Low Cost Longevity
Lithium, Taurine and Magnesium
Three nutrients, which receive very little attention, can (significantly) increase your lifespan and health for a very low cost.
Taurine is an amino acid, metabolic production of which drops off as we age. In sixteen countries, with twenty four populations, studies showed that higher urinary levels of taurine were associated with lower mortality. Lifespan increases of 25%, in elderly mice, have been demonstrated with taurine supplementation. Studying middle aged monkeys showed taurine supplementation improved multiple biomarkers of aging.
Lithium helps maintain longer telomeres (aka younger cells). Lithium has been shown to increase lifespan in worms by 46%. In humans taking high-dose lithium (mental illness therapy) lifespan is improved. In areas with low lithium levels, rates of death from Alzheimer’s are higher. People living in areas with higher lithium in drinking water, live longer. Lithium supplementation reduces build up of beta-amyloid (associated with Alzheimer’s). Lithium increases BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) which improves mental functioning.
Magnesium hasn’t really been promoted as anti-aging, however due to it’s involvement in so much of our metabolism, and it’s low cost, I’ve included it here. Plus magnesium threonate has a significant impact on memory and mental function so in a way that is being “younger”. For the same reason, I’d include vitamin C too – low cost and numerous benefits! Vitamin C is especially valuable in keeping your skin youthful.
“The study of more than 6,000 cognitively healthy participants in the United Kingdom aged 40 to 73 found people who consume more than 550 milligrams of magnesium each day have a brain age that is approximately one year younger by the time they reach 55 compared with someone with a normal magnesium intake of about 350 milligrams a day.” - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00394-023-03123-x
Low dose lithium (1 mg to 5 mg per day) costs about $6 for a bottle or about eleven cents a day.
An effective dosage of taurine (2,000 mg a day) costs about fifteen cents a day (about $7 per bottle).
A good form of magnesium (magnesium citrate), costs about eighteen cents per day for 300 mg (about $6 a bottle).
Is your health worth at least fifty cents per day?
Start early! While studies showing benefits in twenty somethings are rare, it’s definitely best to start being serious about your health in your thirties or forties rather than waiting until your sixties!
If you can afford it, there are a host of other well researched nutrients which are extremely beneficial in keeping you young: cacao, quercetin, black tea, green tea, resveratrol, fisetin, mushroom extracts, curcumin, vitamin D, and many, many more. Unless you are filthy rich, the biggest challenge is determining which supplements provide the most benefit for the cost.
Let’s take a moment to thank our furry little friends for enduring our experiments and research. Life isn’t always good as a mouse (even if you do live longer than usual)! If you are upset about how we do research on lab animals, give some thought to the research our government does on humans!