NuSkin ageLoc Vitality Reviewed, How Does It Stack Up To Cellgevity?
In the last few years a growing segment of the nutritional market is the ‘anti-aging’ products, which go beyond providing basic nutritional requirements to altering cellular function and targeting the causes of aging, in particular oxidative stress and toxicity.
The old buzz words of free radicals and antioxidant juices has been replaced with Nrf2, gene expression, endogenous antioxidants and mitochondria (the energy factories inside each cell).
Endogenous antioxidants are the enzymes and antioxidants created by the body itself. This includes the enzymes catalase (CAT) and super-oxide dismutase (SOD), and glutathione, which is beginning to attract the mainstream attention it rightfully deserves as the body’s master antioxidant, with more than double the published research compared to Vitamin C on PubMed.gov
The mitochondria in each cell are a primary sources of free radicals. The complex chemical process of turning the food we eat and oxygen we breathe into ATP energy isn’t a perfect one, and just like the inside of a nuclear reactor slowly becomes radioactive and damaged itself, the same happens in our mitochondria.
Your mitochondria has it’s own circular DNA which is separate to the double helix DNA we commonly think of. By then time we reach old age our mitochondrial DNA are damaged, and reducing the efficiency we produce ATP energy, and increasing the rate of free radical production, creating a viscous cycle of further.
Glutathione depletion may also play a significant role in aging, at least in part through its role as a major protector of mitochondrial DNA (MtDNA). Maintenance of normal MtDNA directly correlates with maximum life span, which has been estimated at 122 years in humans.
During ATP production in the mitochondria, superoxide free radicals are produced which are converted to hydroxyl and peroxide free radicals. GSH neutralizes hydroxyl free radicals and is an essential component of GSH peroxidase, which neutralizes peroxide free radicals. These free radicals generated within the mitochondria have the potential to damage MtDNA.
At age 90 only 5% of normal MtDNA remains when compared to the normal MtDNA level of a 5 year old. GSH levels decrease with age (1% per year) which may account for at least some of the cumulative MtDNA damage.
Youth Gene Clusters is a term coined by NuSkin given to the genes which modulate mitochondrial function. They have advanced the field in quantifying and measuring the functions of these well known herbal tonics used in traditional Chinese medicine and by modern naturopaths. NuSkin’s ageLoc Vitality product aims to reverse aging by restoring the expression of these genes to when we were younger.
NuSkin Vitality ingredients
The primary ingredient in Vitality is the Cordyceps mushroom which is a cornerstone of Chinese herbal medicine for the last 2000 years or more. It’s known to have anti-inflammatory properties, improve stamina, and more. Out in the wild it’s a freaky little mushroom which like to grow from inside the heads of ants and other crawlies, like the picture on the right, making them zombie like before the parasitic growth kills them. The Cordyceps we get in the supplements is standardized extracts from commercially farmed varieties with high levels of the active compounds.
Supplement Facts – Daily amounts (2 serves)
| ageLoc Vitality | Cellgevity | |
| Herbal/proprietary blend | 2270mg | 1060mg |
| Vitamin C | 0 | 85mg (142% RDI) |
| Selenomethinone | 0 | 25mcg (36% RDI) |
| RiboCeine | 0 | 250mg |
Ingredients List
| ageLoc Vitality | Cellgevity |
| Cordyceps Pomegranite Ginseng |
Vitamin C Selenium RiboCeine Cordyceps Curcumin Resveratrol Alpha-Lipoic Acid Grape Seed Extract Quercertin Milk Thistle Extract (Silybum Marinum) Broccoli extract (Sulforaphane) Aloe Vera Black Pepper (BioPerine) |
Cellgevity contains Vitamin C which might seem like old news. But when you consider that humans, along with guinea pigs and fruit-eating bats, are some of the few mammals which can’t make their own Vitamin C (we lucked out in the gene pool there) you realise given it’s many important roles, it’s still worthwhile to supplement with it.
A number of the ingredients in Cellgevity, such as sulforaphane and curcumin, are known as some of the best activators of Nrf2. When the Nrf2 pathway is activated is results in the transcription of about 200 genes which create many protective enzymes and proteins.
Only Cellgevity contains critical nutrients needed to protect the mitochondria from oxidative damage.
- Cysteine, the critical building block for glutathione – the master antioxidant and detoxifier.
- Selenium for the Glutathione Peroxidase enzyme, which is required for glutathione to protect against oxidative damage.
- Vitamin C and Alpha-Lipoc Acid as general antioxidants which help recycle glutathione and have their own specific roles.
- BioPerine, to increase to bio-availability of Vitamin C, Selenium and Curcumin.
Our body is very clever and down-regulates energy production in the mitochondria when it’s ability to deal with the inevitable Reactive Oxygen Species/free radicals decreases.
The NuSkin Vitality may very do a good job at altering mitochondrial gene expression. The question is without the critical building blocks to create the protective antioxidants and enzymes will the increased energy production, and therefore free radical production, would it in fact damage the mitochondria more in the long term.
You can liken the difference to a factory which produces aluminum cans. Optimising gene expression and increase enzyme production is like upgrading the assembly line robots in the factory. The state-of-the-art robots can optimize the production of the aluminum cans by reducing wastage and doing it faster.
The first robot, the enzyme GLC, combines the two amino acids Cysteine and Glutatamine. This is the rate limiting step in glutathione production. Then the enzyme glutathione synthetase adds on the glycine to create the finished product of glutathione.
The final step in the assembly line is when glutathione carries out one of it’s primary functions. It needs the enzyme Glutathione Peroxidase to enable it to neutralize powerful types of free radicals such as Hydrogen Peroxide.
Vitality contains 2.27 grams of high potency herbal extracts per daily dosage, while Cellgevity has 1.06 grams of herbal extract (and ALA). Only Cellgevity contains the critical building blocks of Cysteine and Selenium for glutathione and glutathione peroxidase production to protect the mitochondria from the damages of increased energy production via modulated gene expression.
