Recommendation Number 4:

Mitochondrial Energy Optimizer

Protect your Proteins against Glycation, Suppress Pro-Inflammatory Cytokines while Optimizing Mitochondrial Function

Aging causes irreversible damage to the body’s proteins. The underlying mechanism behind this damage is glycation.

A simple definition of glycation is the cross-linking of proteins and sugars to form non-functioning structures in the body called AGEs (advanced glycation end products).1 The process of glycation can be superficially seen as unsightly creased skin. Glycation is also an underlying cause of age-related events involved in the neurologic, vascular, renal and ocular areas.2-13

With the Added Anti-Glycating Power of Pyridoxal 5’-Phosphate

The Mitochondrial Energy Optimizer from Life Extension now features 100 mg of pyridoxal 5’-phosphate. This form of vitamin B6 is an efficient inhibitor of both lipid and protein glycation reactions.

Carnosine is a multifunctional dipeptide that also interferes with the glycation process.18-24 Carnosine has been shown to inhibit glycation early in the process, thus helping protect against further damage.25

Carnosine levels are reduced with age. Levels found in muscle tissue decline 63% from age 10 to age 70, which may account for the normal age-related decline in muscle mass and function.19 Since carnosine acts as a pH buffer, it can keep on protecting muscle cell membranes from oxidation under the acidic conditions of muscular exertion. Carnosine enables the heart muscle to contract more efficiently through enhancement of calcium response in heart myocytes.26 Long-lived cells such as nerve cells (neurons) and muscle cells (myocytes) contain high levels of carnosine. Higher muscle levels of carnosine correlate with the increased life spans of animals.

Carnosine is one of the few compounds that increases the life span of human cells in culture. Human fibroblasts divide 40 to 45 times before they become senescent. The presence of carnosine allows the cells to divide 8 to 10 times more before they stop dividing, increasing cell life span 20% or more.27-29

How Much Carnosine Is in a Typical Diet?

Health-conscious people often limit their intake of meat. One downside to avoiding meat, however, is that meat is the most abundant source of dietary carnosine.

A human study sought to determine carnosine concentrations in blood plasma after eating beef.30 Each 7.1-ounce serving of ground beef used in this study naturally contained 248 mg of carnosine.

In the study’s first phase, meat foods were removed from the diet for 48 hours. When fasting blood levels were measured, no carnosine was present. After the subjects ate 7.1 ounces of ground beef, carnosine was detected in the blood within 15 minutes and continued to increase for several hours. After 5.5 hours, there was again no carnosine in the blood. This study clearly showed that 248 mg of carnosine does not provide the body with all-day protection against glycation reactions.

The reason carnosine disappears so quickly from the blood is the presence of an enzyme (carnosinase) that naturally degrades carnosine in the body. This study on carnosine blood levels confirms what Life Extension® published nine years ago when we advised members that at least 1000 mg a day of carnosine is needed to overwhelm the carnosinase enzyme and protect against toxic glycation reactions.31,32

Commercial supplement companies are still selling 50-mg carnosine capsules and claiming that this low dose is effective. Based on this human study showing that the body degrades 248 mg of carnosine within 5.5 hours, consumers who take these 50-mg carnosine capsules are obtaining virtually no benefit.

The daily dose of a nutrient formula called Mitochondrial Energy Optimizer provides 1000 mg of carnosine. This dose is needed to provide enough anti-glycating carnosine to your proteins before being depletedby the carnosinase enzyme that rapidly degrades dietary carnosine.

