This is an interesting bit of medical speculation. For some odd reason, YouTube has started presenting to me “anti-aging” videos. Perhaps my tendency to explore / watch biochemistry videos ;-) At any rate, it has raised my awareness of dozens of M.D.s and Ph.D.s that are looking for ways to slow, stop, and reverse aging.
Several of these have some astounding statements in them. In particular, things like reversing the ongoing shrinking of telomeres on your genes with age. These are the “end caps” on your genes. As cells replicate and age, these end caps get shorter. When they reach near nothing, the gene unravels and fails. This is thought to be a basic mechanism of aging and eventual death from “old age”.
Well, an over the counter “supplement” named NMN or Nicotinamide Mononucleotide has been shown to stop and even reverse telomere shortening. For some folks, it stops or reverses graying of hair. It looks to also improve your stem cell population as part of the process
Another video showed a similar effect from a “cocktail” of drugs (some prescription) that reversed shrinkage of the thymus gland, along with telomere lengthening. It, too, referenced a paper on Thymus Gland regeneration and listed the drug cocktail used. Sadly, I can’t find it at the moment. It used something like: Vitamin D, NAD, Metformin (Berberine works similarly for some issues, perhaps this one too? Speculation…), and a 4 letter acronym thing I can’t remember and didn’t recognize. Something like BHPA? I suppose wandering down the “supplement” isle looking at things starting with B might turn it up…
If either of these really work, it could be a great benefit.
So here’s the video. A bit technically dense, but a good pointer to the whole field and to what kind of things are being looked at.
Her channel has a lot of videos on the topic. As I’m just barely getting started looking at this, there’s a lot of exploring yet to do; and her videos might be a good way to find pointers to various bits of bio-tech.
Here’s a paper that says the same kind of thing:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8667784/
Front Nutr. 2021; 8: 756243.
Published online 2021 Nov 29. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2021.756243
PMCID: PMC8667784
PMID: 34912838
The Impacts of Short-Term NMN Supplementation on Serum Metabolism, Fecal Microbiota, and Telomere Length in Pre-Aging Phase
[…]
Abstract
Aging is a natural process with concomitant changes in the gut microbiota and associate metabolomes. Beta-nicotinamide mononucleotide, an important NAD+ intermediate, has drawn increasing attention to retard the aging process. We probed the changes in the fecal microbiota and metabolomes of pre-aging male mice (C57BL/6, age: 16 months) following the oral short-term administration of nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN). Considering the telomere length as a molecular gauge for aging, we measured this in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of pre-aging mice and human volunteers (age: 45–60 years old). Notably, the NMN administration did not influence the body weight and feed intake significantly during the 40 days in pre-aging mice. Metabolomics suggested 266 upregulated and 58 downregulated serum metabolites. We identified 34 potential biomarkers linked with the nicotinamide, purine, and proline metabolism pathways. Nicotinamide mononucleotide significantly reduced the fecal bacterial diversity (p < 0.05) with the increased abundance of Helicobacter, Mucispirillum, and Faecalibacterium, and lowered Akkermansia abundance associated with nicotinamide metabolism. We propose that this reshaped microbiota considerably lowered the predicated functions of aging with improved immune and cofactors/vitamin metabolism. Most notably, the telomere length of PBMC was significantly elongated in the NMN-administered mice and humans. Taken together, these findings suggest that oral NMN supplementation in the pre-aging stage might be an effective strategy to retard aging. We recommend further studies to unravel the underlying molecular mechanisms and comprehensive clinical trials to validate the effects of NMN on aging.
So this isn’t just some random YouToobers ranting…
This posting is just putting down a marker that “anti-aging” is actually starting to make progress. Mice that live 2 x as long as their twins, for example.
Given that there are some immediately observable changes in hair, skin, and metabolism, you also need not wait 20 years to find out if something is causing beneficial changes.
So I’m going to be taking a deeper look at this kind of thing.
