Can these supplements really turn back the clock?

[Q.]

Another Christian Finn article

Can these supplements really turn back the clock?
Throughout the ages, people have searched for magical potions to turn back the clock. Ponce de León was searching for the Fountain of Youth when he discovered Florida. And the 19th century was rife with anti-aging potions.

In 1889, for example, a French scientist called Charles Edouard Brown-Séquard claimed that drinking an extract of crushed dog testicle could restore youth and vigor to old men.

Acetyl-L-carnitine and alpha-lipoic acid are the latest in a long line of supplements promising to turn back the clock.

The interest started when researchers in the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University and the University of California at Berkeley found that they improved both the activity, energy level and cognitive function of old rats.

"After just a month, older rats whose diet was supplemented with these two compounds were about twice as active as our control rats, which remained largely inactive," says Tory Hagen, an assistant professor in Oregon State University's Linus Pauling Institute.

"With the two supplements together, these old rats got up and did the Macarena," says Bruce Ames, a professor of biochemistry at the University of California at Berkeley. "The brain looks better, they are full of energy — everything we looked at looks more like a young animal."

Of course, the big problem is the lack of reliable research to show that these compounds benefit humans in the same way as rats.

Under certain circumstances, large doses of the popular antioxidants vitamin C and CoQ10 have been shown to increase oxidative stress. Whether alpha-lipoic acid and carnitine have any negative effects is a question that can only be answered by more human research.

Aging is a complex process. Different tissues may have fundamentally different mechanisms underlying their maintenance and repair. And most scientists believe that mitochondrial health is only one cog in the aging wheel.

Ames acknowledges he has not discovered the Fountain of Youth. But he does lay claim to a Fountain of Middle Age. "I don't want to over-hype it," he cautions. "If you're an old rat, it looks very good. But we still have to wait for the results from the human trials. There's every reason to think it's going to work in people. I'm very optimistic."

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