Latest / Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson / Urolithin A - Mitochondrial Miracle in the Petri Dish

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Urolithin A - Mitochondrial Miracle in the Petri Dish · Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson

• 0:04
  >> Dr. Terry Simpson: As we age, our mitochondria get sloppy. They break
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  down, pile up, and gum up the machinery that keeps
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  our cells running smoothly. And for the last few
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  years, one molecule, urolithin A, has been making
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  headlines for its supposed ability to reactivate
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  the cellular cleanup system that slows as we get
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  older. Before we talk hype, let's start with what
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  urolithin A actually is. It's not something you
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  eat. It's something that your gut bacteria make
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  after you consume foods rich in elegant. These are
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  polyphenols found in pomegranates, walnuts,
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  berries, and green tea. Green tea is famous for
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  its catkins, but it's also a real source of
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  elligechanins like strychnine, meaning it provides
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  the raw ingredients your microbes need to make
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  urolithin A. And if you're lucky enough to have
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  the right gut bacteria, you're lucky. When I first
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  heard about urolithin A, I thought it was a
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  commercial for a urology product. Something for
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  benign prostatic hypertrophy. Maybe a middle aged
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  man named Greg talking about improved flow. I'm
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  sorry, urolithin A. You really deserve better
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  marketing. So today we're going to skip the
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  infomercials and look to the real science. Where
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  urolithin A comes from, how it works, and why your
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  microbiome decides whether pomegranates turn into
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  longevity molecule or just a fruit stain on your
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  favorite white shirt.
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  Today we're continuing our longevity series and
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  making sense of the madness of urolithin A. Yes,
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  you've seen the tiktoks for it. I am, um, your
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  Chief Medical Explanationist, Dr. Terry Simpson,
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  and this is for Q Fork University, where we bust a
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  few myths, make sense of the madness, and teach
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  you a little bit about food and medicine.
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  Urolithin A is created when your gut bacteria take
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  alga channins and break them down into various
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  forms that convert to urolithin A. You're not
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  absorbing them directly. Your microbiomes are
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  doing the chemistry for you like it does for a lot
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  of things. It activates this pathway that does
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  cellular housekeeping, that tags and recycles old
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  broken mitochondria. So mitochondria, uh, are the
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  powerhouse of the cell. I want you to imagine a
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  cell. So the cell has, if you may recall from
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  biology, a surrounding membrane, a, uh, nucleus
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  and mitochondria. And it's the mitochondria that
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  provide the energy and do the, a lot of the repair
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  and that your cell needs. When you're young. This
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  system works beautifully. After age 40, well, it
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  kind of works like the TSA line during the
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  government shutdown. Slow backed up and full of
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  complaints. And urolithin A doesn't create new
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  mitochondria. It helps your body clean out the bad
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  ones so the good ones can perform better. Here's,
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  uh, where urolithin A becomes a tale of two guts.
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  Your microbiome decides your urolithin a destiny.
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  It turns out only 12 to 40% of adults naturally
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  produce urolithin A after eating foods that are
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  rich in that substance. The urolithin A producers
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  have gut microbiomes that look like a botanical
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  garden. Rich diversity. They have a number of key
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  bacteria that seem to carry the exact genes that
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  are needed to make urolithin A. But most people
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  are non producers. They don't have the microbiomes
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  or the microbiomes with the functional genes. And
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  no matter how many pomegranates they eat, how much
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  green tea they drink, they make zero urolithin A.
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  Do diets fix this? No. No diet. Keto, low carb,
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  etc. No biohacker, no ancestral diet has been
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  shown to turn a non producer of urolithin A into a
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  producer. Now, the Mediterranean diet might give
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  you more elegant, but it cannot install the
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  bacteria required to convert them into ua and keto
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  bacon. It does not care about your mitochondria.
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  Here's the important part. If you happen to be a
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  urolithin A producer, diet matters because you
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  have the right microbiomes. If you're a non
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  producer, food will never get you there. Hence
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  supplement, bypass the entire microbiome
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  bottleneck. Let's look at some actual trials and
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  the human data. There have been tons of
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  randomization trials in older adults. Typically 4
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  months of urolithin A supplementation led to
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  improved muscle endurance, improved mitochondrial
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  biomarkers, reduced C reactive protein and
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  inflammation marker by but importantly, there was
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  not an improvement in 6 minute walk distance,
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  there was not an improvement in ATP production,
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  and there were no changes in major mobility
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  outcomes. So your mitochondria looked happier. But
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  in the big clinical outcomes, things didn't
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  change. Another systemic review where they looked
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  at five randomized controlled trials involving
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  about 250 people, had the same story. Better
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  autophagy markers, modest endurance improvements,
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  lower inflammatory markers, but no effect on
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  cardiovascular outcomes, weight or physical
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  function. Urolithin A is biologically promising,
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  but it's clinically modest.
