Longevity Supplements - What You Need to Know - Episode 309

Tired of dropping cash on “longevity” stacks and not feeling a thing? I dig into the rarely explained reason why many midlife supplements underperform: your cell membranes are running on fumes. When membranes lose fluidity and signal poorly, even the most hyped tools—NAD boosters, spermidine, mitochondrial enhancers—can’t deliver. I break down how aging, stress, medications, and genetics deplete phospholipids and why you can’t out-hack basic biology.

I walk through a practical, science-led framework that starts with structure and signaling. First up is phosphatidylcholine, the membrane and bile workhorse tied to liver health, fat digestion, and cognitive support. Next is phosphatidylserine, the signaling specialist that sharpens synaptic communication and steadies cortisol. You’ll hear clear symptom patterns that point to PC needs, like fatty-meal intolerance, floating stools, elevated liver enzymes, and “brain needs lubrication,” and PS needs - like 3 a.m. wakeups, wired-but-tired nights, stress overreactions, and slower recall. I also share realistic timelines, pulsing strategies, and research-informed dose ranges to discuss with your own qualified practitioner.

This is a no-affiliation, no-hype take that helps you prioritize what actually works for midlife health: repair membranes first, then consider the shiny extras. If you’ve wondered why your stack feels invisible, this conversation gives you the missing foundation.

If this resonates, follow the show, share it with someone chasing hacks, and leave a rating and review so more people can find balanced, informed wellness.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome & Show Mission
• 3:20 The Longevity Hype Problem
• 5:00 Objective Stance & No Affiliations
• 7:30 Why Foundations Matter More Than Hacks
• 9:30 Aging, Membranes, And Midlife Shifts
• 12:40 Women, PEMT, And Estrogen Decline
• 15:30 Men, Visceral Fat, Meds, And Stress
• 18:20 Membrane Integrity And Supplement Efficacy
• 21:00 The Rule: Optimize vs Replace
• 23:00 Phosphatidylcholine: Structure And Liver Support
• 26:00 Phosphatidylserine: Signaling And Cortisol
• 29:00 Who Benefits From PS
• 33:10 Who Benefits From PC
• 36:30 Timelines, Cycling, And Pulsing

