All:
First, everyone knows about my "soft" conflict of interest in saying anything about supplements, right? IF not, see the disclaimer posted here and elsewhere. Please do not quote on this forum; I'm trying to avoid being readily G00glable ...
Please do note the importance of actually using nutrition software to get a handle on your DIETARY intake of nutrients before deciding what to supplement, tho' this is less of an issue to the extent that your diet is POOR (& thus more likely to actually need 'everything' and not be overdosing on eg Mn, Cu, etc) and you're not on CR (and thus have a lot of 'slop factor' and don't have the specific nutritional risks of CR folk).
I should add that this is a regimen for a very specific individual: a very healthy, young(ish) CR practitioner with an excellent diet. As the links above indicate, a person must customize hir regimen based on diet, age, specific risk factors and existing diseases, etc.
Some of you will have seen previous versions of my personal regimen privately. If you've seen several previous iterations, you've observed that the changes tended to be very small -- something dropped here, something added there, a tweak to a dose. This latest represents a relatively large change. This has been prompted by 2 main things.
First, thanks to the advent of CRON-o-Meter, I've been getting much better feedback about my diet, because (a) I use it much more often (since (1) it actually works on the Mac, and (2) it is much more easy to use than the only other reaosnable alternative for Mac users ((Nutritiondata)), and because (b) it's in various ways more accurate than most of the competition. As a result, I've come to worry less about potential deficiencies, and worry MORE about overdosing on various nutrients: regular use has convinced me that I'm getting so much of so much in my diet that a lot of my supplementation was unnecessary and -- on the "precautionary principle", backed up by multiple known examples (zinc, retinol, synthetic beta-carotene, unbalanced alpha-tocopherol, manganese, etc etc) -- might well turn out to do harm.
The biggest single outcome of this first factor: I now take no classic multivitamin, and only 1 cap of a 7-cap multimineral.
Second, I've become much more skeptical about the potential benefits of supplement use for things OTHER than for avoiding deficiency, and PROVEN benefits from long-term trials in humans (eg, strontium for bone health); eg, the failure of many antioxidants and other goodies to have any lifespan bennies in the LEF LifeSpan studies ((1), and unpublished data from Weindruch and from Spindler; also, (1) found a creepy buildup of an unidentified crystalline material that builds up in the heart of animals fed large amounts of CoQ); the fact that R(+)-LA had many benefits in old animals but none in young ones in the Hagen/Ames studies (and even a DETRIMENT in the case of ALCAR, tho' the result appears for various reasons to be irrelevant to realistic human use) (2); and the more alarming finding that while CoQ supplementation helped to alleviate the cognitive deficits observed in old animals (as they had previously reported (3), animals who started on it at younger ages received no protection from it (4) ; I'm guessing that this is related to the highly-regulated REDOX poise in the youthful, and (at best) a homeostatic re-balancing of any reduction in oxidative stress in the youthful or (at worst) some BUGGERING of REDOX poise resulting from this.
Combine this with the lack of actual long-term studies in healthy humans for any of this stuff -- and, indeed, in many cases the lack of long-term studies in healthy RODENTS! -- and I've cut back on, or sworn off, a lot of stuff, esp "antioxidants."
So: the regimen (notes on WHY I take various things at the end, when it isn’t obvious from the link or other grounds):
UPON WAKING (5 AM or before):
With 1/3 c pomegranate juice + 1/2 C cherry-vanilla diet Dr. Pepper:
2 Vegetarian Booster
227 mg Strontium
1 AGE Amadori (I've just discovered that you can get AGE Amadori outside of Canada here. You would have to do so at your own risk, however.).
(Upon swallowing the above):
1 mg methylcobalamin, sublingually
5:40 AM, with water:
1 x 500 mg Arginine
1 Defined pollen extract (not bee pollen)
6:30 AM, breakfast:
15 mg menatetrenone
After breakfast, while scrubbing teeth:
1 drop per eye N-acetyl-L-carnosine eyedrops
10:30 AM, with green tea:
Brain nutrient (rotating one of: 800 mg piracetam (once/wk), pyroglutamate (500 mg, thrice/wk) and Turbo Tyro Tea (to provide tyrosine (4 g) & phenylalanine (800 mg) - this is not yet commercially available) (thrice/wk)
1 Benfotiamine
15 mg Zn, twice weekly
11:10 AM, with green tea:
500 mg carnosine
11:50 AM, with green tea:
500 mg lysine, 500 mg arginine (no, these do not interfere with one another's effects for this application).
