Products to delay aging
In June 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) published the eleventh edition of its International Classification of Diseases and, for the first time, added aging.
The classification of aging as a disease paves the way for new research into novel therapies to delay or reverse age-related diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, and neurodegeneration.
We are in the new era where advances in science lead us to ingredients focused on cell regeneration or those that protect or prevent cell damage
If we know what the biological bases of a process are and how it is dysregulated in the disease, we can try to act to reverse or shape it.
Aging
Aging is marked by epigenetic changes, genomic instability, impaired ability to detect nutrients, telomere wear, mitochondrial dysfunction, cellular senescence, stem cell depletion, dysregulated intercellular communication, and cellular oxidation.
Today we already have some active ingredients that can target these processes.
Aging is the set of changes that accumulate over time due to the increasing production of damaged proteins.
When a protein is oxidized, it is already damaged and it is difficult to reverse the process, so it is destroyed, it can also happen that the ability of proteins to maintain their shape and stability is lost, since if they are damaged they lose their structure and are not properly folded.
That is why we need chaperones, which are like structures or protective shields that protect proteins from degradation.
Our body has the capacity to produce about 100 chaperones.
If we are able to protect the protein from damage, it protects against the effects of aging and protects us from all the stress related to the damage that occurs in the body.
To minimize protein damage, it is necessary to reduce oxidation and protect them with these protective shields.
Oxidation can be caused by the body itself, or by external factors such as UV radiation, pollution, tobacco smoke, pesticides, etc.
Anti-aging food supplements
Chronoshield
Chronoshield is the only product on the market that has proven to be effective in protecting proteins from oxidation, degradation, so it can help maintain their shape, thanks to its chaperone effect mechanism.
It protects proteins from external damage or stress caused by various environmental agents.
We remember the post: How to protect our proteins to stop the aging process.
Senolytic Platinum
Another way of acting would be to eliminate senescent cells from the body and stimulate the creation of new healthy cells.
This function is performed by Senolytics.
That is why we also want to tell you about Senolytic Platinum
First of all, let’s remember that the lifespan of all cells is limited.
Thus, a cell that reaches the end of its life proceeds to self-destruct, so as not to saturate the body.
This natural process is called apoptosis.
Sometimes, cells at the end of their life do not enter the phase of cell death.
These cells, called senescent cells, continue to wander through the body.
At first, our immune defenses manage to eliminate them, but very quickly, senescent cells end up accumulating and overwhelming the immune system, which becomes unable to get rid of them.
Sometimes the worst happens, instead of dying, in an attempt to survive, they mutate and become cancerous.
Essentially, senescence and carcinogenesis (oncogenesis) direct cellular fate in opposite directions.
Today we have Senolytic Platinum, a patented product that provides Fisetin , one of the most powerful senolytic flavonoids.
Other well-known senolytics are quercetin and the caloric restriction mimetic, resveratrol , which aims to slow down the aging process.
The antioxidant effects of these flavonoids and in particular the induction of glutathione synthesis are considered important with regard to neuroprotection and other anti-aging effects.
Grynkiewicz G, Demchuk OM.
New Perspectives for Fisetin.
Front Chem.
2019 Oct 30;7:697.
DOI: 10.3389/FCHEM.2019.00697.
PMID: 3175028.
Resveratrol
Resveratrol, a polyphenol already well studied, is not new in the anti-aging repertoire.
Research on this ingredient began through the “French paradox,” which described better cardiovascular outcomes in the French despite a high-fat diet because they drank more wine.
Since then, it has been shown to have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiproliferative, and anti-angiogenic effects.
The benefits of resveratrol are multiple, so we want to remember a post where we talked extensively about the subject: Therapeutic effects of resveratrol
Spermidine
It is a polyamine (biogenic amine) that induces autophagy, a process that eliminates defective cells from our body.
Spermidine is another of these novel active ingredients
The name spermidine curiously comes from semen, since it is where it was first isolated, it was the scientist Von Leeuwenhoek, father of microscopy, in 1678, who informed the Royal Society that part of his sperm samples had crystallized.
Much later, in the 1920s, these crystals were called spermine and their reason was to protect the DNA of semen.
When we are young and growing, we have higher spermidine levels than when we age.
This decrease sometimes manifests itself in the form of loss of muscle mass, hair loss, sagging skin, and wrinkles.
We can ingest spermidine from food sources and either synthesize it through the gut microbiota.
Spermidine activates autophagy, a process that removes defective cells from our body.
This could play a role in protecting against cancer.
Spermidine has been attributed with effects such as preserving cognitive function, anti-inflammatory effects, antifibrotic effect on the liver, improvement of IBD (inflammatory bowel disease), colitis, inhibition of aberrant DNA methylation among other effects.