Transcript

Sandy Kruse: 0:01

Hi everyone, it's me, Sandy Kruse of Sandy K Nutrition Health and Lifestyle Queen. For years now, I've been bringing to you conversations about wellness from incredible guests from all over the world. Discover a fresh take on healthy living for midlife and beyond. One that embraces balance and reason. Without letting only science dictate every aspect of our wellness. Join me and my guests as we explore ways that we can age gracefully with in-depth conversations about the thyroid, about hormones, and other alternative wellness options for you and your family. True Wellness nurtures a healthy body, mind, spirit, and soul. And we cover all of these essential aspects to help you live a balanced, joyful life. Be sure to follow my show, rate it, review it, and share it. Always remember, my friends, balanced living works. Hi everyone, welcome to Sandy K Nutrition Health and Lifestyle Queen. Today's episode is all about all the hype around longevity hacks, supplements. These could include NAD, NMN, Spermidine, Cenolytics. I've recorded podcasts on all of these. There's a ton of research on them. But what I hear more often than not is I can't tell if it's working. So if this is you, this is probably one of the most important podcasts for you to listen to because I come at it with zero affiliations, zero loyalties, zero anything. And from a very objective point of view, I'm going to talk to you about the things you need in your foundation before you go and spend the money on a lot of these really expensive longevity supplements, hacks, and so on. So if this is you, and if it sounds familiar that you've been taking that spermidine and spending a whole lot of money for three months, six months, whatever it is, and you're like, I don't see the difference. I can't tell. This might apply to you. So I'm gonna ask you first to hit subscribe wherever you are listening or watching. That keeps my content coming to you each and every week. My name is Sandy Cruz of Sandy K Nutrition. I've been a podcaster and I've been in this wellness space as a registered holistic nutritionist with numerous certifications in health and wellness and holistic health for oh gosh, over eight years now. My podcast, over six and over 1.4 million downloads. So please, please, please to support me, follow me wherever you are listening and subscribe. If you're on Apple or Spotify, if you provide me with a rating and a review with a few kind words, it also helps me. It's a very competitive industry, whereas it wasn't before. And I come at you very rarely with sponsorships because I am really wanting to provide information. The wellness space has gotten very noisy, and nobody really knows what's the truth because it seems like everybody's trying to sell you something at every turn. Whereas I'm really putting good out there to educate everybody on how to live a balanced and healthy life and age better. And I never come at you with advice. I provide you with tools for you to take to your own practitioner that knows you. And that's the other thing we got to stop, my friends. We got to stop taking advice that affects our wellness from people who don't know us. So I'm never coming at you with advice. I just come at you if you want to listen and provide you with information. And then you take that to your own practitioner that knows you. Okay. So now that I've gotten all that way out of the way, I'm gonna talk about this longevity myth and why fancy supplements don't work without a foundation. And then I'm gonna provide you with the foundation. There are two substances and they're called phospholipids. And I've done a show on this, and um, it was with the brand, but I'm not giving you any brands here. Always choose, you know, a better brand that you know practitioners choose because there could be a lot of garbage out there, and you don't want to put the garbage in your body. So that's the only thing I'm gonna tell you. I am gonna provide you with the research on dosages, but that does not mean I'm giving you any advice. So please, I'm noting this at the beginning, I'm only giving you the research, and then you can take that information to the practitioner who knows you, likely a functional medicine practitioner or um, you know, a clinical nutritionist, somebody who understands supplements, supplementation, nutraceuticals, they understand quality. Your general physician will not. Okay. So let's be honest here. Most of the people who are talking about longevity are already chasing perfection, and they're not perfect. We've seen a lot of this in the news lately, and it really makes you second guess, you know, why the whys? Why are they giving you this