- There is a boom in supplements sold to promote longevity.
- But longevity doctors say less is actually more when it comes to fancy supplements.
- Expert tips for choosing the best supplement for you include blood tests and self-monitoring.
Let’s renew your mitochondria. Rejuvenates cells. Regain your youthful muscle strength. Improves fertility.
Over the past few years, a number of new supplements have emerged that promise to extend human longevity and preserve youthfulness. Now, longevity doctors are scrambling to slow people down.
“In our clinic, we are eliminating prescribing,” Dr. Andrea Meyer, a leading longevity doctor who runs both private and public longevity clinics in Singapore, told Business Insider. “We first need to diagnose what the problem is and what someone needs, which can be different.”
Meyer, who is also a professor of medicine and functional aging at the National University of Singapore, is among several longevity medicine doctors who told BI that they advise patients to stop taking many of the supplements they learned about online. There is only one person.
“People think more is better, but that’s actually not the case,” Dr. Evelyn Bischoff, who practices longevity medicine in China, Switzerland and Israel, told BI. “There are interactions and side effects.”
Bischoff and other longevity medicine experts say the overdosing trend has been further accelerated in recent years by more aggressive and flashy online marketing of longevity supplements. Facebook ads, books by longevity influencers, gyms and resorts all promote anti-aging.
According to recent information, McKinsey researchdemand for healthy aging products is skyrocketing. 70% of American consumers of all ages are spending more in this category post-pandemic than before.
Doctors like Meier and Bischoff believe that supplements can cause dangerous health problems over time, affecting vital organs such as the kidneys and liver, or interacting in toxic combinations with other drugs and supplements. It states that there is a possibility that
Blood, urine, and other tests are increasingly showing concerning results in patients taking various products.
Taking too many supplements can be harmful to your health
When it comes to taking supplements, more is not necessarily better. Strauss/Curtis/Getty Images
Until now, patients typically did not invest in supplements for healthy aging on their own. They learned about it for the first time from a longevity medicine doctor, said Bischoff, who serves patients at hospitals in Shanghai and Tel Aviv, as well as serving as his own VIP concierge in the longevity medicine business. It is said to become.
Things have changed since the pandemic. At the public clinic where she works in Israel, she estimates that 20 percent of patients come with a long list of longevity supplements, most of which are in too high doses.
“Five years ago, it was the exact opposite,” Bischoff said. “I was trying to convince patients to actually take supplements in addition to vitamins.”
Through clinical trials, she has observed how supplements accumulate in vital organs. A 40-year-old patient who “really overdosed” on longevity supplements had a biological age measured from his blood that was four years older than his chronological age. He also had suboptimal renal function.
He didn’t want to stop taking the pills (Bischoff declined to name the product), but his blood test results kept getting worse and his biological age kept getting older.
Eventually, Bischoff was able to convince the patient to stop taking longevity supplements. “And of course, the biological age was reversed,” she said.
Others have noticed the same trend.
Pharmacist Miriam Meralchi, founder and CEO of Swiss fertility and biological age testing company Beyond Genomix, says telomere health is closely correlated with aging, so It is believed that “biohackers” want to test their own telomeres.. People who have a “suitcase” full of supplements tend to have terrible results.
“If you take 50 pills a day, you’re interfering with every metabolic pathway in your cells,” Meralchi said. “of course!”
Interactions of concern to physicians
Dr. Andrea Meyer often recommends that patients prescribe fewer supplements. Provided by Andrea Meyer
Longevity supplements are a rapidly growing market. Popular new products promoted on TikTok and Instagram include NAD Booster (an anti-aging supplement popular among Hollywood’s elite) and Urolithin A (ostensibly to boost cellular health, improve muscle strength, and slow aging). ), and Coenzyme Q10 (a popular antioxidant for fertility and aging). ).
Doctors have also detected high levels of alpha-ketoglutaric acid (AKG). The compound is clinically studied It’s one of the key ingredients in the new $49 Longevity Mix, sold by tech biohacker Brian Johnson as a potential anti-aging supplement.
Nutritionist Naras Lapsis, chief clinical director at Chi Longevity, a private clinic in Singapore, says many people are layering these new pills on top of older popular longevity supplements. It might be resveratrol (used for heart health) or spermidine (touted to be good for cell rejuvenation).
“If you’re taking longevity supplements, there’s no evidence to suggest that taking one is better, so taking two is even better, and taking three is even better,” Lapsis said. said. “A good starting point is to reduce the number and start measuring.”
People who regularly experience dehydration may want to think twice before taking supplements such as NMN. accumulates in the kidneys and causes inflammation. CoQ10 can reduce the effectiveness of blood thinners, and resveratrol help hormone cancer It grows and multiplies like breast cancer.
“If you’re just taking a supplement because it’s written in a book or because an influencer tells you to do so, the percentage is pretty low given the level of evidence,” Lapsis says. “Test, don’t guess.”
Experts recommend a personalized, data-driven approach
All of this is very personal. Some patients may benefit from taking more calcium, while others may benefit from stopping their intake of B vitamins.
“We understand that not everyone has access to a doctor,” Bischoff said. “What we’re saying is, learn a little bit about what the side effects are and how to track them.”
For patients who are excited about longevity supplements, Bischoff recommends taking them for a few months, then taking a break and repeating the cycle, rather than taking them continuously throughout the year.
When taking a new type of longevity supplement, you should always monitor how it affects your health in a tangible way. Is your VO2 max improving? Do you catch fewer colds during flu season than before? These can help you determine if your supplements are doing something for you. It’s a simple check-in.
“Make sure you have at least one metric that you can track, an objective metric, to see if it actually helps,” Bischoff says. “Don’t take something that you think will work. You need objective measures to confirm that it works at this dose, at this frequency, at this age, in your current situation.”
