Janice - 27 May 2008 08:50 PM
Doctor,
I’m getting to the wiser half of my years (let’s just say I’m a bit over ‘the hill’). What supplements do you recommend I take to keep myself as healthy as I was back in my twenties?
Whoa!
Nobody is dating themselves here I hope. This reminds me of an article I read sometime back about us being able to live until about 200 years old or longer. While nice, as I am sure we all appreciate life...I think our general plight is really to merely be able to "live," not count the days til the grave, no?
In any event, it is obviously nice to be able to merely continue to walk upright, be of our own faculties, and get about our daily activities with ease.
That said, I would be hard-pressed to see many anti-aging protocols not include the following at some point in time (this is NOT an exhaustive list due to time constraints):
[1] Antioxidants: ACES (vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, and selenium) - no this, does NOT mean taking a multi-vitamin because there are too many of them out there that are merely poorly developed - happens moreso with minerals though).
I also think that Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) has an active role in many people's regime for blood sugar regulation as well taking care of oxidative stress. Keep in mind however, that there are two "isomers" of ALA and the R-ALA version is the one that harbors any activity.
[2] B Vitamins: Probably best in their co-enzyme forms. Though it can get pricy to buy them this way. I usally tell my clients/patients to dose liberally.
[3] Neural Protectants: Alzheimer's Health programs would probably include some conglomerate of Acetyl-L-carnitine / Alpha Lipoic Acid / CoQ10, which is probably a good bet. There are many discussion points we can take these agents into though so I am unsure what people would want to know about them.
[4] Homcysteine Lowering Supplements: SAMe (pronounced "Sammy") or B12, Folic Acid, B6 (already included above. SAMe is like the universal fountain of youth (really) - its kind of pricy but really worth every cent. It has benefits for the joints, for mood, for hormonal levels, for liver health and so on... the list is almost endless. So, this would too likely be a staple for long life (more importantly "healthy" life).
[5] Probiotics/Prebiotics: Tircky subject actually and one where everyone everywhere has all the proclamations in the world about their formula and I can tell you that 95+% are likely wrong and poorly formulated. This should be remedied soon though. I will have some articles coming to the CYB home site soon on this topic. For females, this may very well be THE most important item on the list belive it or not.
This would be my starting list for many. As I said, not exhaustive - but still keep in mind that multi-vitamins do NOT cut it and I apologize for that, but it is true in many ways.
D_