information? And where are their loyalties? Is it to you just to provide you with information or what? So be very, very careful. But also a lot of these longevity experts are already dialed in, they're already optimized, and they're tracking every single biomarker, they're wearing all their devices, they're doing every single protocol and living in a way that most regular people don't. I'm one of them. I always talk about balance. I mean, five years ago, I think it was a year into my podcast. I I made a couple of t-shirts. One of them says, what hill? Meaning, what hill? Like, we're not aging, right? Uh we are, but anyway, we can age better, is my whole point. And then my other t-shirt is it's all about the balance. And I truly believe that. And a lot of what I follow is a lot about the how the blue zones live. I mean, there's a lot of criticisms about the blue zones, but I look to my parents, who are amazing, by the way. So most of the people who listen to my show are not huge biohackers and longevity experts, or most of the people who listen to my show are just doing their best to optimize their wellness, body, mind, spirit, soul. I do all kinds of shows in these areas. Um, they don't have perfect sleep, they don't have a perfect diet. They don't, you know, they'll have an occasional drink. Um, you know, stress management, you know, you know, that that whole term. Yeah, we got to do our best to mitigate the effects of stress on our body, but nobody can take the stress away. I'm sorry, I don't know anybody who has no stress. And then, you know, most of the people don't have perfect genes. So in this episode, I'm gonna strip away all that noise because when you see somebody who's talking about their discount code, there's nothing wrong with that. I've explained that in past episodes, but they're coming at it from a very different point of view than you are. So that's why I want to talk about the foundations, and I'm gonna give you the tools for you to take to your practitioner and discuss it because this is what actually matters to regular people. And a lot of these biohackers and longevity experts don't talk as deeply about these foundations because they're trying to sell you spermidine with their discount code. Those are the facts, my beauties and my friends. I'm talking to men here too. So, and I'm gonna start with why. Why do these foundations crack, you know, over the age of 50, midlife for men and women? So the foundation isn't about your supplements, it's not your gadgets, it's not your hacks, it's really about your cells in your body. That's what the foundation is. Because if you don't have high integrity in the cellular structure in your body, you're not gonna do well in any aspect. So um aging actually changes the membranes of your cells. So membrane phospholipids decline with age. So phospholipids, it's basically fats, and the membranes of your cells need to be pliable. They need to be not stiff. Okay. So what happens is they often become less fluid, more oxidized, less responsive to hormones, less efficient at the signaling to do things in your body. And this affects everything. It affects cognition, metabolism, detoxification, inflammation. Everyone talks about inflammation and stress resiliency. Then, you know, we also have to take into account the fact that what I was saying at the beginning, I don't know anybody unless, you know, you're either lying about it or you are trying to live perfect that have a perfect diet or lifestyle or perfect genetics. So with women, um, there's a hormone shift and estrogen, which we all know it lowers that menopause. It drives PEMT, and PEMT is that enzyme that makes phosphatidyl choline, which I'm gonna talk about. That's one of the two foundations that I'm gonna talk about. And then after menopause, PEMT drops, and then phosphatidylcholine, that production also drops, and then your choline needs rise. Okay. So, yes, you know, you can get this through food, but remember, if your estrogen is lowering and that activity, enzyme activity drops, even if you're eating all the food, so egg yolks, organ meats, um, fish, all of those things are very, very high in both phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidyl serine, which is the other um uh phospholipid that I'm gonna talk about. So it's those two. And I will sometimes refer to them as PC and PS. And I've done a show on this. So uh by the way, egg yolks, super, super high in choline. So that will help, by the way. And I know everyone's saying, don't eat eggs, they're high in cholesterol. Please do what's right for you. So with men, um typically you'll see a higher rate of visceral fat, the you know, dad bod, uh fatty