Anti-Aging Dietary Supplements

Does scientific research support trying any anti-aging dietary supplements?

Before we get to that answer, please carefully read our medical disclaimer. Each of us is unique, so dietary supplements and dosages impact us in different ways. What may be good for one person can be harmful or even fatal for another.

Medical Disclaimer

Please make sure to read our Terms of Use. As a reminder, Keep.Health cannot give medical advice and is to be used for educational and general information purposes only.

Optimal anti-aging dietary supplementation advice would require precision medicine including knowledge of an individual’s health, weight, age, medical history, family background, genomics, diet, microbiome, and current supplement and medicinal use among other factors. The potential for adverse diet, microbiome, medicinal and supplement interactions needs to be considered carefully.

Keep Health and its Editors do not advocate nutritional supplementation over proper medical advice or treatment and this sentiment will never be expressed through pages hosted under Keep.Health. If using any pharmaceuticals or drugs given to you by a doctor or received with a prescription, you must consult with the doctor in question or an equally qualified Health Care Professional prior to using any nutritional supplementation. If undergoing medical therapies, then consult with your respective Therapist or Health Care Professional about possible interactions between your Treatment, any Pharmaceuticals or Drugs being given, and possible nutritional supplements or practices hosted on Keep Health or in Keep Health newsletters.

Keep Health does not assume liability for any actions undertaken after visiting these pages, and does not assume liability if one misuses supplements. Keep Health and its Editors do not ensure that unforeseen side effects will not occur even at proper dosage, and thereby do not assume liability for side effects from anti-aging dietary supplements or practices hosted under the domain of Keep.Health or in Keep Health newsletters.

Trusted Independent Dietary Supplement Research Websites

As a first step to exploring supplements, become familiar with these two trusted medical sites. They provide helpful free information about most dietary supplements.

MedlinePlus from the National Institute of Health (NIH)
World Health Organization (WHO) List of Essential Medicines, Vaccines, Vitamins and Minerals

Not all supplements are created equal. Different vendors manufacture them at varying levels of quality. For independent verification of the quality and contents of direct-to-consumer supplements, see the dietary supplement analysis results from these trusted research sites:

Consumer Lab (paid digital subscription. $4.50/month, $54/year)
Consumer Reports (paid digital subscription. $10/month, $39/year)

To find out if dietary supplements have or are undergoing clinical trials, see ClinicalTrials.Gov.

Less-trusted Independent Dietary Supplement Research Websites

For a less-conservative perspective, there are leading-edge, evidence-based self-hackers who don’t want to wait for clinical trial results. Their ideas are sometimes worth reading. However, consider them carefully. They pursue paths where the initial science is promising, but the long-term results are unknown. Here are a few:

Dr. Axe (free)
Examine Supplement Guides and A-Z Supplement Guide (paid digital subscription. $49 / guide or $149 for all.)
Selfhacked (free)

Vitamin Dietary Supplements

If you eat a balanced diet, you will get all 13 vitamins from the foods you eat and because your body can make Vitamins D and K.

However, as you age, your body gradually loses the ability to generate sufficient Vitamin B-12 from food. Thus, Vitamin B-12 sublingual supplements are recommended by physicians for older people. Insufficient Vitamin B-12 may lead to a reduction in healthy red blood cells as well as other unpleasant disorders. Also, if you are on a vegetarian diet, check with your physician about Vitamin B-12 supplementation.

Separately, if you do not get 5-30 minutes of outdoor sun exposure per day, check with your physician about sublingual Vitamin D supplementation. 2018 research linked low vitamin D blood levels to higher risk of diseases ranging from autoimmune diseases to diabetes to breast cancer. See this chart for the significant impact of Vitamin D on disease reduction. Of note, Vitamin D3 has 161 potential adverse interactions including seven major ones.

Although you may find this surprising, multivitamins are not recommended by health experts. Large independent studies concluded that multivitamins don’t reduce the risk for heart disease, cancer, cognitive decline (such as memory loss and slowed-down thinking) or an early death. Even worse, some ingredients appear to be harmful (see below in Common Supplements to Avoid).

