Transcript for:
Brian Johnson's Supplement Stack Review

Brian Johnson is taking over 100 supplements per day or at least that's what he used to do he now created his own supplement line that distills all those 100 supplements into just a handful of pills and some powders brand says that all of those supplements have a clinically relevant dose and they're selected for certain Frontline interventions such as weight loss anti-aging muscle sleep antioxidant offense Etc in this video I'm going to review all of the ingredients in the blueprint supplement stack I'll go through all the research of each ingredient to see if the real evidence-based and if the dosages are really clinically relevant this is going to be a pretty long video so I'm putting all the time stamps of the ingredients into the description box below so you can check out whatever specific ingredient that you're interested in first off I do like the idea that Brian is listing out all the ingredients in his supplements and the exact dosages a lot of companies might use proprietary Blends which means they're using their own patent and dosage formula which is why you don't know exactly how much of each ingredient there is let's start with the longevity mix it's this pink powder drink the ingredients are vitamin C as ascorbic acid 250 mg magnesium as magnesium citrate 150 Mig creatin monohydrate 2,500 Mig calcium Alpha ketoglutarate 2 G glucos sufate 1500 Mig toine 1500 mg glycine 1200 Mig lysine 1200 Mig ashanda 600 Mig reduced gluon 250 Mig theanine 200 Mig and sodium hyaluronate 120 mg I want to start with calcium Alpha K glucer rate or AKG because this is the star of this blend blueprint says calcium AKG is for anti-aging metabolism Energy Muscle and cognition now this is quite interesting and there are most studies showing that calcium AKG extends lifespan by up to 20% and health span by 40% and a 2021 clinical trial on humans saw that taking 1,000 milligram of calcium AKG for 7 months reduced the DNA mulation age of 42 individuals by 8 years now this sounds quite amazing to reduce your biological age in such a short time but there's almost no practical takeaway to reducing your DNA isolation age and we don't necessarily know like what it actually means in the final outcomes of Health what's more the study was done by a company on their patented formula called rejuvent so you have to take it with a grain of salt there's currently another clinical trial called able that seeks to replicate these findings they're using 1,000 Mig of calcium AKG for 6 months on 120 people between the ages of 40 and 60 and they'll also measure functional outcomes like grip strength aerobic capacity arterial stiffness inflammation etc for me the secondary outcom such as grip strength VX Etc are much more important and much more interesting we have a lot more data about the consequences of having high VX and some of the other effects but we don't have that data with these biological age tests AKG is involved in the metabolism specifically the CP cycle that generates energy AKG levels decline with age by about 10-fold after the age of 40 which makes it plausible that supplementation could have health benefits there are indeed several human clinical trials over the past few decades that have shown that AKG helps with wound healing immunity and faster recovery from surgeries a 2022 review on AKG stated that a few studies published in the 1980s and 1990s in humans suggested the potential benefits of AKG in muscle growth wound healing and promoting faster recovery after surgery so far there are no recently published studies demonstrating the role of AKG in treating aging and age related diseases hence further clinical studies are required to better understand the role of AKG in humans AKG is otherwise safe but it is quite expensive it's one of the most expensive ingredients in the longevity mix and potentially the entire blueprint stack the problem is that it has one of the lowest amount of clinical trials when it comes to longevity so you're spending the most money but you have the least certainty about its benefits but this doesn't mean that I'm not excited about future trials on AKG so we just have to wait for them vitamin C is the next ingredient in the lmic the blueprint websites says it's selected for antioxidant immune skin hair anti-aging and heart benefits usually vitamin C is used to prevent or treat the flu a 2013 Cochrane review of 29 Placebo control trials found that vitamin C at a dose of 200 mg or above had no effect on the incidence of common colds however regular supplementation was shown to reduce the duration of cold symptoms five studies also found that vitamin C reduced the risk of common cold by 50% in people engaged in a lot of physical stress like Marathon running overall the review concluded that vitamin C isn't Justified for preventing the cold but it might be useful for people who are experiencing higher amounts of physical stress regarding skin hair and nails then yes vitamin C is essential for initiating collagen synthesis however the studies on this are done with topical vitamin C not the oral form there is one study that found that oral supplementation of vitamin C and vitamin E in 18 people increased the dose of U radiation from the Sun needed to cause redness of the skin the subjects