London - Could the elixir of youth in fact be a potion made from the shells of crab, lobster and shrimp?
Recently, in the highly respected journal Nature Communications, scientists reported how the food supplement glucosamine, often made from shellfish, can make mice live nearly 10 percent longer. That would add an average eight years to human lifespans, taking the average UK life expectancy to 89.
The researcher, Dr Michael Ristow, a biochemist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, gave the supplement to ageing mice in addition to their usual diet and compared them with similar mice not given the supplement.
He believes the benefits are down to glucosamine making the body think it’s on a low-carb, high-protein diet. It does this by creating amino acids that the body mistakes for proteins.
In response, our bodies start burning more protein. This can keep weight down and, as a result, may also fend off problems such as high blood pressure and diabetes.
Glucosamine supplements, available in health food shops, are already a popular remedy for arthritis, with annual sales estimated at £41.6-million, according to recent figures.
This is because glucosamine is thought to help the body produce synovial fluid, which lubricates joints and helps cartilage to repair itself. If cartilage isn’t repaired, bones in joints are more likely to rub against each other, causing arthritis — inflammation and pain in the joint.
The body itself produces glucosamine but the amount starts to dwindle after the age of 45.
However, the jury is out on whether glucosamine supplements really help ease arthritis.
While supplement manufacturers are keen to claim it is proven by lab tests, a 2010 review of ten trials published in the British Medical Journal found that glucosamine was not useful in reducing osteoarthritis joint pain.
The evidence for glucosamine promoting longevity may in fact be more promising.
It appears to protect against several common causes of death, according to a 2012 study by The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in the US.
The large-scale study, involving more than 77 000 people over an eight-year period, found those taking glucosamine for their joints had nearly a fifth lower risk of premature death. Furthermore, they had a 13 percent reduced risk of dying from cancer and a 41 percent reduced risk of dying from respiratory disease, reported the European Journal of Epidemiology.
Scientists have suggested that glucosamine may have an anti-inflammatory effect similar to that of aspirin but without the long-term adverse side-effects such as stomach bleeding.
There may, however, be another explanation. Glucosamine has been found to boost a process in the human body called autophagy, according to a 2013 report in the journal Arthritis and Rheumatism.
Autophagy is a system in which cells get rid of their toxic waste. If this process fails, the cell dies, explains Katja Simon, a researcher in immunology at the University of Oxford Nuffield Department of Medicine, who is exploring this process in human studies. “In the ageing process it has been shown that autophagy levels fall. It may be that things such as wrinkles, hearing loss and cancer are actually due to these falling autophagy levels and accumulation of toxic wastes in the cells.”
This may help to explain why glucosamine used in a cream appears to have an anti-ageing effect on the skin.
A series of studies presented to the American Academy of Dermatology in 2006 suggested it may reverse the ageing effect of sunburn on skin cells.
Tests from Harvard Medical School found that a cream made with the chemical reduced liver spots and freckles in those with sunburn-related damage.
Other studies presented at the conference showed that glucosamine in skin cream may stimulate production of hyaluronic acid, believed to help keep skin hydrated, and collagen, which can make skin appear youthfully plump.
But these are early days. As Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology and a consultant rheumatologist at King’s College London, says: “Glucosamine is an interesting molecule that could affect us subtly in many ways. If even a modest effect on ageing were proven, it would be a major advance. However, humans are not the same as worms or rodents and studies will need careful replication before we get overexcited.”
It should also be acknowledged the substance has potential side-effects. People taking the blood-thinning drug warfarin should be cautious, as glucosamine may make the drug too potent.
And those who are allergic to shellfish should also be wary, although the allergenic part of shellfish is usually the flesh and not the shell, and some glucosamine supplements are based on alternative sources, such as plant fungus.
Nevertheless, we may now be nearer the day when a lobster can help us to look less crabby. - Daily Mail