My Anti-Aging Experiment

Finnish sauna (not mine)

My health has suffered ever since Trump was elected. Maybe it’s coincidental, but 2017 was one of my worst health years. My foot was in a cast, I got a staph infection, I suffered from severe hay fever/allergies, gastritis (and possibly ulcers), anxiety and depression, and in the first months of 2018 I had terrible insomnia and gained about ten pounds.

Of course Trump didn’t cause my health issues directly, but the background stress of witnessing a full-blown kleptocracy in action, slowly and surely dismantling health care, environmental protections, and civil rights certainly didn’t improve my health. The additional stress may have been the tipping point, combined with my overcaffeinated lifestyle, too many commitments and responsibilities, genetic vulnerabilities, and simple aging, that flipped me from good health to poor health for a period of time.

Slowly and steadily, I’ve regained my health. The broken bones in my foot are stronger than ever, the staph infection went away with a short course of antibiotics, the allergies are gone, my digestion and stomach health are in better shape than before I got sick, I’m sleeping 7 or 8 hours a night, my mood is generally good, and I’m strong and lean again.

Mostly, I’ve gotten better simply because of time. With adequate rest and nutrition, the body tends to heal itself. I’ve also added a number of supplements to support my general health, some of which I’ve mentioned in previous posts, and which I’ll cover in detail in a future post. I also switched to decaf, improved my sleep hygiene, and took a number of measures to improve my gut health.

But I wanted more control over my health and well-being. So I embarked on a research campaign, just as I did when figuring out how to recover from adult-onset asthma without reliance on medications.

A Strategy to Not Just Get Better, but to Get Better Than Ever

I found it demoralizing to experience one health issue after another. I knew the main underlying issue was probably stress (from the criminal administration, from my day-to-day responsibilities, from my just-starting-to-succeed writing career), and that better handling that stress was going to be my main “fix.”

But at the same time I wanted a bigger buffer. How could I reprogram my body to better handle both mental and physical stress? Could I, in fact, reverse the aging process to some extent so as to have more room for error? I didn’t want to have to follow a completely strict lifestyle, with no caffeine, no alcohol, no staying up late, no indulgent foods, and avoiding all stressful situations. I didn’t mind living a mostly clean and quiet life, but if I could find a way to have my cake and eat it too, that would be the best case scenario.

I started researching a lifestyle, diet, exercise, and supplement program that could enhance the following aspects of my personal physiology (in no particular order):

• neurogenesis, to stave off depression, enhance creativity, and prevent cognitive decline
• mitrochondrial health, replication, and function (for ATP production and energy)
• increase collagen production (for joint health and skin tone)
• increased telomere length and DNA repair
• increased insulin sensitivity, lower circulating insulin (for fat loss, muscle gain, and metabolic health)
• normalized/reduced cortisol production (for better sleep, higher testosterone, and better digestion and stomach health)
• a healthy, diverse, disease-preventing, mood-enhancing gut biome
• a highly stress-resistant mental attitude (more psyche than physiology, but still important)

I was already following some health practices to support the above goals (exercising regularly, eating mostly healthful whole foods, meditating occasionally, taking some vitamins, minerals, and fish oil), and to some extent those measures were working. None of my doctors, after hearing about my symptoms and running various tests, seemed concerned at all, and simply recommended behavioral and OTC medicinal remedies. Obviously I wasn’t seriously ill. But I knew my health could be much better, and I didn’t want to rely on any medication with possible long-term side effects. I decided to research and experiment with the following practices to improve my health:

• adaptogens, to normalize cortisol and reduce the effects of stress (ashwagandha, Holy Basil, CBD oil, etc.)
• heat therapy, including saunas, for improved cardiovascular health and generalized reduced risk of death
• improving macronutrient timing (especially when to consume and not consume fructose, sucrose, and starches, in relation to circadian rhythm and exercise)
• intermittent fasting and the fasting-mimicking diet to increase autophagy (clear out cellular junk) and increase stem cell production
• supplementation with nicotinadmide riboside (Niagen) to increase my NAD+ to NADH ratio in order to improve organ health, enhance DNA repair, and potentially slow or reverse other aspects of cellular again
• use of various medicinal mushrooms to improve gut health and enhance neurogenesis (Lion’s Mane), and increase exercise endurance (Cordyceps)
• increased phytonutrient intake from superfruits including blueberries (for pterostilbene), amla and triphala, goji, acai, and organic citrus rinds (for pectin and limonene) for their antioxidant effects, protection from cancer and neurodegeneration, gastroprotective qualities, and possible anti-aging effects
• experimenting with other compounds such the amino acids citrulline and beta-alanine, and the nitrogenous organic acid creatine, for muscle growth and improved athletic performance
• increased weight training for muscle growth, fat loss, and bone density
• increased ingestion of collagen precursors such as pure MSM powder and collagen hydrolysate (for joint health, gut health, and skin/hair/nail health, as well as better sleep due to the glycine in supplemental collagen)
• increased use of various supplements to improve mithochondrial health, including PPQ, N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC), CoQ10 (ubiquinone), and alpha lipoic acid (as well as nicotinamide riboside, mentioned above)

What’s Working? Who Knows? Who Cares?

I’ve experimented with all of the remedies and lifestyle changes above, but I’ve only fully implemented about half of them. Since my goal has been to feel better and to experience better health (as opposed to figure out which supplement does what), I can only speculate as to what has been helping me most.

But my health is the best it’s been in years, so something is working. Over the next few months I’ll be doing a deep dive into some of the supplements I’m using (especially nicotinamide riboside), to explore what health benefits the current research does and does not support.

Over the next few years, I’m hoping I can subtract at least five years from my apparent and subjective age. In terms of overall longevity, health span (avoiding chronic illness, dementia, and disability) is more important than absolute longevity, but I still have a long list of things I’d like to accomplish and experience in life, and I’d like to have quite a few more decades to get the chance.

I’ll share my results as the experiment progresses.

Here’s wishing you good health, and hopefully some reverse aging of your own.

Unrelated Announcements

1. My debut novel The Sky Woman is available for preorder on amazon. If you already ordered a copy, thank you very much, I really and truly appreciate it.

2. The book launch party for The Sky Woman is coming up:

East Bay Booksellers (previously Diesel Books)
5433 College Ave. in Oakland
Wednesday September 12th, 7pm

If you’re in the Bay Area, please save the date. In addition to reading some excerpts from the novel, there will be wine and an assortment of desserts.

3. To the person in Brescia, Italy trying to log into my website, please stop. If you’re that interested in me, why not reach out and send me an email?