also saw less skin lesions after getting sunburned when taking vitamin c and e a 2007 epidemiological study found that people who ate more dietary vitamin C from fruits and vegetables had a lower likelihood of a wrinkled appearance and scile dryness but that refers to dietary vitamin C and these studies are observational which means that the effects might have been caused by some other healthy lifestyle factors and it certainly doesn't mean that supplementing vitamin C would have those benefits what about chronic diseases like heart disease a 2007 randomus control trial on over 8,000 women over the age of 40 with history of cardiovascular disease and with three or more risk factors found that there were no overall effects of vitamin C E or beta carotene on cardiovascular events among women at high risk of cardiovascular disease another 2004 random control trial took over 13,000 middle-aged people and told them to take antioxidants including ascorbic acid for 7.5 years they found that the antioxidants didn't reduce the risk of total cancer incidents ischemic heart disease or all cause nality in women but men did see a reduction in the incidence of total cancer and all cause mortality this could be because men have a baseline lower antioxidant status and lower intake of foods that contain antioxidants such as fruit and vegetables and the 2017 cochine review of clinical trials concluded that vitamin C supplementation doesn't reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease so supplementing with vitamin C or vitamin E doesn't provide any additional benefits that you wouldn't get from your diet if you're eating fruits and vegetables then you're getting all the vitamin C that your body needs next let's look at creatine monohydrate which is said to work for the brain muscles heart energy and anti-aging indeed creatine is probably the most evidence-based supplement there is and it has hundreds if a thousands of studies showing that it increases muscle strength muscle mass and sports performance however many people are still not aware that creatine has longevity benefits for the brain as well it's been shown to improve cognition better memory reduce sleep demand and improve glucose tolerance when it comes to heart health then here's what a 2021 review on the subject concluded in otherwise healthy people with healthy Hearts creatine doesn't improve cardiac function in people with heart failure creatin improves muscle function which could be beneficial to counteract fatigue and weakness overall creatine is safe except in people with kiny failure so creatine is the best supplement for physical performance and it also appears to have cognitive benefits but the evidence for it having heart benefits is somewhat limited for people who have already healthy Hearts regardless a dose of 2.5 to 3 G of creatin monohydrate is the gold standard it's the cheapest form of creatine and it is a good dose next up we have magnesium citrate for bone muscle mood stress heart and energy magnesium is indeed one of those minerals that a lot of people aren't getting enough of and magnesium deficiency does increase the risk of many chronic inflammatory conditions magnesium deficiency is also at the center of all the Hallmarks of Aging what about the clinical trials a 2023 meta analysis or randomiz control trials concluded that magnesium supplements can improve depression scores in people with depressive disorders however they typically use 250 Mig whereas blueprint has 150 Mig another 2021 metaanalysis of randomiz control trials found that magnesium supplements can reduce inflammatory markers such as CRP a 2016 metaanalysis of double blind placea control trials found that magnesium supplements can lower blood pressure but the median dose was 368 Mig a day ranging from 240 to 960 Mig per day regarding bone health then a 2021 systematic review found that low magnesium intake is linked to a higher risk of bone cures and low bone mineral density most interventions that have shown benefits in terms of increasing bone density have used either magnesium citrate carbonate or oxide with a dose between 250 to 18800 milligram per day that's also a much higher dose than what's in Blueprint in my opinion and based on the studies a dose of 150 milligram of magnesium citrate isn't the optimal dose and it is somewhat underdosed most people would benefit from at least 250 Mig of magnesium and possibly up to 400 or even Beyond and magnesium citrate is also considered to be somewhat of a lower quality magnesium because of its lower bioavailability and because of the risk of diarrhea there's a reason it's called magnesium trait the better types would be something like magnesium toate orotate bisglycinate or threonate glucosamine is needed for cardi synthesis and it improves joint function there's a bit of a controversy about whether or not glucosamine actually improves joint function or osteoarthritis for example a 2000 review of clinical trials concluded that glucosamine does improve ostearthritis symptoms to moderate to large degree but the results might be due to bias the standard dose is indeed 1.5 G per day of glucosamin sulfate which is what blueprint uses however there is reasons to think that larger doses of up to 3 gr are needed and that 1.5 G isn't the optimal dose for maximum