Wouldn’t it be nice never to get another wrinkle or any other sign of aging? Scientists have now been working on a solution that may just help with that. It comes in the way of reversing mitochondrial decay which made possible through the use of dietary supplements that increase NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) levels. Although its only been tested on animals so far, the result is still promising.
Scientists’ theory regarding aging is that one of the key drivers in this process is mitochondria. As we get older, the mitochondria in our systems also age and become flaky and fade. So, researchers concluded that if they could reverse the aging of the mitochondrial they could in effect reverse the aging process altogether.
Research on the effect of NAD’s really took off in 2013 through Harvard’s David Sinclair and colleagues. They discovered that mitochondria in elderly mice’s muscles were restored back to a youthful state after just one week of NMN (nicotinamide mononucleotide) injections.
Although NMN isn’t available for humans just yet, it has generated a lot of interest in similar substances such as Niagen which contains NR. Earlier this year, start-up company Elysium Health produced a supplement with NR named Basis and is backed by a number of big names such as Mayo Clinic’s Jim Kirkland and five Nobel laureates.
From their studies, researchers have found that the more NAD cells there are, the more the sirtuin, SIRT1, gets to work, and this includes creating new mitochondria. They also found that NAD can activate SIRT3 also which aids in keeping the mitochondria behaving as it should.
Resveratrol is an ingredient in wine that can rev up SIRT1 and has proved very useful in the past, but now scientists are turning to another ingredient to help keep aging at bay, and that is pterostilbene. Pterostilbene is found in blueberries and grapes and although it’s similar to resveratrol, it’s actually much more potent. But, there is still a lack of human data to go by, so until then, this anti-aging fad may not be that quick to catch on.
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