Measuring biological age by the reaction of those around you
I've found a novel way to estimate biological age, which is the reaction of people in your circle to the changes in you.
In the past year I've
- Put in a home gym and now do Pilates and cycling daily (45 minutes)
- Gone on HRT
- Started Metformin
- NAD patches
- Refined the supplementation approach
What's interesting is to compare anecdotal experience of the changes
My Perspective
There seems to be a synergistic effect. Each thing I did had it's own small contribution - after taking Metformin I noticed feeling more 'in control' after a meal and less effected by it. With the increased exercise (and I'm a lifelong exerciser) there's likewise more wellbeing, with the HRT more energy and drive. Overall the sum of these changes seems to be greater than them individually.
Friend/family perspective
Coworkers now are saying they keep forgetting I'm a dad because I have so much energy and act so young. My wife says I have the energy of a person 20 years younger suddenly. From the inside I don't have this perspective, to me it seemed more incremental and small changes.
Anyhow two points - one is the importance of doing everything you can. It seems that just one aging factor can make you feel and appear older. For example, even a young person with say a sports injury or a broken leg is probably feeling and appearing older than their biological age. Attacking cosmetic aging, cellular and macroscopic (e.g. muscle tone) are all worth doing.
Secondly is that perhaps one of the best measures of aging is how other people view you!
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Comment by a fellow swimmer today rather made my day. I swim 4-5 days a week for 1.5 hours. The lanes are divided essentially by performance, from slow, lap at a time, up to rigorous structured workouts. I swim near the middle, doing continuous laps at varying speed.
After today's swim, a fellow I didn't know said "I swam with you, and you never stopped". He appeared about 40, while I'm 74.
Swimming is rather boring, and about the only diversion is watching other swimmers. I rate others on form, speed, endurance, rest stops, variety of strokes, age, and whatever seems unique about individuals.
When I switched from trail running to swimming a few years ago I ended up frequently swimming with a gal who did a mile a day, 4 days a week. I was maybe 90% of her speed and endurance, and we ended up talking a bit during rest stops. At that time, a mile was a long ways. I swam a few laps, and rested for several laps worth of time.
Today I swam just short of 2 miles, higher than my usual norm of 1.5 miles or so. I swim at a speed that I can do continuously. On a really slow day, I'll do a mile. On a strong day, I've gone just over 2 miles.
That gal who used to beat me at a mile still performs about the same. She's faster than me for the first half mile or so, but I usually catch up by a mile. Then she quits and I go on for another half mile or more. I asked her why she quit at a mile, and her reaction was that I was boasting. Maybe I was, but I really didn't understand why someone who was stronger than me would quit when I had plenty left.
The rather unique things that I do include low fat vegan diet, high vitamin D, cycloastragenol, proteolytic enzymes, and recently rapamycin / dasatinib / quercetin.
The dasatinib / quercetin seem particularly important in supporting endurance. Maybe a month after the D+Q was the first time I ever swam 2 miles, 2 days in a row. It's now something I can do every few weeks, where before I'd only done 2 miles a few times, let alone 2 back to back. It's not that I feel stronger, I just don't fade before the 1.5 hour session is up.
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RobH Nice Rob! Tip for you, I also follow a vegan diet (don't know if it's low fat, I do eat some nut butters). Regardless Bryan recently suggested I take 4-5g of creatine for a month, then pull it back to a gram or so. The evidence is a thin at this point, but there are indications that long term vegans (I've been one for decades so take that into consideration) need this which is lacking in their diets.
Upshot? Anecdotal, but I mentioned I stationary cycle (professional spinning bike) every morning with a heart rate monitor, so know very closely my physical performance level (I run on the weekend and do Pilates every day too). Upshot of it is that suddenly after taking my bike performance went up quite a bit - 25% maybe? I'm up 2 gears and 20rpm. I also feel great, definitely 'better'.
Perhaps yes I was missing something.
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Thanks Dan. I think my power is about the same, but endurance has improved. I tend to exercise at a heart rate between 110 and 130, with 150 being the upper limit. 20 years ago I ran a 10k at an average heart rate of 180, and finished a half marathon at 199. Ticker doesn't go that fast any more...
