It depends upon how much precision you are using to compare things. If I get MCV from one lab I would expect another lab to be quite close.
HbA1c, however, is measured in two distinctive ways (with aldimine and without aldimine) that has a big impact on the result. (over half a percent if measured as a percentage)
Sure I understand there is some deviations in methodology, equipment, personnel etc. But still for comparison values should be standardized and proficiency tested… otherwise a lab result has no value. And I am talking about a deviation in reference value which is almost 100%…
Labcorp’s normal range for testosterone was 348 to 1197 for many years until they revised it lower a couple of years ago.
RANGE TESTOSTERONE.pdf (67.9 KB)
They revised it lower because average testosterone levels of American males decreased a great deal over the prior 3 decades. It was not due to health considerations.
In general, Americans are very studly, so we probably have higher baseline testosterone levels.
Anyone try stem cells for anything? Also, I know there have been some promise in altering the amino acid sequence in our DNA for sickle cell and thalassemia. There maybe some sequences that improve longevity.
Aging optimization
Sleep - highest priority. Monitor and adjust
Oura or Fitbit to monitor. Eye shades. Ear plugs. Amber glasses at night. Melatonin, Magnesium, regular sleep schedule, resistant starch, tablespoon of honey with tablespoon of MCT oil just before bed. PEMF, see below. Co-operative sleep partner that doesn’t make fun of you (too much disclosure?)
Exercise - muscle development / flexibility / balance
See: https://katalyst.fit I’ve had one for 18 months. It has replaced all high intensity and weight training for me. I additionally use it to enhance cardio workout. It works. I have a set of rings hanging from the ceiling for stretching and fun. Muscle ups at 70 (even with long Covid). Katalyst suit use twice a week got me back to this level after years…
https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Stretching-Russian-Flexibility-Breakthroughs/dp/0938045180
Odd ball character (which I generally seek out in my life) and his approach to stretching/flexibility works. You can find his videos on Amazon Prime.
I understand that Katalyst has plans to enable users to custom design workouts (essentially time the pulsing) that one could use to augment the kind of stretching that Pavel does, (I really like my Katalyst suit)
Walk. Lots. Walk in a wilderness, walks by the ocean even better.
Diet - plant based vs carnivore / sugar control
Low carb, high quality fat, medium but high quality protein. I would additionally recommend ingesting all the resistant starch that you can to optimize and maintain your micro-biome. Potato starch and/or plantain flour cost little and works. They also improve sleep and facilitate vivid - think Technicolor - dreaming.
Berberine, MCT oil, and Bitter melon extract can mitigate insulin spikes from occasional high glycemic carbohydrates.
Supplements - Vit D/ Fish oil/ NMN/ Magnesium / sulforaphane
Good start. I’d consider: ADK, Krill oil, Zinc, Calcium d-Glucarate, Berberine (similar in affect to Metformin), trans-Pterostilbene. 70 years old, decades of high fat keto diet, with the above supplements and no cardiac calcium.
Hacks - meditation/ prayer/ cold showers / breath work / Float tanks / hyperbaric oxygen / sauna.
Consider
PEMF device for healing injuries and use on the Vagal nerve to affect HRV.
ICES® DigiCeutical® A9 Model System – Flux Health
Any of the HeartMap devices (biofeedback to affect HRV) https://store.heartmath.com/innerbalance
Don’t forget about massage!
Medications - Rapamycin / Acarbose / Metformin /
Rapamyin- yep
Acabose - don’t know enough to comment
Metformin - Berberine might give you what you need
Vaccination
Every one I can get. One of things medicine does very well.
So, how old are you?
@Alpha Wow! Thank you for being thorough and attention to detail!
I have some homework to check out many of your recommendations.
I am 59 and admire what you are doing at 70.
Thank you for all this info. Can you share more about your experience with the HeartMath device. Did it help you increase HRV? If so after what usage schedule/volume of time?