Mitochondrial Energy Optimizer supplies 1000 mg of carnosine plus benfotiamine — the fat-soluble form of vitamin B1. Benfotiamine provides additional protection against glycation reactions while guarding cells against the toxic effects of chronic glucose exposure. Even people with normal glucose levels encounter damaging sugar reactions over a lifetime. Benfotiamine protects against glucose-induced cell damage via three different mechanisms.33-36

Optimizing Mitochondrial Function

A serious event that causes the loss of cellular vitality is the depletion of mitochondrial energy function.37-40 Cells require healthy mitochondrial activity to perform life-sustaining metabolic processes. As mitochondrial function weakens in our cells, so does the vitality of organs such as the heart and brain or, in some cases, the entire body.41,42

While CoQ10 is necessary for youthful mitochondrial energy function, there are other essential nutrients involved in the mitochondria’s respiratory chain. In order for the mitochondria to create the energy needed to sustain cellular function, fatty acids (which serve as the mitochondria’s fuel) must be transported through the cell membrane and into the mitochondria.43-45 The amino acid acetyl-L-carnitine boosts mitochondrial energy production by facilitating fatty acid transport and oxidation within the cell.46-48

As the mitochondria burn fatty acids to produce cellular energy, they generate a host of free radicals in the process. That is why a mitochondrial antioxidant like lipoic acid is so critical. Mitochondrial Energy Optimizer provides the more potent form of lipoic acid (called R-lipoic acid), along with a more effective form of L-carnitine (called acetyl-L-carnitine arginate).

Mitochondrial Energy Optimizer incorporates the tremendous advances in our knowledge about the importance of maintaining mitochondrial integrity as we age. Scientists now know that mitochondrial decay in aging is a major driving force behind the aging process.37,41

Fatty acids that serve as the fuel for the mitochondria are pulled across the mitochondrial membrane by carnitines.43-45 As we age, we lose the ability to pull fatty acids across the membrane because of free radical damage that occurs inside the mitochondria.49 Mitochondrial Energy Optimizer helps restore mitochondrial function by boosting cellular levels of R-lipoic acid, L-carnitine, and endogenous antioxidant enzymes.

The Brain Regeneration Form of Carnitine

Brain cells communicate with each other because they are connected to one another by neurites (dendrites and axons). Neurites are long filament-like terminal branches of nerve cells that grow much like branches of a tree. Neurites function to provide the communication circuitry pathways between the nerve cells. As we age, there is a loss of neurites, which results in slowed thinking as neural-connection pathways are reduced from many in number to only a few. The effect of the age-related neurite loss is that thought-processing pathways, thinking time, and reaction times are all significantly diminished.

ArginoCarn® Acetyl-L-carnitine arginate is a patented form of carnitine that stimulates the growth of neurites in the brain. Acetyl-L-carnitine by itself stimulated neurite growth after five days by 5.6%. Acetyl-L-carnitine arginate, on the other hand, stimulated neurite outgrowth in the same time period by 19.5% — an increase of over three-fold!48 An equally impressive finding was the average length of the neurites produced by the acetyl-L-carnitine arginate group was 21% longer than in the acetyl-L-carnitine-only group.50

Suppressing Mitochondria-Generated Free Radicals With Antioxidant Vitamins

Free radical damage is a well-established culprit behind premature aging.51 To counteract toxic free radicals, health-conscious people supplement with antioxidants such as green tea, grapeseed, lycopene, gamma tocopherol, and other plant extracts.

Alpha-lipoic acid is a particularly potent antioxidant because of its ability to boost glutathione levels inside cells to protect against mitochondrial-generated free radicals.52-58 Lipoic acid functions as a fat- and water-soluble antioxidant.59 It easily crosses cell membranes to confer antioxidant protection to interior and exterior cellular structures.59,60

Alpha-lipoic acid contains 50% “R”-lipoic and 50% “S”-lipoic acids. Most people don’t know that the active part of alpha lipoic acid is the “R”-lipoic acid isomer.59 R-lipoic acid is found in very small amounts in the tissues and is tightly bound to mitochondrial complexes. Due to the difficulty of isolating R-lipoic acid, researchers originally conducted studies using only alpha lipoic acid.

