigated the effects of combined collagen and vitamin C supplementation on skin aging among females ages 40 to 65 years. The study found that a 16-week course of daily supplementation with 5 grams (g) of hydrolysed collagen and 80 mg of vitamin C led to significant improvements in the following parameters, when compared with placebo: skin thickness
skin texture
wrinkle severity » Learn more about wrinkles
Resveratrol is a type of plant compound called a 'polyphenol'. It is primarily found in red grapes, red wine, and certain berries.
According to a 2021 review, resveratrol may be a safe and effective compound for the prevention and treatment of aging and age-related diseases. Resveratrol may achieve this via the following mechanisms of action: reducing oxidative stress
reducing inflammatory reactions
improving cell function
regulating apoptosis » Learn more about resveratrol
Omega-3 fatty acids are a type of polyunsaturated fat that the body does not produce naturally. As such, humans must get these fatty acids from dietary sources, such as flaxseeds or fish, or from supplements. Examples of omega-3 fatty acids include :
A 2021 study investigated the aging support effects of a 4-month course of omega-3 supplementation in sedentary, middle-aged adults with excess weight. The researchers divided the participants into three groups: a placebo group, a low dose omega-3 group, and a high dose omega-3 group.
The findings suggest that the omega-3 supplementation had the following effects: blocking stress-related decreases in the enzyme 'telomerase', which helps to repair the telomeres on chromosomes
reducing levels of the 'stress hormone', cortisol
reducing levels of the protein 'interleukin-6' (IL-6), which links with inflammation, aging, and age-related diseases.
Moreover, higher doses of omega-3 link to more significant effects, suggesting a possible causal relationship between omega-3 supplementation and aging support.
Similarly, a 2025 study showed that omega-3 supplementation helped to slow biological aging over the course of 3 years. These effects were small, but significant. » Learn more about omega-3 fatty acids
Aging is an inevitable process that may affect people in different ways. However, certain supplements may help to slow aging or target specific aspects of the aging process.
For example, research suggests that vitamin C, vitamin E, and curcumin may all help increase telomere length—a process that appears to protect against aging and age-related diseases. In addition, vitamins C and E are rich in antioxidants, which help protect the body's cells against free radical damage. Other substances like curcumin and Omega-3 fatty acids help protect against inflammatory processes that could otherwise contribute to aging.
Anyone who is considering starting a supplement should first talk with a doctor. Some supplements can interfere with other supplements or medications a person is taking, so it is important to establish whether a particular supplement or dosage is safe to take. Medical News Today has strict sourcing guidelines and relies on peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical journals and associations. We only use quality, credible sources to ensure content accuracy and integrity. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy. Aaseth J, et al. (2021). Coenzyme Q10 supplementation–In ageing and disease.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047637421000932
Antioxidant. (n.d.).
https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/antioxidant
Bischoff-Ferrari H A, et al. (2025). 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.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-024-00793-y#:~:text=Individual%20and%20additive%20effects%20of,3%20years%20across%20several%20clocks
Cai Y, et al. (2023). Association between dietary vitamin C and telomere length: A cross-sectional study.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9908946/
Curcumin (curcuma, turmeric) and cancer (PDQ®) – Health professional version. (2024).
https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/cam/hp/curcumin-pdq
Izadi M, et al. (2024). Longevity and anti-aging effects of curcumin supplementation.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11009219/
Lee J, et al. (2022). Biochemistry, telomere And telomerase.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK576429/
Madison A A, et al. (2021). Omega-3 supplementation and stress reactivity of cellular aging biomarkers: an ancillary substudy of a randomized, controlled trial in midlife adults.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8510994/pdf/nihms-1687289.pdf
Omega-3 fatty acids. (2024).
https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Omega3FattyAcids-HealthProfessional/
Schellnegger M, et al. (2024). Unlocking longevity: the role of telomeres and its targeting interventions.
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/aging/articles/10.3389/fragi.2024.1339317/full
Sood B, et al. (2024). Coenzyme Q10.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK531491/
Takuathung N, (2023). Efficacy and safety of the genistein nutraceutical product containing Vitamin E, Vitamin B3, and ceramide on skin health in postmenopausal women: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial.
