Spermidine - The modern fountain of youth

Although the name originally arose from research into male semen (P. Schreiner, 1870), spermidine is a substance in the amino acid metabolism that can be found in all living organisms, i.e. in animals and plants as well as humans. Closely linked to cell growth, it appears - to put it simply - wherever cells grow and life emerges. While spermidine levels decrease with age, they increase in pregnant women and are particularly highly concentrated in germinating seeds or wheat germ. There is also a direct connection with the metabolism of an organism, because as soon as this speeds up, the amount of spermidine also increases.

But how can the function of spermidine be explained?

Without wanting to digress too much into chemical and biological terminology, one of the main functions of spermidine is the induction of autophagy. Spermidine stimulates a cellular cleaning process or the body's own cell recycling. In this process, which can be triggered not only by spermidine but also by fasting for several hours, defective or unusable cell components are broken down and recycled, which has positive effects on a variety of levels. Because the efficiency of autophagy decreases with advancing age, deposits form in the cells, which can trigger diabetes, dementia, atherosclerosis or even tumors, among other things.

For example, Prof. Dr. Frank Madeo from the Karl-Franzens University of Graz and his team were able to demonstrate the age-protective and health-promoting effects of spermidine as early as 2009 and subsequently, together with Stefan Kiechl, Director of the University Clinic for Neurology at the Medical University of Innsbruck, demonstrated a connection between a spermidine-rich diet and a longer and, above all, healthy lifespan.

In cooperation with another international research team, Prof. Dr. Madeo, including Prof. Dr. Stephan Sigrist from the Free University of Berlin, was also able to prove that age-related dementia can be prevented or improved by increasing spermidine intake. The reason for this is that age-related forgetfulness is probably due to aggregated, i.e. clumped proteins that spread particularly in older brains. However, thanks to the spermidine molecule, the cellular cleaning process described above is triggered, in which these protein aggregates are fed to the digestive system of the cells (lysosomes) and then dissolved.

Anti-aging at the Plate

While spermidine can be found in all organisms, some foods have particularly high amounts, such as the wheat germ mentioned above. In addition, dried soybeans, pumpkin seeds, mushrooms and cheese (aged for at least 1 year) are also rich in spermidine and should therefore be an integral part of a balanced and healthy diet. However, with the age-related decline in the body's own spermidine and the weakening of autophagy, the question of bioavailability arises, i.e. how much of the substances supplied through food are actually absorbed by the body. At this point, it can be worthwhile to resort to high-quality nutritional supplements, because after all, not only true beauty, but also prolonged youth and graceful aging come from within.

Thanks to its growth-stimulating function, spermidine not only contributes to health aspects, but also to optical anti-aging aspects and a youthful, naturally radiant appearance. For example, it improves the appearance and functional properties of skin, hair and nails by stimulating the regeneration of skin cells and skin appendages. In addition, spermidine shows a high level of cell activation in normal human skin fibroblasts, which creates an anti-aging effect and can counteract skin aging.

Whether it is body, mind or beauty – when it comes to maintaining your own ideal state, preventing unpleasant signs of aging and a fresh and naturally beautiful appearance, spermidine is convincing on all levels.

Sources & Additional information:

Ali, Mohamed Atiya; Poortvliet, Eric; Strömberg, Roger; Yngve, Agneta (2011): Polyamines in foods: development of a food database. In: Food & Nutrition Research. Volume 55, No. 1, p. 5572. doi:10.3402/fnr.v55i0.5572

Varun K Gupta, Lisa Scheunemann, Tobias Eisenberg, Sara Mertel, Anuradha Bhukel, Tom S Koemans, Jamie M Kramer, Karen SY Liu, Sabrina Schroeder, Hendrik G Stunnenberg, Frank Sinner, Christoph Magnes, Thomas R Pieber, Shubham Dipt, André Fiala , Annette Schenck, Martin Schwaerzel, Frank Madeo & Stephan J Sigrist (2013): Restoring polyamines protects from age-induced memory impairment in an autophagy-dependent manner. In: Nature Neuroscience, Advance Online Publication, 1 September 2013, doi:10.1038/ nn.3512

Madeo, Frank; Eisenberg, Tobias (2020): Spermidine as a dementia protector. In: Journal of Complementary Medicine. Vol. 12, No. 5. P. 38-40