New study shows Omega-3 supplement could slow your biological age by four months

With the overwhelming flood of supplements promoted by influencers and podcast hosts, it can feel like maintaining health into old age requires an ever-growing medicine cabinet.

However, a new study suggests that just one supplement could make a real difference in longevity: Omega-3. Regular intake of this fatty acid may actually slow the ageing process by up to four months.

Biological age is a more accurate predictor of lifespan than chronological age. Unlike the number of birthdays you’ve celebrated, it reflects the rate of change in your DNA—something that varies from person to person.

A study published in Nature Aging examined the effects of Omega-3 intake compared to vitamin D supplementation and regular exercise in over 700 adults aged 70 and older.

Over three years, participants in Switzerland were assigned one of eight treatment combinations: taking 1g of Omega-3 per day, 30mg of vitamin D per day, exercising for 30 minutes three times a week, a mix of these, or none at all.

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“It’s exciting to see these results demonstrating the benefits of Omega-3, Vitamin D, and exercise on ageing,” said Dr Mary Ni Lochlainn, a post-doctoral research fellow in geriatric medicine at King’s College, London, who was not involved in the study.

“Although the study focused on healthy, active older adults and led to a relatively small improvement in their biological age according to the clocks, it adds to the growing body of evidence that these simple, low-cost interventions can be beneficial. Based on this and previous research, they are definitely worth considering as we age,” she added.

However, not all experts are convinced about the usefulness of these early trial results. One key issue, as pointed out by the study’s authors, is that all current research on ageing is limited by the lack of a standardized test for biological ageing.

By the end of the trial, three out of four biological clocks showed that participants taking Omega-3 had their biological age reduced by four months. Previous research from the same team revealed that Omega-3, when combined with vitamin D or exercise, further slowed the ageing process. The most significant benefits were observed when all three—Omega-3, vitamin D, and exercise—were combined, leading to a reduction in cancer risk and preventing frailty.

“I think it makes sense to look at several clocks, but we must consider that they provide different information on how the treatments affect the participants, and it’s not possible to claim that the findings from one clock are superior to those from another,” said Professor Kevin McConway, Emeritus Professor of Applied Statistics at the Open University, who was not involved in the study.

McConway also pointed out that the researchers acknowledged they did not have data on the long-term survival rates of the participants. He added, “We can’t determine whether the effects on biological ageing clocks will persist beyond the three-year period because that wasn’t part of the study.” “This study offers an intriguing starting point, but there’s still much it cannot tell us,” he concluded.