My experience
The feedback from the HeartMath devices/ apps (they have both), shows how you affect HRV in real time. The website gives one access to introductions and training. The programs/devices track progress per session and across sessions.
During a session, the app shows you a range with an upper and lower bound, and tracks your time in this “zone” over the session. I typically do a breathing session long enough to accumulate 5 full minutes in the zone. Sometimes this takes just 5 minutes. Sometimes it can run longer. Longer in that zone better, but just 5 minutes a day, has immediate and profound affects.
Doing this gives you something approaching conscious control of your body’s release of cortisol and adrenaline. You can go with them if you need them (e.g., run from danger), but higher HRV enables you to have them rather than the hormones having you.
This results in greater reserves of energy both physical and mental - you don’t waste energy on unnecessary reactions to stressors.
More interestingly, it gives one greater reserves of serenity, composure, poise - even in the face of uncertainty and stress.
The most noticeable thing in a dumb day-by-day kind of way… I fight less with my wife.
I’ve just recommended the device to my sister-in-law now overcome with grief from the death of her husband of nearly 50 years.
You could do this with meditation, but meditation doesn’t give you affective bio-feedback in real time.
A classic biohacking stack
One can have even better results by coupling HeartMath HRV breath work with the use of a PEMF device on the Vagal nerve (just below the left collar bone).
A HeartMath session requires attention, if only 5 to 10 minutes a day. You can use a PEMF device passively all day or all night (while asleep).
Using them simultaneously gets even more interesting - a classic biohacking stack!
Two medical papers
The effect of mental stress on heart rate variability… (a bit specific but useful in establishing the relationship to stress).
Heart rate variability: How it might indicate well-being - Harvard Health
Links to part 1 & 2 of TED Talk
TEDxPortsmouth - Dr. Alan Watkins - Being Brilliant Every Single Day (Part 1) - YouTube
TEDxPortsmouth - Dr. Alan Watkins - Being Brilliant Every Single Day (Part 2) - YouTube
Watkins now advises HeartMath.
I’ve had injections into my right knee of platelet-rich plasma (PRP), this ostensibly introduces stem cells to an injury. It didn’t work for me.
What has worked, although it has taken considerable time to work, PEMF (described a bit in an earlier response on this thread).
PEMF reduces inflammation and recruits stem cells to heal and repair tissues.
I had a botched surgery to repair a torn meniscus in my right knee. The surgeon took it upon himself to “smooth” out the cartilage cushioning the joint. He shaved off too much, leaving me with bone on bone.
Left with significantly more pain after the surgery than before, after 1 1/2 years, both my GP and another surgeon recommended a knee replacement.
Being 55 at the time, the prospect of a knee replacement that might only last 10 to 15 years, requiring maybe 3 replacement surgeries over the rest of my life discouraged me.
A friend recommended the PEMF device. I used it every night, while I slept for 6 months before it dawned on me that my right knee felt better than the left one.
I’ve continued to use it a few times per week. (I wish I had a full body one.)
I recently had imaging of the knee again. The doctor compared my original imaging with the current set.
They thought the dates on the images had gotten switched.
I had more cartilage.
The surgeon could hardly believe it. They said the new set of images, showed a little arthritis, but presented no indication of a recommendation for a knee replacement.
Score 1 for bio hacking.
I few years back I had laser surgery on both eyes. For 2 nights after the surgery, I used my PEMF device on my eyes, the coils held in place by a sleep mask. At my follow up assessment with my eye surgeon, he said that he had never seen anyones eyes recover|heal so quickly.
Score 2 for bio hacking!
Alpha
Which PEMF device did/do you use?
@Alpha - I got a chance to review several of your suggestions.
Katalyst suit, HeartMath and PEMF are all very interesting and seem cutting edge. I have not heard of any these modalities and they seem like good fits for a Rapamycin Longevity site.
MCT oil and raw honey ( some suggest sea salt as well) seem like its a nice sleep hack with some enthusiasts support.
Nice! Thank you!
Thanks for this rich response!
Re your actual HRV number, have you by any chance measured that overtime and see any trend upward from using the app/device combo?