liver. And then there's the medication use, and that goes for men and women. If you're on a statin, a PPI, and God, like I'm gonna say every second guy I know is on a statin if they're over 50. And I've recorded a show all about that, but that increases membrane turnover and more of a demand of that phosphatidylcholine. So then there's um the stress, stress accumulates. So decades of cortisol exposure can increase that phospholipid turnover. So your membranes literally get used up faster. And then there's the genetics. So some people have PEMT variants. If you've done genetics, you'll know um that means you'll have lower production of phosphatidylcholine, MTHFR, which you know, the motherfucker gene, people call it. Anyway, uh, that also increases the man the demand for higher choline. And then research shows that over 90% of adults fall short of recommended choline intake. So I named some of the food sources. So by 50, your membrane scaffolding is thinner, it's more fragile, and it's more easily damaged, even if you live a healthy life. And like I said, you know, I don't know anybody who's perfect. So, why longevity hacks don't work without this foundation that I'm talking about? And this is the big part that gets skipped in all the hype of all the magic of all these longevity supplements, is that you can't optimize a cell that is not structurally sound. You can't. So your membranes are stiff, oxidized, or depleted. If that happens, which I'm explaining that with most people over 50, they're not going to be optimized unless you're perfect. And even if you're perfect, you ain't gonna be perfect. So NAD boosters that everybody's talking about, it won't fix the signaling. Mitochondrial supplements won't fix energy production. You know, mitochondria are those little factories within each cell that give you that energy. So I'm gonna give you some symptoms, by the way, that you can just kind of check in with yourself. Peptides are not gonna fix that hormone sensitivity, they're gonna fix it, right? Fix it. Um, red light therapy won't fix membrane fluidity and cold plunges, won't fix phospholipid depletion, and you can't hack your way around basic biology. You just can't. So before you optimize, you want to stabilize. Before you enhance, you want to repair. And before you chase longevity, you want to support the cells in your body. Simple, right? It is kind of simple. So are spermidine, NAD, or NMN even worth it if your cellular integrity is faulty. So let's talk about these big three: spermidine, NAD, and um boosters or IVs. So they're not useless, but here's the truth: none of these molecules can override poor membrane integrity. So I'm pausing here for you to make sure that you got that. They can't override it if your cells are not healthy. Spermidine needs healthy membranes to run autophagy, which is all you hear about that cellular turnover, whatever, cleaning out the garbage, right? So autophagy requires intact membranes, functional lyosomes, and it those are the facts. You gotta have that. If your membranes are damaged, spermidine is like running a deep clean cycle in a dishwasher with broken spray arms. So, and it's very expensive. So foundations are always going to matter more than add-ons. That's why, as a nutritionist, I say eat whole real foods first, do that first. So I am gonna say that um it doesn't mean that every single supplement becomes useless without perfect membranes because people are gonna go, well, what about my vitamin B? What about my vitamin D? What about my vitamin C? Does that mean they don't work? So let me make this clear. If a supplement requires cellular signaling, transporters, receptors, or membrane fluidity to work, it depends on membrane integrity. So think about NAD, spermidine, mitochondrial enhancers. If a supplement is simply replacing a nutrient that your body needs, it will work regardless of the membrane status. So you don't have to worry about all your regular nutraceuticals because they're gonna work. Everything's gonna work better if if the um if your cells are healthier, they're gonna work better. So um don't don't get too caught up in that, but understand those facts so that you don't think that what you're taking, your vitamin D, vitamin C, and all of that, magnesium, zinc, that they don't matter, because they do and they work. So the rule of thumb is if a supplement is meant to optimize, just use this as a rule of thumb, then it likely depends on the membrane integrity, meaning it ain't gonna work if your cells are not healthy. If a supplement is meant to replace, it will work regardless. So, general rule of thumb, but everything's gonna work better if your cells are healthier.

