ALA/ALC
Hi folks, glad to find a group and forum of other folks interested in helping themselves and others defeat aging. I'm going to do a number of posts on the results of my personal research and experiments.
First supplementing with ALA/ALC, something I don't see much as I should in these communities
Acetyl L-Carnitine & Alpha-Lipoic Acid (I like the Source Naturals version linked here - I take two of these per day in the morning/afternoon)
Dr Bruce Ames, famed researcher who gives us the Ames test which is used to measure the toxicity of chemicals. After that he studied mitochondrial function and found that supplementing with ALA/ALC (in combination) restores function in older mice. Here he is talking about it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6K-ZijmRAI
Anecdotally, myself and everybody I know who I've gotten to use it has found increased energy and energy. Indeed a friend whose MIL was rather declining found herself becoming more alert, focused and mentally present on taking it. These aren't scientific studies (I'm an physicist/engineer) but I had friends try it without telling them anything about it, and they reported the same results.
A lot of people take CoQ10/Ubiquinol but this has the same effect, but more naturally as it addresses the root cause rather than the symptoms. That is taking ALA/ALC restores your CoQ10 production naturally I believe. I also take a bit of CoQ10 as insurance.
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I take these, too, but am also treating my dog with Peri-anal cancer with massive doses of all three (also just started rapa for us both). I am not seeing a cure in the dog after about 15 months since diagnosis, but behavior is substantially improved with vigor, desire to play, ability to do his job. He is a livestock guardian dog so that's a biggie. Also, tho I don't see much about it anywhere, both of us take a lot of Omega 3's. For me, I test my CRP level and take enough to keep it at bottom of the scale. Cancer having at least an inflammatory component (or caused by inflammation, depending on who you listen to) I figure that's a major part of his treatment. Personally, I suspect that chronic inflammation starts the mitochondrial dysfunction and therefore aging itself.
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Ellie Chronic inflammation is from multiple causes. For most people the primary is from life long SAD (Standard American Diet). The high free fat/high protein causes an inflammatory reaction in the endothelial layer of the blood vessels, driving up homocysteine. The second likely problem is auto-immune, with chronic dairy consumption being a primary cause (interesting reason why that is).
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Of course it is. I recently finished more than 50,000 words in my blog/newsletter about many of those things. You and I would disagree on how important dairy is in that progression. You didn't mention sugars at all and it looks like that is super important if not primary since both sugars and insulin are very inflammatory. And I am hesitant to ascribe modern ills to ancient food -- both protein and fat are very ancient foods- None of which negates the fact that Omega 3's decrease inflammation. That can be determined by a CRP test. I acknowledge that Omega 3's are a bandaid not a cure, but sometimes a bandaid is just what's needed.
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Ellie Yes ancient foods - we should discuss ancient diseases then too. Conveniently we have the graves and indeed mummies throughout history. The Egyptian pharaohs had all the diseases of modern western civilization - arthritis, diabetes, many more. The Greeks knew about diabetes and also the precursor to Metformin. They found that people who had sweet urine (a diabetic condition), that if they gave them a certain tea from a flower their symptoms would improve. Even Ötzi had osteoarthritis, and he was lactose intolerant. Gout, inflammation and such are well documented throughout history.
On sugars, of course you know that dairy is a large contributor of it to most people's diet (lactose). I didn't mention it because sugar (not complex carbohydrates) of course are well known to be troublesome.
Look don't get me wrong - protein and fat are important macronutrients. The science is absolutely clear however that modern humans consume way too much of it.
Anyhow just having a discussion ... the causes of inflammation are well known/measured/documented, and I don't recall seeing anything on mitochondrial function FWIW.
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By ancient foods I refer to pre agriculture, not post agriculture. Big difference. All those you mentioned are post ag and I agree with you. Mitochondrial function (or dysfunction) is a very important and not yet mainstream area of investigation that has tons to do with aging and disease generation with aging. Why rapamycin makes a difference in lifespan and healthspan goes to it's role in oxidative phosphorylation--Sabatini, Attia, Chandel, among many others.
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We have found this combination to be very effective for a relative with Parkinson's disease and it has improved that person's mental acuity tremendously. We give 100 mg ALA with 1000 mg ALC. Check out this paper, the most remarkable thing is the finding:
"we found that, when combined, LA and ALC worked at 100 - 1000 -fold lower concentrations than they did individually. "
Now, that is an incredible finding.Combined R-α–lipoic acid and acetyl-L-carnitine exerts efficient preventative effects in a cellular model of Parkinson’s disease
