The Permanent Supplement Regime

[MachineGhost]

This is a landmark paper.

[quote=http://www.cell.com/abstract/S0092-8674%2813%2900645-4]Aging is characterized by a progressive loss of physiological integrity, leading to impaired function and increased vulnerability to death. This deterioration is the primary risk factor for major human pathologies, including cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases. Aging research has experienced an unprecedented advance over recent years, particularly with the discovery that the rate of aging is controlled, at least to some extent, by genetic pathways and biochemical processes conserved in evolution. This Review enumerates nine tentative hallmarks that represent common denominators of aging in different organisms, with special emphasis on mammalian aging. These hallmarks are: genomic instability, telomere attrition, epigenetic alterations, loss of proteostasis, deregulated nutrient sensing, mitochondrial dysfunction, cellular senescence, stem cell exhaustion, and altered intercellular communication. A major challenge is to dissect the interconnectedness between the candidate hallmarks and their relative contributions to aging, with the final goal of identifying pharmaceutical targets to improve human health during aging, with minimal side effects.[/quote]

[MachineGhost]

I draw the line and I draw it with cricket flour.  Yep, you guessed it!  High protein flour made from slow-roasted crickets.  Add some gelatin and it'll be just like on Snowpiercer.  Yuck!!!

https://www.exoprotein.com/

[MachineGhost]

[quote=http://www.nature.com/srep/2015/150121/ ... 07928.html]We evaluated the quality and content of fish oil supplements in New Zealand. All encapsulated fish oil supplements marketed in New Zealand were eligible for inclusion. Fatty acid content was measured by gas chromatography. Peroxide values (PV) and anisidine values (AV) were measured, and total oxidation values (Totox) calculated. Only 3 of 32 fish oil supplements contained quantities of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) that were equal or higher than labelled content, with most products tested (69%) containing <67%. The vast majority of supplements exceeded recommended levels of oxidation markers. 83% products exceeded the recommended PV levels, 25% exceeded AV thresholds, and 50% exceeded recommended Totox levels. Only 8% met the international recommendations, not exceeding any of these indices. Almost all fish oil supplements available in the New Zealand market contain concentrations of EPA and DHA considerably lower than claimed by labels. Importantly, the majority of supplements tested exceeded the recommended indices of oxidative markers. Surprisingly, best-before date, cost, country of origin, and exclusivity were all poor markers of supplement quality.[/quote]

[MachineGhost]

Labdoor – Quality-Tested Online Marketplace For Supplements. The FDA doesn’t test supplements, and Labdoor says 79% of supplements fail quality control. Labdoor does its own testing so it can tell you what’s actually in Centrum or Muscle Milk even if the labels are wrong. The startup believes that user reviews aren’t enough to convince people what health products to buy, so it wants to be the quality control for everything important.

https://labdoor.com/

[Austen Heller]

I draw the line and I draw it with cricket flour.  Yep, you guessed it!  High protein flour made from slow-roasted crickets.  Add some gelatin and it'll be just like on Snowpiercer.  Yuck!!!

https://www.exoprotein.com/

I just finished my first Exo cricket protein bar, given to me by a relative.  It was delicious!  I had the Cacao Nut flavor.  Every bite had a bit of crunchy stuff in it, but this is likely from the almonds and cocoa nibs, since the crickets are supposedly ground into a fine flour.  It just tasted like a good brownie, there is no taste from the crickets.  I would like to try some of the other flavors, they offer a sampler pack on their website.

I'm not strictly Paleo, I tend to more closely follow Mark Sisson's Primal Blueprint, but I could see where this would be great if you did not want any diary or soy.  On the minus side, it only had 10g protein in a bar that costs $3.00.  Lots of cheaper ways to get protein.

Yes, it is just like in Snowpiercer!

[Benko]

2) Some form of collagen.  (Bone broth, gelatin, gristle, pork rinds, aspic).  About 25% of the protein in our body is collagen and as regular humans we almost always eat muscle meat.  As we get older, we lose the ability to synthesize collagen from other proteins.  I believe that many of the aches and pains and skin and joint and hair and gum issues of old age are really a collagen deficiency.

You were wondering about Bone Broth--listen to Mark.

[MachineGhost]

You were wondering about Bone Broth--listen to Mark.

A problem is collagen in food pales in comparison in terms of dose quantity to that of supplements.  And for maximum effect, it needs to be hydrolyzed so the intact peptides reach the joints (via diffusion).

So while Mark and Jaminet are correct, they are way over-estimating the importance of the collagen in bone broth and not the other microfactors.  Emphasis on micro.

