GlyNAC supplementation reverses aging hallmarks in aging humans

A randomized, double-blind human clinical trial conducted by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine reveals that supplementation with GlyNAC – a combination of glycine and N-acetylcysteine – improves many age-associated defects in older humans and powerfully promotes healthy ageing.

This is relevant because until now, there have been no solutions toward improving many of these age-related declines in people, Caliber.Az reports referring to Baylor College of Medicine. 

Published in the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences, the study shows that older humans taking GlyNAC for 16 weeks improved many characteristic defects of ageing. This includes oxidative stress, glutathione deficiency and multiple ageing hallmarks affecting mitochondrial dysfunction, mitophagy, inflammation, insulin resistance, endothelial dysfunction, genomic damage, stem cell fatigue and cellular senescence. These were associated with improvements in muscle strength, gait speed, exercise capacity, waist circumference and blood pressure.

“This is the first randomized clinical trial of GlyNAC supplementation in older humans, and it found that a wide variety of age-associated abnormalities improved in older adults supplemented with GlyNAC, while no improvements were seen in those receiving placebo,” said corresponding author Dr. Rajagopal Sekhar, professor of medicine - endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism at Baylor.

The improvements in oxidative stress, glutathione levels and mitochondrial function in the muscle tissue of older humans taking GlyNAC were similar to the improvements in organs such as the heart, liver and kidneys of aged mice supplemented with GlyNAC as reported in the researchers’ recent publication. Taken together, the results of these studies show that GlyNAC supplementation can improve these defects in many different organs of the body. “GlyNAC supplementation in ageing mice increased their length of life mice by 24%,” said Sekhar. “Gait speed is reported to be associated with survival in older humans. Our randomized clinical trial found a significant improvement in gait speed in older humans supplemented with GlyNAC. This raises the interesting question of whether GlyNAC supplementation could have implications for survival in people”.

For the last 20 years, Sekhar has been studying natural ageing in humans and animal models to understand why age-related declines occur and how to correct them. His work brings mitochondria, known as the batteries of the cell, as well as free radicals and glutathione to discussions about how they are connected. Sekhar’s work and discoveries could also help explain why we age and how to improve health while ageing.

Mitochondria generate the energy needed for supporting cellular functions. Therefore, normal mitochondrial function is critically important for a healthy life. Sekhar believes that improving the health of malfunctioning mitochondria in ageing is the key to healthy ageing. “Energy supports life and mitochondria provide energy. I believe that mitochondrial health is vitally important to our well-being, and maintaining mitochondrial health as we age should be a high priority in our efforts to improve overall health,” said Sekhar.

However, the ability of mitochondria to work well declines as we age. How to improve the ability of these failing mitochondria to work is not well understood, and therefore no solutions have been available. Sekhar’s group discovered earlier that supplementing GlyNAC in aged mice corrected malfunctioning mitochondria. However, to definitively determine whether GlyNAC supplementation benefited people, a placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial was required.

Sekhar and his team conducted and completed a randomized clinical trial which found that older people have widespread mitochondrial damage and other age-associated defects compared to young people. After 16 weeks of GlyNAC supplementation, mitochondrial function of older people improve toward levels found in young people. This was accompanied by improvements in multiple additional outcomes as reported in the publication. Analysis of the molecular data from the trial suggests that the GlyNAC supplementation is able to fill cells with younger and more efficient mitochondria. “Collectively these exciting new discoveries hold great promise for improving our mitochondrial and general health as we age,” Sekhar said.

A second vital benefit offered by supplementing GlyNAC is that it also helps protect the body from an important problem called oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is caused by high levels of toxic waste products known as reactive oxygen species or free radicals. Oxidative stress can damage our cells, membranes, lipids, proteins and DNA, and is very common in ageing. Glutathione is a natural antioxidant. Glutathione is made every day inside our cells and it works by protecting cells from harmful oxidative stress. However, in older people, glutathione levels are very low and the harmful oxidative stress is very high. GlyNAC supplementation corrects glutathione deficiency and lowers oxidative stress in older humans back to youthful levels, thereby solving both problems.

Sekhar believes that the restoration of mitochondrial health and correction of oxidative stress with GlyNAC supplementation are two powerful reasons which help explain why so many other age-related defects improve. It also accounts for a wide spectrum of health benefits.