Molecules
Compounds studied for their effect on aging biology, from familiar vitamins to investigational drugs.
n=1 self-experiments or animal studies
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.
n=1 self-experiments or animal studies
Acarbose
A 40-year-old diabetes pill that blunts blood sugar spikes after meals and extends mouse lifespan more than almost anything else tested.
Small human pilot studies or cohorts
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.
Medium human RCTs or systematic reviews
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.
In vitro or mechanistic only
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.
Small human pilot studies or cohorts
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.
Medium human RCTs or systematic reviews
Berberine
A plant alkaloid from goldenseal and barberry, nicknamed "nature's Ozempic" online despite working through a completely different mechanism.
Medium human RCTs or systematic reviews
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.
n=1 self-experiments or animal studies
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.
n=1 self-experiments or animal studies
Acarbose
A 40-year-old diabetes pill that blunts blood sugar spikes after meals and extends mouse lifespan more than almost anything else tested.
Small human pilot studies or cohorts
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.
Medium human RCTs or systematic reviews
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.
In vitro or mechanistic only
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.
Small human pilot studies or cohorts
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.
Medium human RCTs or systematic reviews
Berberine
A plant alkaloid from goldenseal and barberry, nicknamed "nature's Ozempic" online despite working through a completely different mechanism.
Medium human RCTs or systematic reviews
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.
Medium human RCTs or systematic reviews
Collagen
The most abundant protein in the human body, sold in powder form for skin and joints. A 2025 meta-analysis found the skin benefit shows up only in industry-funded trials, not in independently funded ones.
Large human RCTs or meta-analyses
Creatine
The most studied supplement in sports nutrition. 3-5 g/day settles muscle; the brain, sleep-loss and mood endpoints each need a different dose.
Medium human RCTs or systematic reviews
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.
Small human pilot studies or cohorts
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.
n=1 self-experiments or animal studies
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.
In vitro or mechanistic only
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.
Large human RCTs or meta-analyses
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.
n=1 self-experiments or animal studies
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.
Small human pilot studies or cohorts
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.
Small human pilot studies or cohorts
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.
n=1 self-experiments or animal studies
Klotho
An endogenous anti-aging protein whose levels decline with age; two Phase 1 human trials started in 2025 and 2026, no human efficacy results yet.
Medium human RCTs or systematic reviews
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.
Medium human RCTs or systematic reviews
Magnesium
An essential mineral cofactor for over 300 enzymes, sold as 8 different salts that are not interchangeable. Glycinate has the sleep trial, citrate the migraine trial, chloride the depression trial, oxide the constipation trial. Elemental milligrams, not compound weight, decide whether a dose is real.
Medium human RCTs or systematic reviews
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 products sold in the US do not contain the amount of melatonin printed on the label.
Small human pilot studies or cohorts
Metformin
A cheap generic diabetes drug that reshaped the longevity conversation, then partly walked itself back through the TAME trial's slow progress.
Small human pilot studies or cohorts
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.
Small human pilot studies or cohorts
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.
Small human pilot studies or cohorts
NMN
A NAD+ precursor one step closer to the destination than NR. Raises NAD+ reliably. Whether that ends aging is a separate question.
Small human pilot studies or cohorts
NR
A NAD+ precursor with a longer safety track record than NMN and the strongest published clinical dataset among consumer NAD+ boosters.
Medium human RCTs or systematic reviews
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.
n=1 self-experiments or animal studies
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.
n=1 self-experiments or animal studies
Pterostilbene
Resveratrol with two hydroxyl groups swapped for methoxy groups. Better absorbed, not better proven.
Small human pilot studies or cohorts
Quercetin
A flavonol found in onions and apples, mostly known now as half of the dasatinib-plus-quercetin senolytic pair.
Medium human RCTs or systematic reviews
Rapamycin
The only compound to consistently extend lifespan across every animal species where it has been tested. Not a supplement, a prescription immunosuppressant.
n=1 self-experiments or animal studies
Resveratrol
The polyphenol that launched a decade of sirtuin research, then failed to hold up in most human trials.
Medium human RCTs or systematic reviews
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.
n=1 self-experiments or animal studies
Senolytics
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.
Small human pilot studies or cohorts
Spermidine
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.
Small human pilot studies or cohorts
Spermidine From Food Sources
The cohort data linking high-spermidine diets to longer life is genuinely striking. The largest placebo-controlled trial built on that cohort data, a 100-person phase 2b RCT, found no effect on its primary outcome.
Small human pilot studies or cohorts
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.
n=1 self-experiments or animal studies
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.
Small human pilot studies or cohorts
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.
Small human pilot studies or cohorts
Urolithin A
A metabolite the gut makes from pomegranate ellagitannins, when it can. About 40% of people can't. That's why it's now sold pre-formed.
Medium human RCTs or systematic reviews
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.
Small human pilot studies or cohorts
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.