My interest in the vegan diet started at about age 45 when my peers started having serious health problems. Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn wrote about curing severe cardiac problems with his vegan diet. Guys with two month death sentences ended up living at least another 20 years. Several dropped out because they'd rather die than eat like that. They got their wish. His curative diet is severe, but his patients were in dire straights. His son, Rip Esselstyn is better known for his Engine 2 books and food products. The principles are the same, but designed to maintain health, not bring it back from the edge. One rather unique aspect of their diets is the avoidance of all oils, including olive oil. Olives are OK, the extracted oil apparently damages the vascular system. Flavored vinegars can be used instead of olive oil for flavor.
I dug into my pill pile and found an almost empty bottle of creatine monohydrate. So I used it several years ago and lost interest. But the problems that it improves align with my current condition. I noticed that creatine down regulates myostatin, one of the causes of sarcopenia in older folk.
While the Esselstyn vegan diet supports vascular health, it does appear to be less than optimal in terms of maintaining muscle. Dr. Nick Delgado is a world class power lifter who advocates essentially the same diet. I don't think he uses creatine, but he does use quite a variety of supplements (that he sells).
I prefer "personal experience" instead of "anecdotal". And N=1 is perhaps the most important stage of knowledge. Without N=1, there would never be more advanced stages of knowledge. Consider the atomic bomb - was N=1 significant? Medical people would say no. No control group, no blinding, no measure of significance. Those atomic scientists just don't care about real science do they?
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RobH Yeah I'm well familiar with Esselstyn, Rip, Dr McDougall, Dr Campbell, Dr Fuhrman, Dr Goldhammer and the rest of them. They're all doing wonderful work, but I see a subtle deficiency in their approach, which is they all fundamentally derive from the work that Pritikan did. They have a mono vision with plants. With the exception of Fuhrman, the all have a naturalistic viewpoint and view pills of any for as evil. Fuhrman allows some vitamins though, not much more than that. Secondly, none of them is into testing and data, they could care less.
Blind spot in my estimation. We rose through the ranks, started with McDougall, on to Fuhrman and still eat that way. But then as we were turning 50 I knew that diet alone wouldn't help, so graduated to Bill Faloon. My personal experience :) is that I was aging normally as a vegan, albeit with a few years younger biological age, but it was clearly anti-aging supplements and medications that turned the clock back again. I really have the vitality and outlook I did in my late 30's again.
It appears the things a vegan should take regardless of aging are
- Creatine
- Carnosine
- B12
- D
- DHA/EPA
Anyhow it's a good approach. Yeah also my heart rate pegs at 150 when I run, and is 110-125 when I cycle, and normally is 50. VO2max is 50 (college athlete level).
Dan
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Dan
Creatine monohydrate works really well for me. I completed a 2 mile swim that previously required 89 minutes in 82 minutes. That's not just random variation!
N=2 (3?)
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Thanks for this information Dan. By HRT do I correctly understand you started hormone replacement therapy? Would you mind saying what specifically?
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I just found this forum while searching for a rapamycin source in Canada. I take a lot of supplements including carnosine, benfotiamine, quercetin/tocotrienol combo (cycled), NAD+ sublingual, reishi, lion's mane, colloidal silver and astragalus. A dermatologist said he's "never seen skin like yours. It's more like that of a 35-year-old" and trying to convince BC Ferries that I am a senior, even with presenting my DL, has become less of a joke and more of a pain in the neck. iHeart regularly gives my "internal age" reading as between 50 and 56. So far, feeling like a 20-year-old, touch wood. I am 67 and a vegetarian, no eggs, cheese once a month and grass-fed milk in my tea.
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Antonia Gauer
To maintain that 35-yr-old skin tone (lucky you), you may be interested in looking into a natural herbal substance called Apocynin (acetovanillone, CAS 498-02-2).
