Micronutrients & recovery
Chronic subclinical micronutrient deficiencies accelerate aging and degenerative diseases (cancer, neural decay) by triggering an evolutionary 'triage' mechanism that prioritizes short-term survival functions over long-term maintenance (DNA repair, mitochondrial integrity).
Ensure you meet the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for all essential vitamins and minerals, not just enough to avoid acute sickness. The most accessible way to do this is a daily standard multivitamin-mineral (MVM) supplement, especially if you are in a high-risk group (e.g., elderly, obese, low income). This prevents the body from 'triaging' scarce nutrients away from DNA repair and mitochondrial health, thereby slowing aging and disease risk.
I propose DNA damage and late onset disease are consequences of a triage allocation response to micronutrient scarcity... Natural selection favors short-term survival at the expense of long-term health. I hypothesize that short-term survival was achieved by allocating scarce micronutrients by triage... If this hypothesis is correct, micronutrient deficiencies that trigger the triage response would accelerate cancer, aging, and neural decay but would leave critical metabolic functions, such as ATP production, intact.
Why this rating
The paper is a hypothesis/review paper citing observational, cell culture, and animal data, but explicitly states definitive RCTs for long-term disease prevention are lacking.
Source
Low micronutrient intake may accelerate the degenerative diseases of aging through allocation of scarce micronutrients by triage
Bruce N. Ames · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2006
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