#384 Most Evidence Based Longevity Supplements and Most Overhyped Longevity Supplements - Q&A

Siim Land (0:00)

Which longevity supplements actually work? And which ones are very overhyped? This and a lot more I'll be covering in this Q&A episode. If you want to ask me a question, then make sure you follow me on Instagram at SiimLand.

It's showtime. All right, the first question is, name some of the most overhyped longevity supplements that aren't worth it.

I have, I think I have probably made at least a few videos about this topic on my channel, not specifically maybe like overhyped, but I have covered like what are the most expensive and like not worth it supplements in terms of the price on the channel. You can look it up on the search. You know, when we're talking about overhyped, then we have to still have to ground it in like evidence. You know, what I consider overhyped would be that people say that it does X or it's like super effective for some things. And in the longevity space, it's gonna be that this supplement is gonna, you know, cure aging and make you live a lot longer.

And the evidence doesn't support that or there's also some like, yeah, just misinformation about the magnitude of the effect or something else related. So that's what I would consider overhyped. And there are certainly a lot of supplements in this field that could be considered overhyped, you know, starting with Reservoir Troll, you know, NMN and Nicotam Rhyboside. To a certain extent, they're all overhyped because when people, you know, are listening to different kinds of scientists and scientists and longevity influencers on social media, then, yeah, like when they hear about Reservoir Troll or NMN or something like that, then, you know, the reason they start to take it is because they think that it's going to make them live longer and slow down aging. Now, there is no evidence as of now that it's true. Like, we don't have any evidence even in animal studies that Reservoir Troll or NMN or Nicotam Rhyboside, that it would, like, extend lifespan or that it would even slow down the biological aging. Obviously, it's still early with at least NMN and Nicotam Rhyboside, but it's not early with Reservoir Troll. So Reservoir Troll has been around, you know, even 20 plus years now, and we still don't have the evidence that it would, like, work directly on lifespan or aging. And in fact, there is a lot of, you know, contrary evidence that it doesn't work even doing that, even in animal studies. Like, human studies are obviously completely different. We don't have almost any longevity supplements proven to work in humans in terms of extending lifespan. Of course, they work in some other ways by extending, like, healthy biomarkers or, like, slowing down some of the hallmarks of aging, which we'll cover later. But in humans, it's obviously very complicated to know which ones actually work.

But yeah, like, even in animal studies, the Reservoir Troll stories kind of debunked almost that it can have in humans some effects for, like, maybe lipid profile or blood sugar management and those kind of things, but it certainly has no, let's say, life extension effects, even in animals. And I don't think that it is true in human studies, or in humans, it's not going to pan out that way either.

And it's certainly overhyped in terms of that. And I think the hype around the Reservoir Troll is declining. It's certainly not as hyped as it was back in the early 2000s when it was first, like, discovered that, oh, my God, there's sirtuin activators, et cetera. You can check out my other video about Reservoir Troll and sirtuins. But yeah, the short story is that Reservoir Troll doesn't really have, like, life extension effects, even in animals.

And yeah, it might have, like, some metabolic effects in humans, but yeah, it's definitely one of the most overhyped, and it's certainly not cheap. It's one of the more expensive supplements. And I think the price to benefit ratio for healthy people, for these biohackers who are taking Reservatrol 4, life extension, then it's certainly not worth it. And a lot has to do with being overhyped, in my opinion.

With NMN and Nicotermin riboside, then at least as of now, we don't have either, like, any life extension or longevity benefits. What we find with NMN and Nicotermin riboside is that they can help with some aspects of metabolic health and also, like, hallmarks of aging or, like, functional decline. So, like, NMN can affect, like, walking speed and those kind of things, maybe cognition in the elderly or insulin sensitivity. But, you know, does that characterize or does that account for actual life extension or longevity? Then, yeah, we don't know.