Molekyler
Compounds studied for their effect on aging biology, from familiar vitamins to investigational drugs.
17-alpha-Estradiol
A weakly estrogenic isomer of the hormone estradiol that extends median lifespan in male mice by 12-19% without the feminizing effects of regular estrogen. The one published human dosing trial found the doses needed for metabolic benefit also caused testicular atrophy and hormone suppression.
Acarbose
A 40-year-old diabetes pill that blunts blood sugar spikes after meals and extends mouse lifespan more than almost anything else tested.
Alpha-Ketoglutarate
A Krebs cycle metabolite that extends mouse lifespan in a Buck Institute study, and the base ingredient of a supplement whose human epigenetic-age claim rests on a small retrospective study with no placebo group.
Alpha-Lipoic Acid
A sulfur-containing cofactor your mitochondria already make. Supplementing it treats diabetic nerve pain and, rarely, triggers an autoimmune reaction to your own insulin.
Apigenin
A flavonoid found in chamomile, parsley, and celery, and the compound usually credited for chamomile tea's calming reputation. No published human RCT has tested isolated apigenin for sleep; the human trial evidence is entirely about chamomile as a whole plant.
Ashwagandha
A root used in Ayurvedic medicine for centuries. Modern RCTs show it can lower cortisol and raise DHEA-S and testosterone slightly, but the same trials often find no significant change in the subjective stress or vigor scores it is marketed to fix.
Berberin
A plant alkaloid from goldenseal and barberry, nicknamed "nature's Ozempic" online despite working through a completely different mechanism.
CoQ10 (Coenzyme Q10)
A fat-soluble compound the body makes itself and uses to move electrons in mitochondria. Levels fall with age and drop sharply on statins, which is the strongest evidence-based reason to supplement it.
Collagen
The most abundant protein in the human body, sold in powder form for skin and joints. A 2025 metaanalys found the skin benefit shows up only in industry-funded trials, not in independently funded ones.
Creatine
The most studied supplement in sports nutrition, quietly one of the most useful for aging muscle, brain, and bone.
Curcumin
The yellow pigment in turmeric. In water it is nearly insoluble, and that single fact explains most of the supplement industry built around it.
Ergothioneine
A sulfur-containing amino acid found concentrated in mushrooms, humans cannot make it and rely entirely on a dedicated transporter (OCTN1) to pull it from food. Low blood levels track with worse cognitive outcomes in cohort data, but there is essentially no completed human intervention-trial evidence yet.
Fisetin
A strawberry flavonoid that cleared senescent cells and extended mouse healthspan in 2018, then failed the mouse lifespan test that matters most in 2023.
GDF11
A blood protein that a 2013 Harvard study claimed reversed heart and muscle aging in old mice. Later work found the original antibody could not reliably distinguish GDF11 from a much more abundant relative, myostatin, and some labs reported GDF11 rises, not falls, with age.
GLP-1 Receptor Agonists
The weight-loss drugs with the best cardiovascular trial data of any longevity-adjacent compound. They also take muscle along with fat, and researchers disagree about calling them longevity drugs at all.
Glucosamine Sulfate
A widely used joint-health supplement with a modest observational signal for lower all-cause mortality, though the longevity evidence is not from randomized trials.
Glycine
The smallest amino acid, and a building block of collagen and glutathione. Three small Japanese trials found 3 g before bed helps sleep; a bigger claim about aging depends on pairing it with NAC.
Hyaluronic Acid
A long-chain sugar molecule that holds water in skin and joint fluid. Whether an intact, functional molecule survives oral digestion to reach those tissues is still disputed; the human trial evidence for oral supplements is real but modest and mostly short-term.
L-Theanine
An amino acid found in tea leaves, sold as a calm-focus supplement. It reliably improves attention on a single 200 mg dose in controlled trials, but a real RCT in diagnosed generalized anxiety disorder found it did not beat placebo.
