[Life Extension] A True Advance In Anti-Aging?
I Need A New Drug: Carnosine! (?)
I saw a report the other day in the Star, a British tabloid, touting a 'huge' break-thru in anti-aging, ANTI-AGEING PILL? Breakthrough as scientists discover how to slow down the ageing process – raising hopes of drug treatments: Researchers have identified a specific protein which they believe controls ageing
I didn’t get too excited. The researchers from Nottingham University had managed to achieve the shortening of the life spans of nematode worms. I’m no biologist, but that’s going in the wrong direction. I mean, how hard is it to kill a worm?
Carbonic anhydrase (“CA”) is a by-product of energy generation, and increasing amounts of it are generated as we age. The researchers noticed that elder mice had more of in their tissues than did younger mice, and that led them to aging the worms by adding CA to their food. The scientists opine, “This could be a key to slowing down or reversing some of the signs of ageing”, and that they were searching for inhibitors of CA.
There are no links in the Star piece (typical), so I did a search but couldn’t find any paper. I did find, however, this gem Carnosine inhibits carbonic anhydrase . . .. That sure sounds promising. This paper, from 2014, claims that carnosine could be a treatment for cancer. Hmmm.
Life Extension Articles
I turned to the Life Extension Foundation for info. LEF has great articles, if you can believe them. I mean they are selling this stuff.
A somewhat recent article (2011) is pretty interesting. It lists studies claiming improvement of such things as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, age-related brain disorders and cancer, as well as life extension in fruit flies and other lab animals:
Almost ten years ago, Life Extension® published compelling data showing that supplementation with higher-dose carnosine induced a wide range of anti-aging effects, including marked reductions in lethal glycation reactions . . . A 2010 study revealed that carnosine extends life span in laboratory animals, consistent with other recent findings that carnosine fights aging at multiple targets in heart, brain, skin, and other organ systems.
The next year, LEF returned to the topic with an article that reports on a number of studies regarding the benefits of carnosine, including a study on human cells in culture that are rejuvenated by the addition of carnosine:
While the control cells developed the typical “old” appearance, those grown in high carnosine concentrations retained their youthful appearance.5 When these youthful-appearing cells were transferred to culture dishes lacking extra carnosine, they quickly developed the “old” appearance of control cells of the same age. Yet, when scientists took old cells, approaching the limits of their life span, and transferred them into culture dishes containing high carnosine concentrations, they found that the cells rapidly became rejuvenated to resemble young cells.10
Whoa! Sounds like the Star article!
User Comments
Typically with nutraceuticals (and patent drugs for that matter), user comments often don’t reflect any discernable results, something like “I take 2 grams of C per day and don’t get colds anymore”. This one from LEF caught my eye:
Since I added the Super Carnosine and DMAE BITARTRATE to Acetyle-L-Carnitine, my cognitive function is unbelievably became [sic] sharp. They've empowered my thinking ability and improved my memory.
My dirty little secret is that despite being a member-for-life of LEF, I buy most supplements from Swanson. They’re cheap and good quality, as near as I can tell. Their best-selling carnosine has 55 reviews, and they are almost all positive. However, it’s out-of-stock as I write. As soon as back in stock, I’ll be ordering it (probably with some DMAE and ALC), along with a taste of the premium LEF version (also available from Swanson).
I should be living forever anytime soon! It's a hobby of mine, see e.g. Ketogenic Life Extension
RedQ
P.S. Anyone with experience with carnosine?
Have you ever eaten a steak? Then you have consumed plenty of carnosine. It is common in muscle tissue.
Steak is my favorite food group! I hadn't taken carnosine for that reason, but LEF states that you don't get much carnosine from food. From the 2011 LEF article:
I guess that suggests taking the supplement after a red-meat meal?
If 250 mg's is quickly degraded by the enzyme, then 4 times that much is also quickly degraded by the enzyme, but sure, I suppose if you wanted to raise carnosine levels then your regimine of meat + supplement would be a good course of action. Though I can not condone taking the supplement as I do not know enough about the effects of excess carnosine.
Well, you don't know that, but yes, as I said, I took the same approach. You have to assume LEF is lying through their teeth about 'over-whelming' carnosinase, which I cheerfully admited in the OP might be nonsense.
I only paused based on the anecdotal reports combined with some interesting, possibly legitimate, research results. Enough for me to try it. If I experience something good I think is real, I'll be happy.
At what point of carnosine supplementation could you 'overwhelm' carnosinase? Would that be a good thing?
Edit: Sorry, I didn't see your update 'til after this post. Maybe it's not an 'excess'. That's what the research suggests.
Carnosine is thought to be a radical oxygen scavenger, so its benefit is supposedly though reducing free oxygen radicals. You aren't going to "overwhelm" the enzyme unless it has some sort of substrate inhibition mechanism, where too high a concentration of carnosine (its substrate) binds to a separate site and prevents the function of the enzyme. I don't suspect that supplementation with carnosine would do much of anything, seems like if it did, then eating a lot of meat would do the same thing to me. Best of luck!
Thanks, Just. I do think low carb is really good. Ketogenic Life Extension
Good Point!