Anti-Aging

What Really Works

For twenty years now, I’ve been studying and practicing “Anti-Aging Medicine”. Yes, I’m non-officially, officially board certified as an anti-aging doctor. Originally, for this article, I was going to write up a detailed technical discussion of mitochondria and the electron transport chain, but then I decided that my readers didn’t really want to read a lot of technical detail (you can look it up from many sources if you wish). Investing that much time into writing something that few would read would be foolish.

Before your body starts writing up terms of surrender (aka aging), a bit of exploration of health ideas should be on the table.

Thus this article shall be a brief discussion of my latest observations of nutrition that truly are “anti-aging”.

What is “anti-aging”? There are two aspects of anti-aging, the first and easiest is slowing down aging, the second is reversing aging to make the body function as it did when it was younger. This second is of course far more difficult and controversial.

First it is essential to address the basics. I’m not a believer in “magic pills”. First make sure you are consuming a very healthy diet and staying physically active (fit). Second, boost your nutrition with fundamental supplementation. Third, do not underestimate the critical value of a positive mental attitude!

Now that you have that healthy base, you are ready to seriously dive into attempting to reverse aging or seriously slow it down.

In March 2025, I started taking a reasonable (should be effective) dosage of “He Shou Wu”. This is a Chinese herb long regarded to promote a long life (250+ years?) and most famously restored the hair color of Mr. Wu (at age 132?). The boost of He Shou Wu didn’t have any major noticeable impact. Was I wasting my money? (this is 3,000 mg/day of a 10:1 processed extract for a cost of about $1.33 per day) Note: a lot of companies will sell you various forms of He Shou Wu so it can be a bit of a nightmare finding one that might actually benefit you and avoiding the unhealthy versions.

Well, the He Shou Wu wasn’t a miracle, so on with the search for something more effective. Note: I have continued and increased the He Shou Wu. Currently I’m taking 4,800 mg per day.

There are many theories about what causes aging. One of the most important is mitochondrial health. Of course you know that mitochondria are the little energy power plants producing ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate) that yields the energy to power your body. Without power you are going to be “old”.

I’ve been taking Nicotinamide Riboside for quite a while (at least more than seven years now), but only 300 mg per day. At that dosage I didn’t notice any benefit. Just because you don’t notice a benefit, doesn’t mean it isn’t helping you.

After a bit of research, I discovered that a dosage of 900 mg per day was very effective in research studies. So in October 2025, I started taking 900 mg per day of Nicotinamide Riboside. Wow! Very noticeable!

The visible evidence is color slowly being restored to my hair.

More noticeable, although not visual, is the boost in energy.

Meditation is very healthy, taking a meditation break in the middle of each day has been a cornerstone of my life for the past thirteen years. This recent change has surprised me. Having so much energy that I find it difficult to take my usual daily meditation break was a change I didn’t expect. I’m still meditating, most days, but now it’s often a challenge to stop and take a break from life!

Back to some technical stuff, nicotinamide riboside is a precursor boosting NAD+ levels. This boosts mitochondrial energy production. But also it activates sirtuins, those magical molecules in resveratrol that reverse aging.

The nicotinamide riboside supplement that I take also includes some resveratrol. More important is that I also take a high dosage research grade, 98% purity, resveratrol supplement. Most resveratrol supplements sold are only 50% purity (the other half being just “weeds”). Thus providing my body with plenty of sirtuins for the NAD+ to activate.

Ubiquinol (CoQ10) also deserves specific mention for it’s role in ATP production. Research has shown however that more isn’t necessarily better, optimal dosage is between 100 to 200 mg per day. Currently I’m taking 100 mg per day of ubiquinol.

Red Light Therapy should also be mentioned. Testing devices to find ones that actually are effective has led me to a few red light therapy devices which I use and consider valuable. Red Light Therapy works, in theory, primarily by boosting mitochondrial production of energy (ATP). Phase IV of the electron transport chain is activated by red light. If you don’t consume a lot of plant leaves, you probably should supplement with some chlorophyl / chlorophyllin.

ATP production (and dealing with the oxidative stress it generates) requires twenty one minerals, thirteen vitamins, eight amino acids and two fatty acids. Plus carnitine, CoQ10, cysteine, taurine, glycine and lipoic acid. It should be clear that no single nutrient is the miracle cure for low energy production. Whatever your particular body lacks the most will be the bottleneck.

The Army has a slogan: “Be all you can be” - It’s not a bad slogan, but instead of joining the army, my suggestion is to provide your body with the nutrients it needs so that whether you are twenty or seventy, you can “Be all you can be”.