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/12/4/1326#:~:text=between%20the%20two%20groups%20in,lessen%20wrinkles%2C%20and%20enhance%20redness
Razgonova M P, et al. (2020). Telomerase and telomeres in aging theory and chronographic aging theory.
https://www.spandidos-publications.com/10.3892/mmr.2020.11274?text=fulltext
Vitamin E. (2021).
https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminE-HealthProfessional/
Yang T, et al. (2020). Vitamin D supplementation improves cognitive function through reducing oxidative stress regulated by telomere length in older adults with mild cognitive impairment: A 12-month randomized controlled trial.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33164936/#:~:text=Methods%3A%20%20This%20was%20a,6%20months%2C%20and%2012%20months
Zhou D D, et al. (2021). Effects and mechanisms of resveratrol on aging and age-related diseases.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8289612/#:~:text=Effects%20and%20Mechanisms%20of%20Resveratrol,reducing%20oxidative%20stress%20and%20neuroprotection
Žmitek K, et al. (2024). The effects of dietary supplementation with collagen and vitamin C and their combination with hyaluronic acid on skin density, texture and other parameters: A randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/16/12/1908#:~:text=group%20,did%20not%20yield%20any%20significant
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
19 minutes ago
- The Independent
Charging for plastic shopping bags can actually lead to cleaner beaches, study shows
Plastic bag bans and fees are actually working to help decrease litter along shorelines, researchers reveal. Local laws enforcing bans or fees for plastic shopping bags are associated with a 25 to 47 percent decrease in plastic bag litter found during shoreline cleanups, according to a new study in the peer-reviewed journal Science. The researchers found a decrease in plastic bags along all bodies of water, but the evidence suggests plastic bag regulations have the largest effect along lakes. The study also shows that some plastic bag regulations are more effective than others. Full bans and fees are more effective than partial bans, likely because of exemptions for thicker plastic bags, the authors wrote. Anna Papp, one of the authors and an environmental economist and postdoctoral associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told The New York Times the study shows plastic bag litter reliably decreases when local lawmakers implement regulations. 'This is not a once-in-time snapshot of plastic litter, but really is something that keeps happening again and again,' Papp said. Environmental scientist Dr. Zoie Diana told the Times the study shows that this decrease in plastic bag litter 'wouldn't have happened policies are working.' Plastic bag bans and fees are growing in popularity. More than 100 countries regulate the bags, and 175 countries are in talks to create the first-ever global plastics treaty, according to the study. In the U.S., at least 11 states have banned plastic bags altogether, and more than 200 counties have implemented bans or regulations. Dr. Erin Murphy, manager of Ocean Plastics Research for the Ocean Conservancy, told CNN that plastic bags are more dangerous to marine life than other types of litter. That's because they're lightweight and can be blown into the environment more easily, Murphy noted. Plastic bags can also kill animals that eat them or become entangled in them. 'They're hard to recycle, they're single-use, and they're lightweight, and so they blow very easily in the wind,' she told CNN. 'Even if we're trying to properly manage them, it's easy for them to escape waste management systems and get into the environment.'
BBC News
30 minutes ago
- BBC News
Why your fingers wrinkle in water (and what it can reveal about your health)
The skin on our fingertips and toes shrivels like prunes when soaked for a few minutes in water. But is this an adaptation that occurred to help us in our evolutionary past? And what can it reveal about your health today? Spend more than a few minutes soaking in a bath or paddling around a swimming pool and your fingers will undergo a dramatic transformation. Where there were once delicate whorls of lightly ridged epidermis, engorged folds of ugly pruned skin will now be found. And according to a recently published study, this striking change is worth a closer inspection – each time your fingertips pucker in this way, the wrinkles create the same pattern. It is the latest discovery about a phenomenon that has occupied the thoughts and work of scientists for decades. Bafflingly, only the skin on our fingers and toes wrinkles when immersed in water. Other body parts such as our forearms, torso, legs and face remain no more crinkled than they were before being submerged. Most researchers in the field have puzzled over what causes this puckering in the first place, but more recently the question of why and what purpose it may serve, has attracted their attention. Perhaps more intriguing still, however, is what our shrivelled fingers can reveal about our own health. Scientists have discovered changes in how our fingers wrinkle can point to diseases including type 2 diabetes, cystic fibrosis, nerve injuries and even cardiovascular problems. What causes our fingers to wrinkle It takes around 3.5 minutes in warm water – 40C (104F) is considered the optimal temperature – for your fingertips to begin wrinkling, while in cooler temperatures of about 20C (68F) it can take up to 10 minutes. Most studies have found it takes around 30 minutes of soaking time to reach maximum wrinklage, however. (Interestingly, recent research has shown that soaking your hands in warm vinegar can make your skin wrinkle far faster – in around just four minutes.) Fingertip wrinkling was commonly thought to be a passive response where the upper layers of the skin swelled as water flooded into the cells via a process known as osmosis – where water molecules move across a membrane to equalise the concentration of the solutions on either side. But as long ago as 1935, scientists have suspected there is more