AMA #12: Thoughts on Longevity Supplements (Resveratrol, NR, NMN, Etc.) & How to Improve Memory
29:07 Share

Welcome to the huberman lab podcast, where we discuss science and science space tools for everyday life. I am Andrew huberman and am a professor of neutral logy and optimal gy at stanford school of medicine today. Isn't ask me anything episode or A M A.

This is part of our premium mm subscriber channel. A premiums described channel was started in order to provide support for the standard huberman lab podcast, which comes out every monday and is available at zero cost to everybody on all standard feed, youtube, apple, spotify and elsewhere. We also started the premium channel as a way to generate support for exciting research being done at stanford and elsewhere, research on human beings that leads to important discoveries that assist mental health, physical health and performance.

I'm also pleased to inform you that for every dollar the huberman lab premium channel generates for research studies, the tiny foundation has agreed to match that amount. So now we are able to double the total amount of funding given to studies of mental health, physical health and human performance. If you d like to subscribe to the human man lab podcast premium channel, please go to huberman lab dot com.

Slash premium IT is ten dollars a month to subscribe or you can pay one hundred dollars all that wants to get an entire twelve month subscription for a year. We also have a lifetime subscription model that is a one time payment. And again, you can find that option at huberman lab dot com slash premium for those of you that are already subscribers to the premium channel, please go to lab dot com slash premium and download the premium subscription feed.

And for those of you that are not human and lab podcast premium subscribers, you can still hear the first twenty minutes of today's episode and determine whether not becoming a premium of subscriber is for you. So without further a do let's get to answering your questions. The first question is about respiratory.

The question specifically is, and I quote, there seems to be a lot of conjecture about revert al and whether not IT can extend lifespan. Could you please tell us your thoughts on the subject? okay. Well, I will indeed tell you my thoughts on this subject. And i'll use IT as an opportunity to also give you my thoughts about supplementation for sake of longevity, that is, for extending lifespan more generally.

So resveratrol got a lot of attention some years back because of at the time, I was believed that supplementing with this trial could impact certain cellular pathways that would extend not just the lifespan of those individual cells, but perhaps the lifespan of the entire organism, meaning us. Humans, and as a consequent supplements, such as spiritual supplements, but also grape seed extracts, which we know contain a fair amount of respiratory al or can be converted into respiratory, also received a lot of attention for the potential to increase lifespan. I think by now twenty, twenty three, it's fair to say that most of that thinking has been, let's just say, debt.

I think that most people understand that while indeed rest virtual, might have some positive effects on the functioning of ourselves, that there is very little, if any, direct evidence that reversal can increase lifespan. If you are aware of any data to the contrary, that is, modern is highly controlled, and human Better was Carried out in human studies or non human primate studies, or even mouse studies. Please put links to those in the comments on youtube, because i'd love to see those studies, especially recent studies.

But my current line of thinking is that rest spiritual, while IT may have certain health benefits, does not seem to increase lifespan. Now with that said, that doesn't mean that things like revert ual or grape seed extract are of zero utility. In fact, I take four hundred to eight hundred milligrams of grape seed extract, usually with a meal, is just part of my standard supplementation stack every single day.

But I do that mainly for its effects on vascular function and blood flow, and a few other effects that grape seed extract has been related to. Oh, the data there, I would say, are reasonably strong, strong enough. Certainly, that went weight against the potential downsides of taking grapes. Seed extract, including the cost of grape seed extract, lead me to take four hundred, eight hundred milligrams of grape extract per day. I just do that as a kind of general insurance policy against the number of things.

And it's part of a small kit of supplements that I take that fall into that category, meaning supplements that appeared to be very safe certainly at the dosages that I just referred to, supplements that potentially are having positive effects on ourselves and that are fairly, if not very low cost. And so that's why I take grapes extract. I do not take IT for its potential impact on reversion and referred related pathways per say, and certainly not to extend my life span.

So that basically answers the question that I was asked, which is, what are your thoughts on respirator for extended lifespan? My answer was, I don't think IT extends life span, but I take something related to rest all for other health purposes. By the way, I certainly wouldn't place grape seed extract in my list of top five, even top ten supplements.

Have somebody, for instance, said, I want to take anywhere from one to ten supplements, and I have x amount of budget a to devote to supplementation. And i'm thinking about taking groups that extract. Would that be one of the top ten supplements who would recommend that? I certainly wouldn't put IT in the top ten. And by the way, at some point in the not to distant future, I will put online.