On April 3, 2019 a group of researchers in Tokyo announced their discovery that Apocynin can rejuvenate dormant skin stem cells. Their scientific paper, with the title,,, "Stem cell competition orchestrates skin homeostasis and ageing", was published in Nature. That same group is currently determining the extent to which it can similarly rejuvenate stem cells in other epithelial tissues in organs throughout the body.
99.5% Apocynin powder (white) is listed for sale on Ebay, at $24 per 10g, or $50 per 25g. For dermal use, It is applied as a very dilute solution in water. The Ebay listing provides much further information.
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E J Thank you! I will go investigate.
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Moonlitnight Impressive. Would you share your skincare regimen? Thanks!
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aribadabar Hello there! I wish I could say that I use some exotic Turkish face cream made from baby pomegranates but unfortunately I don't! I have always eaten healthily with lots of vegetables, not many fruits except berries, and loads of black tea. I'm quite sure it is due to what I put inside because I use plain old soap to cleanse, followed by nothing or (in recent weeks) a spritz of the apocynin formulation. In the morning, I never wash my face, but use a very light moisturizer with no parabens, followed by sunscreen. I have used sunscreen every day since I was 32. Once a week I exfoliate using whatever exfoliant I've been sent to write about. Over the years, I have tried various products for a couple of weeks, but never found them effective enough to spend further money on.
That said, earlier today I did buy a product from Alive by Science (they are now selling a liposomal fisetin supplement by the way). It is an anti-aging serum with NAD+ and apocynin. I will continue to use the homemade apocynin spray and use the serum over it. Hope this helps! -
Moonlitnight Thank you for the prompt and detailed response! Wow that's even more impressive that you have not used any fancy skincare routine/products and achieved these incredible results! May I ask you for your supplement stack then? Perhaps that's where the secret lies :) Thanks again!
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aribadabar Have you got a few hours? ;) I take a lot.
DAILY: L-carnosine; Vitamin C time release 1000s (2x daily); NAC; N-acetyl-L-carnitine; ubiquinol; high-dose curcumin; PQQ; berberine; K2, calcium/magnesium and trace minerals; EGCG; resveratrol; Niagen (one third of a capsule daily); olive leaf extract; B-complex; astaxanthin; Mercola's Eye Support; ashwagandha; triple-strength EPA/DHA (two capsules daily); prebiotic (inulin); probiotic; zinc; Vit D (12,000 iu); creatine monohydrate; Within Us marine collagen coffee creamer; benfotiamine; MSM/glucosamine (well away from the NAC and N-acetyl- L-carnitine because one of those counters the action of glucosamine if my memory serves me well); AOR High Dose R-lipoic acid; LOTS of Lion's Mane mushroom extract; multi-mushroom complex. Unless otherwise noted, I take the recommended dose. I recently started fasting 16/8. I get 7 - 8 hours of sleep. 10,000+ steps most days, plus weights and not enough yoga.
For three consecutive days in the week, I take two quercetin 500s with bromelain and two tocotrienols (no tocopherols). This was believed to boot out senescent cells although people on this site have now switched to fisetin. Life Extension combines quercetin with apigenin and theaflavin for senescence, so I guess there are no real answers yet. Hope this helps :)
ETA: I do make sure that my diet excludes as many glycating foods as possible and take supplements that potentially block it: benfotiamine and L-carnosine. Rosemary apparently breaks down glucosapane crosslinks. -
Moonlitnight Glucosepane rather.
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Moonlitnight Hit me up - I have all the time for supps and protocols :)
Thanks so much for sharing - it looks like a pretty solid regimen with many anti-glycation supps - R-ALA can also be considered one as it is a blood sugar regulator and glucosamine as an autophagy activator.
As a fellow Canuck, I suggest you look into Costco's Lutein offering ( currently on sale, to boot) as a possible replacement of the inferior and more expensive, IMHO, Mercola Eye product: https://www.costco.ca/webber-naturals-lutein-25-mg-with-5mg-of-zeaxanthin---175-softgels.product.100563871.html
Since you are already taking Astaxanthin separately and the minimal anthocyanin content won't be missing if you are a berry lover.
