Dr. Eades, perhaps *your* doctor is making the age-old mistake when it comes to measuring your hormones: s/he is comparing them against the average of your age group. The idea behind HRT is not to adjust your hormones relative to your current age, but to keep them at youthful levels, generally about where they would be at 30 years of age.

If you are over 40, then almost assuredly your hormones have declined, and you would benefit tremedously from HRT. I follow the research on this like a hawk, and testostorone, especially, has been absolutely validated as a highly beneficial hormone that is correlated with heart disease and other negative conditions as it declines. Additionally, in the last year it has finally been put to rest that testosterone supplementation will increase chances of prostate cancer, or aggrevate/worsen existing cancer.

Anyway, I assume you have Tivo, and now that you have it, you can hardly imagine life before Tivo. This is what most Tivo/DVR users think, anyway. Well, if you’re above 40, HRT is the same. Until you start, you don’t realize just how amazing it is. After you start, you realize you can never go back.

BTW, I hope your wide is using bio-identical hormones. Otherwise, likely she placing herself at a significant cancer risk using Big Pharma’s non-bio-identical versions (Big Pharma cannot patent the bio-identical versions, so they create synthetic, non-identical versions, that come loaded with negative side effects.)

Finally, while here, have you heard about Pycnogenol? It’s a propriatary supplement, the inner bark of a specific French grown pine tree, and heavily researched (easily googled). I bring this up because a study by the maker of Pycnogenol appeared last year showing that taking Pycnogenol before a meal greatly delays the absorbtion of glucose within meals, for up to 8 hours after it’s taken. I take 100mg of Pycnogenol prior to any meal now, in which I will have more that 10 grams of carbs. I also take Phase2 (a white bean extract) for the same purpose (easily googled, too). Pycnogenol, though, seems to be a powerhouse supplement for numerous benefits, and blocking carbs is definitely one you might want to look into.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-02/mg-pdg020707.php

In this case, I am my doctor. And I didn’t make the age-old mistake. I’m a little cleverer than that. My testosterone isn’t at the 30 year-old level, but it’s not far off. It’s close enough that I don’t feel the need to boost it. Not at this time, anyway. Who knows what I’ll find on my next test?

I’m familiar with both pycnogenol and the while bean extract (which goes by a number of names). I like the former, although I’m not sure I believe the part about how it delays the absorption of glucose. I don’t like the latter because it sends undigested carbs to the colon, which is not where they belong. I has also been shown to cause some pancreatic enlargement, and I’m not sure of the long-term consequences of that. It’s much easier for me to not eat the carbs so that I don’t have to worry about blocking them or delaying their absorption.

This blog entry is an excellent example of digging deep and assembling a more complete picture.

BTW, I read de Grey’s book, found it excellent overall, but have a few quibbles of my own with it. I’m a long-time member of ImmInst.org (nickname: DukeNukem), and I contribute to the MPrize (a member of “The 300″). I’m a firm believer that our lives can be extended indefinitely, given enough brain-power behind the effort.

Curious, have you read Breakthrough, the newest book by Suzanne Somers? At 47, I supplement with several hormones (since age 41), including hGH and testosterone, and believe strong in the benefits of doing so. Have you considered HRT, or perhaps you already do?

Thanks for the kind words. I’m impressed that someone is actually digging through the archives.

My wife does HRT because she is perimenopausal and her saliva tests show she needs the replacement. My last saliva test (about 6 months ago) indicated that my levels were where they should be. If they do start to fall - which I’m certain they will at some point - I will strongly consider it.

My specific question is this: is a low carb approach - lower than Paleo - the way to go? Are my low levels of glutathione due to lack of dietary protein and/or oxidative stress brought on by it?

Thanks for your blog. I was a staunch opponent of everything you stand for until very recently, but I’ve become a convert, mainly thanks to Cordain’s Paleo book, which convinced me that that it what we’re designed to eat.

I guess the short answer is that I’m not sure. You could try a lower carb diet for a while to see what happens. If your symptoms improve even more, then you’ve got your answer.

MRE

So, would you say that consuming those expensive acai berry drinks doesn’t do any good? Is there much benefit? The main reason I would buy them was for the antioxidants. Is it worth the carbs?

I don’t know if it’s worth the carbs or not. Antioxidant supplements don’t seem to penetrate the mitochondria and do much good, but foods, on the other hand, do. Know one knows why. Maybe there are substances in foods we haven’t discovered yet or maybe the form of the antioxidants in foods works better. Who knows? But this is the reason I like to get most of my antioxidants in good whole-food form. I still do take them orally, but just as insurance, I guess.