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  Now let's talk about the Hayflick senescent Cells.
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  As you may recall, our cells are programmed to
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  die. They will divide 50 plus or minus 10 times.
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  They go into senescence and retire. Cells stop
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  dividing and they just sort of hang out. But they
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  don't hang out in a positive way like grandpa at
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  the nursing home. They spend their time spewing
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  inflammatory molecules which really make your
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  whole body sick. Now, in vitro, meaning in the
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  laboratory, you, Urolithin A does some kind of
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  impressive things. It decreases some of the
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  senescent cells, it suppresses some of the
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  inflammatory markers, it restores mitophagy, it
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  improves oxidative stress markers, and it boosts
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  circadian rhythm amplitude in senescent
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  fibroblasts. So urolithin A behaves kind of like
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  a. It tames senescent cells rather than killing
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  them. But none of this has been shown in human
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  dishes. It's petri dishes, not clinical outcomes.
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  In some cancer cell models, urolithin A actually
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  induces senescence. And that's kind of promising
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  also. But context matters. This is why we don't
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  turn lab data into longevity promises. Well, we at
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  4Q don't. Now let's be clear. You cannot get
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  urolithin A directly from food. You can only get
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  it from the precursors. And, and people who have
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  the right microbiome can convert them. But if you
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  don't have the right microbiome, you can't. And we
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  don't seem to be able to give you probiotics to do
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  this. So what we actually know from safety data in
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  urolithin A is from studies that last about four
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  months of daily use. Four months, that's not four
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  years. In that window when we give patients 250 to
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  1,000 milligrams a day, there was no significant
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  severe adverse outcome. There was no dose limiting
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  toxicity. The side effects were similar to
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  placebos. There were no liver changes, no kidney
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  changes, no blood abnormalities, some mild GI
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  symptoms. Bloating, loose stools is the most
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  common things. What about long term data? We don't
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  have it. What about pregnancy data? We don't know
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  and clearly don't recommend it for people who are
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  pregnant. There's no multi year use data, there's
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  no chronic disease safety data. So if someone says
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  that urolithin A is proven safe long term, they're
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  selling confidence, they're not selling evidence.
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  So should you take it? Well, here's a verdict from
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  us. At 4q, Urolithin A does something real. At the
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  mitochondrial level. It improves biomarkers, helps
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  endurance in older adults, it's safe short term.
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  It bypasses that microbiome bottleneck, but it
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  does not change major clinical outcomes, it does
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  not reverse aging, and it doesn't replace the
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  basics. The basics of lifting weight, moving your
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  body, eating a Mediterranean style diet, getting
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  better sleep, managing stress by taking more
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  walks, and avoiding quacks. Urolithin A is
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  scientifically interesting, but it is not
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  scientifically transformative. Save the money for
• 8:56
  the supplement. Come on our Mediterranean cruise
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  this summer and learn about the real science of
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  longevity and things that will really work. I'm
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  Dr. Terry Simpson and this has been Fork you where
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  we break down the science, bust the myths, and
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  keep you out of quack traps. References for this
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  will appear on Forku.com and YourDoctorsOrders.com
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  Go ahead and follow me on TikTok where I'm RTARY
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  Simpson and Instagram where I'm Rterry Simpsonmd
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  for real medical science minus the nonsense. And
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  remember, I'm a physician who's researched and
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  written this, but I am not your board certified
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  physician. Before you take any supplements, please
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  talk to a board certified physician. Before
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  changing diets, please talk to a registered
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  dietitian, not a chiropractor, not an Eastern
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  health medicine type. Nothing like that. Until
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  then, have a Good week. I'm Dr. Simpson. This is
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  Forq. Good day. Hey Evo, you're old with an A. It
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  still sounds like something for your prostate.
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  >> Speaker B: Yeah, but you medical people have weird names for
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  most things like that. Still, I'm sure someone
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  will try to use it for that. Man, we still got
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  work to do.