Very interesting research in that book but honestly, very little actionable paths for the reader. We aren't yet to a point where it's possible to just pop a pill and live another 100 years. Probably the most effective thing you can do right now is caloric restriction, but that can kind of suck. The holy grail would be some way to eat normally, and slow the aging process.
There are several ideas about why caloric restriction might be working. There was one study that implicated human growth hormone in combination with zinc, dhea, vitamin d, and burberine in telomeres lengthening. Human growth hormone is produced in response to ghrelin, which is released when we are hungry. So it might be that it is the hunger, not the lack of food that slows aging.
If that is true, then it infers that simply being hungry could extend life.
Some compounds promote hunger, notably THC found in marijuana. Yet, as far as I know, chronic marijuana users are not living substantially longer lives? Then again, the hunger effect probably also diminishes as ones tolerance increases.
Intermittent fasting with a total calorie intake that is breakeven is probably the safest way to boost hgh, some weightlifters do this already. Others use ibutemoren which is a sectagogue for ghrelin to indirectly boost hgh
Skip meals, live in a calorie deficit, take resveratrol, try to reduce inflammation, exercise, sort sleep, are the ones I can remember off my head. Also eat a massive amount of broccoli sprouts.
Yes, these are the steps. I'll expand on one as well:
> try to reduce inflammation
Avoid the obvious things (alcohol, drugs) but also your diet has a huge effect on systemic inflammation. It's one theory as to why caloric restriction works. Simply eating less, means less inflammation.
But WHAT you eat also matters. As it turns out, SUGAR is highly inflammatory. To a lesser extent, complex carbohydrates are too.
So if you're really interested in longevity consider not just eating less, but eating less sugar (and by extension, carbohydrates).
If you ask me that sucks. Part of living life, is enjoying good food. And as it happens, a lot of good food is full of fat and sugar. I moderate and I don't eat a lot of it, but to think I would need to basically cut all of it out just to live another frail 10 years doesn't seem worth it to me.
Which sort of indicates that it is not young blood per se that plays the important role, but dilution and removal of "something" that accumulates with age.
Albumin is expensive, at least so far, no one thought about an industrial method to produce large quantities, because there was no demand for them. Aside from price, no ethical problems there.
Also, frequent blood donors tend to be much more healthy. A study from Kuopio, Finland, showed that they are almost immune to heart attacks:
Ofc, the question of causality is strong here, no doubt. But maybe - if the body of a blood donor is forced to produce new blood frequently, might this new blood be "healthier" or "younger" in some sense.
There is a hypothesis that excess iron is a risk factor for heart attack, and that periodic blood loss clears it out. This could be why pre-menopausal women have lower rates of heart attack than men and post-menopausal women, even after adjusting for age and other factors.
A good occasion to remind everyone to consider donating blood, especially now - most places are pretty low on blood transfusions currently because of the pandemic. Varies by country of course but if you are healthy and it's possible where you live you can help a lot!
Even if one wanted to donate right now, aren't we supposed to be limiting our exposure to other people as COVID surges?
I'm probably too cautious of a person but I tend to not trust other people to exercise appropriate caution themselves. Intimate proximity to a nurse taking blood, seems like a bad idea right now.
For men and postmenopausal women that could just be dumping excess iron to avoid organ damage. If the albumin had similar results for regular blood donors and premenopausal women, maybe we need albumin.
https://www.lifespan.io/road-maps/the-rejuvenation-roadmap/