Knowing what you know now, what would you be doing in your twenties?

#1

Hi everyone,

I’m a 25 year old female with a long-standing interest in longevity and nutrigenomics. I spend a lot of time reading and researching and it can honestly get a little overwhelming trying to filter through what may or may not be relevant to me at this stage of my life. So I thought it might be valuable to pose this question to a community of knowledgeable and likeminded people :slight_smile:

Here is what I’m currently doing and my reasoning:

Methyl B complex liquid drops in my morning orange juice. A recent blood test showed that I’m low-normal in active B12 which is odd considering the amount of eggs and animal products I consume. Maybe it is due to my MTHFR mutation.

Natural Desiccated Thyroid and Selenium drops - I have a history of subclinical hypothyroidism and this combo keeps my TSH down and my thyroid antibodies low.

Vitamin D3/K2/Boron - I live in the UK and there is no vitamin D available from sunlight between October-March. This helps me keep my levels up over the winter.

Magnesium Glycinate + 0.1mg Melatonin - Ensures that I sleep like a baby. I had insomnia throughout my teen years and this has effectively resolved the issue.

GlyNAC - A couple of times a week. I know the study was conducted in a much older demographic but I’m wary of my homozygous mutations in the GSTP1 gene.

Diet and lifestyle
I eat a lot meat, fish, seafood, eggs, berries, nuts and olive oil. I try to eat well but I could definitely eat more vegetables and maybe limit my meat intake? I’m very confused as there’s a lot of conflicting information out there, especially when I was trying to design my diet around my APOE4 status.

I’m getting into weightlifting, yoga, and use the sauna 3 times a week in 20 minute sessions.

Skin
Daily sunscreen, 0.05% tretinoin cream, vitamin c serum and a good moisturiser.

I intend to start rapamycin in a few years.

So what would you guys be doing in your twenties? I know that prevention is key. I’m especially interested in hearing any ideas on how to inhibit AGEs.

Thanks!

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#2

As someone in my mid-to-late 20s, I started finasteride years ago to maintain my hair (probably not that important for a woman). A while ago I also started using rosuvastatin, ezetimibe and low dose tadalafil because heart disease and strokes are the most common causes of death in the Western world. Rapamycin is my latest additon to my medicine stack which I take at high doses once per month (for a woman, once per week/biweekly at a lower dose may work even better?).
As for nutrition, I pretty much try to cover all my cases (vitamins, minerals, omega 3) with food and/or supplements. My protein intake is moderate-to-high because I want to build and maintain muscle mass while my calorie intake keeps me in a deficit on average. Perhaps my saturated fat intake is a bit high but due to my medicine, my LDL levels are low-ish enough.
My skin care routine is rather simple in comparison. I use a cleanser 1-2x a day, put moisturizer on my face once a day and use tretinoin gel 3-7x a week along with sunscreen whenever I go outside and the sun is still shining.

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#3

Cut out the orange juice as that will probably be causing a massive sugar spike.

I’ll let the other experts here comment on the supplements, although I would point out that probably a good idea to get some blood measurements eg vitD as you may not need it (I live in uk and didn’t go below the normal range until in my late 40’s (measured every two years during winter since mid 30’s and always had an office job) so at your age you could just be wasting money, especially as you appear to have a good diet).

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#4

Everybody is scared to be in the sun, but the UV provides more than just vitamin D and the IR keeps away alzheimers among other things. But it is hard to get enough because you really have to be naked at noon and it’s just really inconvenient and time consuming. I use Sperti lights and Red lamps at the same time after my shower (because already naked). It only takes 5 minutes and you can blow dry at the same time with a fan. This keeps away fungus.

RPS is right about sugar. It’s a bad habit. Also stay away from fried food. My daughter worked at a place where they fry food and she won’t touch it. Those things are ridiculous.

You are brilliant for your 20’s. I’m too embarrassed to say what I was doing in my 20’s but I’m lucky to be alive. Keep up the good work.

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#5

First of all measure your apoB.
Second of all measure your apoB.
Third of all measure your Lp(a).

