Scientists at Baylor College of Medicine have found in a randomized, double-blind trial that the use of the supplement GlyNAC could help to reverse aging and improve overall health in older people.
Mitochondria
Their findings, released in The Journals of Gerontology: Series A, reveal that GlyNAC improved multiple defects in older people that are linked to aging. This supplement comprises the amino acid Glycine and the drug N-acetylcysteine.
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Results from this new study are notable because nothing else has produced something similar. There hasn’t been a proven solution yet that improves a comparable number of age-related defects in older people.
“This is the first randomized clinical trial of GlyNAC supplementation in older humans, and it found that a wide variety of age-associated abnormalities improved in older adults supplemented with GlyNAC, while no improvements were seen in those receiving placebo,” said Dr. Rajagopal Sekhar, the corresponding author of the study and a professor of medicine at Baylor.
GlyNAC was found to improve oxidative stress and glutathione levels as well as mitochondrial function in older humans’ muscle tissue. The aging signs that improved in this research included inflammation, mitophagy, insulin resistance, genomic damage, and cellular senescence.
The improvements seen in glutathione levels, oxidative stress, and mitochondrial function in older humans were comparable to what this research team recently reported from a study involving aged mice. The researchers found that GlyNAC increased lifespan in mice by about 24 percent. Their new study also suggests the supplement may help boost longevity in humans.
Mitochondria and aging
Mitochondrial dysfunction is a major issue in aging. Mitochondria often called the powerhouses or batteries of cells, are responsible for energy production. They make energy that cells need to function well and, so, are critical for good health.
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However, these organelles start to lose their function as people get older. The ability to produce energy drops over time and the effects of this are more noticeable in older adults. And, currently, not much can be done to improve mitochondrial function in the elderly.
Improving the function of mitochondria is critical to healthy aging, researchers believe.
Sekhar and his team had found in earlier research that GlyNAC supplementation improved mitochondrial function in aged mice. The current work was embarked on to see if the supplement would also benefit older humans.
Benefits to older adults
In the randomized trial, the researchers observed that older persons exhibited more significant mitochondrial damage and other age-related defects than young people. They found that 16 weeks of GlyNAC use perked up mitochondrial function in the older subjects to a level comparable to that of their younger counterparts. The supplement was found to bring into cells younger, healthier mitochondria.
Another interesting finding was that GlyNAC protected against harmful oxidative stress, which free radicals or reactive oxygen species cause. Supplementation also improved the levels of the natural antioxidant glutathione, which protects cells against oxidative stress.
Researchers say we need glutathione in just the right amount to deal well with oxidative stress. Too little or too much could result in undesirable outcomes.
“This is why GlyNAC is a natural solution for correcting glutathione deficiency because it provides the raw materials to help cells to make their own glutathione in just the right amount,” said Sekhar. “We have seen that this repeatedly in all our prior studies supplementing GlyNAC, including this trial.”
Scientists have identified nine hallmarks of aging whose correction, they think, could promote healthy aging. The ones that improved in this trial included genomic damage, distorted intracellular communication, proteostasis loss, nutrient sensing, stem cell fatigue, and cellular senescence – aside from mitochondrial dysfunction.
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Improvements in mitochondrial health and oxidative stress mainly explain why multiple other age-linked defects get better, Sekhar believed.
The findings suggest that GlyNAC could help you stay lean and fit as you get older too. Its use boosted muscle strength in both the upper and lower extremities. Exercise capacity also seemed to improve from supplementation.
Researchers noticed improvements in the waist circumference and blood pressure of subjects. A notable step-up in gait speed was observed in gait speed as well – this has been linked to survival in older people.