So probably do a podcast episode listing out all the supplements that I take in the rationale behind those and how long i've taken them in the effects that we've observed, both subjectively and in my blood work, and what I recommend other people, what I don't recommend other people, what specific to me and so on and so forth. But meanwhile, that's my answer to the question. I don't think this spiritual increases launch evey at least i'm not aware of any direct evidence for that in humans.

Now with that said, let's use this as an opportunity to talk about some of the other so called longevity supplements and drugs that are often discussed online and elsewhere in terms of their efficacy to increase lifespan. About four or five years ago, there was a sudden and increased attention on and related pathways for increasing longevity. So the nd pathway is, some of you may already know, is a pathway within all of ourselves.

This is a pathway that is highly active in Young animals and humans. But all animals and humans across the entire life span make N D in their cells is related to cellar energetics, that is, the production of energy and cells. IT has direct relevance to meda contro function and metal contro function to IT, and that's a discussion into itself.

But so nice to say that the pathway leading to N A D includes things such as N R, N, N, M, N and r and and are considered by many to be precursor naad. okay. So why am I telling you all these acronyms? Here's the deal.

The argument was made, in fact, by some prior guests on the huberman lab podcast and elsewhere that by increasing ad levels in our cells, that one could potentially extend lifespan. And there are generally three ways in which people have attempted to do that. We will talk about with the not increasing an ad in ourselves actually increases life spending moment.

But for the time being, let's just talk about some of the ways that people have tried to increase. And within their brain and body, the most typical ways that people have done that is through, until very recently, supplementation. And so there are supplements out there, such as N R, which we know can increase N A D levels.

So this is taken as a pill or a powder sort, typically as a capsule or a powder, or by taking in a man, which, and here there's been some less to say, debate as to whether not taking n men actually leads to increases in an ID within ourselves, where the I can get into ourselves with the nuts converted into A D so on and so on. But there again, the idea was by taking N A D, either in capsule form or IT, sometimes taken as a subbing well powder, that one could increase N D levels and thereby potentially increase lifespan. And then there's a third way that's commonly used to try to increase nad levels, and that's by infusing by intravenous ous infusion or in some cases, by oral administration, either liquid or pill form nd itself.

Now, I confess that I have tried all three of these approaches. Okay, so I do indeed take an N. R.

Supplement every day I take five hundred milgram of N R. I also, and have separately taken. And in a men supplement, I take subway ual in a men.

So i'll take anywhere from one to two grams of any men as a subway. While powder, which is the name, suggests you put IT under your tongue, IT dissolves there. It's got this kind of tiny flavor.

And the goal for me, and taking an r an an men each day, and I should mention that sometimes I have just taken any man or just N, R, to do the comparison between N, R and N, N. For me, in a subjective way, just comparing what of my energy levels, how do I feel, whether not there any side effects, and then you've also take them together. And i've arrived in a protocol where I take N, R and in a men every single day.

And the goal of that is indeed to increase nad levels within my system. However, I really want to emphasize this, I do not take N R N N man in order to increase my lifespan. In fact, at this point in history, it's unclear and seems somewhat unlikely, the increasing nad is going to increase lifespan.

But I think we should always know, keep our minds open. There maybe data to arrive in the future that shows that that actually does happen in humans. Now there are some animal data suggesting the increasing N, A, D, either by taking N R N or N N, can increase life spin.

But Frankly, that is not why I take N R N N N. I take N R N N men in an effort to increase N D. And now I realized what i'm about to say is entirely objective, and I really want to highlight what i'm about to describe as my experience that is not based on any peer reviewed studies.

When I take N, R. And and men at the dosages I talked about a little bit earlier, IT gives me a lot of sustained mental and physical energy throughout the day. Now I ve always had a lot of mental and physical energy, but i'm forty eight years old now, and i'm interested in doing anything that I safely can to keep those levels of energy as high as is reasonable, right?

I don't want to have so much energy that I can sit still, or so much energy that I can't sleep at night. But I find that when I take N R and N M in. In the morning. So typically i'll do this before my first meal. I don't really regulate how closer is to that first meal, so i'll wake up, use the bathroom, hydrae at my sunlight, do all the things I talked about on other podcast.

But i'll take my N, R, and man, sometimes, usually within about an hour, two of waking up, and typically at least thirty minutes to two hours before my first meal, which for me usually arrives around eleven am. So sometimes i'll take IT long before my first meal. In any event, IT gives me a lot of energy, and I seem to have that energy throughout the day.

I have gone periods of time where I stop taking in our and or any in. And while I didn't feel as if I was completely depleted energy, I did notice a department and energy compared to when I took an r and another man. Now I want to be very, very clear.

