Do you want to live well as you age? For most people, the answer is a resounding “yes!” Health and vitality in our older years can mean more energy to pursue our passions, create cherished family memories and give back to causes that matter to us. With the right lifestyle choices and habits – like exercise, eating right and taking healthy aging supplements – we may be able to significantly increase our quality of life as we age.
What happens when you age?
As you age, your body undergoes various noticeable and subtle changes. For instance, your skin can become thinner and less elastic over time, and vision and hearing quality can also decline. Additionally, muscle mass and strength tend to decrease, and bones can lose density while cartilage weakens. Furthermore, your brain loses nerve cells amid a decrease in blood flow.
While physical changes associated with aging are sometimes noticeable, they do not always reveal what’s happening beneath the surface. Aging occurs at the cellular level, highlighting the significance of supporting those cells for healthy aging. Here’s how it works: your body is composed entirely of cells that naturally die and regenerate. However, as you age, some cells do not get replaced, which weakens skin, organs, bones, muscles, and the brain. Fortunately, regenerative medicine, healthy aging supplements, and other strategies can help to slow down this process.
What does healthy aging mean?
Healthy aging entails more than just extending the number of years you live — it involves expanding the number of years you experience high levels of energy, vitality, and joy. To achieve that, you must focus on prevention and take care of your body at the cellular level by eating a lean, nutrient-rich diet with plenty of iron, calcium, and vitamins B6 and B12.
In addition, exercise regularly to increase muscle and bone mass, and avoid bad habits like excessive drinking and smoking, which damage your organs. Healthy aging supplements can also help you get the necessary nutrients and support your cells.
Top supplements for healthy aging
Calcium, B vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids, and collagen are popular and effective healthy aging supplements. Integrative medicine also utilizes herbal and plant-based options like curcumin, astragalus, rhodiola, and EGCG — an essential compound in green tea. Researchers continue to study new and exciting compounds like the ones below, with many showing promising results.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D is vital for bone formation and forms when a chemical reaction occurs after skin exposure to sunlight. Vitamin D also helps with muscle strength, immune function, improved mood, and in some cases, neurodegenerative diseases. Vitamin D deficiency is common in older adults, who often spend more time indoors.
Betaine
Betaine is a chemical compound that assists with cell reproduction, liver function, and synthesizing carnitine, which helps the body turn fat into energy. It can also ease inflammation and reduce oxidative stress and fibrosis — the thickening of tissues. Another study revealed that betaine is protective against chemicals, alcohol, and endotoxins.
Niacin
Niacin refers to two substances: nicotinic acid and nicotinamide, both essential to the cellular processes involved in metabolism and healthy aging. Studies also show the potential for nicotinamide to benefit healthy aging, with further studies focusing on cancer, cardiovascular conditions, and metabolic diseases.
Fisetin
Fisetin is a flavonoid – a plant substance with powerful properties in healthy aging supplements. Preliminary studies show fisetin’s remarkable properties, including the ability to kill senescent cells, i.e., cells that don’t die when they’re supposed to. Fisetin is also associated with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, and cardioprotective effects.
Luteolin
Traditional medicine also uses luteolin, another flavonoid that naturally occurs in many flowers, herbs, and spices. Luteolin protects plants from UV radiation and can have a similar effect on human skin by helping to slow UVB photoaging. Research is also ongoing to study luteolin for its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.
Apigenin
Apigenin, the final flavonoid on our list of supplements for healthy aging, is present in fruits and vegetables, including parsley, celery, oregano, spinach, and artichokes. Apigenin is a well-known antioxidant with possible anti-aging effects, such as relieving muscle atrophy, inhibiting cell breakdown and death, and reducing oxidative stress. Studies also show neuroprotective effects.
PQQ
PQQ (pyrroloquinoline quinone) is a vitamin-like molecule that naturally occurs in foods like spinach, kiwi, and soybeans. As an antioxidant that regulates metabolism, it also has immune and neuroprotective effects and is involved invarious mitochondrial processes, including reproduction and growth. A decline in mitochondrial activity is associated with aging and age-related conditions, which explains PQQ’s potential as a healthy aging supplement.
Finding the best healthy aging supplements
The study of healthy aging is a rapidly evolving field, with new discoveries emerging daily. Although there’s no single best supplement for healthy aging, many supplements contain multiple ingredients (including vitamin D and flavonoids) that work together to help your body at the cellular level.
Tony Robbins’ Peak Healthspan supplement includes the ingredients mentioned above and several others, specifically targeting the aging process and promoting cellular health to increase resilience, energy, and vitality.* This can translate to enhanced heart health support, bone health and joints, improved brain function, and more years spent functioning at your peak state.
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.