Once you know your apoB and Lp(a) levels you can capture all future value of preventing cardiovascular disease, atherosclerosis from occurring. That’s the number one grim reaper that can be totally prevented if you start early enough and with an appropriate response as the benefits are on an exponential curve. APOE4 also increases apoB levels so they might be elevated especially if you are eating a high saturated fat diet.

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#6

Given above, think you also should measure your homocysteine levels as they may be low and you can then target that down to <8-9 or so with a mix of Vitamins B6, B9 and B12

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Agree with @AnUser

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In general would use measurements and data to guide your strategy - eg

  • what is your risk for long term frailty/sarcopenia/osteoperosis (invest in a dexa scan) and then that can feed into your decisions around how much resistance/strenghtraining to do… and then depending on those results you can decide how much to up your protein vs not.

  • what is your metabolic health like? Get hA1c, insulin and fasting glucose blood tests, and ideally wear a CGM for 2-6 weeks to really get a picture

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Similarly besides your dna stuff you mentioned what other family risks might you have for different things and then create strategies for those

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How are you at dealing with stress? Finding great ways to do that now can help you throughout the next decades in a way with big compounding positives (vs the opposite)

#7

Everything you are doing now sounds excellent. At your age, you may want to consider the following:

  1. Omega-3s - Most people are deficient, so you may want to take this for brain health.
  2. Micro dosed Lithium orotate - Great mood enhancer and longevity supplement.
  3. Taurine - once you hit 40, this should help prevent senescent cell formation.

I think you’re way ahead of the curve and even if you didn’t do the 3 above, you’re probably all set to be healthy into your 40s.

I’d switch the OJ to coffee and switch some supplements to powders that you can blend in your drinks like glycine or magnesium citrate.

#8

What I wish I’d done:

Monitor metabolic health - specifically, at least once a year get the blood tests done to measure HOMA-IR (fasting glucose and insulin levels) and a1c.

Once a decade (age 30, 40, 50) get a coronary artery calcium (CAC) scan.

Long term prevention:

  1. Avoid excessive carbs, sugary beverages, and processed foods.
  2. Avoid seed oils, particularly foods fried in anything like peanut oil or canola.
    (These are things that promote obesity and harm metabolic health.)
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#9

Once a decade (age 30, 40, 50) get a coronary artery calcium (CAC) scan.

If you have a CAC value > 0, you already have heart disease. It’s better to maintain very low LDL-C/non-HDL-C/apoB levels from early on.

NutritionMadeSimple disagrees.

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#10

I Wished i had eaten more meat and less fruit so I would have a stronger body and didn’t have such sensitive eroded teeth

#11

Funny you mention this, but i come from eastern Europe and growing up we would stay in the sun (mainly on the beach but also playing in soccer fields) for 3-6 hours daily from May to October. We had ZERO sun protection in form of SPF creams, since there were none (don’t ask me why lol it was a communist country and they decided what should be made available to consumers) but what was common knowledge was the fact that when we first started going in the sun (late spring) we would always do it gradually, first day 20 minutes, next day 30minutes, and so on for a week or so. We never got burned, and I literally NEVER recall any person in the city I grew up in (about 250,000 people) to have EVER been diagnosed with skin cancer, very puzzling and weird. btw, the reason I know there were no cases of skin cancer is because I was close to a nurse working on the hospital and this conversation would come up often because we would have relatives visiting from western world and they always were alarmed when they would see us go in sun without protection. Don’t know what to make of it, and I do use SPF cream now but I always wonder if I should even be doing it. In a very distant corner of my brain I tend to think that it is actually the chemicals in these creams that are doing most (if not all) the damage in terms of skin cancers. Just a thought.

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#12

Not everything that is natural is good. Think of lead, for example. It is a natural element which used to be everywhere due to being used in fuel and nowadays it’s use is heavily restricted.

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#13

If you have a CAC value > 0, you already have heart disease. It’s better to maintain very low LDL-C/non-HDL-C/apoB levels from early on.

