[extropy-chat] where to go with supplementation in a post-Nick-Lane world ?

[Eugen Leitl]

On Sun, Sep 24, 2006 at 01:21:19AM -0400, Ensel Sharon wrote:

> For those who don't know, the synopsis is that free radicals are an
> essential signaling mechanism in the cell, the complete absence of which
> would be quite disastrous.  Further, the respiratory chains inside of

OMGWTFROTLFLMAO.

> mitochondria, where the free radicals emanate from and do their damage, is
> not a location that one could even hope that ingested antioxidants could
> reach.

Really? http://www.benbest.com/nutrceut/lipoic.html
 
> I'm a skeptical person, so I will treat this new trend the same way I
> treated the old trend (that cocoa and vitamins and pom juice and green tea
> were the fountain of youth) with suspicion.

I would not do multivitamins, unless you're on CR, or a junkfood diet (you
should not ever be on a pure junkfood diet). Cocoa and green tea are quite 
excellent actually, I don't bother with green tea extract but drink 1-2 l 
of green tea daily (the coffeine is already worth it, and the taste is great).
My cocoa comes as 85% (or 99%, if I can get it) cocoa chocolate. I'm also
on linseed (flax seed) oil (not encapsulated, out of the bottle is cheaper,
and I do like the flavour a lot), some little (because of potential heavy
metal contamination) fish oil. Apart from that I'm currently doing 1 mg/day
Deprenyl (selegiline citrate), and 1:4 R-lipoic acid and acetyl L-Carnitine
(self-encapsulated bulk pharmateuticals). I might also pick up metformin (a 
CR mimic) at some point. I should drink a couple of glasses of red wine 
daily, but unfortunately I prefer pilsener. Maybe should just buy some
resveratol extract, but above regime is a bit on the heavy side already.

Oh yeah: I exercise, and eat little in general (and no junk food).
 
> However, it would seem that the whole notion of antioxidant regimens and
> ORAC rations and blah blah are just a bunch of bunk (which I suspected -
> honestly, if green tea and pomegranates and cocoa made significant impacts
> on longevity, we would have known it 1000 years ago ... it's not like

A kiloyear back you were just so glad to have your basic calories.
And your life expectation was pretty low in general, from other
sources.

> people didn't take note of such things...).

No, people don't take note of such things. Not even medieterranean people
didn't recognize their longevity came from the diet.
 
> (comments ?  Please ?)
> 
> -----
> 
> So let's say I buy this theory, and let's say you buy it too .. where does
> one go from here ?  I get my 5+5 servings of fruits and veggies per day, I
> eat good whole foods, stay trim and fit, etc.  ...  is that it ?

That's a good starter. You're doing way better than the most.
 
> I like to optimize ... and I like to hack ... and just because the whole
> antioxidant bandwagon is bunk doesn't mean I'm not interested in getting

Not everything is bunk. And you have to distinguish between the supplements
which will shorten your life span, and those who don't. Some experiments
are more costly than others. And, of course, the price is an issue. How
much $/month is the game worth to you?

> better performance and strength and injury recovery and stamina ... I am.
> 
> So in the post-nick-lane world, what should I be studying/trying/testing ?

You should not go overboard with testing. I'm not sure my regine is anywhere
iron-clad, so I welcome anyone else's input.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
______________________________________________________________
ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820            http://www.ativel.com
8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A  7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 191 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20060924/07e6655c/attachment.bin>