Omega-3 Fats (DHA/EPA)

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) are Omega-3 fats which provide many cardiovascular benefits including reducing triglyceride levels, homocysteine and blood pressure. Unfortunately, many people have insufficient DHA/EPA consumption.

Your blood tests from your health baseline can let you know if you are low in DHA and EPA. If so, health experts recommend either eating two 3.5 oz servings per week of oily fish (salmon, sardines, mackerel, tuna, trout, etc.) or taking leading high quality fish oil supplements such as Carlson.

For those with heart disease or high risk of heart disease, the FDA has approved Amarin‘s prescription Vascepa which contains only the desired active ingredient from fish oil, icosapent ethyl. When combined with statins along with a low-fat and low cholesterol diet, Vascepa is clinically proven to reduce cardiovascular risks such as heart attacks and strokes.

Dark Chocolate

There are proven cardiovascular and mental health benefits of dark chocolate. However, be careful of adverse drug interactions if you take medications for existing medical conditions. See our Dark Chocolate Health Benefits article and also avoid dark chocolate brands with dangerous levels of cadmium, a liver toxin.

Hyaluronic Acid

Research from the longevity lab of anti-aging expert Vera Gorbunova shows that maintaining healthy levels of hyaluronic acid in the body reduces oxidative stress and inflammation as well as improving skin, eye and joint health. In naked mole rats, an evolution in their formation of hyaluronic acid provides cancer resistance.

Hyaluronic Acid supplements (made from rooster combs!) likely aren’t needed because a diet containing any of these seven foods (bone broth, oranges, kale, almonds, tofu, edamame, sweet potatoes) will suffice instead. It is also unproven whether oral supplementation of hyaluronic acid successfully navigates the digestive tract to provide benefit.

Less Well-Known Supplements

These potential dietary supplements are also found in common foods.

L-ergothioneine

Spermidine

Metabolic Medicines, Mitochondrial Health and Energy-focused Supplements

Here are some dietary supplements which are attracting attention from anti-aging experts.

Metformin is a first-line prescription diabetes drug which has become popular with anti-aging experts because a study of more than 180,000 people published online in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism in 2015 found that diabetics on metformin lived about 15 percent longer, on average, than those without the disease, supporting findings that metformin can curb some cancers (breast, gastrointestinal, liver and pancreatic). However, 40% of humans are non-responders to metformin and only get the side-effects (nausea, gastrointestinal distress, mal-absorption of vitamin B-12).

Berberine is a lesser known non prescription medicine for diabetes and experimental studies show promising results for anti-obesity as well as cardiovascular disease reduction. Here is an excellent Berberine and MetFormin comparison from the NIH. For additional curated information from Keep Health, see:

Anti-aging experts are looking at ways to improve the health of aging mitochondria, the energy production and metabolism regulators in your cells. They are exploring multiple over-the-counter supplements. NR is popular among anti-aging experts. So is Ubiquinol, the more bioavailable form of Coenzyme-Q, a key component in the electron transport chain which facilitates the production of energy. AKG, GlyNAC and PQQ are being hyped by less reputable anti-aging “experts” and lack sufficient independent clinical research. Metabolic Switch simulates Intermittent Fasting. For curated information on each from Keep Health, see:

Sirtuin 6

Sirtuin 6 (SIRT6) reduces unwanted inflammation, maintains DNA structure, prevents undesirable epigenetic changes as we age and improves DNA repair processes. According to leading anti-aging scientist Vera Gorbunova, these benefits correlate with maximum life span.

You can increase your SIRT6 levels through fasting and calorie restriction or through anti-aging dietary supplements from DoNotAge.

Microbiome Prebiotics and Probiotics

See our Microbiome article.

Common Dietary Supplements to Avoid

Beta-carotene supplements appear to be harmful, especially at high doses
Daily Aspirin, unless you are at high risk for cardiovascular problems
Multivitamins
Rapamycin, at least until the PEARL anti-aging trial results become available
Vitamin E at high doses
…and 15 less common ones from Consumer Reports