I have no zero financial relationship to any company that manufacturers and are. And while I used to have a relationship to a company that made animal as of recently, there's an fda ruling that has made an en not available as a supplement in the wider world. So earlier this year, that is in twenty twenty three, there was a filing for in a men as a experimental drug in a clinical trial and there's a consequence and was listed as a band or not allowed to be commercially sold supplement.

And that has to do with some of the illegality around clinical trials. And when something is listed as experimental drug, IT can be listed as a supplement none's. You can still find any man on the open market.

You can find IT on amazon. I can't really speak to the purity of one source for is another. You've to explore that on your own. But I will say this even though I said IT before, I have zero financial relationship to any company that manufacturers and cells and men at this time, or N R at this time.

So the short summary to this whole discussion about N R and men is that I take N R N men, but I take IT because I like how IT makes me feel. That increases my energy levels in the morning and throughout the day, and IT does so in a way that tapers off nicely in the evening and I can still fall asleep at sea. I do not take IT with any expectation that it's going to increase my lifespan simply because I don't think the data substantiating, the extension and lifespan are here yet.

They may arrive at some point, but I don't think that they are here yet. So there are good number of people out there that still take N, R and or N M. In and are doing so in efforts to increase nad. And so let's take a moment and talk about increasing and directly because that's something that I have some recent experience with and that's becoming more common.

And is, yes, still fda approved, at least as far as I know, there are companies that can come to your house or you can go to a facility and they will give you an an infusion so they will infuse you directly with any into the vain. I've done this twice now, and I will say, as most people experience when they do in A D infusion, it's pretty down uncomfortable, in fact, so much so that a lot of people have to take anti notice eds in order to get the nd fusion. I opted to not take the anti artium ids, not because particularly tough, but because I don't like taking additional medication, if I can, but I ve taken anywhere from five hundred to a thousand milligrams of nd by infusion.

I did that at times when I was feeling particularly run down post illness. And I didn't indeed find that after the N. A D.

Infusion was complete, I felt much, much Better in a number of different ways, improve sleep, improve vigor. Coming off those illnesses, I felt much Better. But again, there is no clinical trial expLoring any infusion for sake of vigor at seta that I am aware.

But I just happened to be somebody who is interested in expLoring these tools and techniques from time to time, and I deemed this as safe. Whether or not safe for you, you have to explore with your physician. Also, I do want to reemphasize what I said a moment ago.

Those nd infusions are pretty darned uncomfortable. You can have the the person and ministry in the infusion, adjust the rate of the infusion so that the trip is slower, which makes IT more tolerable. As opposed to trying to get the whole infusion bag in there in forty five minutes or last.

I just want to get the whole thing over with. So I just said, put in, in, in as quickly as you reasonably and safely can. IT took about an hour before family to an hour initially.

I felt nauseous. I felt like someone was stepping on my chest. I felt like someone was stepping on my legs.

I felt like i've just felt like so awful. And then after about ten minutes, IT passed and I felt fine. And then after the infusion was done, as I mentioned before, I felt terrific.

I was still able to fall asleep that night just fine, although I did make IT a point to do this earlier in the day. I have heard of some people doing any confusions later in the day and having chAllenges were sleep. But again, that's just anecdotal or we call antic data if you want, but it's anecdotal.

It's generally assumed for obvious reasons that ad infusions are more effective at increasing cellar levels of nad than are N, R or and in or both together. Although the direct comparison has not been made as far as I know, and they're D L. This general question as to whether or not any of this stuff is getting into cells directly in impacting nd levels in specific cells, although I think most people assume that the nd infusion certainly are.

Now there are a number of different experts out there who debate all the fine points of everything that just said. People like doctor Charles brenner, people like doctor David and clare, people like mac cable laying, there are people who really actively, and this just say heated dly debate, all the issues that I just talked about. I think the greatest debate is around whether or not increasing in A D levels and cells actually increases life span.

But there's also a debate around whether not N R is more advantages than men, whether not all of this is too premature to explore yet. T already. Yeah, I just wanted restate for the third time. I don't do any of this stuff in these N, A, D pathways for sake of increasing lifespan. I do IT for sake of the vitality and energy effects that I subjectively experience.

I must say that the nd infusions are expensive enough and convenient enough, and let us say, uncomfortable enough that I don't see myself doing them very often, although perhaps maybe doing the couple times a year or more makes sense. Should I find myself feeling run down or post illness, fatigue or things of that sort? I would be very curious to learn from any of you, the audience, what sorts of things you've experiences when, if perhaps you have explored in our supplementation and a men supplementation or nd infusions.