benefits besides joint function there's also observational studies finding that glucosamine supplementation is linked to up to a 39% lower risk of mortality and cardiovascular disease the reason for that is thought to be because glucosa Meine has anti-inflammatory effects these are observational studies and they could be confounded by the health user bias that people taking glucosamine are just healthc conscious but glucosamine is generally safe and quite cheap so there's little to no downside but overall evidence suggests that glucosamine Works only for people who have some aspects of ostearthritis torine is next and this supplement has become quite popular recently I made a complete video about torine a few weeks ago and the conclusion was that the clinical trials on toine supplementation do find that a dose of 0.5 to 6 scams per day can improve things like metabolic syndrome blood pressure and even exercise performance but these people usually have already existing poor metabolic health and the elite athletes don't see a significant benefit from torine so for otherwise healthy people toine might have some modest benefits but it's not the large effect I do recall that Brian added torine to his supplement stack after a mouse Study last year showing how toine extended the lifespan of mice the human equivalent dose they used was 6 G with three G also providing minor benefits fits but blueprint uses a dose of 1.5 G which is yet somewhere in the middle of the clinical trials but it's not as high as the mouse life extension study next up is my favorite supplement glycine I've even written an entire book about it called the collagen cure there is interesting animal study showing how glycine supplementation does extend lifespan of mice by 4 to 6% which doesn't sound like a lot but it's still significant in human clinical trials on diabetics supplementing 5 G of glycine 3 to four times a day improves hemoglobin A1c levels and lowers inflammation for Sleep a 3 G dose has also been seen to improve sleep quality and duration these dosages are much larger than the 1.2 Gams in the longevity mix when we're talking about glycine then it's worthwhile to mention how the combination of glycine and NAC called glac has quite a lot of evidence for health benefits and anti-aging effects there are several clinical trials on elderly people done over the last few years that have shown how Glycine and N supplementation improves functional outcomes related to aging such as grip strength walking speed inflammation body composition and other Hallmarks of Aging that's why I'm confident in saying that glycine n is really one of the most evidence-based longevity supplements pretty much after creatine or Omega-3s however these studies use a relatively large dose of glycine and Ne in fact they have to use a dose of up to 4 to8 gram of glycine and NAC both to see an effect and a dose of 2.5 gram doesn't appear to have any significant effect in raising gathan levels blueprint has a glycin dose of 1.2 G in the longevity mix and their NAC do in the other pills is also 1.2 G based on the clinical trials on GIC supplementation in the elderly people that would be an underdose but Brian isn't 70 years old he's in his 40s so he might not need that large of a dose but if you were to be in your 70s or 80s which those other clinical trials are done on then you would need a much larger dose up to 4 to8 gram of glycine and N alone glycine is also needed for collagen turnover and the minimal requirement for collagen turnover is 12 G of glycine per day your body makes 3 gam but three grams are needed for kathan synthesis because Brian is vegan he's not getting that much glycine from his diet and the 1.2 gram that he gets from the supplement isn't enough for optimal collagen turnover the longevity mix also contains 250 Mig of reduced gathon a 2017 clinical trial found that 250 Mig of kathan in both its reduced and oxidized form had skin lightening effects and it reduced some skin wrinkles another 2022 clinical trial on 500 Mig of oral gathan found that 500 Mig of or oral gathon improved hemoglobin A1c and fasting insulin in elderly people with diabetes gathon supplementation does reduce inflammation and oxidated stress by raising gathon levels but eliminating all oxidated stress and inflammation is actually not a good idea you need some inflammation to actually have health benefits from things like exercise for example antioxidant supplementation has been seen to reduce muscle growth and is even associated with higher risk of mortality so yes scathan does reduce inflammation but how much inflammation do he really need need to reduce if you're eating a already healthy diet you're already following other healthy lifestyle practices then generally you don't really need to boost your antioxidant defense or take a lot of antioxidant supplements and it actually might have some negative side effects lysine is an interesting choice for this supplement because it's not a very common nutrient deficiency a 2017 study found that lysine supplementation helped to normalize blood pressure in people with suboptimal lysine intake another 2020 clinical trial found that lysine improved glucose control and lowered cholesterol in people with pre-diabetes but this was done on a patented formula called lysulin by another