Vitamin insufficiency: Is it boosting age-related diseases

This is literally all about living for today. By understanding that nature favours survival today over tomorrow, a theory that vitamin inadequacy is behind the rise in chronic diseases “makes sense… and it is almost certainly going to be right,” says world-renowned scientist Bruce Ames.


In an interview with Stephen Daniells, Professor Bruce Ames from the University of California, Berkeley explains why his “triage theory” could have enormous implications for human health.

For many, Professor Ames needs no introduction. In the 1970s, he invented the Ames Test, a simple and inexpensive assay to check the mutagenicity of compounds. Since then he has dedicated his research to understanding the biochemistry of ageing, with a focus on mitochondria, the power plants of our cells, as well as how micronutrients may prevent disease, malnutrition, and obesity.

So, when the native New Yorker with over 450 scientific publications tells you histriage theory is “the most important thing I have ever worked on”, you sit up and listen.

Evolutionary mechanisms

Triage – from the French word trier means to sort, separate, or select – works on the battlefield by military doctors prioritising treatments depending on the probable survival of the wounded.

Prof Ames’ theory works in much the same way: By appreciating that natural selection favours short-term survival over the long-term, Prof Ames’ hypothesised that our short-term survival is achieved by prioritising the allocation of scarce micronutrients. In other words, to stop us falling over from a lack of iron in the heart, for example, iron is pulled from non-essential sources.

The triage theory is a way of “measuring the insidious damage going on over time”, he said.

The theory was first proposed in 2006 (PNAS, Vol. 103, Pages 17589-94) to explain why age-related diseases like heart disease, cancer, and dementia may be unintended consequences of mechanisms developed during evolution to protect against episodic vitamin/mineral shortages.

“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,” 

explained Prof Ames in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

However, since it was first published Prof Ames concedes that the wider nutrition community has not embraced the theory.


Ian: Of course! So may brilliant minds are years ahead of today's opinion! I agree with the Prof.; after all, what is calcium sacrifice as a result of immediate acidification if not a perfect example of triage?