Possible. I hadn’t even considered micro plastics. I had naively assumed that algae would be grown in farming ponds and didn’t think about real-world environmental toxins. I was more considering that algae has been promoted as a bulk food source (for some nutrients — I’m picturing the blue oatmeal from The Matrix) and I can’t remember it being tested for longevity.
I was more concerned with two possibilities (neither with a paper as background):
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when I have glycine or taurine/etc by itself, I have a “flush” or some kind of reaction. But when I eat a steak (with glycine in it) I don’t feel anything. There seems to be a “signalling” aspect to many of these “supplements” which have a specific impact (or you just ram a specific pathway’s constituents until you get when you want). I’d consider algae more like the steak, and less like an isolated dose of synthetic astraxanthin.
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what’s in the algae? How do they make it? Is it a clean environment? Are there heavy metals? Toxic molds? Lead painted pool sides? Do they use clean water? Pesticides? Enhancers? Are the algae unhealthy and have the output of an unhealthy organism? Etc.
Sorry:addition: there seems to be an impact of pure astraxanthin which I haven’t seen in the algae derived astraxanthin. Maybe it is the same and hasn’t been tested. I’m taking 12mg per day from algae derived astraxanthin. I’ll of course let you know if I like 15% longer, but this has been in the back of my mind.
The comparison that comes to mind is: if Rapamycin wasn’t isolated and produced (or rapalogs) would it work as well to eat a pound of Easter island dirt every two weeks to get your 10mg or Rapamycin? (Kidding of course)
I’ve just switched to a new Astaxanthin. It’s less expensive for 20% more compared to NOW.
BULKSUPPLEMENTS Astaxanthin 12mg 180 Softgels - Astaxanthin Supplement - Astaxanthin Pills
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0B9HNPB88?ref=ppx_pt2_mob_b_prod_image
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Antioxidant, shmantioxidant.
“The mean life span for the mice given supplementary calcium pantothenate was 653.1 days and that for the control mice was 549.8 days.” In other words, all the mice in this study were absurdly short-lived, whether they got Ca pantothenate or not. This kind of result means nothing for normally-aging mice or people.
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RE: pantothenate. No, what the study simply means is that if you are an unhealthy human or short-lived rat, it may be beneficial to you.
Upon further reflection, due to the cost being low and other potential benefits, it’s worth a shot.
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José
#46
Calcium pantothenate supplement/pantothenic acid (Vitamin B5) is a fraction of the cost of astaxanthin.
Majority of person do not have/are willing to spend $$$$ for 3 to 5 grams of oral astaxanthin per day.
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B5 is a coa precursor. The coa can be acetylated into … acetyl–CoA
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Calcium pantothenate supplement/pantothenic acid (Vitamin B5) is a fraction of the cost of astaxanthin.
B5 is a coa precursor. The coa can be acetylated into … acetyl’-CoS
Good points. It’s probably worth it then. But I’ll still take my Asta as well. 
This is the B-complex Bryan Johnson uses. It’s quite inexpensive and contains pantothenic acid.
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Right: if you would otherwise be absurdly short-lived, like these mice (and for similar reasons — not familial hypercholesterolemia, alcohol abuse, or a nasty set of BRCA1/2 mutations), it might benefit you. “This kind of result means nothing for normally-aging mice or people.”
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There was an old paper that identified b5 as an active ingredient in royal jelly.
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This study looked at differences between synthetic and natural astaxanthin consumption in prawn:
Synthetic astaxanthin has better effects than natural astaxanthins on growth performance, body color and n-3 PUFA deposition in black tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon) - ScienceDirect
These results indicate that dietary synthetic astaxanthin has a better effect than natural astaxanthin on growth promotion, body color enhancement and n-3 PUFA deposition in muscle of black tiger prawn.
Diet supplementation with H. pluvialis (natural astaxanthin) enhanced the resistance to transportation stress better than synthetic astaxanthin.
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A short as to why Rimon added astaxanthin to his stack.
Beth
#53
Incase this is helpful to anyone
I started taking astaxanthin last month. I was ordering the vegan gummies from nutrex hawaii. Yummy and I really like them, but I just realized the Bryan Johnson Blueprint vit K supplement contains the same 12mg of astaxanthin. Their supplement is costly and has items I don’t need, but it has enough of what I do take that it doesn’t cost me more when I add it all up.
Blueprint is only $1.50 more to get both astaxanthin and K, so ultimately it’s less costly for me.
No one talks much about blueprint, so perhaps I’m a sucker :), but I was impressed they just altered their multi vit. They took out a couple items and lowers the cost. I was pleased to see they are not married to a formula.
Here is their vit k ingredients incase you are curious
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Yikes. That’s pretty expensive. That’s about 3X the cost of buying the supplements separately!
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Beth
#55
Thx for that. And ARGH! I guess that means nutrex is waaaay too expensive. I often make the mistake of just trying something that is easy, and then after a month or two, I’ll look for a better deal if I’m going to continue it.
Nutrex was $45 for 30 gummies! Granted, I found them to be a yummy treat!
I now see sports research has 60 pills for $25 (I’m a little limited on options due to wanting vegan supplements)
I often mix in some sports research d and k when not taking blueprint just to bring the total cost down.
I’ll have to recheck everything I take.
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Watch out, because many brands have little to no asta. There’s a yt video a guy did on a bunch of brands. Only go with trusted brands, like NOW, Jarrow’s etc.
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LukeMV
#57
I actually think Blueprint is a pretty darn good brand. Most of the products are not expensive compared to many other brands, and he tests all of them. Right now his only product I use is the cacao powder since I like to put it in Greek Yogurt or protein shakes but I’d use his other stuff if I felt the need.
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Beth
#58
@CronosTempi Wow! Thx for that video. I didn’t know the Wild West was THAT bad! I chose the nutrex gummies because someone on here recommended two different high quality brands. I think I remember seeing rapadmin also buying the non vegan option at costco. I imagine it was good, but just too expensive for a nice to have. I am on board in hopes it helps my dry eyes
And @LukeMV
This is great to hear. My instinct was I can trust his quality, because even if he isn’t on the up and up, which I believe/hope he is, there are so many people out there who would love to take him down, so you know someone is out there sending his stuff to an independent lab!!! Imagine how many clicks they’d get!
I feel great about his essential capsules because there are at least 5 things in there I would take daily, and several more that I’d be considering… all in two pills.
How do you like his cocoa? I bought it, too, but gotta admit I don’t like it as much as some other brands… apparently I have a taste for lead! His food products look appealing, but I just make some of those things from scratch. The 26gm of protein in nutty pudding sounds like the perfect protein ‘shake’ for me, but alas, that one is truly too $$$ for me at $94.
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Josh
#59
Has anyone tested synthetic vs natural asta in c elegans? That would be pretty easy wormbot test?
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It appears some synthetic astaxanthic uses something called total synthesis, which ensures consistency and similar nature to the natural one. This was the type used in the ITP study.
Comments from one of the distributors of this astaxanthin suggest that the ITP dose achieved much lower blood levels in mice than the dose may suggest. Using high bioavailability astaxanthin, a dose of around 12mg to 24mg would achieve comparable blood levels in humans.
I suspect the female mice might have had the astaxanthin diluted in fat tissues, since they have more fat than male mice, reducing effectiveness somewhat.
The fact the absorption was so minuscule bodes well for the potential of higher doses.
BTW, the high absorption synthetic astaxanthin from one of this companies is 3x when consumed with fat than that of regular astaxanthin consumed with fat. Astaxanthin absorption is less if not consumed with fat.
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