While the body can utilize both forms of lipoic acid, the R-lipoic form is far more biologically active. For example, the “R”-form improves ATP synthesis in isolated cells, whereas the “S”-lipoic form does not. The R-lipoic acid form was shown to increase cell membrane fluidity and transport.61,62

As the biologically active form of “alpha-lipoic acid,” R-lipoic acid is directly involved in cellular metabolism. It is a vital component of the intracellular antioxidant cycle, able to scavenge a variety of free radicals and reactive oxygen species while recycling vitamins C, E and glutathione.62-67

R-lipoic acid readily crosses the blood-brain barrier and has been shown effective for elevating intracellular glutathione levels.68 This biologically active lipoic acid isomer helps regulate neuronal calcium homeostasis,69 protects against excitotoxic insults,69 regulates pro-inflammatory cytokines,70-73 and alters the expression of toxic genes.74 R-lipoic acid has been used to protect against adverse glucose reactions in the body and is recommended as a neuroprotective agent.68,71,75-78 Because R-lipoic acid is the naturally occurring form found in mitochondrial complexes, it offers substantially greater benefits at significantly lower doses than the synthetic forms of lipoic acid currently available.

Mitochondrial Energy Optimizer contains this potent form of lipoic acid as the microencapsulated Bio-Enhanced® R-lipoic acid, which provides more protection against free radicals than higher amounts of alpha lipoic acid.

Suppressing Inflammatory Cytokines

Normal aging is accompanied by an increase in pro-inflammatory cytokines that often results in enduring low level, systemic inflammation. Nutrients that suppress pro-inflammatory cytokines are thought to confer longevity benefits.

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is an example of a pro-inflammatory cytokine that often increases with aging and is associated with many undesirable effects. A recent study of people who have reached or passed their 100th birthday reveals that they uniformly express lower than normal IL-6 levels.79

Luteolin is a flavonoid that is found in olive oil, green pepper, and perilla plant, and has been shown to lower pro-inflammatory cytokine expression in vitro and in vivo.80-82 In particular, luteolin is a strong IL-6 inhibitor that may work via several different mechanisms to reduce this inflammatory cytokine. Some studies show that luteolin down-regulates pro-inflammatory TNF-alpha activity to lower IL-6 levels. Other studies demonstrate that luteolin reduces NF-kappa B levels that control IL-6 production.83 Additional studies show that luteolin reduces the majority of the most dangerous inflammatory factors in the body including NF-kappa B, TNF-alpha, IL-4, IL-5, and IL-6.83-86

The up-regulation of inflammatory genes is one of the cruelest aspects of the aging process. Luteolin is an ideal supplement that is orally very effective as a potent inhibitor of IL-6 and related inflammatory cytokines at low doses. Mitochondrial Energy Optimizer provides a potent luteolin concentrate in each daily dose.

A Comprehensive Anti-Aging Formulation

Mitochondrial Energy Optimizer provides nutrients that have demonstrated significant biological benefits at the cellular level. A look at the complete Mitochondrial Energy Optimizer formula reveals the comprehensive value of this energy-restoring mitochondrial supplement in only four capsules per day. Just four capsules of Mitochondrial Energy Optimizer provide:

The cost of taking all of the individual ingredients found in Mitochondrial Energy Optimizer would be prohibitive for most people. Life Extension members, however, gain access to these important cutting-edge nutrients at huge savings.

A bottle containing 120 capsules of the Mitochondrial Energy Optimizer retails for $86.00. If a member buys four bottles, the price is reduced to $58.50 per bottle. For more information see the Mitochondrial Support section of this Directory.

Note: It is important to take four capsules per day of the Mitochondrial Energy Optimizer in order to benefit from carnosine. The reason for this is because the body automatically metabolizes lower amounts of carnosine into an inert substance, but the body cannot quickly neutralize the amount of carnosine (1000 mg) contained in four capsules of the Mitochondrial Energy Optimizer formula.

More Info on Mitochondrial Function