Biological age, sirtuins, resveratrol, and science research collision

There are a few ways people try to do this. To become younger, to reduce their biological age below their chronological age.

Biological vs. chronological age

Chronological age is how long we are alive. Time from our birth till now. Our biological age can be roughly the same, more or less. Biological age is the state of our body – some people in their forties have the body of a younger person. Sadly it works the other way as well. If you had a hard life, a bad diet, a lot of stress, and bad experiences, if you abused your body your chronological age may be twenty but you might have a body of a fifty-year-old.

What to do?

Everybody wants to be young and healthy, everyone wants to have lower biological age. I believe even suicidal persons want to be younger. This is something like universal truth in humans. If you are lucky and are born in a prosperous and peaceful part of our planet, there is a lot you can do about this.

Basic things

Eat healthy, exercise, work on yourself, and have enough rest. Do not abuse your body. Our body remembers, injuries and abuses – they all take their toll. Basic things should never be underestimated.

Advanced prospects

There are different paths to take. One sure way to prolong the lifespan of a mouse is a really low caloric intake. Being lean and hungry triggers your body’s self-repair mechanisms. Cells have something called sirtuins, a bunch of them – proteins that regulate how our cells work and are involved in self-repair mechanisms as I understand it. Years ago I saw reeeaaaally thin and hungry people trying to beat biology and live long enough so that their consciences can be stored in some kinds of computers…

Thank you but no thank you….

This is not something I want (or hope) to do. I like food and dislike being hungry all the time. Also I do not want to be a robot, I like human body just the way it is.

So I look into sirtuin activators, namely resveratrol (best as trans-resveratrol, which means resveratrol with some fats I believe), NAD booster supplements(talked about them already), quercetin, fisetin, and curcumin. I will take a look into resveratrol today.

Resveratrol/trans-resveratrol

So the most famous researcher (for me) in the field, dr. David Sinclair claims resveratrol is a strong sirtuin activator and senolytic. There is some serious challenge to his claims, some even go as far as to claim resveratrol causes constant low cellular stress. There is also a problem with our body absorbing it – it needs t to be taken with some fats as it is not soluble in water (hence trans-resveratrol).

There are claims that research in which dr. David Sinclair detected resveratrol’s properties had a mistake with some kind of a coloring agent, and that coloring agent caused sirtuins to be activated.

Now, I am not a scientist that can tell you who is right, but dr. David Sinclair does work on Harward I believe. Here is my amateur reasoning. Resveratrol is made by plants in stressful cellular situations, like roots trying to spread through the ground. It is also found in grape seeds, which led to a belief that it is healthy to drink red wine because of resveratrol and claims such as “French people don’t die from cardiovascular diseases because of wine and fat diet”.

While I do like a small glass of fine red wine now and then, I do not recommend this approach.

I found out about research that negates any sirtuin activation in humans. They tried to recreate dr. David Sinclair’s original research and failed. Now, this is awful to me. Scientists should be empirical and should make experiments that can be repeated. That is why it is called empirical science!!!!

Then I saw a video on youtube where some scientist claims he had consulted dr. David Sinclair about his research which failed to reproduce dr. David Sinclair’s results, and also I saw a video where dr. David Sinclair claims he was not consulted and that resveratrol is supposed to be consumed with some fats, and they consumed it with water, and it is not soluble in water and that is why our body can not process resveratrol.
This leaves me very confused, and scientist should get their ducks in a row. I mean if you can not believe scientific research data, then what can you believe in? I like to delude myself that modern world is based around empirical science.

Finally, for me, I decided to take resveratrol. I have found more articles claiming it works than the opposite. I have also found it to be used in traditional Chinese medicine. To me, it makes sense that constant low cellular stress could be a good thing. I mean if being hungry triggers our body’s self-repair mechanisms, me being hungry is a stress to me so I suppose to my cells as well. I also took into consideration the qualifications and careers of individuals making claims. But it is possible I made the wrong choice. Hell, I really would like some helpful comments on this one.

Take care and enjoy your life