Magnesium
An essential mineral cofactor for over 300 enzymes. Meta-analyses on sleep and cognition find real but small effects built on a thin base of low-quality trials, not the dramatic before-and-after story sold on the label.
Melatonin
A hormone made by the pineal gland at night that signals darkness to the body clock. It works well for jet lag and for shifting circadian timing, but its benefit for ordinary insomnia is small, and most gummy produkter sold in the US do not contain the amount of melatonin printed on the label.
Metformin
A cheap generic diabetes drug that reshaped the longevity conversation, then partly walked itself back through the TAME trial's slow progress.
N-Acetylcysteine (NAC)
A cysteine prodrug used in emergency rooms to treat acetaminophen overdose. As a daily longevity supplement its record is thinner: a landmark 3-year COPD trial found no effect on the outcome it was designed to test.
NAD+
A coenzyme every cell uses to convert nutrients into energy. Levels decline with age. Whether raising it matters is the field's most-litigated question.
NMN
A NAD+ precursor one step closer to the destination than NR. Raises NAD+ reliably. Whether that ends aging is a separate question.
NR
A NAD+ precursor with a longer safety track record than NMN and the strongest published clinical dataset among consumer NAD+ boosters.
Omega-3 (EPA/DHA)
The best-supported supplement in longevity has nothing to do with sirtuins. It's the fatty acids from fish, at the right dose.
PQQ (Pyrroloquinoline Quinone)
A redox-active compound found in fermented foods and kiwi. It triggers mitochondrial biogenesis in mouse liver cells; in humans, most positive trials come from the two companies that sell it.
Pterostilbene
Resveratrol with two hydroxyl groups swapped for methoxy groups. Better absorbed, not better proven.
Quercetin
A flavonol found in onions and apples, mostly known now as half of the dasatinib-plus-quercetin senolytic pair.
Rapamycin
The only compound to consistently extend lifespan across every animal species where it has been tested. Not a supplement, a prescription immunosuppressant.
Resveratrol
The polyphenol that launched a decade of sirtuin research, then failed to hold up in most human trials.
SGLT2 Inhibitors
Diabetes drugs that make you pee out glucose. Real cardiovascular and kidney trial data exist; the longevity framing is a newer, mostly mechanistic overlay.
Senolytika
A drug class designed to selectively kill senescent cells, the damaged, non-dividing cells that accumulate with age and secrete inflammatory signals. Human trials are small, short, and the one study that measured epigenetic age found it went up, not down.
Spermidin
A polyamine your cells need to trigger autophagy. Found richly in wheat germ, aged cheese, and mushrooms. One of the more mechanistically clean longevity candidates.
Spermidin From Food Sources
The cohort data linking high-spermidine diets to longer life is genuinely striking. The largest placebokontrollerad trial built on that cohort data, a 100-person phase 2b RCT, found no effect on its primär outcome.
Sulforaphane
A compound formed when you chew raw broccoli or its sprouts, activating the enzyme myrosinase. It has one of the more striking positive RCTs in this category, run in autism, and a genuinely unresolved question about whether broccoli or the isolated extract works better.
Taurine
A 2023 Science paper said falling taurine drives aging. Two 2025 papers, one a direct rebuttal in the same journal, found the opposite in humans and animals.
Taurine Restoration
A 2023 Science paper said taurine falls with age and that restoring it extends life in mice and improves health in monkeys. A 2025 follow-up by one of the same senior scientists found taurine does not reliably decline with age in healthy humans at all.
Urolitin A
A metabolite the gut makes from pomegranate ellagitannins, when it can. Om oss 40% of people can't. That's why it's now sold pre-formed.
Vitamin D3
A hormone the body makes from sunlight, that most people at northern latitudes are functionally deficient in, and that raises hard longevity endpoints.
Vitamin K2 (Menaquinone)
A fat-soluble vitamin that activates proteins controlling where calcium goes in the body. Trial evidence shows it can reduce fracture odds without a matching, statistically significant bump in bone density.