Can Supplements Help Turn Back the Clock?

Meet Jason - a 65-year-old with an amazing GlycanAge result. We’re so thankful he shared his secrets with us and gave us the lowdown on his journey with an up-and-coming supplement. Find out how he turned his life around and the unexpected benefits that came along the way. 

Did you have a specific life event that encouraged you to start your health journey?

Probably about six years ago, I started feeling some arthritis in my hand. I was also experiencing a little bit of forgetfulness, I put on a little extra weight, and just in general realised I was on a path of ageing. 

It was the first time I realized that I was getting old and didn't have the capacity or the strength to do things that I used to do. And so I was reading about what could help. I mean, we're all going to age, that’s inevitable. But the more I read, the more I discovered that we all age differently.

There might be some new ideas that could reverse ageing by 15 or 20 years, which sounds great. And so even though I had no chronic diseases, I did struggle with dysphagia. I was having trouble swallowing, I couldn't eat as well as I could. 

Also, my skin started looking very wrinkly and my hearing wasn’t as good as it was before. All these things made me realize it's not going to get any better. And so that's what got me thinking - maybe I could do a little more muscle resistance to build up strength, maybe I could eat more protein and use some supplements.

I started taking rapamycin, which is really kind of an up-and-coming. The only thing we know is that it works in animals to reverse age and extend life and in turn health. 

Speaking of rapamycin, do you take any other longevity supplements?

I also take testosterone. That’s what we call testosterone replacement therapy - TRT. I do TRT once a week, with an injection of 200 mg, which is one little vial. 

It helps with libido, energy levels, muscles and so on. So again with the rapamycin, I think a good balance is TRT. My testosterone levels aren’t like what a bodybuilder has. It's in the normal range. 

It was closer to 400 which is the bottom of the range, now it's up to 1400, which is under the actual peak of a normal person. So I'm just under what would be the top, but I'm that way with all my supplements (B12 and vitamin D) I try to go as high without going over so that you're at the peak efficiency. 

I take rapamycin once a week, TRT, and taurine (which I started taking in my coffee). You lose these things as you get older. And so by replacing the testosterone and taurine, you actually get your body back to the youthful state it once was.

Can you share what first attracted you to GlycanAge?

I started taking rapamycin and the more I researched, the more I came across GlycanAge. So I wanted to try it out and see how it goes. 

And I have to be honest, I wish I had done it as a baseline before I started taking rapamycin. But again, at that point, I didn't even know if this thing would work. So why spend money on a test when I didn't even know if my supplements would provide results? 

But in hindsight, it's the one thing I regret because as soon as I got my results back saying I'm 37 biologically with no inflammation, I thought - I wish I knew my baseline. 

I did one other test that focused on DNA. It’s a spit test and you're supposed to get your results in 3 or 4 weeks. But I didn’t receive anything for about 5 weeks so I wrote to them and they said - Oh we have your results, and we have a discrepancy of 13 years, that's impossible. We've sent your sample to the owner because no one is 13 years younger. 

So that was amazing to hear. I talked to the owner and she knows that the test is accurate, but the rapamycin brought the results down in an unexpected way. This is not typical, and that test is not as deep as the GlycanAge test. 

But I want to make sure anyone reading this knows that there are no human trials on rapamycin, so I was testing this thing out on my own. 

I upped my dose from 6 mg once a week to 36. I increased it six times and I thought this would be better. Seven months later, I took my GlycanAge test and it aged me up to 51. I lost all those benefits and I knew I needed to slow down. 

I reduced the dose back to 6 mg and my GlycanAge went down to 47. Five months later I further improved the result by 5 years. Basically, I experimented and used your test to see whether I was helping my longevity or not.

If I’m being honest, I am not one of those people who work out in the gym like crazy and watch everything they eat. I go to the gym for one hour and 15 minutes every other day and I just use machines. 

It helps me maintain muscle and strength. I'm actually stronger than most of my coworkers. I work at a medical school, so there are a lot of young men between the ages of 24 and 28, yet I’m the only one who can do 20 pull-ups in a row and 20 more after a short break.

So what I'm seeing is that the GlycanAge test has actually helped me figure out my dose. Most people, if I tell them I'm 50, they don't challenge me, when in reality, I’m 65.

That’s amazing to hear. Have you made any lifestyle changes as well, maybe in your diet?

I really haven't, I'm a big steak eater. One of the things that we're learning now is that the older you get, the more protein you need.

These people who are looking at vegetarian diets and stuff are looking at the wrong models. The mice models that they're looking at don't translate well. The things that they think extend your life only work with certain things, but for humans, protein is necessary. 

So I eat a pound of meat with potatoes, butter, cheese and a big glass of milk after my exercise. 

As I’ve already said, I’m not crazy about exercise. I don't run, but when I’m not doing muscle resistance, I ride a bike for 30 minutes, and I maybe do about 80 sit-ups and some pull-ups. 



I’m happy you found the right balance. Do you have any self-care tips that you can share with us?

Well, you know, I'm pretty lazy. That's the thing. I look at the kind of people that are typically into longevity, and I'm not like them. I mean, they've been exercising their whole life. I’ll send you a picture of me from 6 years ago, you’ll see that I’m not one of those people who lived in the gym for the last 20 years.

So I haven't done a lot and yet now I feel like when it's most important, everything's come together. My only advice would be to eat a lot of protein, engage in good muscle resistance, exercise an hour a day and rest the next day. 

But I hate the gym. I mean, I go, but I hate it. I keep thinking after six years, one of these days I’ll fall in love with it, but I could get really lazy, really quick and stop going. So I make myself go.