[Mark Leavy]

And for maximum effect, it needs to be hydrolyzed so the intact peptides reach the joints (via diffusion).

A really simple way to do this in tropical countries is to buy unflavored gelatin at the grocery store and hydrolyze it with raw pineapple.

Here's my secret recipe:  Take an ounce of gelatin (usually 4 packets) and mix it up with a little cold water until you have a paste, then add a liter of very hot water until it is all dissolved.  Let it cool below 70C and then throw in about a cup of crushed pineapple (it has to be raw, never canned or pasteurized because you need the bromelain intact to perform the hydrolysis)  Make sure you use the core and juice of the pineapple.  Keep the mixture between about 50 and 70C for an hour or so and then let it sit out the rest of the day.  Don't get it too hot or you will break up the bromelain.  Too cold and the hydrolysis will take forever.

You will know that all of the collagen is hydrolyzed if the mixture won't gel up even if you put it in the fridge.  This tells you that most of the collagen molecules have been cut up by the bromelain and are under about 5000 Daltons.  Just perfect for incorporation into newly minted joint and gum tissue.  And a tasty chilled beverage for an afternoon in the tropics.

[MachineGhost]

A really simple way to do this in tropical countries is to buy unflavored gelatin at the grocery store and hydrolyze it with raw pineapple.

Here's my secret recipe:  Take an ounce of gelatin (usually 4 packets) and mix it up with a little cold water until you have a paste, then add a liter of very hot water until it is all dissolved.  Let it cool below 70C and then throw in about a cup of crushed pineapple (it has to be raw, never canned or pasteurized because you need the bromelain intact to perform the hydrolysis)  Make sure you use the core and juice of the pineapple.  Keep the mixture between about 50 and 70C for an hour or so and then let it sit out the rest of the day.  Don't get it too hot or you will break up the bromelain.  Too cold and the hydrolysis will take forever.

You will know that all of the collagen is hydrolyzed if the mixture won't gel up even if you put it in the fridge.  This tells you that most of the collagen molecules have been cut up by the bromelain and are under about 5000 Daltons.  Just perfect for incorporation into newly minted joint and gum tissue.  And a tasty chilled beverage for an afternoon in the tropics.

Cool, another of your recipes!  This one sounds like a whopping dose of collagen too.

[moda0306]

I've been noticing that I'm chronically deficient in potassium intake, even if I have two bananas and some potatoes, which is not the case every day (very rarely in fact).

Anyone have any advice on how to get more?  Just buy a supplement?  Oddly, it isn't in my multivitamin.

[Jack Jones]

I've been noticing that I'm chronically deficient in potassium intake, even if I have two bananas and some potatoes, which is not the case every day (very rarely in fact).

How do you know?

[moda0306]

I've been noticing that I'm chronically deficient in potassium intake, even if I have two bananas and some potatoes, which is not the case every day (very rarely in fact).

How do you know?

I use My Fitness Pal to track my food intake, including certain micronutrients, and usually end up with 1/3 of my recommended daily dose of potassium.

[Jack Jones]

I use My Fitness Pal to track my food intake, including certain micronutrients, and usually end up with 1/3 of my recommended daily dose of potassium.

Ah very cool. I used this back in the day when it wasn't as fancy:

https://cronometer.com/

But I got tired of measuring things.

[moda0306]

Started using "No Salt."

Thanks for the advice!

By the way, I used to eat cereal all the time, and I have a question.... I realize there are a lot of grainy/sugary/dairy-y reasons to not like cereal, but I rarely hear from anti-cereal folks even the slightest credit given to the fact that they are vitamin & mineral fortified.  I realize supplements are NOT perfect, and in the case of iron and others, can sometimes be dangerous, but I notice that when I take my multivitamin, even with lots of food, my urine turns colors.  My Total Raisin Bran never did that to me, nor did it taste funny.  Does anyone here want to comment on vitamin/mineral fortification in foods?  Is it better/worse than just taking a multivitamin with a fatty meal?

[Jack Jones]

I'd prefer my food to not be fortified and to supplement myself. I think foods are fortified as more of a public health issue.

[l82start]

i am drawing a blank on the details, but i saw a connection being made between obesity epidemics and food fortification somewhere,  the correlation (not necessarily causation) appeared pretty strong with the evidence given...

[Pointedstick]

It was iron fortification!