company a 2011 review of lysin supplementation concluded that cell studies show it might have benefits on bone health and other chronic diseases like Alzheimer's or heart disease but there are no clinical trials to prove it so it looks like lysine has benefits only if you're on a low lysine diet because lysine is an amino acid that you get from protein mostly then it might be that Brian is just not getting enough lysine from his diet and he needs to supplement it there's also some evidence that lysin supplementation reduces the risk of herpes virus infections but the doses for that should be over 1.2 gram but blueprints dosage is exactly 1.2 gram so if Brian is taking Lysine for herpes virus then he is under dosing he might also be trying to prevent getting herpes but a 2015 Cochran review of clinical trials found that lysine had no preventive effects against herpes or cold sores ksm66 ashwagandha according to blueprint is for mood stress inflammation sleep hormones and Immunity a 2021 metaanalysis of clinical trials found that ASR gandha can alleviate anxiety and stress however the treatment dose and the type of Asanda used varied greatly between the studies the doses ranged from 240 to 1250 milligrams a day which is quite a wide range another 2021 meta analysis of five randomiz control trials found that ashro gandha improved sleep in adults but the effects were larger in people with insomnia the dosage used was over 600 mg per day there are many clinical trials showing that ashwagandha improves testosterone and subjective sexual well-being in men a 2021 review of clinical trials found that ksm66 Asanda at a dose of 600 Mig a day does improve testosterone by 15% in young men if used for 8 weeks a dose of 657 Mig a day in infertile men was seen to increase testosterone by 17% after 90 days and women without hormonal disturbances have also been seen to experience an improvement in their sexual health by taking 300 Mig of Asanda twice a day for 8 weeks so yes Asanda does appear to have evidence for hormonal Health sleep and stress and the longevity mix use as the right dose theanine is a classic in ntropic Stacks as it has an angiolytic and calming effect that helps with cognition a 2021 randomiz control trial de find that alanine at a dose of 100 milligram improved attention and executive functioning in middle-aged and older adults another 2022 clinical trial found that 200 Mig of theanine supported mental health in people with stress related ailments or cognitive impairment and a 2023 systematic review discovered that theine at a dose of 50 to 655 Mig a day showed promise in improving Sleep Quality but a dose of over 655 Mig had negative effects on sleep so theanine has evidence for sleep and stress possibly even cognition and the longevity mix has the right dose of 200 Mig the last supplement in the longevity mix is sodium hyaluronate this is interesting and the biggest reason I think it's in the mix is because it help with dry eyes and I do recall Brian saying that he has dry eyes however a 2017 systematic review and metaanalysis of random control trials found that sodium hyaluronate based in artificial tiers were not consistently more effective than other tiers in treating dry eye syndrome this doesn't mean that Brian isn't getting benefits from using this it just means that it's not more effective than something else the blueprint website also says that sodium hyaluronate has benefits on skin anti-aging there is some interesting studies on hyaluronic acid at a dose of 200 milligrams improving skin wrinkles however the evidence for oral sodium hyaluronate supplements is limited the studies are generally done with topical sodium hin creams all right so we've gone through all of the ingredients in the longevity mix what would be my rating out of a scale of 1 to five my rating is going to be a solid four out of five some of the ingredients are properly dosed and evidence-based like ashanda theanine and creatine but some are underdosed like magnesium and Glycine and others have more limited evidence such as calcium AKG lysine and vitamin C at least for otherwise healthy people who don't have any deficiencies next let's look at the blueprint pills there are four bottles of supplements essential Soft gel essential capsules NAC plus Ginger plus curcumin and red yeast rice plus garlic let's start with the essential soft gels the ingredients are vitamin K1 1500 microG lutane 15 Mig lopine 15 Mig asanin 12 Mig vitamin K2 MK4 5 mg zanthin 3 mg and vitamin K2 MK and 600 microgram so this is like a fat soluble carotenoid supplement that's good for the skin brain and eyes blueprint says vitamin K1 is for bones heart cell maintenance and inflammation it's supposed to prevent uncontrolled bleeding and unwanted calcification it's often thought that vitamin K1 is for the bones and K2 is for the arteries to prevent calcification but I actually found a recent 2022 randomus control trial on people with diabetes where 10 Mig of vitamin K1 per day was found to decrease the likelihood of developing new new lesions in the coronary arteries aorta and both aortic and coronary arteries however the study used a dose of 10 mg whereas blueprint has a dose of 1.5 milligram which is almost 10 times smaller another 2022 clinical trial on hemodialysis patients found that people