I’m Dr. de Grey’s research assistant, Michael, who cowrote Ending Aging; one of your readers passed the link to this post on to Dr. de Grey, and I thought I’d take a moment to say that I’m pleased and flattered that you found the book so useful, and address this particular matter.

I don’t actually see the two studies as contradictory. One of the central points of the AGE chapter is that AGE chemistry is extremely complex and multifarious, so that while one might expect that lowering at least some markers of oxidative stress (as shown in the Rejuvenation Research paper) might well be expected to reduce the formation of AGE, there is no guarantee that AGE of other metabolic origin (such as the methylglyoxal in the Annals paper) may yet be unaffected or even increase. You might recall another pair of papers summarized in the book (Diabetes 54(2):517-26; Int J Vitam Nutr Res 73(6):453-6):

Diabetic rodents were given diets fortified with different antioxidant supplements (vitamins or green tea extracts), and the impact on the animals’ AGE burden was assessed …

Antioxidant supplements had no effect on the levels of those AGEs whose formation doesn’t require free radicals, of course – but the intervention actually increased levels of the two glycoxidation-derived AGEs , so that diabetic animals receiving green tea extracts actually wound up with more total crosslinking than those who simply suffered the “natural” course of the disease.

Also, while the degree of editorial rigor imposed in Annals papers varies and (I agree) can sometimes be quite cursory, it can also in some cases be rigorous; it really depends on the editor(s) of the volume and the hosting organization. One thing that gives me confience about the Annals paper is the principal investigator, Paul Beisswenger, who has a great deal of experience in evaluating the in vivo effects of methylglyoxal on the organism and of interventions on MG levels. See
Diabetes 54(11):3274-81; Biochem Soc Trans 31(Pt 6):1358-63; Diabetes Care 28(10):2465-71; BBA 1637(1):98-106; Diabetes Care 24(4):726-32;
Diabetes 48(1):198-202.

Overall, I think that the Annals report merits being taken quite seriously — though I certainly wouldn’t suggest leaping to the other extreme of an Ornish-esque, ultra-high-carb diet. As we indicated in the book this is all very difficult to sort out, and trying to outguess the horrific complexity of metabolism is a mug’s game. At the end of the day, we’re all going to need biotechnological solutions if we’re to escape the terrible age-related slide into disease, disability, dependence, dementia, and death. The good news that forms the core of the book is that such tech is foreseeable, and can be developed with sufficient investment of intellectual and financial capital.

Live long — live young!

Hi Michael–

MRE

I agree. But in Leaky Gut Syndrome, partial protein breakdown products make it across the barrier, not large intact protein structures.

My question is a bit off-topic, but does relate to aging and brain health. This article, which includes citations, reports an increase of brain lesions accompany higher levels of Vitamin D and calcium supplementation: http://bacteriality.com/2007/10/24/brain_lesions/

Some of the confounding variables are that a major source of the increased supplementation was milk (presumably supplemented by D-2) and the higher concentrations of Chlamydia pneumoniae and Mycoplasma pneumoniae, labeled as “L form bacteria” and leading to the hypothesis that the Vitamin D supplementation may have been immunosuppressive.

Any light you can shed on this subject would be much appreciated!

I homed in on the following sentence in the article:

MRE

Variety and diversity, which seem to be so key to biological systems, are the bane of efficiency and engineering.

You wrote,
” the work couldn’t pass the peer-review process.”

I found on their website, confusing information.
http://www.annalsnyas.org/misc/about.shtml

At the top of the page they say-
“Each Annals volume contains edited, [b]reviewed[/b] papers based on presentations made at symposia, conferences, and workshops held around the world. ”

I noticed that they did not say “peer-reviewed” in this overall description of what the annals are.

However, down at the bottom, they say
“If the topic of the meeting and the proposal materials are deemed appropriate for possible publication in the Annals, the proposal will be sent out for peer review. ”

So are they “Peer Reviewed” in the full meaning of “Peer Review”

I think this is kind of hogwash. I’ve been to a number of these meetings put on by the NY Acad, and I can tell you that every talk from every meeting gets published. I don’t know what the peer-review process consists of (if it really even exists), but pretty much everything makes it through.

Evidence of Anti-Aging Power of Exercise (Telomeres & Special Role of Strength Training)

http://cbass.com/Strengthtrainingand%20telomeres.htm

Very interesting article. It makes sense, though, since moderate exercise does indeed seem to induce a longer life.