Ask HN: Have you taken anti-aging supplements that reduced biological age? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Have you taken anti-aging supplements that reduced biological age?

7 pointsdustfinger11 comments

I am curious to hear from anyone that has tried anti aging supplements and observed a measurable reduction in their biological age as a direct result of the supplements? I am equally interested in hearing from those that tried these, or similar supplements with no measurable reduction in biological age.

For those that observed a measurable reduction in biological age:

    - What were the supplements & dosage?
    - What was the measurable improvement?

Examples of such supplements:

    Nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN)
    Resveratrol
    Metformin
    Statin
    Alpha lipoic acid (ALA)
    Coenzyme Q10 (coQ10)
    Spermidine
    Quercetin and fisetin
    TMG (trimethylglycine or betaine)

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Just a small warning. These supplements are less impactful than optimized sleep, exercise, diet, stress related to work or personal. It's difficult to change 1 variable while holding the others stable.

I have also found measuring and interpreting different biomarkers nontrivial.

Watching Michael Lustgarten's efforts is very relevant https://www.youtube.com/@conqueragingordietrying1797

Thank you for introducing me to Michael Lustgarten's videos. I have never seen these before and am looking forward to watching them.

> These supplements are less impactful than optimized sleep, exercise, diet, stress related to work or personal

I suspect that is probably true. At the moment sleep / stress are a bit difficult for me to manage. I am improving the exercise and diet factors though.

Good sleep routines, regular exercise, and a balanced diet are so annoyingly effective at making your life better.

For skin, retinoids seem to work well. You can order one called Differin w/o prescription

Thank you, I did not know about retinoids. I have added this to my reading queue. It seems that prolonged usage can have undesirable side effects, but proper dosage is effective in treating a variety of skin conditions. In the case of reducing skin wrinkles, I wonder if that is purely cosmetic, or if it actually makes the skin healthier in some way?

You can also apply retinoids topically. What it does is increasing collagen production.

> What it does is increasing collagen production.

That is really interesting. The potential side effects from toxicity listed on wikipedia [1] are ominous. I wish there was consumer technology to effectively monitor ones own blood work.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retinoid#Toxicity

If you're interested in longevity, I recommend the book “Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity” by Peter Attia MD.

If you are looking for a younger look, excercises exists that will stress your facial muscles. With a few months of training you can get a younger look. Of course that won't get you to live longer :)

Thank you! I am mainly interested in longevity, but maintaining both biological youth and a youthful appearance would be ideal.

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