Of more than 100 compounds measured in the bloodstream of thousands of individuals,

the one most associated with the lowest rates of disease and death was ergo-fionine.

Higher blood levels were associated with low risk of heart disease, stroke, and death from

all causes put together over a period of more than 20 years.

Ergothionine is an unusual amino acid, although it was discovered more than a century ago,

it was ignored until recently when researchers found that humans have a highly specific

transporter protein in our

body specifically designed to pull ergothionine out of food and into body tissue.

It's even upregulated right before meal times.

This suggests that ergo thining plays an important physiological role, but what?

Our first clue was the tissue distribution.

Ergothionine concentrates in parts of your body where there's lots of free radicals, the lens of your

eye or liver, for example, as well as sensitive tissues such as bone marrow and semen.

Researchers found it acts as a cytoprotectin, a cell protector.

Depriving human cells of ergothyne

leads to accelerated DNA damage and cell death. Because we can only get it in food,

and there's toxicity associated with its depletion, Johns Hopkins University

researchers conclude that ergotithining may represent a new vitamin. If it were

classified as such, that would make it the first new

vitamin since the last new vitamin B12 was isolated back in 1948. However, traditional

vitamins are characterized by the manifestation of an overt dietary deficiency disease,

with a short time frame, and no specific deficiency disease has yet been identified.

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