1 AGE-Amadori
12:30 PM, lunch:
1 Chlorofresh
Alternate-day citicoline
1 mg lithium (I just do my best to spread the contents of a 5 mg cap evenly over 5 days)
4:30, with water:
1 IP-6
1 Inositol (possibly synergistic to IP-6)
5:10, with water:
1 tsp OrthoMethyl
1 EGCG-Max
1 carnosine
5:50, with water:
500 mg arginine
1 defined pollen extract
1 AGE-Amadori
6:30, dinner:
7.5 mg menatetrenone
800 IU vitamin D
Twice weekly: 200 mcg Se, as Se-methylselenocysteine
10 pm, bed, with water:
1 complete multimineral
1 AGE-Amadori
1 Veg Booster
3 g glycine
Pomegranate juice: I want SOME source of relatively high-GI sugar without protein or fat to get glucose levels up first thing on rising, and for the possible benefit of taking creatine with a sugar source (tho' it's not at alll clear that this is anything like enough glucose to meaningfully affect this); I chose pom juice for the many promising-looking studies in disease states, tho' again the dose may be inadequate (studies typically use 1-2 C). Don't blow your bucks on POM Wonderful: Trader Joe's has it reasonably cheap, as does BCS Royal (a hard-to-find brand I sometimes find at a local Asian grocery store; the label is good for a giggle (it comes from Georgia (the former Commjnist country, not the state), and the label clearly shows that they have no native English speakers on board ).
The diet Dr. Pepper is 'cause I like it and it has zero Calories. No, I am not worried about aspartame (or sucralose, for that matter). Indeed, the recent, much-hyped report of increased cancer in aspartame-dosed rodents (14) actually made me LESS nervous about aspartame: it (a) really didn't clearly show any increased risk, and (b) reported IDENTICAL survival curves between treated and untreated animals (if anything, it looked like females given the highest dose lived LONGER on average than untreated animals).
Veg Booster: I'm ovolacto for my quotidian diet, tho' I eat meat once a month.
Strontium: low BMD associated with natural- and CR-induced low BMI; fracture risk factor, tho' CR appears to preserve bone QUALITY.
Defined pollen extract: I have an idiopathic urinary urgency; definitely not BPH or bacterial prostatitis, conceivably related to alpha-adrenergic function. This is subjectively very helpful.
Menatetrenone: as with strontium. All the more likely useful for CR-related low bone mass, as the actual MASS of bone is constrained by energy intake, so preseving QUALITY becomes a more likely viable strategy.
Arginine and lysine: these have been found to be surprisingly effective in reducing AGE and AGE-induced complications of diabetes, especially in the kidneys but also apparently in the heart (5-12). (11) justifies my total dose of just 2 g. (13) was negative, but the measurement of AGE was in skin, which not be reached by a significant concentration of these nutrients (vs the heart and kidneys, thru’ which they would of course travel in the blood when they’re taken on an empty stomach) (tho’ (11) did find reductions in hexosyllysine), and their conclusion was (reasonably) that “treatment may need to continue for more than 1 year before clinical status improves.”
Carnosine: possibly anti-senescent cell, possibly anti-mitochondrially-mutant cell; deficient in vegetarian diet.
Chlorofresh: protection from liver precancerous lesions documented in clinical trial (15), tho' this is less likely relevant in developed countries with low aflatoxin exposure.
Zinc: my regular diet includes what should be quite adequate zinc, but my copper intake is so high that it induces a secondary deficiency (most people are more likely to have the converse problem); this was mildly symptomatic for much of the year for several years, and even the 7 mg/d in the Veg Booster isn't quite enough to keep it at bay.
The glycine is mostly for sleep quality (16).
I take the multimineral when I do based on evidence that Ca taken just before bed is better at preventing resorption, tho’ the studies justifying this use significantly higher doses and I have strong doubts that <200 mg will replicate this effect.
-Michael
[Edits: Added emphasis to customize based on personal situatioin; added use of N-acetylcarnosine eyedrops].
