IGF-1, Telomeres, and Aging

I've been very curious about the role of IGF-1 in aging. There seems to be a conflict as to whether or not IGF-1 is pro or anti-aging. It seems that in younger people, IGF-1 is beneficial and helps improve cell turn over (replacing older cells with younger healthier cells) however in older age group it causes problems and appears to actually shorten lifespan.

If IGF-1 makes cells repiclate faster then wouldn't this mean that IGF-1 shortens telomere length? Could this explain why IGF-1 is beneficial only in youth when telomeres are long? However if IGF-1 remains elevated for too long, would it not overcome the activity of telomerase (the enzyme that works to repair telomeres and make them longer) and lead to a premature shortening of the telomere? Eventually the telomeres would become exhausted and each cell division would be damaging to the DNA. So in a sense, IGF-1 can accelerate aging. Perhaps this is why HGH/IGF-1 levels fall of during mid adulthood, to protect the ever dwindling telomeres and hence DNA.

Interestingly, it has been shown that mice that were bred to be completely HGH/IGF-1 deficient actually LIVED longer than normal control mice. This is probably because their cells divided at a slower rate which would make their telomeres last longer.

I'm also a little confused on the different roles that HGH and IGF-1 play. Does HGH speed up or slow down the aging process? I read somewhere (not sure if it's true) that HGH can actually increase telomerase activity. So mabye the trick is to increase HGH while decreasing IGF-1 (which is hard since HGH gets converted to IGF-1 in the liver). However this is exactly what Green Tea/EGCG appears to do. EGCG increases HGH by lowering blood sugar and increasing insulin sensitivity and lowers IGF-1 by lowering insulin and increasing IGFBP-3. I suspect that this is the reason that chronic green tea consumption has been known to increase life span.

So from what I've gathered, the optimal approach to regrowing hair would be to lower insulin and IGF-1 while increasing IGFBP-3, HGH, and telomerase.

All thoughts and opinions will be appreciated

a very interesting and well cited article http://www.senescence.info/programmed.html

baller234 - In those with refractory finasteride AGA sufferers, IGF-1 is typically low.

To simply IGF-1, it's more about normalization. It's quite frequent on forums for most to assume that one thing is "bad" or "good" only.

Regarding growth hormone, if low it can certain retard growth. I'm working slowly on a work regarding Bovine Colostrum, which I believe is the most effective way to safely raise GH levels. Better than the dangerous recombinant hGH.

Free-IGF-1 does seem to speed up the aging process. What is interesting is that out of all the foods in nature, nothing increases free-IGF-1 more than milk (except for soy-protein isolate). The protein in the milk makes the body increase free-IGF-1 to help the infant grow and rapidly age. And when you think about it growing is aging. And milk makes you grow extra-fast.

Also animal-studies show that calorie-restriction slows aging by lowering free-IGF-1 in animals...but not in humans. However, dietary-protein-restriction did in fact significantly decrease free-IGF-1 and increase IGFBP's (insulin-like-growth-factor-binding-proteins) in human beings [1]. IGFBP's are binding proteins that have the same role as SHBG; they bind free-IGF-1 and regulate their effects on tissues like the muscle or bone, or hair and keep it from being excreted by inhibiting its metabolic-clearance. It seems to me that when IGF-1 is bound with IGFBP it repairs the body or maintains the body tissues, but when IGF-1 is "free" then it causes accelerated aging. Balding men are shown to have higher free-IGF-1 and lower IGFBP-3 [2]. And it is a know fact that free-IGF-1 is a potent inhibitor of SHBG.

Free-IGF-1 is also a known cancer promoter that is implicated in the pathology of prostate and breast cancer while vegan men are shown to have 9% lower free-IGF-1 levels [3]. So the take home message would be to decrease free-IGF-1 levels by increasing you IGFBP's. The best way to do that is to get animal-protein and dairy products out of your diet [4] [5] [6].









[1] Long-term effects of calorie or protein restriction on serum IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 concentration in humans.
[2] Vertex balding, plasma insulin-like growth factor 1, and insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3.
[3] Hormones and diet: low insulin-like growth factor-I but normal bioavailable androgens in vegan men.
[4] The associations of diet with serum insulin–like growth factor I and its main binding proteins in 292 women meat–eaters, vegetarians, and vegans.
[5] Relationship of Dietary Protein and Soy Isoflavones to Serum IGF-1 and IGF Binding Proteins in the Prostate Cancer Lifestyle Trial.
[6] Dietary correlates of plasma insulin-like growth factor I and insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3 concentrations.