Another way of acting can be against telomere shortening.
This is a well-known theory related to aging.
Telomeres are regions of DNA, located at the ends of chromosomes. Their main function is to protect the cell when it multiplies and divides.
When a cell duplicates, so does its genetic material.
However, this multiplication, which should be identical, really isn’t, since telomeres are shortened in the process.
It is a gradual shortening that begins from the very moment we are born until we die.
As a consequence of the problem of cell replication, telomeres shrink in each cell generation until they reach a minimum length in the crisis phase of aging, the speed of division is reduced, determining a slow cell death.
This phenomenon is called “replicative mortality”.
Cells involved in growth, development and reproduction (stem cells, eggs and sperm) unlike somatic cells synthesize large amounts of the enzyme telomerase, an enzyme involved in preserving the length of telomeric DNA contrary to what most adult cells do that express little or none of this enzyme. which causes these cells to age and eventually die.
Meccariello, R.; D’Angelo, S. Impact of Polyphenolic-Food on Longevity: An Elixir of Life. An Overview.
Antioxidants 2021, 10, 507. https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox10040507
An interesting product is TA65, whose patented active ingredient extracted from Astragalus membranaceus, has the ability to activate telomerase and repair critically short telomeres, something so essential to keep our cells alive, longer.
Bernardes de Jesus B, Schneeberger K, Vera E, Tejera A, Harley CB, Blasco MA. The telomerase activator TA-65 elongates short telomeres and increases health span of adult/old mice without increasing cancer incidence.
Aging Cell.
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PMID: 21426483.
Salvador L, Singaravelu G, Harley CB, Flom P, Suram A, Raffaele JM.
A Natural Product Telomerase Activator Lengthens Telomeres in Humans: A Randomized, Double Blind, and Placebo Controlled Study.
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PMID: 26950204; PMCID: PMC5178008.
Another interesting approach to slow down the aging process is to act on the mitochondria, the cellular energy factory
In it we find very important tandems, molecules and cofactors that need each other to be able to manufacture final energy molecules or ATP, they are Coenzyme Q10, PQQ, NAD+, NMN and NADH.
NMN, nicotinamide mononucleotide
This is another of the new anti-aging players.
Both NMN and NAD+ are important producers of energy in the body.
Although they are different molecules, NAD+ and NMN have many chemical elements in common.
Most importantly, the body needs NMN to create NAD+ – you can’t have one without the other.
There are a few differences between NAD and NMN:
- NMN is more easily absorbed into the bloodstream
- NAD+ May Have a Stronger Effect on Your Brain and Mental Health
- NMN May Have a Stronger Effect on Your Physical Health
When taken as a supplement, each molecule can raise NAD+ levels, compensating for the NAD+ that is lost with age.
In turn, there are two other pairs, the forms of NAD and NADH that constitute a redox pair.
This term is used to describe reduced, oxidized forms of the same molecule.
NAD+ is the oxidized form, i.e., a state in which you lose an electron.
NADH is a reduced form of the molecule, meaning it gains the electron lost to NAD+.
Redox reactions involving electron transfers play a central role in the creation of energy.
A systemic decrease in NAD + in many tissues is associated with all features of aging.
NAD + can affect a variety of cellular processes, including metabolic pathways, DNA repair, and immune cell activity, both directly and indirectly.
As people age, their NAD + levels in tissues and cells decrease, and this drop in NAD + levels has been linked to a number of age-related disorders, these cellular processes play a vital role in maintaining balance.
By restoring NAD + levels, several of these disorders can be delayed or even reversed.
Some of the new studies conducted in mice and humans have focused on NAD + metabolism with NAD+ intermediates . Of these, nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) has been shown to offer great therapeutic potential with promising results in chronic age-related conditions, such as diabetes, cardiovascular problems, cognitive decline, and many others.
But more intervention studies in people are needed to study the long-term effects of supplementing NMN with varying doses.
Soma M, Lalam SK.
The role of nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) in anti-aging, longevity, and its potential for treating chronic conditions.
Mol Biol Rep. 2022 Apr 20.
DOI: 10.1007/S11033-022-07459-1.
Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35441939.
Another form and supplement is NADH , although it is better known than the other forms I think it is interesting to add it for comparison.
NADH, also known as coenzyme 1, is the activated carrier molecule that transfers electrons into the cell.
The letter “H” stands for hydrogen and indicates that the molecule is in the most active form possible.
Transformation from NAD+ to NADH.
NAD+ and NADH represent the same molecule undergoing transformation.
NAD+ is the “raw” form of NAD that simply acts as an electron transporter.
It’s like an empty shuttle bus with nothing to carry.
