Keep Chronic Inflammation Low for Healthy Ageing
October 06, 2021The problem is that people are educated just enough to believe what they have been taught, and not educated enough to question anything from what they have been taught. - Professor Richard Feynman
In this post:
- Keeping chronic inflammation low for healthy ageing.
- Diabetes could be main factor in accelerated progression of CV19.
- Light through a window for Circadian Rhythm, but not Vitamin D.
- Resveratrol works only in the presence of youthful NAD levels.
1. Keeping Chronic Inflammation Low as We Age Could Be One of the Most Important Things to Do for Our Health.
Inflammation is a key driver of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) through plaque formation and blockages. One way to mitigate inflammation is increasing dietary intake of marine omega 3 fatty acids while decreasing consumption of seed oils.
A study of 42,466 elderly people (50-81 years old) found higher circulating levels of marine (EPA/DHA) Omega-3s are associated with a lower risk of premature death.
Image source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
2. Diabetes Could Be the Main Factor in Accelerated Progression of CV19.
In this study from Japan, type-2 diabetes was present in 88% of patients progressing from moderate to severe CV19 requiring ventilation.
"While future pandemics are unpredictable, diabetes can be effectively managed - which could ultimately have far-reaching impacts on patient outcomes especially during times of public health crisis, like the CV19 outbreak"
- lead researcher Dr. Shizuka Kaneko.
Around 1.8 million Australians have diabetes. This includes all types of diagnosed diabetes (1.2 million known and registered) as well as silent, undiagnosed type 2 diabetes (up to 500,000 estimated). 280 Australians develop diabetes every day.
3. Light Through a Window Is Sufficient for Manipulating the Circadian Rythm, but Not for Vitamin D Production.
"Given our increasingly indoor lifestyles, there is a need to develop and promote strategies to maintain adequate vitamin D status primarily through safe sun exposure and also dietary approaches."
Low Vitamin D levels are correlated with higher risk of viral infection and severity of infection, including COVID-19 (source).
Accumulating evidence strongly supports widespread vitamin D supplementation, in particular of high-risk populations, as well as high-dose supplementation of those infected. Test Vitamin D levels at home.
The UVB rays needed to make Vitamin D are blocked by most windows.
Sunscreen can also block UVB radiation. UVB is scarcer in winter. The more equatorial, the greater the potency of the suns rays. The further, the weaker.
Personal UV dose requirements vary greatly.
- Melanin (what darkens skin) is a natural sunscreen. Which is why statistical studies usually find dark skinned populations to be Vitamin D deficient.
- A 70 year old produces 4x less Vitamin D than a 20 year old.
- Body fat reduces the bioavailability of Vitamin D. The more fat you have, the more is stored and not released into the bloodstream.
How to Boost Vitamin D Intake?
- You can make Vitamin D by spending time in direct natural sunlight. While a few minutes exposure each day in summer might be enough, a few hours is needed in winter.
- You can also get small amounts of Vitamin D through foods like oily fish, egg yolk, and offal such as liver. Some foods such as milk are fortified with vitamin D.
- Supplementing Vitamin D in combination with Vitamin K is best. Vitamins D and K act synergistically for bone and cardiovascular health. (source) 4000 IU / Day of Vitamin D3 is sufficient to bring adults up to adequate levels of 75nmol/L.
- To correct moderate to severe vitamin D deficiency, 3,000 to 4,000 IU per day is needed for 6-12 weeks to raise the level of vitamin D quickly, followed by a maintenance dose of 1,000 to 2,000 mg per day. (source)
- Note that Australian guidelines suggest only a tenth of that dose, 400IU/Day, but does not consider individual deficiency risk factors described below. It's just a lowest common denominator guideline in dire need of an update.
- The safety profile of vitamin D supplementation is similar for doses of 400 or 4000IU.
Vitamin D3 sources, biosynthesis and possible factors affecting absorption. Downward arrows show factors that are associated with decreased vitamin D absorption and synthesis.
Image source
Active Vitamin D improves immune function, regulates calcium and phosphate, turns on hundreds of genes, suppresses inflammation, makes vitamin-K dependant proteins and enables them to work. Magnesium activates Vitamin D.
Get 7 types of Magnesium in 1 Supplement
Vitamin K foods include green leafy vegetables, such as kale, spinach, turnip greens, collards, Swiss chard, mustard greens, parsley, romaine, and green leaf lettuc, vegetables such as Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage.
Vitamin K is also made by the bacteria in the lower intestinal tract.
Shop for Vitamin D3 + K2 Supplements
4. NMN as an Anti-Ageing Supplement
Nicotinamide Mononucleotide (NMN) supplementation has shown favourable outcome on several age-related disorders associated with the accumulation of chronic oxidative stress, inflammation and impaired mitochondrial function.
The protective effects of NMN treatment on neurovascular function can be attributed to mitochondrial rejuvenation, a critical mechanism to restore neurovascular health and improve cerebral blood flow in aging.
Taken orally, NMN is rapidly absorbed and converted to NAD+. A recent study showed that the administration of NAD+ is associated with an increase in sirtuin activity. Increasing sirtuin activity stabilizes telomeres and reduced DNA damage.
In numerous studies, supplementation with NMN has increased NAD+ biosynthesis, suppressed age-related adipose tissue inflammation, enhanced insulin secretion and insulin action, improved mitochondrial function, improved neuronal function in the brain, and more. (Source)
"Resveratrol is the accelerator pedal for the sirtuin genes (increasing their activation), and NMN (a precursor to NAD) as the fuel. Without the “fuel”, resveratrol won’t be as effective."