CausticSymmetry wrote:baller234 - In those with refractory finasteride AGA sufferers, IGF-1 is typically low.

To simply IGF-1, it's more about normalization. It's quite frequent on forums for most to assume that one thing is "bad" or "good" only.

Regarding growth hormone, if low it can certain retard growth. I'm working slowly on a work regarding Bovine Colostrum, which I believe is the most effective way to safely raise GH levels. Better than the dangerous recombinant hGH.

I don't think I implied by any means that IGF-1 is completely bad. I stated that chronically overexpressed IGF-1 can potentially accelerate aging.

Mistere (and anyone else) what are your thoughts on HGH? What role does it play? I've read that it really doesn't do much until it is converted to IGF-1.

Also, it seems to me that EGCG pretty much tackles all the problems associated with excessive free IGF-1.

Really interesting video. I'm assuming it was the protein and not the isoflavones that caused the increase in IGF-1? Perhaps if one is trying to lower IGF-1 soy isoflavone supplements would be better than consuming soy products.

baller234 wrote:Mistere (and anyone else) what are your thoughts on HGH? What role does it play? I've read that it really doesn't do much until it is converted to IGF-1.

Also, it seems to me that EGCG pretty much tackles all the problems associated with excessive free IGF-1.

HGH is beneficial, for instance exercise increases HGH. HGH makes the liver produce IGF-1. And I believe that Protein-Bound-IGF-1 is very beneficial. With that being said, the problem comes from the fact "something" is increasing free-IGF-1 levels too much, and this causes low SHBG, which usually results in low SHBG-testosterone. When IGF-1 is bound to an IGFBP, it doesn't inhibit the livers production of SHBG. Instead, IGF-1 is bound to either the muscle or bone via IGFBP. Same goes with SHBG. SHBG binds testosterone to muscles and bone, keeping it unable to convert into DHT or estrogen.

Exercise will increase protein-bound-IGF-1 in the muscles and bones, and keep it from floating "free" and promoting it's nasty effects like SHBG down-regulation, sebaceous-gland enlargement and tumor growths. Same goes with the diet I recommend, it is shown to increase IGFBP's and increase SHBG. That is exactly what balding men need!

baller234 wrote:Really interesting video. I'm assuming it was the protein and not the isoflavones that caused the increase in IGF-1? Perhaps if one is trying to lower IGF-1 soy isoflavone supplements would be better than consuming soy products.

Right.

The processed soy takes all of the protective nutrients in the soy, like the isoflavones and the dietary-fiber, which help increase IGFBP's. And what it leaves is just soy-protein, which increases free-IGF-1 and causes "tremendous calcium loss". The same goes with a hamburger, except the hamburger is a bit worse because not only does it not have any phytonutrients or dietary-fiber, it has oxidized-cholesterol and oxidized-fats in it!

For the record:

Saturated fat is good for us.

Cholesterol is good for us, including from hamburgers.

Vegetable oil and trans-fats are not.

I eat virtually no fiber, eat mostly meat and fat. No problems here

CS, doesn't heating fats create oxidized-fats? Same with cholesterol, wouldn't heating cholesterol make free-radicals? Surly hamburger-meat is a processed food is it not?

CausticSymmetry wrote:For the record:

Saturated fat is good for us.

Cholesterol is good for us, including from hamburgers.

Vegetable oil and trans-fats are not.

I eat virtually no fiber, eat mostly meat and fat. No problems here

Saturated fat is only good if there are adequate Essential Fatty Acids (which virtually none of the American population has) in the diet. Hamburgers are Horrible for your health because A.) they have a terrible omega 3 to 6 ratio and B.) they've usually been overheated causing the fats to oxidise.

Another thing about the video, Mcdougal stated in his presentation that when they compared the milk protein to lean animal protein, the lean animal protein didn't have any affect on IGF-1.

For the record I'm not trying to turn this into a vegan vs meat eater thread. I beleive that animal products have their place in the diet for certain metabolic types when they have been raised and prepared correctly.

baller234,

CS, has talked about it before but grass fed otherwise krill supplementation.

Regarding second point carnosine is protective.

Here come MisterE, quoting people who are quoting people. Probably still hasn't read a damn one of the cited studies himself, probably still can't discern correlation from causation.

In any case, in Chinese medicine, velvet antler is second only to ginseng. I have felt much better since starting it, maybe because I was low in a few hormones. In five or six months, my skin has become less oily, I have more energy, and I sleep much better. Someone needs to head over to China and tell them they've been overdosing on IGF-1 for 3000 years, maybe the Dr. McDougall squad could fly down and make sure they drop all the fish and velvet antler before they die prematurely.