However, with the help of NADH, you can use your cargo space to transport crucial components for the cell’s enzymes.
NADH is the “charged” or activated form of NAD, a shuttle bus with cargo to transport.
Its main purpose is to bring charged electrons to the mitochondrial enzymes needed for the energy generation process.
Once NADH reaches the mitochondria, it releases its positively charged electrons and expels the hydrogen atom, once again becoming NAD+.
NAD+ is now again an empty shuttle bus, ready to carry more positively charged electrons.
Pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ)
It is a novel supplement involved in processes such as mitochondrial biogenesis and cellular energy metabolism.
For example, PQQ may protect against exercise-induced fatigue and oxidative damage by improving mitochondrial function.
It seems to affect mitochondrial biogenesis through significant elevations in the content of PGC-1α protein, a metabolic regulator that is induced during ischemia processes such as in patients with acute myocardial infarction with ST-segment elevation.
PQQ prolongs the time to exhaustion, causes decreased serum creatine kinase and lactate dehydrogenase activity, increases the activity of antioxidant enzymes, and inhibits the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and malondialdehyde (MDA), a marker of oxidative damage.
It also decreases the overexpression of NF-κB (p65) and inflammatory mediators.
Coenzyme Q (CoQ)
It is a well-known molecule, cardiovascular protector and essential of endogenous synthesis that links different metabolic pathways to energy production thanks to its location in the mitochondrial inner membrane and its redox capacity, which also give it the ability to function as an antioxidant.
But today I am not going to talk more about this coenzyme, simply because we have had it in our AntiAging repertoire for many years.
But let’s go over a few more details about aging to understand more about the key products to slow it down:
What are the longevity pathways?
The longevity pathways are mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin), Sirtuins, NF-kb , and AMPK.
All of these pathways play a crucial role in the aging process.
Two of them, sirtuins and AMPK, slow down aging when activated and the other two slow aging and the onset of age-related symptoms when inhibited.
The last decade of research shows that the answer could lie in the mTOR-controlled nutrient pathway.
mTOR, in response to calorie restriction, has been shown to extend lifespan and delay the onset of age-related diseases.
Sirtuins (silent regulators of information) influence multiple cellular pathways responsible for regulating gene expression, metabolism, DNA repair, apoptosis, and aging.
Activating this pathway can increase life expectancy.
For example, resveratrol activates sirtuins.
The researchers believe that consuming fewer calories may be contributing to the long life expectancy in some of the long-lived blue regions.
According to a study, reducing calorie intake by even 30% can greatly increase life expectancy.
Today this has become fashionable with the practice of intermittent fasting, for example, not eating dinner or going 12 hours without eating.
This would make sense because calorie restriction inhibits mTOR and activates sirtuins, two of the main pathways of longevity
The AMPK (adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase) pathway is responsible for regulating the way the human body uses and transforms energy.
AMPK levels are high in young people and help protect us from chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity.
However, as we age, levels can decrease, leading to obesity and accelerated aging.
This is a path that we want to activate!
Berberine and Silymarin
Berberine and Silymarin, for example, activate this AMPK pathway
Consumption of Colorful fruits and vegetables: diet rich in plant phytochemicals, such as grapes and berries can help activate the longevity pathways AMPK and Sirtuins.
mTOR is a cell signaling pathway responsible for regulating cell growth, proliferation, and survival.
However, overactivation of mTOR has been found to be linked to a number of age-related diseases and conditions, so inhibiting its activity through calorie restriction slows down the aging process.
In fact, calorie restriction is one of the best-proven tools that promote longevity, but if we do not always want to do calorie restriction then we should take supplements that mimic it such as resveratrol.
mTOR coordinates feeding and fasting with nutrient storage and mobilization.
In the liver, skeletal muscle, and adipose tissue, increased insulin levels after feeding activates both the mTOR1 and mTORC2 complexes, promoting lipogenesis, glycogen synthesis, and protein synthesis.
During fasting, nutrient, growth factor, and insulin levels drop precipitously, tilting the metabolic balance in favor of gluconeogenesis, ketogenesis, and lipolysis.
Although the negative feedback loop between mTORC1 and mTORC2 is carefully balanced under physiological conditions, chronic hyperactivation of mTORC1 by excess nutrients and mitogens can turn off PI3K-mTORC2 signaling, leading to insulin resistance, ectopic lipid accumulation in the muscle and liver, and type 2 diabetes.
And finally, NF-kB (nuclear factor-kappa B) is a mediator of the body’s immune response.
It is activated by inflammatory stress.
High levels of inflammation are found in many of the chronic conditions related to aging.
By inhibiting this pathway by reducing stress and inflammation, you can slow down aging and delay the onset of age-related conditions.
