Brent Kearney

The Over- Mineralization Theory of Aging

Posted on: January 6th, 2009 @ 09:55

The over mineralization theory of aging holds that the build-up of calcium, iron and copper in the body is responsible for age-related chronic health problems such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and many other ailments. The theory seems compelling, as it seems to explain why humans age in different stages — something that the oxidation theory does not account for.

This video explains the theory in 8 minutes. The video was created by a company that has a patent-pending “nutraceutical” supplement for chelating excess minerals from the body.

I mentioned resveratrol in an earlier post, and after looking into it, I think it’s worthwhile. This website has dozens of links to and summaries of peer-reviewed, published scientific studies that support the over-mineralization theory of aging and the efficacy of resveratrol. For example, this summary discusses findings from Cornell University showing that oral doses of resveratrol reduces brain plaque, due to it’s ability to chelate copper. The accumulation of brain plaque is associated with senility and Alzheimer’s disease.

The over-mineralization theory of aging is new to me, and I look forward to researching it more. If you have any comments or links to other information about the theory, especially to any opposing voices, I would love to hear from you.

One thing I’m particularly curious about is appropriate conclusions that one can take away from this theory in regards to diet, in light of athletic performance. Calcium is a critical mineral for muscle contractions, and iron is necessary for muscle growth and recovery. From a performance perspective, what is one to do if these minerals also contribute to the dysfunction of cellular processes? Chelation would seem to be one answer, but what other advice is prudent?

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  • http://brent.kearneys.ca Brent

    This discussion is enlightening:

    http://groups.google.com/group/sci.life-extension/browse_thread/thread/4fdba1ea2fa25f80#

    In particular, this part is disturbing for me, as an active outdoor athelete and rock climber:

    It is possible that the anti-angiogenesis effect of resveratrol can cause ligament or
    tendon issues; those tissues are so poorly supplied with blood a reduction of angiogenesis could delay or prevent healing, and a series of micro-tears or other injuries would compound the situaton. Quercetin has a similar effect on agiogenesis.

    If resveratrol slows recovery time, it is certainly not a good thing for athletes to take. On another note, a recent study showed that, like resveratrol, endurance exercise can have similar SIRT1 effects! Combine this with the fact that sweating is a natural iron chelator, it makes resveratrol supplements look like a poor substitute for exercise, that has negative side-effects. I will write about this in a separate post, once I have time to research a little more.

  • http://brent.kearneys.ca Brent

    Here is some scientific evidence for the positive effects of iron chelators on mental function in aged (rat) brains. Ouroboros quotes a paper in the journal Neurobiology of Aging:

    The results show that DFO is able to reverse age-induced recognition memory deficits. We also demonstrated that DFO reduced the oxidative damage to proteins in cortex and hippocampus. Thus, the present findings provide the first evidence that iron chelators might prevent age-related memory dysfunction.

    DFO is desferoxamine, an iron chelator. They injected rats with a very high dose of 300 mg/kg, so this isn’t something that would be for general use, as a supplement for example. However, maybe it could someday be used as clinical treatment for geriatric dementia.

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    Thanks your sharing!

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