1: Lee CK, Pugh TD, Klopp RG, Edwards J, Allison DB, Weindruch R, Prolla TA. The impact of alpha-lipoic acid, coenzyme Q10 and caloric restriction on life span and gene expression patterns in mice. Free Radic Biol Med. 2004 Apr 15;36(8):1043-57. PMID: 15059645 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
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4. Forster MJ. COENZYME Q10 AND ALPHA-TOCOPHEROL: CAN THEY IMPROVE BRAIN FUNCTION WHEN SUPPLEMENTED IN LATE LIFE? American Aging Association - 34th Annual Meeting AGING: MECHANISMS AND PREVENTION June 3-6, 2005 Oakland, CA, USA Abstract book pg 1--11
http://www.americana...ral/forster.pdf
5. Lubec B, Golej J, Marx M, Weninger M, Hoeger H. L-arginine reduces kidney lipid peroxidation, glycoxidation and collagen accumulation in the aging NMRI mouse. Ren Physiol Biochem. 1995 Mar-Apr;18(2):97-102. PMID: 7539539 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
6: Geogescu A, Popov D. Age-dependent accumulation of advanced glycatin endproducts is accelerated in combined hyperlipidemia and hyperglycemia, a process attenuated by L-arginine. J Amer Aging Assoc. 2000 Jan;23(1):23-30.
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8. Radner W, Hoger H, Lubec B, Salzer H, Lubec G. L-arginine reduces kidney collagen accumulation and N-epsilon-(carboxymethyl)lysine in the aging NMRI-mouse. J Gerontol. 1994 Mar;49(2):M44-6. PMID: 8126351 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
9. Sensi M, De Rossi MG, Celi FS, Cristina A, Rosati C, Perrett D, Andreani D, Di Mario U. D-lysine reduces the non-enzymatic glycation of proteins in experimental diabetes mellitus in rats. Diabetologia. 1993 Sep;36(9):797-801. PMID: 8405749 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
10. Khaidar A, Marx M, Lubec B, Lubec G. L-arginine reduces heart collagen accumulation in the diabetic db/db mouse. Circulation. 1994 Jul;90(1):479-83. PMID: 8026034 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
11. Lubec G, Vierhapper H, Bailey AJ, Damjancic P, Fasching P,Sims TJ, Kampel1 D, Popow C, Bartosch B. Influence of L-arginine on glucose mediated collagen cross link precursors in patients with diabetes mellitus Amino Acids. 1991 Feb;1(1):73 – 80.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00808093
12. Jyothirmayi GN, Modak R, Reddi AS. L-lysine reduces nonenzymatic glycation of glomerular basement membrane collagen and albuminuria in diabetic rats. Nephron. 2001 Feb;87(2):148-54. PMID: 11244310 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
13. Contreras I, Reiser KM, Martinez N, Giansante E, Lopez T, Suarez N, Postalian S, Molina M, Gonzalez F, Sanchez MR, Camejo M, Blanco MC. Effects of aspirin or basic amino acids on collagen cross-links and complications in NIDDM. Diabetes Care. 1997 May;20(5):832-5. PMID: 9135951
14. Soffritti M, Belpoggi F, Degli Esposti D, Lambertini L, Tibaldi E, Rigano A. First experimental demonstration of the multipotential carcinogenic effects of aspartame administered in the feed to Sprague-Dawley rats. Environ Health Perspect. 2006 Mar;114(3):379-85. PMID: 16507461 [PubMed - in process]
15. Egner PA, Wang JB, Zhu YR, Zhang BC, Wu Y, Zhang QN, Qian GS, Kuang SY, Gange SJ, Jacobson LP, Helzlsouer KJ, Bailey GS, Groopman JD, Kensler TW. Chlorophyllin intervention reduces aflatoxin-DNA adducts in individuals at high risk for liver cancer. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2001 Dec 4;98(25):14601-6. Epub 2001 Nov 27. PMID: 11724948 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
16: Inagawa K, Hiraoka T, Kohda T, Yamadera W, Takahashi M Subjective effects of glycine ingestion before bedtime on sleep quality Sleep and Biological Rhythms.2006 Fe;4(1):75-7.
http://dx.doi.org/10...25.2006.00193.x
Edited by Michael, 21 February 2011 - 09:57 PM.