His NIH-funded lab studies are the gold standard for drug/supplement longevity research in mice and form the basis for much of the evidence that rapamycin increases life span in mammals. I’d recommend listening to the Peter Attia podcast with Rich Miller if you want to know his background and creds. I guess you can speculate that Rich Miller hates spermidine for some reason and wants to cover up its supposed anti-aging properties, but that doesn’t seem likely to me.
Being right about rapamycin extending lifespan isnt exactly a high bar, if he was wrong all the time he wouldn’t be where he is. The amount of studies showing spermidine to either resolving a negative aging pathology or extending median lifespan are enough to call Rich Millers assertion into question.
Polyamines are shown to be readily absorbed by the body.
Now if he saw no rise its possible that:
1 Some step in the measurements or implementation was wrong
2 Having influx of spermidine results in body having to produce less, this may have benefits despite the levels remaining similar.
Actually the “why” of someone going off mistaken assumption and maybe even doubling down on it doesnt matter, you and I both know he doesnt have to hate spermidine.
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Actually after doing a quick research review, you make some good points. I didn’t know there were so many published studies showing benefits in mice with oral spermidine supplementation (although it appeared to make type I diabetes worse, even then it was still absorbed and doing something). Like you said, maybe Miller’s lab was either having some kind of measurement error with spermidine in tissues/serum, or maybe it’s the polyamine flux that’s more important than absolute levels of spermidine at any given point in time. It’s a shame he didn’t proceed with the study, but I bet he’ll go back to it if more and more evidence from other labs points to a benefit.
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Yea thats fair , I believe perhaps he’s more focused on bigger drug-like regulators of macronutrients. Aging is such a complex issue that sometimes even the relatively minor pieces add up.
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