Healthy lifestyle-based approaches for successful vascular aging

Sports & Exercise
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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!:rofl:). 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?

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Hi @Trying!
I take turmeric curcumin bioperine.

The pills I use have both, but curcumin comes from turmeric. The bioperine helps the absorption.

The brand I use is made by the Nature’s Nutrition company. I have not heard any horror stories about them, they seem to have a decent reputation. I am sure there are better ones available, but they can get expensive.

I think in general for these type of supplements, it takes a while. It is not like popping an Advil or Tylenol every once-in-a-while and getting instant relief.

Let’s ask @Marie. She knows a lot about this stuff.

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Thanks, Eric, I will check the Nature’s Nutrition one out. The Pure Prescriptions is expensive, at $80+ for 120 pills.

The first study that I linked to stated the participants had dramatic improvements (30%+ but a huge 2000mg dosage!) over 3 months. I don’t know if that means one needs to continually take the supplement (Longvida in this study) to maintain the improvements though! I guess trial and error is best, just like insulin dosage (for me)!:rofl:

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Bioperine is supposed to help absorption. And some of the more expensive formulations out there do absorb better. Turmeric/Curcumin has a possibly low absorption rate. Just like ubiquinol over ubiquinone. Ubiquinol definitely absorbs better than Ubiquinone. But true Ubiquinol runs 3 times the price of Ubiquinone. It doesn’t necessarily/usually absorb 3 times better. Turmeric/Curcumin can be the same situation. Does it absorb that much better for the higher costs?

I just take Solaray’s One Daily Turmeric. It’s stronger per pill. Reasonable price, good company. I tried lots of different ones when I had my store. Reps brought me samples and companies sent me samples. And sure some worked a little better than others. I took some for months in a row. And I carried a few other higher priced companies products. But were they worth the higher price??? A majority of the customers took the Solaray’s One Daily and stayed with it. And sure people like cheaper, but repeat buyers always let me know what worked. I never saw the continual repeat buying on the more expensive items except for a few customers.

But companies do matter. Too cheap/cheap and it’s probably not got what it says on the label. Unfortunately there are too many companies that you can’t trust.

This is from 2021, unfortunately I’m sure there is some new companies that have taken the place of the ones that are now gone..

https://www.nowfoods.com/about-now/press-room/press-releases/now-tests-curcuminturmeric-extract-sold-amazon

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Thanks, Marie! Wow, scary about the ingredients in some of the curcumin supplements, like arsenac! We all have to be careful choosing supplements.

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That’s why you stay with reputable companies. It can cost more but these companies have been around for a while and count on having a reputation. Plus it’s there sole business so it matters. Unfortunately the landscape is changing and as stores disappear, online purchasing plays a more prominent role and people don’t know who is reputable. Plus companies nowadays are being bought out by other companies, not always a bad thing, but not always a good thing either.

I still remember when Melatonin first became a hot commodity. Not enough was being made for the sudden demand. Solaray (Nutraceutical Corp and all the companies it owned) would require assays of any raw materials brought to them certifying it as being 100% pure and then they would also test. They turned down 80% of melatonin that was brought to them as it turned out being impure. Good companies do things like that to make sure it’s what is in their product. If a company is just going for cheap and to get sales, they don’t care. Pretty important to stick with companies that have been around for a while, and probably also American/Canadian companies. Not always the case, but just a safer bet. A lot(all?) of the big companies that have been around for a while also do in house testing and don’t just rely on suppliers. Plus they care about their reputation and want to stick around.

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Yes, I agree! Thanks for sharing your experience in the industry!

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