I was looking through an issue of “Life Extension” magazine. In that magazine is an add which states: “Defy The Mechanisms Of Aging.”
Here is what they recommend:
Acetyl-I-Carnitine arginate- Stimulates the growth of neurites in the brain, among other good things.
R-Lipoic acid- Boosts glutathinone levels inside cells to protect against mitochondrial generated free radicals, among other things.
Carnosine- The most potent nutrient to counteract destructive glycation process. Glycation is the cross-linking of proteins and sugars to form non-functioning structures in the body. Who needs non-functioning structures?
Benfotiamine-fat and water soluble forms of vitamin B1. They prevent glucose from reacting with proteins and help maintain helathy glucose metabolism.
Luteolin- A flavonoid that has been shown to help with inflammatory cytokine expression. Aging is characterized by an inflammatory state that adversely affects virtually every cell in the body! Bad inflammatory cytokines! BAD!
Okay, there are a couple of more, but quite frankly I’m sick of typing. They happen to sell a pil which includes all of these cutting edge supplemts to help you stop aging on a dime!
What do you guys think?
I take many supplements on a daily basis and have for a long long time. However, I do wonder how much of this is marketing and how much is the real deal.
LEF is certainly a bit high on the hype side and they do sell stuff, however:
R-alpha lipoic acid, acetyl carnitine and carnosine are worthwhile additions (well perhaps not for 20 year olds). You can search imminst.org supp forum (immortality institute) for discussions.
OTOH there is only little data on acetyl carnitine arginate and I would put this low on the list.
Benfotiamine has been used in europe for years and it is a glycation inhibitor. Non-enzymatic glycation being one of the mechanisms of aging.
All of these would obviously rank lower than a good multiple, with sufficient B vitamins, C, E (mixed tocopherols), fish oil, and joint support/prevention supps.
I’ve been using acetyl L-carnitine with alpha lipoic acid for a couple of years. Discovery magazine had an article by Bruce Ames, from UC Berkeley about using these two products. I know Bruce and his work from one of my past lives and gave it a try. You should Google for the exact date of the article, but other researchers in the anti-oxidant and free radical community have also shown good results. Amazing stuff.
I’ve bought a lot of supplements over the long haul. On reflection, I think most of them are pretty worthless, especially if you’ve still got work to do on getting your diet and exercise right. The ones I still take are the ones whose effects I can feel, and the ones that have significant human data behind them.
Still, one likes to try new things. When looking at the science, my attitude is: skip straight to the animal studies, all the best lines of BS start at the chemical or cellular levels. But be careful of work with rodents, because it’s easy to feed these little critters dosages that might bankrupt a human.
Long term clinical studies in humans are what you really want to see. That’s when it totally stops being a crapshoot and you really find out about dosage, safety and efficacy.
Remember that not so long ago vitamin E was considered ab fab for longevity. Well, the science turned out a little different on that one.
So when choosing supplements for long term use, you have to ask yourself: do I feel lucky? I will say that the story on Carnosine sounds interesting, but only because of the one animal study. The line about keeping your skin nice is sheer speculation.
[quote]ZEB wrote:
Every single study that used the various forms of vitamin E have proven that Vitamin is a great supplement for many reasons.
[/quote]
Very little of this work ever focussed on safety, especially over the long haul.
Best way to defy aging or slow it down is to take the natural approach. Eat all natural/organic food. Make sure your diet is rich with veggies like avocado, carrots, celery, tomatoes. Fruits like bananas, apples, berries etc… Lean meats and plenty of fish like Salmon. You can also use a juicer for your veggies if you like. Add to that lifting weights, running and a small test cycle here and there.
Basically you do exactly what Jack Lallane is doing all his life. His thing is, “if it’s man made, don’t eat it”.
The formula is quite simple really. Everything has been provided by nature we just have to use it and forget popping pills.
I think the wholistic approach to life is way better than popping pills. Eating clean unprocessed foods is probably better in the long run. Many of the foods in nature contain the chemicals needed for a healthy life. Not to mention they are more fully available to our bodies in the form of whole foods. The enzymes along with vitamins and nutrients containied in fresh fruits and vegetables are the best age fighting agents.
This is not to say that the supplement you are reading about is no good. Just keep in mind anything that is written in a magazine is written to sell.
I think the wholistic approach to life is way better than popping pills. Eating clean unprocessed foods is probably better in the long run. Many of the foods in nature contain the chemicals needed for a healthy life. Not to mention they are more fully available to our bodies in the form of whole foods. The enzymes along with vitamins and nutrients containied in fresh fruits and vegetables are the best age fighting agents.
This used to be true, but not so much
any more. As the plants take up the
nutrients out of the soil there’s less
of them available for next years crop.
There’s been a few articles written
lately on the lowered nutrient value of
plant foods. The only way to get the
lacking nutrients is by taking
suppliments.
I think the wholistic approach to life is way better than popping pills. Eating clean unprocessed foods is probably better in the long run. Many of the foods in nature contain the chemicals needed for a healthy life. Not to mention they are more fully available to our bodies in the form of whole foods. The enzymes along with vitamins and nutrients containied in fresh fruits and vegetables are the best age fighting agents.
This is not to say that the supplement you are reading about is no good. Just keep in mind anything that is written in a magazine is written to sell.[/quote]
I was looking through an issue of “Life Extension” magazine. In that magazine is an add which states: “Defy The Mechanisms Of Aging.”
Here is what they recommend:
Acetyl-I-Carnitine arginate- Stimulates the growth of neurites in
the brain, among other good things.
Eat foods with vitamin c and lysine(everyone on t-nation gets these) and your body makes l-carnitine add some good quality aged vinegar into the diet and voila–you get acetyl-l carnitine–no pills required.
R-Lipoic acid- Boosts glutathinone levels inside cells to protect against mitochondrial generated free radicals, among other things.
R Lipoic acid pales in comparison to the fully reduced form DHLA. For a real live source DHLA(the only in the world actually) check out www.healthline.cc
Carnosine- The most potent nutrient to counteract destructive glycation process. Glycation is the cross-linking of proteins and sugars to form non-functioning structures in the body. Who needs non-functioning structures?
All true. Carnosine is great it can prevent and reverse those brown aging spots you see on old folks. Get the stuff from Italy–much higher quality
Benfotiamine-fat and water soluble forms of vitamin B1. They prevent glucose from reacting with proteins and help maintain helathy glucose metabolism.
Get this from food.
Luteolin- A flavonoid that has been shown to help with inflammatory cytokine expression. Aging is characterized by an inflammatory state that adversely affects virtually every cell in the body! Bad inflammatory cytokines! BAD!
Bioflavinoids are awesome as anti-inflammatory agents as well as neuroprotective ones. Why not take a supplement that has hundreds of kinds of bioflavinoids(as we see in nature) instead of an isolated product?*
Okay, there are a couple of more, but quite frankly I’m sick of typing. They happen to sell a pil which includes all of these cutting edge supplemts to help you stop aging on a dime!
What do you guys think?
I take many supplements on a daily basis and have for a long long time. However, I do wonder how much of this is marketing and how much is the real deal.
Any scientific minds out there?
All comments are welcome.[/quote]
Also the gentleman that noted later on down that the food doesn’t have all the nutrients any more is dead on. There has been a 50% reduction in the antioxidants in our food thanks to the shitty farming/chemicalization that our government assures us is good for us!
Supplements have never been more necessary than now but in theory, if we could repair our land and water then yes you could do just fine without pill popping.