[l82start]

It was iron fortification!

thanks...  suffering from post holiday brain fog (i bet it was a discussion i saw here too --duh)

[Dozha]

There was some recent discussion about Berberine and Metformin, I thought under this subject, but I couldn't find it.  However, I want to put this info out there.  It's from Jenny Ruhl's blog on managing diabetes, Blood Sugar 101.  The info doesn't seem to be there anymore, but I printed it out when I first saw it because my doc was suggesting I get off Metformin and start taking Berberine.  (Because all things Asian are so cool.)

FDA/NCTA [National Center for Toxicology Research] scientists in collaboration with Shanghai Institute for Food and Drug Control (China) have shown that goldenseal and one of its major alkaloid constitutents,  Berberine, are potent producers of DNA damage in in vitro human cell cultures.  In cells treated with goldenseal, the extent of DNA damage was correlated to the Berberine content and was directly associated with inhibition of topoisomerase II (an essential enzyme for DNA replication).  Goldenseal . . . was shown to increase liver tumors in rodents in a National Toxicology Program two-year carcinogenicity study.  However, the mechanism for liver carcinogenity was not determined in this study [but see below re incretin drugs].  ... In addition, DNA damage was also observed in cells treated with commercially available goldenseal extracts and the extent of DNA damage was positively correlated to the berberine content. 

A commenter on the blog noted that Berberine is thought to mimic the incretin effect. [Whatever that is; I didn't research it]  Ruhl replied "If it really mimics the incretin effect, you have to hope it isn't doing what we now know the incretin drugs are doing:  growing highly abnormal alpha and beta cells in the pancreas including tiny adenoma tumors.  ...What studies are cited for Berberine are published in marginal journals, some of which may be the kind you can get any paper into if you pay a fee.  Supplement sellers routinely fund this kind of research. . . .  Remember that there is NO legal requirement that supplement bottles contain the label says they contain.  The FDA only intervenes after someone dies . . . ." 

She also comments, Why not stick with cheap, generic, effective metformin?  I would say also, if you haven't done it already why not buy a cheap glucomenter from Walmart and start testing after every meal and just reduce carbohydrates as needed to get to normal post-prandial numbers and to an A1c in the 5's.  If reducing carbs doesn't work, go for metformin  in conjunction with low carb. 

If metformin causes gastro distress you can try the non-generic form Glucophage, but it's expensive. What worked for me was to get the lowest dose generic pill in the non-extended release form so I could cut it half.  Took 1/2 tab every third day until I felt no discomfort.  Very slowly decreased time between and then increased the dose.  Took a while but it was worth it.  some people think that metformin works by altering gut biome, thus the discomfort while you adapt. Once adapted you can use the extended release form. 

Test B12 levels and supplement if they get low, or eat liver once a week. Other offal and oysters are good sources too. 

You can find the abstract of this study in Toxicology Letters (2013; 221: 64-72)
For additional info,contact Lei Guo, Division of Biochemical Toxicology, FDA/NCTR. 

[Benko]

FDA/NCTA [National Center for Toxicology Research] scientists in collaboration with Shanghai Institute for Food and Drug Control (China) have shown that goldenseal and one of its major alkaloid constitutents,  Berberine, are potent producers of DNA damage in in vitro human cell cultures.

Lots of things cause cancer in cell cultures which don't in humans to the point studies on cell culture are useless for this purpose.  Don't believe me, look up berberine at examine.com a site which is very well done and which tabulates all the studies on any given topic and reviews what is and is not supported by the data.

The posts you are looking for are in this subforum in a thread about metformin

[dualstow]

Excellent Frontline program on supplements aired tonight -- when is Frontline not excellent? --
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/artic ... he-bottle/

[Benko]

Excellent Frontline program on supplements aired tonight -- when is Frontline not excellent? --
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/artic ... he-bottle/

"...tough questions about how vitamins and supplements are marketed and regulated, and examines how it’s often hard to know what’s really in the bottles you’re buying."

These comments are repeated regularly by the media.  Perhaps if you buy supps in the drugstrore, but if you buy  any number of high quality supps e.g. jarrow is one good brand, this is not true.

[Reub]

There is certainly a vendetta against supplement use.

[dualstow]

There is certainly a vendetta against supplement use.

I swear to God you're my dad. He just emailed a response including "f the New York Times and PBS anyway."
I'm going to get to the bottom of this.

[Benko]

There is certainly a vendetta against supplement use.

I swear to God you're my dad. He just emailed a response including "f the New York Times and PBS anyway."
I'm going to get to the bottom of this.

Dealstow,

It is likely we've had this same conversation before.  Search the board and MG and I have probably chimed in with a number of brands that are reliable.