But if you are looking for more anti-glycation ideas: Lysine ( essential amino acid, a crucial collagen building block, HSV suppressor, a wonderful all-around supp IMO) , P5P ( not sure how much , if any, is in the B-complex and if B6 is the coenzymated form or plain pyridoxine), IP6 (heavy metal chelator, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, autophagy activator), Centrophenoxine (to add to ALCAR/NALC to combat lipofuscin accumulation).
A low-dose Lithium also seems beneficial for overall well-being and most recently against COVID19 virus.
When you say two tocotrienols do you mean 2x50mg or 2x100mg caps?
What is your take on Dasatinib, rapamycin and metformin for anti-aging purposes? Do you take them or plan to?
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aribadabar Sorry to be late replying. Thanksgiving got in the way there. Thanks for all this info. Are you on the west coast by any chance? I will certainly look into the lutein. I was actually sent a product by Webber to review. It is Blue Light & Dry Eyes, with lutein, zeaxanthin and Omega-3. I take a lot of the latter, and for now will use this to replace the used-up Mercola. I am onto the lysine (thanks again) and have the P5P in my methylated B complex. I wasn't aware that IP6 activates autophagy and will get that as well.
Lipofuscin accumulation is a fear of mine. I'm writing a post about that one today. I don't have any spots on my hands - something my derm thinks is very unusual for someone of my vintage.
I take 1x125 mg Deltagold EAnnatto daily, except for the days I take the quercetin, tocotrienol and bromelain, when I take 2x125.
I am leery of taking the dasatinib at the moment as it sounds powerful (also as a Canuck, how does one get hold of it? Those border people are frightening). Rapa is on my radar big time although its immuno-suppressive effects are concerning. Again, how does one get hold of it? I know Fedex can deliver it from China but even this seems risky. I don't like the penalties for importing prescription drugs. I had my bimatoprost confiscated! I have been combining various supplements into a rapalog of sorts. I take berberine, so don't concern myself with metformin. Also, a friend of mine took it and lost a lot of weight. I weigh 118 at 5'8" (thanks to time-restricted eating) and need to put weight on.
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Follow-up on apocynin. I have been AWOL due to a family issue. Back in the game and have just received my apocynin. I have to get some DMSO to dissolve it in, then put it in an aqua-free serum. Anyone else done this for skin rejuvenation? I see someone on Longecity tried it several ways but found it had no effect on wrinkles.
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Antonia Gauer How are you doing with the apocynin? Any conclusions, observations about effectiveness?
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Hello DG. Actually, I received it a couple of weeks ago and just bought some DMSO. I will create my potion this weekend.
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Antonia Gauer Wishing you positive results. Keep us posted.
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Hi all! Dorian Gray Well, after a ridiculous delay, I started my apocynin protocol four days ago. I have noticed that I am getting little lines above my upper lip. So that is my first hit, twice a day. I apply it all over my face once a day and once a day on the back of my hands, which are flawless in terms of discolouration, but the skin is very thin (and currently dry due to all this hand-washing).
I have no idea how long before assessing results. Anyone? I am using distilled water (4 oz) 20 mg of apo, 2 mg non-iodized salt, and 2 drops DMSO.Off to read the COVID thread. Wishing everyone the best of health.
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Antonia Gauer A three month period for evaluating effects is my minimum benchmark period. Patience is key to allow true physiological effects to manifest and tendency toward emotional/placebo effect to diminish. Keep us posted and good luck!
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@dantheman Dan I haven't started the creatine yet (I am vegetarian). I take everything else and recently hit 15 years of daily carnosine use, including eye drops. I'm getting some creatine as I need to build muscle back. I used to train hard but now have sarcopenia due to laziness in that department. Re your RHR. That is good. Mine varies between 64 and 72. It is currently 64. I have a strange heart. If I stand up and simply walk around the house, it can shoot up to 92-115. When I powerwalk along the trails, it is 125, just 10 beats higher. I have had EKGs and all are OK.
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Update, sadly no improvement yet with the apocynin.
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June 28, Almost three months. Still no visible effect at all. Just made up my second batch. Maybe I should drink some. Has anyone here done this?
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