unknown: 18:53

Okay.

Sandy Kruse: 18:54

Every longevity pathway, it um autophagy, mitochondrial efficiency, NAD recycling, inflammation control, it depends on one thing, and that is the healthy, flexible cell membrane. So research shows that with age, phospholipid composition declines, membrane fluidity decreases, oxidative damage increases, receptor sensitivity drops, mitochondrial signaling becomes less efficient. This is why people over 50 often feel like supplements supplements don't work, stress hits harder, recovery slower, slower, cognition feels duller, inflammation feels worse. So it's not because you're broken, it's because that cellular scaffolding really needs support. We're gonna start with phosphatidylcholine. This consider this so PC. This is the structural rebuild of the cells. Okay, so PC is the most abundant phospholipid in the human membranes and bile. So here's what the research shows it's important in liver health. So PC will reduce liver fat accumulation, bile flow. PC is essential for healthy bile. So think of low PC as thick bile, having issues with your gallbladder, poor fat digestion, that kind of thing. Cognition, higher dietary choline intake is associated with better memory and lower dementia risk. So I'm giving you the research here. Aging. Estrogen decline reduces PC production, which I touched on in women, and metabolic stress increases the PC demand in men. So I was talking about the visceral fat in men. So PC matters because it rebuilds that structure. Okay, it's that scaffolding. Now, phosphatidyl serine, that's the other one, the two phospholipids. So think of this as the signaling specialist. So PS is concentrated in the neuron membranes and it regulates synaptic communication. So putting things together, right? Memory formation, cortisol feedback, that feedback loop, stress resiliency. So the research shows that PS improves delayed recall, cognitive performance in older adults. Cortisol, PS blunts excessive cortisol responses within 60 to 90 minutes. So I've done a few TV segments and I take phosphatidyl serine because there is kind of a faster acting component to phosphatidyl serine, like within 90 minutes. You just don't feel so jumpy. It's it's wonderful. So sleep, it helps flatten that nighttime control uh cortisol spikes. When they're high. So PS matters because it optimizes that signaling, it stabilizes that stress access, and it supports cellular aging as well. But I am going to say phosphatidyl serine works best with phosphatidylcholine when you have a protocol that has both of them. Why anyone over 50 might want to start with both of them. If you're over 50, you know, your membranes have changed. And all of the things that I talked about with stress and liver and everything. So PC rebuilds that structure and PS optimizes that signaling. That's the best way to look at it. So together they support cognition, stress resiliency, liver function, hormone sensitivity, mitochondrial communication, inflammation regulation. And this is the starting point. Okay. So I'm going to give you some very specific um symptoms about each one and why they might be applicable for you. So PS, phosphatidyl serine, it's often indicated in someone who has cortisol dysregulation symptoms. So wired but tired at night. That's one. 3 a.m. wakeups with a racing mind. So a lot of us will wake up then, but if you can't fall back asleep and your mind starts racing, that's me. Um feeling tired but buzzing in the evening. Feeling shaky or overstimulated after stress. So you can't bounce back as easily. Overreacting to small stressors. You know, you've seen that, you know, where you just kind of look at somebody, you go, Why are you, why are you freaking out? That's another symptom. Feeling amped after a workout instead of calm. Difficulty winding down even when you're exhausted. So these are classic HPA access instability patterns, hypothalamic pituitary access. Look this up, my friends, because this is such an important thing to understand as we age. Now, here are some, that was cortisol. Here are some other issues. Um, cognitive signaling issues. So if you have uh word finding problems, you just can't figure out what the word is for something you're trying to convey. You have trouble switching between tasks, you have a slower processing speed, you're feeling mentally sluggish, you have difficulty retrieving names, uh, you have trouble with short-term recall, you feel like your brain is just always buffering. So these are synaptic signaling issues. Another reason why PS might work for you. Stress sensitivity symptoms. You feel overwhelmed very easily. You have an emotional reactivity, feeling like the stress threshold is lower than it used to be. Your mood dips after stress, and you feel depleted after social interactions. So PS helps to regulate that stress response curve. Mind you, I am gonna pause here for a second and say a lot of these symptoms can be associated with other issues. So always get blood work and always make sure that you know you have these discussions with your practitioner. So sleep issues tied to cortisol, difficulty falling asleep because the brain won't shut off, waking up too early with that cortisol spike, feeling alert at night and groggy in the morning, um, overtraining or exercise-induced stress, feeling wiped after workouts, like you just can't recover, um, elevated heart rate after exercise and irritability post-training. So PS has strong evidence in exercise-induced cortisol reduction. So that's a bunch of different symptoms. Again, make sure you check your health overall, get your blood work done, do a full panel, because these things, these symptoms can be associated with other issues as well. Now I'm going to talk about symptoms of deficiency with phosphatidyl choline. But remember, I always say they kind of go well together. So here are the symptoms for PC. So remember, this is all about the membrane, okay, and the liver function. So, and uh fat digestion and that sort of thing. I mentioned this a few times now. So if you have nausea after eating a fatty meal, you feel heavy or sluggish after eating. If you have floating stools or pale stools, greasy stools, I know you guys love talking about poop, right? Um, bloating after you eat a fatty meal. If you have gallbladder discomfort, remember the gallbladders in the right side, and you know, sometimes it can be like achy, or you could feel it in your back or your right shoulder. If you have a history of gallbladder removal, remember you're one organ down, and it's