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The Emperor's New Klotho, Or Something More?
Plus: lesser-known turmeric (curcumin) dos and don'ts
The 10almonds Team
May 29, 2024
Today’s almonds have been activated by:
Is coffee hydrating? Well, it’s a diuretic (unless decaffeinated), but that’s ok because your urinary system is supposed to frequently be passed through—your intention wasn’t to hoard water in your body, after all.
The real question therefore becomes: how much water is in it? If it’s an espresso ristretto it’ll be less hydrating than a giant cup of filter coffee.
Sugar, on the other hand, actually can make it less hydrating (and even potentially dehydrating), by creating an unhappy osmotic gradient. So, unsweetened (or alternatively sweetened, e.g. with stevia) coffee is more hydrating!
In A Rush?
Today’s 30-Second Summary
If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:
Klotho, in its various forms, is an enzyme that has implications for aging
Today’s main feature examines what exactly those implications are, how we can know them, and what we can do about them
Take-away advices include: do intermittent fasting, and consider taking senolytic supplements such as fisetin. As for why, that’s in the article!
When did you last have your hearing checked? It’s easy to let things slip away from us, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
Today’s sponsor, Hear.com, are offering the most cutting-edge dual-processing technology in hearing aids that isolate and separate speech from background noise, now with their latest most advanced device yet!
Read on to learn more about these things, or click here to visit our archive
A Word To The Wise
Watch and Learn
Turmeric (Curcumin) Dos and Don'ts With Dr. Kim
Dr. Leonid Kim talks some lesser-known curcumin facts and hacks:
Prefer text? The above video will take you to a 10almonds page with a text-overview, as well as the video!
Wildcard Wednesday
Unzipping The Genes Of Aging?
Klotho is an enzyme encoded in humans’ genes—specifically, in the KL gene.
It’s found throughout all living parts of the human body (and can even circulate about in its hormonal form, or come to rest in its membranaceous form), and its subgroups are especially found:
α-klotho: in the brain
β-klotho: in the liver
γ-klotho: in the kidneys
Great! Why do we care?
Klotho, its varieties and variants, its presence or absence, are very important in aging.
Almost every biological manifestation of aging in humans has some klotho-related indicator; usually the decrease or mutation of some kind of klotho.
Which way around the cause and effect go has been the subject of much debate and research: do we get old because we don’t have enough klotho, or do we make less klotho because we’re getting old?
Of course, everything has to be tested per variant and per system, so that can take a while (punctuated by research scientists begging for more grants to do the next one). Given that it’s about aging, testing in humans would take an incredibly long while, so most studies so far have been rodent studies.
The general gist of the results of rodent studies is “reduced klotho hastens aging; increased klotho slows it”.
(this can be known by artificially increasing or decreasing the level of klotho expression, again something easier in mice as it is harder to arrange transgenic humans for the studies)
Here’s one example of many, of that vast set of rodent studies:
Relevance for Alzheimer’s, and a science-based advice
A few years ago (2020), an Alzheimer’s study was undertaken; they noted that the famous apolipoprotein E4 (apoE4) allele is the strongest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s, and that klotho may be another. FGF21 (secreted by the liver, mostly during fasting) binds to its own receptor (FGFR1) and its co-receptor β-klotho. Since this is a known neuroprotective factor, they wondered whether klotho itself may interact with β-amyloid (Aβ), and found:
❝Aβ can enhance the ability of klotho to draw FGF21 to regions of incipient neurodegeneration in AD❞
In other words: β-amyloid, the substance whose accumulation is associated with neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease, is a mediator in klotho bringing a known neuroprotective factor, FGF21, to the areas of neurodegeneration
In fewer words: klotho calls the firefighters to the scene of the fire
The advice based on this? Consider practicing intermittent fasting, if that is viable for you, as it will give your liver more FGF21-secreting time, and the more FGF21, the more firefighters arrive when klotho sounds the alarm.
See also: Intermittent Fasting: What’s the truth?
…and while you’re at it:
A more recent (2023) study with a slightly different (but connected) purpose, found results consistent with this:
…and, for that matter this (2023) study that found:
…which looks promising, but we’d like to see it repeated with a sounder method (they sorted caregiving into “high-stress” and “low-stress” depending on whether a child was diagnosed with ASD or not, which is by no means a reliable way of sorting this). They did ask for reported subjective stress levels, but to be more objective, we’d like to see clinical markers of stress (e.g. cortisol levels, blood pressure, heart rate changes, etc).
A very recent (April 2024) study found that it has implications for more aspects of aging—and this time, in humans (but using a population-based cohort study, rather than lab conditions):
Can I get it as a supplement?
Not with today’s technology and today’s paucity of clinical trials, you can’t. Maybe in the future!
However… The presence of senescent (old, badly copied, stumbling and staggering onwards when they should have been killed and eaten and recycled already) cells actively reduces klotho levels, which means that taking supplements that are senolytic (i.e., that kill those senescent cells) can increase serum klotho levels:
Ok, what can I take for that?
We wrote about a senolytic supplement that you might enjoy, recently:
Want to know more?
If you have the time, Dr. Peter Attia interviews Dr. Dena Dubal (researcher in several of the above studies) here:
Enjoy!
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This Or That?
Vote on Which is Healthier
Yesterday we asked you to choose between dried apricots and dried prunes—both are great, but ultimately we picked the prunes (click here to read about why), as did 66% of you!
Now for today’s choice:
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Click on whichever you think is better for you!
Bonus (Sponsored) Recommendation
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One-Minute Book Review
Bone on Bone: An Orthopedic Surgeon's Guide to Avoiding Surgery and Healing Pain Naturally – by Dr. Meredith Warner
What this is not: a book about one specific condition, injury, or surgery.
What this is: a guide to dealing with the common factors of many musculoskeletal conditions, inflammatory diseases, and their consequences.
Dr. Warner takes the opportunity to address the whole patient—presumably: the reader, though it could equally be a reader's loved one, or even a reader's patient, insofar as this book will probably be read by doctors also.
She takes an "inside-out and outside-in" approach; that is to say, addressing the problem from as many vectors as reasonably possible—including supplements, diet, dietary habits (things like intermittent fasting etc), exercise, and even sleep. And yes, she knows how difficult those latter items can be, and addresses them not merely with a "but it's important" but also with practical advice.
As an orthopedic surgeon, she's not a fan of surgery, and counsels the reader to avoid that if reasonably possible. She also talks about how many people in the US are encouraged to have MRI scans for financial reasons (as in, they can be profitable for the doctor/institution), and then any abnormality is used as justification for surgery, to backwards-justify the use of the MRI, even if the abnormality is not actually the cause of the pain.
Noteworthily, humans in general are a typically a pile of abnormalities in a trenchcoat. Our propensity to mutation has made us one of the most adaptable species on the planet, yet many would have us pretend that the insides of people look like they do in textbooks, or else are wrong. The reality is not so, and Dr. Warner rightly shows this for what it is.
Bottom line: if you or a loved one are suffering from, or at risk of, musculoskeletal and/or inflammatory conditions, this is a top-tier book for having a much easier time of it.
Penny For Your Thoughts?
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Wishing you wonderful health in the very best of ways,
(no “Monkey’s Paw” style “oh wow, everyone come and behold the terrible wonder”) wonders of medical malaise,
The 10almonds Team