taking 5 migs of vitamin K1 for 18 months had a 68% lower progression of thoracic aortic calcification so this dose isn't going to work for the calcification part regarding inflammation then this 2018 double blind placea control trial found that 10 Mig of vitamin K1 for 8 weeks in patients of rheumatoid arthritis didn't lower inflammation or disease severity that's interesting because you would expect that people with high inflammation that they would see a decrease in inflammation levels but they didn't even though they had arthritis and even though they used a large dose of 10 milligram a day and that 10 milligram is almost 10 times larger than the one in Blueprint dietary vitamin K1 intake is linked to a lower risk of all cause mortality heart disease hip fractures and diabetes a du 2019 review concluded that K1 supplementation does reduce the risk of fractures but the studies are considered low quality so getting vitamin K1 from your diet does appear to have benefits and it is associated with Better Health outcomes but the same can't be said about supplemental K1 you get vitamin K1 from leafy greens like spinach kale mustard greens Swiss chard Etc as well as nto broccoli and in smaller amounts from liver and cheeses it's interesting why Brian is taking K1 because he's already eating so much vitamin K1 from his diet next let's look at at Vitamin K2 they have two types of vitamin K2 MK4 and mk7 both in MCT oil which I like there are over 15 different types of vitamin K2 which are called menaquinones and MK4 and mk7 are the most common types the problem with MK4 is that it has a short half life mk7 has up to 48 times longer half life than MK4 MK4 also requires a very large dose whereas mk7 is effective already with a dose of 100 micrograms regarding the benefits then there is evidence that vitamin K to mk7 can slow down and even reduce coronary artery calcification a 2023 metaanalysis of 14 randomized control trials concluded that vitamin K supplementation could slow down coronary artery calcification the studies used about 100 to 2,000 micrograms of vitamin K2 mk7 blueprint uses a dose of 600 micrograms of mk7 which is a higher dose and it's a good one regarding bone density a 2015 metal analysis of randomiz control trials found that MK4 supplementation at a dose of 1.5 mg a day improved bone mineral density in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis but it didn't improve it in postmenopausal women without osteoporosis blueprint has a dose of 5 Mig for MK4 which is more than needed but there's no evidence that supplemental MK4 is going to prevent you from getting fractures or increase your bone density unless you have osteoporosis next up we have asanin which is a carotenoid you get from salmon asanin has also been seen to have anti-inflammatory cardioprotective and neuro productive qualities in randomiz clinical trials a 2022 metaanalysis of randomiz control trials found that asanin supplementation did reduce inflammation and oxid stress mildly another 2022 meta analysis of randomiz control trials found that asanin improves markers of metabolic syndrome such as cholesterol triglycerides and blood pressure that's quite a large amount of clinical trials indicating that asanin does appear to have benefits especially for inflammation and metabolic Health but as the xanthin also appears to have benefits on skin Health as the xanthin is a potent antioxidant that can protect the skin from UV radiation a 2021 systematic review and meta analysis of randomiz control trials found that oral Astin supplementation at a dose of 2 to 12 Mig a day was able to improve skin moisturization and elasticity and another a 2021 review of clinical trials saw a dose of 3 to 6 milligram a day of asex xanthin having benefits for photoaged skin blueprint uses 12 Mig of asanin which is a large and effective dose the essential soft gels also contain other carotenoids such as lopine lutane and zanthin there is evidence that higher levels of carotenoids in the brain and blood are linked to better cognitive function better memory and learning as well as a reduced incidence of dementia higher dietary carotenoid intake is also correlated with better cognitive function you get these carotenoids from salmon carrots sweet potatoes pumpkin egg yolks and different colorful vegetables and fruits regarding supplementation then a 2023 systematic review found that beta carotin supplementation at a dose ranging from 6 to 50 m a day combined with a multic complex such as Vitamin E vitamin C zinc or selenium was associated with maintenance of cognitive function over the course of up to 20 years supplementing with lutane and zanthin has been seen to improve visual memory and learning and cognitive function in people with self-reported cognitive complaints the dose used was 10 Mig of lutane and 2 Mig of zantin blueprint has 15 Mig of lutane and 3 Mig of zanthin which exceeds the Mark lopine is what you get from tomatoes and it has been seen to inuence some Hallmarks of cancer in human studies a 2020 review of studies found that in human trials lopine supplementation at a dose of 15 mgrs a day improved immune function in elderly people which is the same dose used in Blueprint but most of these studies are done on dietary lopine intake not supplemental overall my rating for the