For now, it looks like getting enough sun / Vitamin D, along with some particular identified “supplements” that influence telomere length and things like insulin resistance; well, it could benefit a lot and doesn’t demand much.
Musings from the Chiefio 
@EM – thanks.
I’d not heard of Nicotinamide mononucleotide before, so just had a look for natural sources.
Wiki says
NMN is found in fruits and vegetables such as edamame, broccoli, cabbage, cucumber and avocado at a concentration of about 1 mg per 100g, making these natural sources impractical to acquire the quantities needed to accomplish the dosing currently being investigated for NMN as a pharmaceutical.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotinamide_mononucleotide
Another source:
These are the 9 NMN foods scientifically proven to contain around 1mg and more NMN in every 100g of the product: Broccoli, Cabbage, Tomatoes, Avocado, Edamame (Japanese soybeans), Cucumber, Mushrooms, Beef, Shrimps
https://hello100.com/nmn-foods/
Telomere length is a hot topic. Consensus is longer is better.
search “telomere covid”, and studies show short telomere people are at high risk for bad outcomes, even if young.
This one is interesting because it suggests a mechanism.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanhl/article/PIIS2666-7568(22)00190-8/fulltext
Just a teaser or two, there are several more very good points in that article.
“As T-cell production is telomere-length dependent and telomeres shorten with age”
“a poor telomere-length-mediated T-cell response to SARS-CoV-2 can unleash the innate response in the form of a cytokine storm”
As long as you’re searching stuff, why don’t you check out artificial wombs?
Hi Chiefio, I thought the lady on the left in the video had an New Zealand accent. I looked up her name see here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/elenaseranova. One very clever lady. Maybe the accent comes from the mix of languages and she may have had some NZ friends at University in UK. Her first degree was at a Greek University. Interesting that she knows Russian.
Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide Phosphate is a key part of metabolism and without it, cells cannot keep their chemistry going. (Nicotine, modified, people). Yes, telomere length limits the number of cell doublings allowed. Longer is better.
It wouldn’t surprise me to find the mononucleotide version is a part of the metabolic chain involving NADP/NADPH.
Telomeres are a part of genetic regulation. Wet chemistry is messy and the system was *designed* such that damage can be prevented or mitigated; up to a point. Every breeding operation, and that includes replication for cell division, does genetic modification. That’s a part of reality for chemically embodied living organisms.
It is shown that fasting can and does produce these benefits, (stem cells and telemere lengthing) as well as growth hormones and other benefits.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7093158/#:~:text=During%20fasting%20the%20percentage%20of,pool%20decreases%20its%20telomere%20length.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1509249112#:~:text=Thus%2C%20fasting%20increased%20DNA%20repair,cells%20and%20decreased%20their%20apoptosis.
The FDA has said NMN cannot be marketed as a supplement. Example here
https://healthnews.com/longevity/longevity-supplements/fda-b-nmn-can-no-longer-be-sold-as-a-dietary-supplement-in-the-us/
For those interested in telomeres, this is fascinating.
“Telomeres, long life, cancer, and Bret’s 20 year old hypothesis”
The best length for telomeres is a compromise. Too short, ageing. Too long, tumors. Or on a cell level, it is a trade-off between tumor suppression and tissue repair.
(then it goes on to discuss how bad modern scientists are at giving credit where credit is due)
Hmm, I have said that cancer and other chronic maladies are part of “diseases of long life”; which basically means that the series of hours a mortal, chemically embodied life form lives will end and when it does is, in part, from the mechanisms that allow growth and development (for multicellular forms) in the first place.
Yes, I think that is what he is saying, except at the cell level. After too many cell divisions, too many mistakes accumulate, giving rise to tumors and other problems.
So the telomere limit is used to avoid that problem of aging cells, and instead to start fresh.
The B-something thing. Could it be BromAC, bromelaine and NAC? I think you’ve mentioned it before.
@Rhoda:
Nope. It was just 4 capital letters, no words, and nothing I recognized (which is likely why I don’t remember what it was, no hook to actual chemical name).