And as I mentioned earlier, there's now a growing number of different products that claim that you can take nd orally. So either in pill tinter other forms of no requirement for an infusion, but i'm not aware of any studies that have directly linked oral N A D to N A D levels in cells and how those two things relate. So lots more important science to be done in this area.

Lots more debate, surely, to be had in any time we talk about supplements. I just want to emphasize several times that I do see supplements as indeed supplements, I think only by getting your light exposure, sunshine movement, nutrition, stress modulation, social relationships that that are a correct, should you even begin to consider supplementation, because supplementation is just not at the foundation of mental health, physical health and performance. IT is indeed something that provided IT fits within your safety and economically.

Frameworks could potentially enhance mental health, physical health performance in certain ways, but it's certainly not the foundation from which you build mental heal, physical health and performance. So now we've talked about this vitro little bit about grape seed extract. We talked about N R in men in N A D in the N A D pathway.

There are a few other things that are commonly discussed in the longevity sphere, let's call IT um things such as metformin. I'll just be very direct and say I do not take metformin and I also don't take what some people called the poor man's version of metformin, which is burberry. Burberry gives me brutal headaches.

Burberry, lowest blood blue coast, that's why I think it's giving me brutal headaches. A lot of people have explored or thinking about expLoring taking metformin or burberry for sake of lowering blood glue, cos and lowering a particular seller, which just a pathway or set of molecules emptor, being the most. A common of the emporium, a male and targeted rap mission is abundant in developing cells, is responsible for the growth of individual cells.

And the amount of m tour in ourselves tapers off across our lifespan. M tour and its pathways is something that i've actually worked on fairly extensively in my laboratory in the context of the regeneration of the visual system. So i'm very familiar with IT.

And for sake of convenience and ease and this conversation, we could just think of m tour of something that's abundant in cells during development and any time cells are growing, including the growth of tumor cells and cellular growth at any stage of the lifespan. So the logic that people have waged is that drugs like meat form in our compounds like burberry that reduce m tour levels or impact the m tor pathway in ways that lead to net decreases. And m tor, the logic is that that could somehow increase lifespan.

There's also the logic that fasting can reduce m tor, which can increase lifespan. I don't think there's any indirect evidence for that yet, however, at least not in humans. So I tell you, I don't take burberry for the reasons I mentioned before.

Makes me feel uncomfortable. I don't not psychologically uncomfortable, makes me feel physically uncomfortable. I don't take metformin because expert colleagues of mine, including dr. Peta, have come on this podcast.

In fact, we did a collaboration journal club podcast that will provide a link to in the shower note captions, during which we, meaning mainly Peter, reviewed the data, the peer review data on met form and and lifespan. And at least to my understanding, at present, there isn't sufficient data to support taking platform and for increasing lifespan. So that's why I don't take IT.

I may in the future of more data come out and things changed, but right now I see no reason to take metformin to increase my lifespan. So I don't take metformin. Similarly, there's a lot of discussion out there about rap mise and remember emptor, a malan target of rappin.

Is so named because as a target of this drug, which is used largely as an anti cancer drug but has other purposes as well, rapiscan is actively under investigation, which makes you sound like there was a crime committed but as far as I know, there wasn't uh, under active scientific exploration would be the more accurate way to say IT by excEllent researchers such as doctor matt cable line up with the university of washington in seattle. He's been looking at rapid icon for its ability to extend lifespan, focusing on many different species, including dogs. So as a dog on gevalia ject.

So that's really interesting. dr. Peter tea has talked a lot about rap micon and did a recent podcast about rap micon with not only that cable line, but one of the experts in the world on m tour. So invite you to check out that podcast if you want to learn about rap micon. So there is a fair amount of understanding about the biological pathways of rap missing and m tour and so on.

And there are clinical physicians like Peter as well as others who are quite excited about the potential for rap icon to extend life span, although you have to go directly to Peter to find out exactly what he's doing, whether that he's taking reprocess zin or not. I certainly speak for him, but at present I don't take rapa motion. Why don't I take rapa motion? Well, I don't take rab of my because at least to my eye, uh, the data at present don't justify that for sake of increasing lifespan.

That is not to say that rap micon isn't an effective drug for the treatment of various cancers and for other purposes, but for me at this point in time, I just don't see a good reason for me to take rap ice. And relative to some of the less you say, substantiated potential side effects of republican is a drug that I think can be taken safely under certain conditions but has enough of a side effect profile that i'm not interested in, in taking IT for sake of increasing life span at this time. okay.

