Tag: Anti-aging

Can you influence your biological age?

Claus Hancke

29 January 2024

The short answer is: “Yes. Of course you can.”
The difficult question is: “How much?”

It is not rocket science to figure out that you reduce your chances of a long and good life if you sit in solitude on the sofa all day, smoking, eating chips and drinking cola, sleeping too little and weighing too much. You age faster. It seems to be common knowledge.

Therefore, it is right up our street to start changing such habits if you want to increase the chance of a good and long life, i.e. slow down the speed at which you age. This is what is popularly called lowering one’s biological age.

This question is brought up to date by a popular Danish TV broadcast with mention of research done at the Danish state hospital, Rigshospitalet, where researchers are trying to influence the rate of aging so that you age more slowly or may become a little younger from a biological point of view.

And here they have also tackled the above-mentioned, specific bad habits, after which they “calculate” the biological age before, during and after the intervention.

So how do you calculate this biological age? It is, of course, a purely theoretical age, based on expected remaining life, calculated from an algorithm which is constructed according to the parameters that are now believed to affect life expectancy and the speed of aging in 2024.

The same persons may have a completely different biological age in 5 years, when science has exposed completely different parameters that affect life expectancy even more strongly. This particularly concerns various blood tests, i.e. biochemical parameters, where we are constantly getting smarter.

One of the most reliable measurements of a person’s biological age is probably the measurement of the remaining telomeres in the genetic material of the cell nuclei. These telomeres shorten during cell division, and when we have no more, we die. Many international researchers have been interested in this for the past 20 years, including the Swedish professor Urban Alehagen, who, as mentioned in a previous newsletter has researched the life-extending effect of Q10 and selenium.

In the above-mentioned TV broadcast, the various lifestyle measures have been supplemented by taking a pill with Nicotinamide Riboside, which supports the cells’ energy production.

Many have asked me what it is, and to bring clarity to the many abbreviations and biochemical contexts, I have made a small presentation which can be viewed on Youtube. It is difficult to describe these biochemical processes in a newsletter, which is why we supplement with this video.

Nicotiamide Riboside is only one of many forms of vitamin B3, all of which contribute to increased energy production in the cells’ power plants, where the cell makes its energy, the so-called mitochondria.

We consume vitamin B3 as nicotinic acid or nicotinamide, after which it is converted to nicotinamide riboside (NR) and then to nicotinamide mononucleoside (NMN), which is then converted to what it is all about, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) in the cells .

(NAD has the property that it can alternate between two oxidation stages NAD+ and NADH, thereby contributing to energy production together with Q10.) This takes place in the inner membrane of the mitochondria.

Whether you consume NR or NMN or Nicotinamide is a question of how far down the synthesis pathway you want to start. Overall, the end result will be roughly the same, just with a difference in the amount of NAD formed.

I apologize for the many abbreviations and the somewhat difficult explanation, which I hope my little video can make up for.

Supplements can be exciting and good, and even life-prolonging. But don’t forget the most important things:

A healthy diet, daily exercise, a good night’s sleep, avoid being overweight and stick with your friends from your youth. You won’t get new ones. Stop smoking and moderate your alcohol consumption. It all helps to raise your quality of life and slow down the aging process.

Take care of yourself and others.

Claus Hancke
Specialist in general medicine

The Vitality Council’s 7-minute video about NAD can be seen here:
https://youtu.be/66BTyE6c5UU
However, Danish is spoken and it is unfortunately not subtitled.

Carnitine, a Stimulant for Heart, Brain, and Muscles

Claus Hancke

May 9, 2005

Carnitine creates energy in aged cells. The message from a new scientific congress is that supplementation of carnitine seems to help against both heart disease, arteriosclerosis, and dementia.

Are your memory failing or are you loosing strength, then perhaps carnitine is the remedy for rescue

Carnitine is an – undeservedly – overlooked dietary supplement that is on its way into the ‘scientific warmth’. A clear signal is that the New York Academy of Sciences dedicate a whole volume of its famous scientific annals to carnitine alone.

Here you can read more than 197 pages from all 18 contributions given at a two-day conference on carnitine held by the academy in March 2004. The contributions are, among other things, about the importance of carnitine for the burning of fat, for the functioning of the muscles and the heart and about its promising role in the fight against a weakened memory.

Carnitine is an essential nutrient that we mainly get from red meat and dairy products. The body only produces small amounts, and vegans in particular are at risk of deficiency. Carnitine is necessary for the mitochondria – the energy factories of the cells – to burn fat. First, it enables fatty acids to enter the mitochondria, then it promotes their combustion, thereby preventing the harmful accumulation of fatty acid residues, while at the same time supplying the cells with energy.

With age, the transfer of fatty acids to the mitochondria slows down. In addition, the mitochondria become less able to get rid of incompletely broken down fatty acids. This leads to their accumulation of free radicals, a main reason why they degenerate. But without mitochondria, there is no life. Degeneration of the mitochondria is a central phenomenon in the aging process.

Anti-Aging
Many therefore believe that carnitine is an extremely obvious ally in the fight against aging. In a summary by Charles Rebouche from Iowa University, it is stated that carnitine supplementation appears to inhibit aging in rats, just as in humans it both combats age-related memory decline and mitigates the deterioration of Alzheimer’s.

That carnitine as a supplement can really replace missing carnitine function is evident from experiences with children who, for genetic reasons, have difficulty transferring carnitine to the mitochondria. Untreated, they develop severe heart and muscle diseases, but with the help of carnitine supplements, children with these rare disorders have survived to more than 30 years of age – and are still doing well.

However, many more people can benefit from Italian studies that have shown that it is possible to limit the damage that occurs to the heart when a blood clot cuts off the blood supply to parts of the heart muscle. Carnitine reduces the deformation of the heart that would otherwise occur, and during long-term treatment, carnitine-treated patients can work longer and harder, and their fitness is better.

This is an extremely exciting result, which is consistent with the finding that patients with intermittent claudication – walking pain due to calcification, and thus narrowing, of the arteries in the legs – improved their performance on a treadmill when they received a supplement of two grams of carnitine daily.

After the congress, experiments have shown that carnitine also helps against the type of diabetic neuropathy that causes pain. In both rats and humans, a significant effect has been found on this neuropathy, which is often a painful companion to undertreated diabetes. The dose was ½-1 gram three times daily.

Nerves, muscles and heart are major consumers of energy. Carnitine supplies energy. When the brain, heart or muscles weaken with age, it seems wise to think about Carnitine.

By: Vitality Council

Reference:
Salvatore Alesci et al. (Eds.). Carnitine: The Science behind a Conditionally Essential Nutrient. Annals of The New York Academy of Sciences 2005, vol. 1033.

www.annalsnyas.org
www.iom.dk