a very important organ. So these are bile flow and membrane phospholipid issues. Now let's talk about the liver stress. So elevated ALT AST. So ALT and AST are very common in your annual blood work. Make sure you have that done. If those are elevated, that could indicate liver stress, fatty liver diagnosis if you know you have a fatty liver. If you have poor alcohol intolerance tolerance. So, you know, let's say you're that person who's always been able to handle your alcohol, but then all of a sudden you get a buzz after like one drink. You're like, what happened? What's going on? Feeling hungover from small amounts of alcohol, right upper quadrant heaviness. Remember, I was saying the liver is on the right side. Slow, sorry, the uh gallbladders on the right side, slow detox reactions, sensitivity to medications. So remember, PC is one of the most studied nutrients for liver membrane repair. Now, we're going to talk a little bit about cognitive structural issues. So PC symptoms can look like um, or low PC symptoms can look like brain fog, slow recall, feeling like the brain is offline, trouble with sustained focus, mental fatigue, feeling like the brain needs lubrication. I don't know how you'd feel like my brain needs an oil change. I don't know. Uh, but this is membrane fluidity. So remember, certain medications will increase phospholipid turnover. I mentioned those at the start. Also, um, alcohol can increase that need as well. So we need to really kind of look at our lifestyle, look at our genetics, look at our symptoms, and then go, okay, I need to optimize this before I go and try all these hacks because these hacks are very expensive. And a lot of these longevity experts and biohackers talk about them like, oh yeah, just add them in. But they don't give you the reason why they don't feel like they're working for you. So I'm gonna give you the research based on the timeline and how the research has shown to use these two um phospholipids. Okay. So typically what happens membrane turnover takes about four to eight weeks. Okay, so that's the integrity of the cell, the membrane. Most people will feel changes in six to twelve weeks. And in a lot of people, PC is often beneficial long term. Now you can pulse them. I pulse a lot of my nutraceuticals and supplements. I will pulse them. They say you can do eight to eight to twelve weeks on, four to eight weeks off, and then repeat it, you know, once or twice a year. And it all depends on your diet, lifestyle, symptoms, everybody's individual, and talk to your practitioner. So that's for PC, phosphatidyl choline. PS. Now, for acute cortisol effects, which is what I mentioned 60 to 90 minutes before, for cognitive effects, they say six to 12 weeks. And you can also cycle and pulse this in and out eight to 12 weeks on, four weeks off, because the fact is that not a lot of people, not a lot of people can afford all this stuff, right? But remember, you definitely want to have your foundations straight before you go and spend money on all the other stuff. So now I'm gonna talk about what the research shows for dosage. I'm not giving you dosages, this is research only, and you're gonna talk about this with your practitioner. So they do talk about you know, 1,000 to 2,000 milligrams per day of PC for uh restored synthesis and to correct the membrane instability. You know, generally when I look at this, they say it's anywhere from 1,000 to milligrams per day. And I actually did also give you all the information based on how long and how you can pulse it. Now, there's one study that is uh the strongest study that's out there. You can look it up. It's Lieber et L. They say 1800 milligrams per day. Um, and that will provide restored membrane, phosphatidylcholine, reduced fibrosis, improved membrane fluidity, improved liver enzymes, protected mitochondrial membrane. So, this particular study that I'm referring to is the gold standard membrane repair trial. So now let's talk about you know phosphatidyl serine. Uh, the gold standard dose for any kind of cognition trial in the research that I found is about 300 milligrams per day. And typically, I think in this research, they said to divide it um into three doses, I guess, so that the body can absorb it a little bit better. There are some studies that say up to 800 milligrams per day, but again, you definitely want to talk to your practitioner on what might be right for you. The one single strongest phosphatidal serine study is uh I'm not sure if I'm gonna pronounce it right, Montelone M O N T E L E O N E at L 1992, 800 milligrams a day. So there you go. My friends, stop spending money on things that you don't feel and see and know a difference until you stabilize your foundation. I've given you all the information. I'm gonna ask you now to make sure that you share this with one person, one person who you know is into all the hacks because the facts are this longevity is not about chasing the trends, it's not about perfection, it's not about the next expensive supplement, it's about your foundation, your cells, your membranes, and your biology. So phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidyl serine, they're not hacks and they're not shortcuts because I don't believe you know that shortcuts often work and they're the materials, think of it as the materials that your cells are actually made of. And yeah, I think it's really important that I bring this to as many people out there because there's such a big trend to talk about all these special, really expensive supplements and hacks. And I just I just think that everybody will want to learn how to have a strong foundation. And then if you want to add that stuff in, go right ahead. But do the longer work, do the harder work first, always optimize your diet, and by that means whole real foods and move your body every day, take a few important nutraceuticals. I always say it's always good to have an idea of your genetics, and then you know, optimize your PC and PS, and then try the fancy stuff if you really want to. So thank you so much for being here each and every week. I really appreciate you guys, and be sure to subscribe. Have a good week. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Be sure to share it with someone you know might benefit. And always remember when you rate, review, subscribe, you help to support my content and help me keep going and bring these conversations to you each and every week. Join me next week for a new topic, new guest, new exciting conversation to help you live your fast life.