to the process than this. Doctors studying patients with injuries that had severed the median nerve – one of the main nerves that run down the arm to the hand – found that their fingers did not wrinkle. Among its many roles, the median nerve helps to control so-called sympathetic activities such as sweating and the constriction of blood vessels. Their discovery suggested that the water-induced wrinkling of fingertips was in fact controlled by the nervous system. Later studies by doctors in the 1970s provided further evidence of this, and they proposed using the immersion of the hands in water as a simple bedside test to assess nerve damage that might affect the regulation of unconscious processes such as blood flow. Then in 2003, neurologists Einar Wilder-Smith and Adeline Chow, who were working at the National University Hospital in Singapore at the time, took measurements of blood circulation in the hands of volunteers as they soaked them in water. They found that as the skin on the volunteers' fingertips began to wrinkle, there was a significant drop in blood flow in the fingers. When they applied a local anesthetic cream that caused the blood vessels in the fingers of healthy volunteers to temporarily constrict, they found it produced similar levels of wrinkling as water immersion. "It makes sense when you look at your fingers when they go wrinkly," says Nick Davis, a neuroscientist and psychologist at Manchester Metropolitan University, who has studied fingertip wrinkling. "The finger pads go pale and that is because the blood supply is being constricted away from the surface." Wilder-Smith and his colleagues proposed that when our hands are immersed in water, the sweat ducts in our fingers open up to allow water in, which leads to an imbalance in the salts in our skin. This change in the salt balance triggers the firing of nerve fibres in the fingers, leading to the blood vessels around the sweat ducts to constrict. This in turn causes a loss of volume in the fleshy area of the fingertip, which pulls the overlying skin downwards so that it distorts into wrinkles. The pattern of the wrinkles depends on the way the outermost layer of skin – the epidermis – is anchored to the layers beneath it. More like this: There have also been suggestions that the outer layers of skin may also swell a little to enhance the wrinkling. By osmosis alone, however, our skin would need to swell by 20% to achieve the wrinkles we see in our fingers, which would leave them hideously enlarged. But when the upper layers of skin swell slightly and the lower levels shrink at the same time, the wrinkling becomes pronounced far sooner, says Pablo Saez Viñas, a biomechanical engineer at the Technical University of Catalonia, who has used computer modelling to examine the mechanism. "You need both to have normal levels of wrinkles," he says. "If you don't have that neurological response, which happens in some individuals, wrinkles are inhibited." But if wrinkling is controlled by our nerves, it means our bodies are actively reacting to being in water. "That means it is happening for a reason," says Davis. "And that means it could be giving us an advantage." Why did our fingers evolve to wrinkle in water? It was a question from one of his children during a bath about why their fingers had gone wrinkly that recently led Davis to dig into what this advantage could be. With the help of 500 volunteers who visited the Science Museum in London during 2020, Davis measured how much force they needed to use to grip a plastic object. Perhaps unsurprisingly, those with dry, unwrinkled hands needed to use less force than people whose hands were wet – so their grip on the object was better. But when they submerged their hands in a water bath for a few minutes to turn their hands wrinkly, the grip force fell between the two even though their hands were still wet. "The results were amazingly clear," says Davis. "The wrinkling increased the amount of friction between the fingers and the object. What is particularly interesting is that our fingers are sensitive to this change in the surface friction and we use this information to apply less force to grip an object securely." The object that Davis' volunteers were gripping weighed less than a couple of coins, so the amount of grip required was small. But when performing more arduous tasks in a wet environment, this difference in friction could become more important. "If you don't have to squeeze as hard to grip something, the muscles in your hands get less tired and so you can do it for longer," he says. His findings match those by other researchers who have found that the wrinkling of our fingertips makes it easier for us to handle wet objects. In 2013, a team of neuroscientists at Newcastle University in the UK asked volunteers to transfer glass marbles of varying sizes and fishing weights from one container to another. In one case the objects were dry, and in the other they were at the bottom of a container filled with water. It took 17% longer for the participants to transfer the submerged objects with unwrinkled fingers than when they were dry. But when their fingers were wrinkled, they could transfer the submerged marbles and weights 12% quicker than when their fingers were wet and unwrinkled. Interestingly, there was no difference in transferring the dry objects with wrinkled or unwrinkled fingers. There are other baffling mysteries – women take longer to develop wrinkles than men do Some scientists have suggested that the wrinkles on our fingertips and toes may act like rain treads on tyres or the soles of shoes. The channels produced by the wrinkles help to squeeze water away from the point of contact between the fingers and an object. This suggests that humans may have evolved fingertip and toe wrinkling at some point in our past to help us grip wet objects and surfaces. "Since it seems to give better grip under water, I would assume that it has to do with either locomotion in very wet conditions or potentially with manipulating objects under water," says Tom Smulders, an evolutionary neuroscientist at Newcastle University who led the 