New "Translating Aging" Podcast on Muscle Aging: And Drug Development to Halt it

#1

Interesting listening for anyone over the age of 30 (since thats when muscle aging starts, according to Bill Evans).

Included in the Podcast is a really interesting discussion around how the FDA is pushing back on anti-aging muscle drug development because of the concern that it may be adopted too quickly by too many people if its successful … The FDA’s concern seems to be about potential unexpected side effects that affect some portion, or subsegment of the population (but isn’t discovered until wide usage).

Dr. Bill Evans, one of the world’s foremost experts on muscle aging, to the podcast. Bill is adjunct professor of Human Nutrition at University of California Berkeley and an adjunct professor of medicine in the Geriatrics Program at Duke.

Previously, he was vice president and head of Muscle Metabolism Discovery Performance Unit at GlaxoSmithKline and he was also president of the Muscle and Health Division at KineMed. He was also president of the Muscle and Health Division at KineMed.

Earlier this year, he was recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2022 International Conference on Frailty, and Sarcopenia Research.

Today, Bill brings his vast amount of experience and expertise to the podcast to discuss how muscle aging affects longevity in older people and the relationship between muscle aging and age-related diseases. He begins by sharing his experience in the longevity industry, particularly with muscle aging, and goes on to discuss the term ‘sarcopenia’, including what it means and how it relates to muscle degeneration.

He then explains the differences between sarcopenia and cachexia, and referring to several studies, shares the meaning of frailty, the relation of walking speed with age, and the importance of the brain–muscle connection.

At the conclusion of the episode, Bill discusses the future of muscle aging and how the longevity industry hopes to find solutions that will improve the lives of people on a global scale.

Episode Highlights: Bill’s journey in the muscle aging industry Why muscle degeneration? The origin of the term ‘sarcopenia’ The differences between sarcopenia and cachexia Is sarcopenia due to dysregulation of neuronal inputs? The contribution of fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscle fibers in aging Sarcopenia and age-related diseases What is frailty? Why our walking speed slows down as we age The relation between exercise and psychological state The brain-muscle connection The future of the longevity industry from Bill’s viewpoint

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#2

Related research:

Highlights

• The combination of creatine supplementation and resistance training increases lean mass and muscle strength in aging adults.

• Creatine supplementation decreases measures of bone catabolism which may help explain some of the preliminary increases in bone area and strength.

• Creatine supplementation poses no adverse effect on kidney or liver function.

• Creatine supplementation as the potential to be an effective intervention for treating frailty and cachexia.

Creatine for new user
#3

His Berkeley academic profile page:

Most of his research listed above seems to be related to protein intake, resistance training, or walking, and mostly in older adults. Since rapamycin reduces sarcopenia, I’m not sure that increased protein is needed, but I could not agree more with the need for resistance training and general fitness.

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#4

It seems he’s been involved in testing some interesting products:

Recent related presentations and discussions:

Fortetropin® is a unique bio-active composition derived from fertilized chicken egg yolks.
Our patented process uses high pressure pasteurization and dehydration which preserves the biological integrity and bio-activity of nutrients in egg yolks.

As you might expect, it increases MTOR

ForteTropin
ForteTropin1354×864 153 KB

Conclusions

The overall magnitude of the difference in muscle protein FSR of Fortetropin from placebo was 18%, with multiple gene ontologies affected. While these results should be confirmed in larger cohorts, they suggest that Fortetropin supplementation is effective for promoting muscle protein synthesis in older people.

Paper:

and

Interesting links related to all of this:

and

And products that use / include Fortetropin:

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#5

it’s interesting that some studies found a myostatin reduction, while others did not. Some studies called called Fortetropin a myostatin inhibitor, but its exact mechanism may not be known.

The first paper above used about 20g of Fortetropin per day, while the two supplements above have only 2 or 3 grams per serving. The first product (for people) would then require spending $15/day to get 20g of Fortetropin. The second product (for dogs) would cost about $5/day for 20g; this product appears to have only one ingredient: Fortetropin.

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#6

Well placed skepticism. I have followed strength training for decades. Many products appeared during those decades. But, I think creatine (introduced somewhere around 1995) was the only one that actually ended up being recognized as having some muscle and strength building properties

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#8

An interesting article on the exercise link to cognitive performance