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In a small trial, drugs seemed to rejuvenate the body’s ‘epigenetic clock’

nature.com

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Re: In a small trial, drugs seemed to rejuvenate the body’s ‘epigenetic clock’

#131

Post by toomuchtodo »

huherto wrote: post #123
01100011 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Metformin is great. A doc even recommended it to my friend while he was fighting a glioblastoma(brain cancer). I'd love to take it but I tried berberine, which is supposedly similar in effect, and got major low blood sugar. The only issues with Metformin are occasional digestive issues(diarrhea) and the slight chance of lactic acidosis.

Sorry about your friend. How is Metformin helpful for glioblastoma ? My sister has this. How is your friend doing? Any lessons?

There is a theory that still needs more evidence that cancers consumer sugar, and reducing your blood sugar (and sugar consumption in general) will slow tumor growth. There was another thread on HN within the last week that fasting 24-60 hours at a time during chemotherapy protects healthy cells while allowing chemotherapy to be more effective against the cancer. Things to discuss with an oncologist. Best wishes for your sister, I hope she pulls through.

Re: In a small trial, drugs seemed to rejuvenate the body’s ‘epigenetic clock’

#132

Post by toomuchtodo »

copperx wrote: post #124
toomuchtodo wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

500mg once daily, one meal a day intermittent fasting (dinner). Only coffee, Coke Zero, and water outside of dinner.

Have you had low energy with it? I bought a 6 month supply of 850mg Metformin when I went to Mexico because I intended to take it long term for anti-aging benefits, and although the GI issues were almost non existent, my energy levels after waking up plummeted. I felt physically tired after waking up, and the only thing I wanted was to go back to bed. I then tried 425mg and had the same problem. I wonder if it's a sy…

I have not, but I consume about 200-400mg of caffeine a day. It could be low blood sugar; check with your GP/PCP if able to.

Re: In a small trial, drugs seemed to rejuvenate the body’s ‘epigenetic clock’

#133

Post by rootw0rm »

arcticbull wrote: post #57
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So, this (lousy, but interesting) study is basically "fasting by using drugs." That sounds to me like a big deal, given that most people find fasting difficult (and unpleasant).

Fasting is easy and fun, you just have to work up to it. You can just go from zero to not eating for a week. Building up your tolerance to it takes a bit, like anything else, but when you do it improves mental acuity, gets you a general sense of well-being and energy too.

Well, I'll at least agree that fasting is easy. It's a habit I picked up in jail. My ex recently told me that she also picked it up in jail (we were arrested together). I think being in such an environment, with little to no control over anything else, controlling your eating habits becomes a natural way to restore some balance.

Re: In a small trial, drugs seemed to rejuvenate the body’s ‘epigenetic clock’

#134

Post by jokowueu »

stickfigure wrote: post #62
arcticbull wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fasting is easy and fun, you just have to work up to it. You can just go from zero to not eating for a week. Building up your tolerance to it takes a bit, like anything else, but when you do it improves mental acuity, gets you a general sense of well-being and energy too.

Your idea of 'fun' and my idea of 'fun' are wildly different.

Oh man you have to feel that fasting euphoria hitting you in waves before you say that

Re: In a small trial, drugs seemed to rejuvenate the body’s ‘epigenetic clock’

#135

Post by kgin »

spenczar5 wrote: post #121
kgin wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dying isn't required for evolution. It's just that after you reproduce and get your offspring on their own feet, continuing to live is optional (for evolution), so no optimizations evolved to continue life far beyond that. Evolution isn't trying to kill you, it just doesn't care about helping you beyond reproductive age.

Wouldn’t that mean there is evolutionary pressure to keep reproducing as long as possible (and so, evolution should lead you to live forever and keep making babies)?

Not sure about the exact math here, but there is diminishing "returns" to the genes with every additional offspring. Going from "zero offspring" to "one offspring" is the biggest jump genes can make. Two is 100% better than one. But three is only 50% better than two. Four is only 33% better than three.... etc

So once you get to like 10 kids, you're really not getting much more evolutionary advantage for each additional kid. You don't have the same relentless pressure that privileges genes that are provide extreme longevity.

Re: In a small trial, drugs seemed to rejuvenate the body’s ‘epigenetic clock’

#136

Post by fumar »

huherto wrote: post #123
01100011 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Metformin is great. A doc even recommended it to my friend while he was fighting a glioblastoma(brain cancer). I'd love to take it but I tried berberine, which is supposedly similar in effect, and got major low blood sugar. The only issues with Metformin are occasional digestive issues(diarrhea) and the slight chance of lactic acidosis.