essential soft gels is 4.9 out of five I think it's the best product in the blueprint stack and it's something that you know I would consider taking myself mostly because I find it a very good insurance policy for getting your carotenoids and keeping your eyes healthy for the long term and as xanthin and K2 also have other benefits beyond that moving on with the essential capsules which is like a multivitamin I'm not going to go through all the vitamins and minerals in this supplement because it will be too long and to be honest I'm not a big fan of multivitamins because there could be many contraindications between all these ingredients that we don't know about it's also hard to look at the health effects of multivitamins because different multivitamins use different amounts of vitamins and minerals so there's no specific gold standard dose for for multivitamins I'll say this that there are several randomus control trials that have shown how multivitamin and mineral supplementation is linked to better cognitive performance and memory in elderly people what about the other ingredients in essential capsules nicotin at ride is an Ned booster that raises Ned levels human clinical trials find that NR is safe and it raises NAD in a dose dependent manner starting from 100 milligram with no reported side effects NR is relatively new and we don't have that many clinical trials on it here are some of the things we do know related to longevity NR hasn't been seen to improve insulin sensitivity even at a dose of 2,000 migr a day in obese subjects who are prime targets for getting those benefits a 2023 random clinical trial on Alzheimer's disease patients found that a cocktail of supplements that included 1,000 Mig of NR improved cognitive function and increased hipocampal volume and cortical thickness however there were several other ingredients in the cocktail besides NR another 2023 trial on NR supplementation at a dose of 1500 Mig twice a day in 10 Parkinson's patients resulted in improvements in cognition scores overall NR has very limited evidence that it has benefits and even the blueprint dosage is much smaller than the one used in clinical trials spermidine is another popular supplement but as of now there's almost no evidence that it works a 2023 random aspo control study on healthy adults found that 15 milligram of spermine a day as a supplement for 5 days didn't increase blood or salivary spermine levels a 2022 randomus control trial found that long-term spermine supplementation in people with subjective cognitive decline didn't modify memory and biomarkers compared to Placebo so in my opinion there's no evidence that you would want to take spermidine as a supplement the hype about spermidine having longevity benefits comes from observational studies that find how spermidine intake from foods is linked to lower mortality blood pressure and heart disease but that applies to dietary spine intake not the supplements the lowest risk is seen with an intake of 11.6 Mig a day from diet to resine and blueprint has a dose of 10 Mig so I think they're try trying to Target that amount but based on evidence is not going to even raise your spermine levels lithium is an interesting and thought-provoking ingredient historically lithium has been used to treat bipolar disorder however there's an interesting link between Lithium and brain aging as well as mental health a 2015 met analysis of randomost control trials found that lithium treatment could reduce cognitive decline and be beneficial in people with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's dementia there are also observational studies linking lithium intake to lower rates of dementia and cognitive impairment in elderly people overall lithium has mood stabilizing benefits and it also might have some neuroprotective effects but the evidence currently suggests that it works mostly for people who have Dementia or mild cognitive impairment Rola Rosa is an adaptogen that has been seen to have benefits and stress in clinical trials however the dosages in those studies are usually around 340 to 600 milligram a day whereas blueprint has a dose of 300 milligram CoQ10 is considered a mitochondrial supplement that supports energy and heart function a 2022 meta analysis of random most control trials concluded that there's evidence that CoQ10 could reduce fatigue another 2022 meta analyses or clinical trials found that coq1 at a dose of 100 to 200 milligram could improve glycemic control especially in diabetes at 20124 meta analysis on sports performance found that CQ 10 reduces muscle damage and oxidated stress but with a dose dependent manner over 100 milligrams a day however blueprint uses a dose of 50 mg which appears to be underdosed overall I'm going to give the ESS capsules a rating of 2.5 out of five I think it's the worst supplement in the stack yes there are some interesting ingredients there and you could cover your daily vitamins and minerals with it quite easily but the other ingredients appear to be almost like extra fluff with not much evidence next let's cover na plus Ginger plus curcumin it's got 1200 Mig of NAC 400 Mig of Ginger and 250 Mig of curcumin I already talked about n in the longevity mix basically a dose of 12200 Mig might not be enough for the elderly people but it might work