Warning:
This post is long! I’m looking for advice on the best supplement to improve vascular age. I’ve tentatively decided that curcumin may be the way to go, but discovered there are many supplement versions out there! Anyone have experience with these supplements?
Background:
I was researching on how to improve my vascular age which my Withings Body Cardio scale measures. I’ve had the scale for quite some time but never really looked into the vascular age numbers. Withings is showing me in the “normal” range for my age, despite my “healthy lifestyle” (so I would hope I’d be in the “optimal” range!). Googling “withings vascular age accuracy“ brought up the article in the title of this post.
Healthy lifestyle-based approaches for successful vascular aging
I already maintain a “Healthy lifestyle-based approach” as described in the article. This includes daily aerobic exercise (for me much greater than their recommended 150+ minutes/week), and healthy diet (for me a mostly plant-based, Mediterranean diet).
Towards the end of the article, they mention alternative approaches via supplements, including supplementing diet with curcumin which has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, and referenced this article Curcumin supplementation improves vascular endothelial function in healthy middle-aged and older adults by increasing nitric oxide bioavailability and reducing oxidative stress. The study used 2000mg daily of the Longvida curcumin supplement. Results looked pretty incredible:
In healthy middle-aged and older adults, 12 weeks of curcumin supplementation improves resistance artery endothelial function by increasing vascular nitric oxide bioavailability and reducing oxidative stress, while also improving conduit artery endothelial function.
Googling “longvida vs theracurcumin“ brought up an interesting article comparing the various curcumin supplements, Scientific Studies Reveal the Best Curcumin Product. The chart shows that Longvida contains lecithin which could produce TMAO, a cardiotoxic chemical, according to the article. Of course, this is a Pure Prescriptions website and they would be biased! They show that their Pure Prescriptions Curcumin C3 Complex® and BioPerine® compares favorably over all to other curcumin supplements.
Question to the group: Is anyone taking a curcumin supplement, and if so, which one? I am leaning towards Pure Prescriptions supplement. Also, do you need to take curcumin daily or can I get my just taking it for a short time to get improvements?