Sorry about your friend. How is Metformin helpful for glioblastoma ? My sister has this. How is your friend doing? Any lessons?

My sister passed away from a gliobastoma. We didn’t try metformin but we did try thc. Any effects were too late.

Re: In a small trial, drugs seemed to rejuvenate the body’s ‘epigenetic clock’

#137

Post by rjf72 »

webmaven wrote: post #99
vilaca wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like you could successfully fast very easily by eating the same amount of food in shorter period of the day, like 16h fasting and eating in the remaining 8h of the day. Without changing the amount of daily calories you wouldn't experience weight loss. Obviously saying 'could' is not the same as saying 'should' and it's not very safe to do drastic changes to your diet without consulting a MD.

Eating the same amount of food in a much shorter period is also a great way to train your stomach to accept (and unfortunately, expect) more food before feeling full.

The Hadza in Africa are an interesting people. Quite a lot has been written about these hunter/gatherers. [1] The have the physiques you'd expect of hunter/gatherers, but not the lifestyle. They work around 2 hours a day in mostly low energy tasks. And their leisure time isn't exactly spent running marathons - the most common past times being gambling and simply relaxing. Part of the reason they've been reluctant to adopt agriculture is because they think it'd take too much work. You can do an imagine search for pictures of their well known people. Suffice to say, you're not gonna find many love handles.

Stories like this are part of what convinced me to give fasting a go. And after going on 2 years of it now, I've had the exact opposite experience of that which you describe. In particular I don't eat the same total amount of food/calories, I eat substantially less. And somehow I have substantially more energy. The reason I decided to try out fasting is because it seems evident that we're eating far more than we need, as the absurd rates of obesity/overweight attest to.

Blaming the lack of exercise is somewhat nonsensical as can be shown from more ancient peoples. But it can also be shown numerically. I now bike around 5k a day and that burns about 100 calories. That's 15 minutes of biking to burn the equivalent of about a third of a slice of pizza. Exercise is of course important, but not for the calorie burning. If you eat poorly (or too much) it doesn't matter if you spend hours at the gym - you're gonna get fat.

I think the actual truth is that in modern times we've trained our bodies to expect far too much food. Fortunately this is really easy to reverse. It just requires accepting a discomfort that fades somewhat quickly over the months.

[1] - http://rewild.com/in-depth/leisure.html

Re: In a small trial, drugs seemed to rejuvenate the body’s ‘epigenetic clock’

#138

Post by username90 »

pmiller2 wrote: post #107
jvagner wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea of fasting and the reality of fasting are different. The idea is more painful than a committed effort. Once you accept and embrace the fast, it’s freeing. Like running every day.... once you know you’re going to do it, the resistance withers.

As someone who's gone multiple days in a row without eating non-voluntarily, you're never going to convince me that fasting for extended periods is fun.

That is like judging sex after only having experienced rape, consent matters a lot in how enjoyable things are.

Re: In a small trial, drugs seemed to rejuvenate the body’s ‘epigenetic clock’

#139

Post by mayankkaizen »

stickfigure wrote: post #62
arcticbull wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fasting is easy and fun, you just have to work up to it. You can just go from zero to not eating for a week. Building up your tolerance to it takes a bit, like anything else, but when you do it improves mental acuity, gets you a general sense of well-being and energy too.

Your idea of 'fun' and my idea of 'fun' are wildly different.

There was a time I wouldn't wake up early. I enjoyed sleeping till late morning. At that time I was kind of unable to feel why people who wake up early insist that it is more enjoyable than sleeping till 9 AM.

Then I develop this habit of waking up early. Initially I wasn't very comfortable but now I too can say it is more enjoyable.

I guess you get the point.

Re: In a small trial, drugs seemed to rejuvenate the body’s ‘epigenetic clock’

#140

Post by mikekchar »

nikkwong wrote: post #81
kharak wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh, do you mean two weeks of only water? Do you do this for weight loss? Do you work out? I would be very afraid to mess-up my metabosm. How do you prevent that?

Long term or repeated fasting should actually decrease your body's metabolism rate; which is a good thing if you want to age slower. (I.e. think about species who have slow metabolisms, turtles, for one, who live very long lives). I do alternate day fasting (48 hour fasts, every other day) and realized I now need far fewer calories to get by than I used to. Obviously anecdotal but I feel great!

Not to be argumentative, but I do not fast and I need far fewer calories to get by than I used to. It's because I'm in my 50's ;-). I don't think I'm aging slower than I used to. I think probably I'm healing slower. It's pretty easy to make an observation and derive conclusions that fit your pre-conceived ideas. It's one of the dangers of doing these kinds of self experiments.
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