for someone like BR who's in his 40s a 2020 meta analysis of random most control trials concluded that NAC significantly decreased some markers of oxida stress like hocine and MDA but it had no effect on some other inflammatory markers like CRP or tnf Alpha the mean dosage in these studies was 500 to 2,000 milligrams and the participants were 30 to 70 years old a 2023 metaanalysis of clinical trials also found that NAC can improve metabolic markers such as blood glucose and lipids in women with PC so overall NC works and blueprint has the right dose corcumin is a polyphenol found in turmeric with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects three meta analysis of randomiz control trials from 2021 and 2023 saw that oral corcumin supplementation reduces markers of inflammation such as CRP il6 tnf Alpha and IL 8 the dosages used in these trials were between 300 to 1900 Mig a day so there is quite a lot of evidence that cumin might have benefits for lowering inflammation however a lot of these studies also use piperin to improve corcumin absorption because corcumin alone is with very bad bioavailability blueprint doesn't contain any piperin or even fat that could improve absorption which is a negative Ginger is another herb with anti-inflammatory benefits a 2022 review found that human studies show how Ginger does improve inflammation a 2024 metaanalysis of 27 randomus control trials showed a significant link between Ginger supplementation of 2 gam a day and weight loss waist circumference and body fat loss a 2022 metaanalysis concluded that Ginger supplementation lowered blood sugar and hemoglobin A1c in people with type 2 diabetes however the dose used in these studies was 1200 to 3,000 Mig a day blueprint uses a dose of 400 Mig a day which appears to be underdosed for NAC plus curcumin plus Ginger I'm going to give a rating of 3.5 out of five yes these ingredients have benefits for specifically inflammation but some of them appear to be slightly underdosed and again the question is how much inflammation you need need to reduce if you're already eating a healthy diet and you're already healthy the last supplement on the Block is red yeast rice plus odor-free garlic it has 500 mg of red yeast rice extract and 100 Mig of odorless garlic red yeast rice is a commonly used supplement for high cholesterol is over the conour and generally recognized as safe a 2022 metaanalysis of Randomness control trials found that red yeast rice extract at a dose of 200 to 4,800 milligram a day improved lipids especially triglycerides now the effect sizes for cholesterol and apob probably aren't as large as you would see from lipid lowering drugs so you shouldn't replace your medication with these kind of supplements because they're not as effective next is garlic and I think now we have proof that Brian isn't a vampire because he's taking garlic in randomus control trials doses of 300 Mig up to 6 gam of aged garlic or garlic powder twice a day for 4 to 12 weeks has been shown to reduce total cholesterol triglycerides and ldlc a 2019 double blind placea control study on patients at high risk of cardiovascular disease showed that 2400 Mig of age garlic extract per day increased microcirculation and triggered wound healing in the blood vessels which protected against atherosclerosis progression now I don't know how to convert the odorless garlic extract into actual garlic powder or some real garlic but at least based on the studies any amount of garlic appears to work at least in terms of lowering your cholesterol overall for this red yeast rice and garlic supplement I'm going to give a rating of 4.2 out of 5 it's hard to mess it up because you have only two ingredients and these ingredients do have appear to have benefits especially for triglycerides and cholesterol let's quickly talk about the berry powders and cacao I don't think we should cover these because they're just food powders and yes you should try to get most of your fruit and vegetables and berries in Whole Food form but the freeze dried powders are also quite useful and there's plenty of evidence that berries are good for you all right we've gone through all the supplements and all the ingredients yes a lot of these ingredients do meet the clinically relevant dose whatever that means but a lot of the other supplements or the ingredients don't meet that here's the conclusion about my ratings for these supplements the longevity mix four out of five essential soft gels 4.9 out of five essential capsules 2.5 out of 5 NAC curcum and ginger 3.5 out of 5 and red yeast rice and garlic 4.2 out of 5 in total it's 3.8 out of 5 which isn't that bad I'm not making this video to trash the supplements I think actually the blueprint stack is more evidence-based than most other companies out there and they're more trans trans arent with their ingredients so yeah I'm happy that they are being so transparent and I just believe that people deserve to know okay what is the actual evidence and is there any evidence at all if you want to know what supplements I'm taking then check out my free supplement list Link in the description other than that thanks for watching this video make sure you click a like And subscribe for future videos about living longer and staying healthier my name is SE stay optimized stay empowered