So no metformin, no repositioning for me right now, perhaps in the future, i've listed out the things that i'm perfectly willing and happy to do, grape seed to extract and r and amen, the occasional N A D infusion to increase an A D directly. And for the time being, i've decided to stay away from metformin and rap icon. But of course, any and all of that could change going forward depending on the data that are published in my own experiences.

As a final point on this, I want to again emphasize that the foundation of equality, life and a long life is most certainly going to come from the basics, perhaps the most fundamental and important of which is to get sufficient amounts of quality sleeping tonight. We know that not doing that can indeed to reduce your lifespan, if not directly, then certainly indirectly, by increasing number of accidents and certainly being far less happy and energetic during the day. So that's fundamental also, and this is very important to emphasize.

And here i'm essentially borrowing the word straight out of dr. Peter. Rt is mouth. So give me Peter. This won't be nearly as eloquent or seeing as Peter would make IT, but IT is very, very clear that at present there is no supplement or drug for increasing longevity that even comes close to the known improvements in health metrics that relate a large city that comes from getting quality sleep and especially from getting sufficient amount of quality exercise.

So that means both the combination of cardiovascular exercise and minimum of one hundred and eighty to two hundred and twenty minutes of so called zone two cardio per week. Okay, so that's cardio that you can Carry out while still maintaining a conversation. But should you increase the intensity anymore, you would have a hard time completing your sentences.

But in addition to that, also doing some V O two max works are getting your heart rate way, way up at least once per week, and also, of course, doing resistance training, either with the weights, machines or body weight, doing that at sufficient intensity, six sets minimum per body part per week to maintain not just muscular size and strength, but equally important, perhaps, is more important, maintaining nerve to muscle connectivity, which corporates with cognitive unction and a number of other important longevity metric. So again, exercise, sleep quality, nutrition quality social connection, which means eliminating, as best you can, toxic social connection, and increasing quality social connection, people that you like and enjoy spending time with and feeling riches by stress modulation. All of these things are so key, and of course, getting morning sunlight, all of those things combined to have a huge outsize effect compared to anything that you could take in pill, capsule or infusion.

So before even considering taking any supplement or drug to increase your langevin, or even for increasing vitality, for that matter, get those basics of sleep, sunlight, nutrition, movement, stress modulation or stress control, I should say, and relationships down, get those right and get that morning sunlight to set your car rhythm, because, of course, your circuit rythm is what anchors at all. And i'd be completely remiss if I didn't oversize yet again that any time you're thinking of adding a supplement or removing a supplement from your region, or adding a prescription drug or removing a prescription drug, you absolutely should consult your board certified physician. Thank you for joining.

For the beginning of this, ask me anything episode to hear the full episode and to hear future episodes of these. Asked me anything sessions plus to receive transcripts of them and transcripts of the huberman lab podcast standard channel and premium tools not released anywhere else, please go to huberman lab dot com slash premium. Just to remind why we launched the huberman lab podcast premium channel.

It's really too fold. First of all, it's to raise support for the standard huberman in lab podcast channel, which of course, we will still be continue to be released every monday in full length. We are not going to change the format or anything about the standard human lap podcast.

And to fund research, in particular, researches done on human beings, so not animal models, but on human beings, which I think we all agrees the species that we are most interested in. And we are going to specifically fund research that that is aimed toward developing further protocols for mental health, physical health and performance. And those protocols will be distributed through all channels, not just the premium channel, but through all changes you've in the law podcast and other media channels.

So the idea here is to give you information to your burning questions in debt and allow you the opportunity to support the kind of research that provides those kinds of answers in the first place. Now especially exciting feature, the premium channel, is that the tiny foundation has generously offered to do a dollar for dollar match on all funds raised for research through the premium channel. This is a terrific way that they are going to amplify whatever funds coming through the premium channel to further support research for science and science related tools for mental health, physical health and performance.

If you like to sign up for the human lab premium channel, again, there is a cost of ten dollars per month, or you can pay one hundred dollars at front for the entire year that will give you access to all the ams. You can ask questions and get answers to your questions. And you, of course, get answers to all the questions that other people ask as well.

There will also be some premium content, such as transcripts of the ams and various transcripts and protocols. A few human la podcast episodes are not found elsewhere. And again, you'll be supporting research for mental health, physical health and performance.

You can sign up for the premium channel by going to huberman lab dot com slash premium. Again, that's huberman lab dot com sa sh premium. And as always, thank you for your interest in science.