Well yeah, you should maintain healthy habits, but the point of the CAC scan is to make sure your healthy habits are working. Plenty of people who thought they did not have atherosclerosis - they had none of the risk factors - actually did, and this is something that only a CAC scan can reveal. In particular, you can have “golden” cholesterol numbers and still have heart disease, so just tracking the lipids alone won’t help you.

NutritionMadeSimple disagrees.

I don’t give a shit. I’m firmly convinced seed oils should be avoided.

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#14

This will vary a lot from person to person, but for me is like this 20-30 I would do nothing other than good nutrition and stay active/exercise. 30-40 start experimenting with supplements maybe twice weekly and perhaps 3mgs of Rapa with GFJ once per month. I would also use Acarbose 50mgs/in small dose with my main meal of the day. I would not play with statins or even metformin or any other medication unless needed for a specific purpose (prescribed by a doc). Still keep active eat healthy and start counting calories (less than or 1800 if female, and less or equal to 2000 if male). I might start skipping one meal a day also (for me breakfast).
40-50- do same as 30-40 and Add 2000Mg Vit C daily for 4 days and also do same amount Lysine. Reduce calorie intake to not more than 1600 female, and less than 1800 male (unless doing heavy exercises). Start with one day or two a month fast. Might add Vit d3 magnesium, copper and zinc 2-3 days a week. Do Rapa dose of once every two weeks. Take a statin in very low dose and maybe a small dose of metformin also.
50-150 LOL do same as 40-50 but more frequently. Also, may add small dose of Cialis 3-5 days per week (for men) . further reduce calorie intake to max 1500 for woman, and 1700 for men. Reduce physical activity a lot and focus mainly in resistance training but for short periods daily (3-5 days per week). Fast 3 days per month until about 70, then one day per month should be plenty. Look at few other substances and supplements starting in low doses and gouging the effects and stick with ones that work best for you (the list is long, so I’ll just leave it out, but in a nutshell try almost everything and then reduce it to 10-20 things max per day). Do always resting periods of not taking anything at all for say 2-3 weeks, then start again.
Start yoga at any age, but it should be a MUST for over 50 crowd.
That is all you need for e healthy 150-year life span, and good luck reaching it.

#15

Your blood sugar, blood pressure or cRPC would be extremely high then.

#16

If you start at 50 you are already playing catchup.

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#17

I think i said I’d start at 30 but with fewer substances, and less frequent. Yes you are right you should start way earlier than 50, but even starting at any age is still better than not starting at all.

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#18

I wish I would have tried some sort of mindfulness/meditation training earlier. Not only does it have physical health benefits, but I think it helps you learn more about yourself. Just the act of sitting still and trying to observe yourself can give you a lot more insight.

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#19

Reading trough this thread I noticed that there are not many that would focus on lifestyle.
I I were again to start in my twenties I would focus on building a strong foundation, good consistent diet, probably some form of low CR(ON), exercising routine, building and maintaining muscles and mobility. Same for skin routine, consistent sunscreen and avoiding sunburn but not avoiding sun. I don’t imagine I would want to add medicines or stack of supplements in my twenties beyond making sure my omega 3 from dietary sources.
I would also make sure I enjoy life, would try to lower stress and expectations from myself. I would be kinder and would listen my intuition more. Bad decision in your twenties might become really catastrophic in you later life if you are not aware of what are you doing. Twenties are also most important years to build long lasting meaningful relationships, especially friendships.
Twenties are still a developmental and growing phase. The puberty is finishing and adulthood is taking place at the end of twenties. Enjoy your twenties, discover who you are, what you want in life and don’t be afraid of trying to get there. I would be much more aware of my psychological wellbeing and would put emphasis on that.

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#20

That’s great advice @scta123 . In my 20’s, much of my time was spent thinking things like “if I just got this promotion” or “bought this car”, I’d be happy. I tell my daughters that it’s important to have dreams and goals, but you only are X years old once so it’s important to fully inhabit that time. If you’re 16 and it’s something you are interested in, try being in the band or playing sports or whatever. I spent too much time in my 20’s thinking about what I wanted to be and too little time exploring who I was.

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