Or in other words, cures for old age. The topic is very broad. So I will highlight the most popular drugs and describe their targets in the body. And I will start with the targets. Roughly and conditionally we can say that a person ages in the following parts of the body:
- Heart and blood vessels
- Central nervous system (brain)
- Extracellular matrix (collagen, elastin)
- Immune system
- Stem cells (bone marrow)
- Sex cells (sperm and oocytes)
To slow down aging, we need to therapeutically "work" with each of these systems. Let's begin:
The heart and blood vessels of every (!) person in old age suffer from a number of problems - lipid deposits appear on the walls of blood vessels, which leads to narrowing of the lumen and decreased elasticity of blood vessels, as well as increased pressure, which in turn leads to a violation of normal blood supply to organs and high load on the heart muscle. The main drugs-heroprotectors that inhibit these processes: Metformin, Berberine, Telmisartan. For example, to normalize the lipid profile in metabolic syndrome there is a "bundle" metformin (500mg)+berberine (500mg).
Central nervous system. Some people develop dementia in old age. This is a group of diseases that lead to loss of function, personality, and eventually death. It is more complicated with drugs, but it should be understood that most likely (research is underway, but I am sure of it), dementia is the result of chronic neuroinflammation. The main geroprotectors in this case are palmitoylethanolamide, luteolin, glutathione, acyclovir, berberine, ceftriaxone (yes, that antibiotic). I could write a separate post on each drug, but I don't have time for that yet.
Extracellular Matrix. Thisis the type of aging each of you has seen - wrinkles and loss of elasticity of connective tissue(this is not only skin, but also blood vessels and organ and gland tissue). I've had a post about this before. The causes of this process are collagen cross-linking, fibroblast dysfunction, destruction of finished collagen and elastin.
The main geroprotectors: enzyme inhibitors that destroy connective tissue (e.g. antibiotic doxocycline), hormones that stimulate the formation of new connective tissue (growth hormone, testosterone, estradiol, progesterone), glucose lowering (metformin, berberine)
Immune system . I have written before that as we age, the immune system malfunctions and does not work well. There are opinions that it is connected with fibrosis of thymus, mutations in stem cells, etc. Geroprotectors in this case: metformin, berberine, growth hormone, astragalus extract, fucoidan, glutathione, taurine, lysine, calcium D-glucarate
Stem cells .This is where aging occurs due to mutations and leads to non-functionality of these cells (or cancer). These cells give rise to other cells, i.e. are the alpha and omega of everything in the body. As an example, such mutations occur due to radiation, toxins, frequent illnesses. Heroprotectors here: berberine, fucoidan, glutathione, fizetin, sulforaphane, apigenin, quartzetin.
Sex cells .There's a similar situation with stem cells. The DNA of sex cells is damaged with age. The reasons are different, it's alcohol and smoking and radiation and many other things. Moreover, the resource of these cells in women is quite limited. This explains the recommendation to conceive a child before 30 (men before 40). If someone says you can do it later, you can answer that they don't know what to do. 🙂
Geroprotectors here - coenzyme Q10, berberine, fucoidan, metformin, apigenin, glutathione, myo-inositol, sulforaphane, calcium D-glucarate.
It should also be noted that there is no single drug that solves all the problems of old age. For example, long-term use of metformin or berberine alone for people with low growth factors (menopause, loss of growth hormone secretion) will lead to problems with muscles, cartilage, and immunity.
Taking coenzyme Q10 alone to people with oxidative stress will increase that stress.
Taking growth hormone alone leads to high glucose and hypothyroidism.
Taking testosterone alone leads to an abnormal lipid profile, aromatase enzyme activity, and prostate problems.
There are many such examples, everything is individual, geroprotectors should be prescribed only by an intelligent specialist and only after diagnosis.
And at the end, I'll just leave a couple of links to studies that partially confirm what I'm saying. And yes, I realize that some people are shocked to hear that some antibiotics work as geroprotectors, but these are the facts.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29515798/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/acel.13028
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34521349/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26111777/