2013 study. It could have given our ancestors a key advantage when it came to walking over wet rocks or gripping branches, for example. Alternatively, it could have helped us when catching or foraging for food such as shellfish. "The latter would imply it is unique to humans, whereas if it's the former, we would expect it to happen in other primates as well," says Smulders. Finger wrinkling has yet to be observed in our closest relatives in the primate world such as chimpanzees, but the fingers of Japanese macaque monkeys, which are known to bath for long periods in hot water, have been seen to also wrinkle after they have been submerged in water. But the lack of evidence in other primates does not mean it doesn't happen, it may simply be because no-one has looked closely enough yet, says Smulders. "We don't know the answer to this question yet." There are some other interesting clues about when this adaptation may have appeared in our species. Fingertip wrinkling is less pronounced in saltwater and takes longer than it does in freshwater. This is probably because the salt gradient between the skin and surrounding environment is lower in saltwater, and so the salt imbalance that triggers the nerve fibres is less dramatic. So, it could be an adaptation that helped our ancestors live in freshwater environments rather than along coastlines. But there are no firm answers, and some believe it could just be a coincidental physiological response with no adaptive function. What can we learn from the wrinkles? Strangely there are other baffling mysteries – women take longer to develop wrinkles than men do, for example. And why exactly does our skin return to its normal state – normally after 10-20 minutes – if there is no clear disadvantage to our grip on dry objects of having wrinkly fingertips? Surely if having wrinkly fingers can improve our grip in the wet, but not harm it when dry, why would our fingertips not be permanently wrinkly? One reason for that could be the change in sensation the wrinkling also causes. Our fingertips are packed with nerves, and the pruning of our skin changes the way we feel things we touch (although one study has shown it does not affect our ability to discriminate between objects based on touch). "Some people have a real aversion to it because picking something up with wrinkly fingers feels weird," says Davis. "It could be because the balance of skin receptors have changed position, but there could be a psychological dimension too. It would be fun to investigate why. There could be other things we can do less well with wrinkly fingers." But the wrinkling of our fingers and toes in water can reveal key information about our health in surprising ways too. Wrinkles take longer to form in people with skin conditions like psoriasis and vitiligo, for example. Patients with cystic fibrosis experience excessive wrinkling of their palms as well as their fingers, and this has even been noticed in people who are genetic carriers of the disease. Patients suffering from type 2 diabetes also sometimes show markedly decreased levels of skin wrinkling when their hands are placed in water. Similarly reduced wrinkling has been seen in people who have suffered heart failure, perhaps due to some disruption in the control of their cardiovascular system. Unsymmetrical wrinkling of the fingers – where one hand wrinkles less than the other despite the same immersion time – has even been suggested as an early sign of Parkinson's disease as it indicates the sympathetic nervous system is not functioning correctly on one side of the body. So, while the question of why our fingers and toes began wrinkling in water in the first place remains open, our pruney digits are proving useful to doctors in other surprising ways. * This article was originally published on 21 June 2022. It was updated on 19 June 2025 to include details of a new study on the repeatability of wrinkle patterns on wet fingers. -- If you liked this story, sign up for The Essential List newsletter – a handpicked selection of features, videos and can't-miss news, delivered to your inbox twice a week. For more science, technology, environment and health stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.
The Sun
41 minutes ago
- The Sun
Worried cancer patients are flooding charity with calls asking whether fat jabs are safe to use
WORRIED cancer patients are flooding a charity with calls asking whether fat jabs are safe to use. Some of the concerns are being raised by those already having treatment such as chemo or hormone therapy. But others are fretting that using weight loss medication could increase their cancer risk. Other questions posed to Macmillan Cancer Support's helpline include asking if they were safe for someone who has had a previous thyroid cancer diagnosis, or before cancer surgery. Studies suggest the jabs might reduce the risk of some cancers but research is ongoing and they may not be safe for everyone. The rise in queries prompted the charity's Dr Owen Carter to urge caution before using the jabs. He said: 'Recently we have seen a noticeable increase in calls to Macmillan's support line and a flurry of messages on our online community about weight loss drugs. 'It's understandable that lots of people are interested in new drugs which accelerate weight loss, particularly if they want to manage their weight before or after treatment for cancer. 'While 'quick fixes' may seem attractive, we simply do not know enough about the long-term impact of these weight loss medications to recommend them if they're not prescribed by a specialist. 'Additionally, certain weight loss medications carry warnings about a potential link with thyroid cancer. 'However, we know that eating well and staying as active as possible are proven to help people feel better, increase their energy levels and strengthen their immune systems, which can help them to manage their weight and cope better with cancer treatment.' Eating well and staying active were better ways to increase energy levels and strengthen immune systems, which, in turn, would help manage weight and cope with treatment, he added. 1