I find the “over time” measures of HRV such as the Oura ring does a bit dodgy. They don’t necessarily measure HRV directly like HeartMath, but rather extrapolate HRV from a host of other variables.
Good intention. Not so good implementation
I don’t find these kinds of assessments particularly useful.
One doesn’t have to wait around for months for the HeartMath directed breathing sessions to work. You’ll see it in real time and feel it day by day.
B & C model descriptions describe each of them as,
…a precision scientific instrument intended for experienced ICES users.
I’d follow that advice.
B & C models support the use of 2 and 3 pairs of coils respectively. If you have multiple sites you want to treat simultaneously, it might make sense.
Alternatively, You could purchase a pair of the A9 models for less money and have greater flexibility in their use. I’ve done this when I borrowed an A9 device I had purchased for my daughter when she had a shoulder injury. Easier to simultaneously have one on your Vagal nerve and one on a twisted ankle.
As I understand it:
The different devices don’t actually generate different pulses or different ranges of the intensity of pulses and
Higher intensity does not equate to better or more effective treatment, it mainly enables the right level of pulse to affect tissues deeper in the body. Use on a cut would require a lower setting than addressing something in one’s torso. Think of it as use of a higher intensity setting on a cut will focus the pulses beyond where you want them.
The M1 device might make a better “upgrade” choice from the A9 for many. More compact. More controls.
If I had enough extra space, I’d consider a full body PEMF device. They can start at $5,000 and climb rapidly from that point.
Hmmm…" Given it should last 10 years or more, maybe I should make space, but then where does one fit in the equally desired: sensory deprivation tank, infrared sauna, cryo-tank, and hyperbaric chamber? This could require some serious planning.
I’d want a true medical grade one. They exist. Not cheap. You don’t want one that some opportunistic company slapped together without a real understanding of the technology. Maybe get one from a firm that Dr. Robert Dennis (Micro-Pulse founder and PEMF inventor) advises or that licenses the technology. Not certain if the original patents remain in effect.
From the Micro-Pulse site:
The original NASA TVEMF - PEMF systems were developed by Dr. Robert Dennis for NASA under contract in 1997 - 1998. Recently corrected NASA patents verify his status as original inventor.
FYI - I have no commercial relationship with Dennis or Micro-Pulse. I just like the stuff. It works.
*Some additional thoughts on full body PEMF devices. *
It occurs to me that a user would need the ability to adjust intensity of different sections of such a device to address different thicknesses of the body as well as different locations on or within the body one wanted to treat. Note that the Micro-Pulse devices enable one to position coils on opposite sides of an intended treatment area, essentially focusing the pulses from two sides. A serious full body PEMF device might best work as a long tube with many coils that one could focus.
All good points! Any comments on the M1? It sounds like the advantages are smaller, new tech and preset settings all for a few hundred more dollars.
Thank you Alpha.
Re
How well does it actually, really work?
Does it work well on abdominal muscles? (my least favorite to spend time on when restorable training, so any boost/acceleration would be extra valuable there on my end.)
I trained for years doing pretty brutal high intensity weight training including Super Slow, where I could barely walk up the stairs by the time I got home from the gym and had intensely sore muscles for days after - if I didn’t I hadn’t trained intensely enough.
In my estimation, 20 minutes of the Katalyst suit “strength training” twice a week feels forty percent more intense, than anything I’v done previously (I do crank it up a bit). I just stimulates more muscle more intensely, than the rest of my battered 70 year old body could ow do any other way. Deep muscle engagement and soreness for days and days.
With regard to abs or any other muscle group, you can dial in the intensity.
My 80 year old business partner bought one and has had the same experience. His 40 year old son bought one and has had the same experience. Our lawyer bought one, he has had the same experience. It works.
Before the Katalyst suit I had a gym membership, a full CrossFit home gym setup (Rogue rack, rings, reverse hyper machine,…). I got rid of all of it except the rings and a cross country ski machine.
It works.