One of the pathways that goes into sharp decline as we age, is called the AMPK activation pathway.
Activating the AMPK pathway will keep your tissues young and slow aging throughout your body.
And in today’s video, we’ll take a look at just how this pathway works,
and at several things you can do to elevate your AMPK activation.
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So, if you’ve been following this series of videos,
then you know that we’ve been talking about biological aging on the cellular level.
We started by listing a bunch of theories on how that might occur, that are currently under investigation.
Then we took a few of those theories, and did a deeper dive into how these processes work
and what we can currently do about them.
Today, we’re continuing in that vein by tackling the subject of AMPK activation.
We’ll take a look at what the AMPK pathway is,
how it gets activated, the effects of AMPK activation,
as well as the impact that a decline in AMPK activation has on aging.
We’ll also discuss various things that you can do to boost your AMPK activation.
OK, let's jump right in. ATP, or adenosine triphosphate, is the primary energy source of all living organisms on earth.
Now, I know what you’re probably thinking…
”I though glucose was the primary energy source”.
But glucose gets converted into ATP when we consume energy.
Whether it’s metabolized from sunlight, in the case of plants,
or whether it’s metabolized from the food we eat,
energy is captured and stored in the form of ATP.
Now, ATP is broken down and the energy is released in the mitochondria,
resulting in the end product of AMP…or adenosine monophosphate.
So, adenosine triphosphate is converted into adenosine monophosphate,
releasing energy in the process.
AMPK is an enzyme and it stands for AMP-activated protein kinase.
Kinases are simply enzymes that transfer a phosphate group from a high-energy molecule to a specific substrate.
AMPK is biochemically activated in the presence of increasing levels of AMP
and decreasing levelsof ATP, and when AMPK is activated, cells do not make or store fat,
but rather burn fat for energy and it promotes glucose transport.
Activated AMPK promotes the rapid, efficient release of energy,
with little energy storage as fat, resulting in low blood sugar and fat levels,
increased insulin sensitivity and a low risk of heart disease, diabetes and other metabolic disorders.
Activated AMPK also promotes the steady renewal of cellular components.
It promotes autophagy, which is the process where cells consume themselves and recycle their components.
This process eliminates damaged DNA and misshapen proteins…another cause of aging.
It induces mitochondrial biogenesis, which is the creation of new mitochondria.
It also stimulates the production of SIRT1,
one of the sirtuins and an enzyme that repairs DNA and is increased in animals with extended lifespans.
Finally, activated AMPK inhibits signaling of the Nuclear Factor-kappaB pathway,
which is a pro-inflammatory pathway, resulting in reduced chronic inflammation.
Because of it’s importance in maintaining and restoring youthful function,
AMPK has been called a “gerosuppressor”, as in “gerontology”, the study of old age…
because it suppresses, not one or even several diseases,
but because it suppresses the processes of biological aging.
But, like everything else, AMPK activity declines sharply with age.
AMPK activation can be suppressed by inflammation.
And when calorie intake in higher than needed to sustain energy expenditures,
when more calories are consumed than burned, AMPK activation can be markedly decreased.
And with reduced AMPK activation, cells decrease their energy-releasing, ATP-generating activities
and shift to energy storing processes…
generating new fat deposits and creating excess new glucose molecules.
Boosting AMPK activity will keep your tissues young and slow aging throughout the body.
It will also help suppress a number of chronic diseases associated with old age,
including cancer, cardiovascular disease and arteriosclerosis,
metabolic syndrome and diabetes, and liver disease.
So, what do you guys think? Is this type of information interesting to you…
is it too technical…not technical enough?
Leave me a comment in the comments section below, and tell me what you think.
OK, so I think we can agree that activating AMPK would be a good thing, right?
but how do you go about doing that? Well, first, you can boost AMPK activation through calorie restriction,
although it would require probably a more severe restriction that you would be comfortable with,
and you probably couldn’t sustain it.
Exercise is great way to activate AMPK, which is stimulated by muscle contraction.
Studies have shown that not only does exercise positively affect AMPK activation,
but the higher the intensity, the more AMPK is activated.
And as it turns out, high intensity interval training is extremely effective in activating AMPK.
Dietary fiber is also a key player in activating AMPK,
particularly a special form of soluble fiber called glucominnan,
which is more effective that any other fiber at activating AMPK.
There are also several nutrients that have been shown to activate AMPK.
Alpha Lipoic Acid, or ALA, can activate AMPK in tissues, particularly muscle tissue.
Quercetin can increase AMPK in fat, muscle and the liver.
Fish oil, curcumin and EGCG, or epigallocatechin gallate, from green tea can also activate AMPK.
And finally, there’s metformin, which is a prescription drug that is used to treat type 2 diabetes.
A fairly significant number of longevity researchers,
including David Sinclair of Yale University, regularly take metformin as part of the anti-aging regimen.
Although taking it for it’s anti-aging benefits is an off-label use, making it difficult to obtain,
it’s apparently well-tolerated with very few side effects, other than digestive upset.
Metformin is one of the molecules that have been shown to replicate the effects of calorie restriction.
and in my opinion, it’s use to slow aging is profound enough to warrant going to the doctor
and seeing if they might be willing to prescribe meformin for off-label use.
Never hurts to ask, right?
So, this wraps up this series on biological aging at the cellular level.
We’ve taken a look at how “aging” and “death” are two separate and distinct processes,
and how slowing down the aging process could lead to a longer “maximum lifespan.”
We’ve taken a quick look at the top 12 theories on the causes of cellular aging.
And then we’ve done a deep dive into 3 of those theories, taking a more detailed look into sirtuins and NAD,
into cell senescence and, in this video, into AMPK activation.
And we taken a look at things we can do to slow down these processes…and in turn, slow down human aging.
And the thing to keep in mind is this:
research has demonstrated that the pathways that cause cellular aging,
likely each effect aging separately,
because targeting each of them simultaineously leads to additive increases in lifespans.
Meaning that the more therapies or interventions that you use,
the more increases in your lifespan that you will experience.
So, what do I do to slow cellular aging?
I exercise strenuously, and take a number of supplements,
including quercitin, glucominnan, and alpha lipid acid…
all to activate my AMPK pathway. I’m also trying to get a prescription for metformin from my doctor.
I take nicotinamide riboside (because I can’t afford nicotinamide mononucleatide)
and pterostilbene to activate my sirtuins,
and I take quercetin, as a senolytic agent, to clear out some of the senescent cells in my body.
I also take trimethyl glycine to mitigate the consumption of methyl groups,
caused by taking the nicotinamide riboside.
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