A NEW DIMENSION OF WELLBEING
With nearly 30 years in scientific research and development, FORZA is a one of a kind plant-based anti-aging supplement, developed to effectively mimic Calorie Restriction and boost energy levels.
UNDERSTANDING WHERE FORZA MIGHT FIT IN A PLAN TO PROTECT YOU
Our Neurology Advisor Dr. Douglas Watt, Ph.D. discusses the problem of aging, the role of CR mimetic
by Dr. Douglas Watt, Ph.D. Neurology Advisor
There are few - if any - contemporary subjects more fraught with confusion, anxiety, misunderstanding and frustration than our general health, our health practices and our healthcare systems. A big part of our problem is the lack of a shared fundamental perspective on how and why the diseases of aging have such a punitive footprint, despite (or perhaps because of?) modern societies showing significant augmenting of human longevity – 30 to 40 years past what our ancient hunter gatherer ancestors had in terms of expected average lifespan.
THE AGING PROBLEM - AN EVOLUTIONARY DISCORDANCE
Evidence suggests that the critical drivers for all the common diseases of aging rest in a widespread and fundamental gene-environment mismatch – what has been called an ‘evolutionary discordance’ between lifestyles and genes.
For ~190,000 of our roughly 200,000 years on Planet Earth, we have lived a fundamentally hunter-gatherer lifestyle – extremely physically active with lots of aerobic exercise (due to having to chase our dinner often for miles!), living mostly outdoors, while we were virtually never socially isolated due to our tribal participation in hunting and gathering, consuming a varied but Paleolithic diet, while sleeping soundly (in part due to all that exercise!).
In contrast, modern technological societies show widespread social isolation, with online social media substituting for in-person tribal and family intimacies, while living in a mostly sedentary lifestyle, consuming pro-inflammatory diet patternsheavy in grains, milk products and refined sugars, while shorting fruits and vegetables, consuming antibiotic-tainted protein sources, and suffering variable levels of basic sleep deprivation.
Piecemeal, we have discovered through much empirical work in the health sciences that returning our lifestyles to these ancient patterns is across-the-board protective, and realigning all of these ways of living indeed is likely to be profoundly protective. Rectification of these multiaxial and unhealthy lifestyle practices becomes, therefore, the most important healthcare intervention one can make – re-aligning one's lifestyle as much as possible with these ancient practices that cut across diet, exercise, sleep and social belonging. In this sense, and in pointed contrast to the messaging of the medical industrial complex, long term health is NOT about high technology interventions, but about a primary prevention, originating in how we live.
HEALTHSPAN AND CALORIE RESTRICTION: THE CONNECTION
A second option for long term protection of health, and one which complements this first and essential task of lifestyle change, relates to what we have discovered about calorie restriction and its protective effects – and calorie restriction physiology also has very ancient foundations, predating not just the evolution of mammals but even vertebrates.
Calorie or dietary restriction – CR/DR – (not to be conflated with starvation as this is destructive) constitutes a scientifically validated gold standard for the long-term preservation of health, with protective effects confirmed in both shorter-lived model organisms (in which aging is studied scientifically, such as yeast, fruitflies, and roundworms) but also in mammals, primates and humans. However, it is not a viable healthcare strategy for most people, due to the difficulties associated with coping with chronic hunger and resisting available (and often tasty!) foods. Few individuals are able to adhere to a CR regimen – probably under 2% of the population. However, intermittent fasting gives many of the benefits of calorie restriction, while requiring less willpower (and it shifts our physiology towards CR after just 15-18 hours of fasting).
THE ROLE OF CR MIMETICS
A third complementary option is the use of what are called ‘CR mimetics’ – these are various substances, typically plant compounds or their derivatives, that generate at least some of the protective physiology of calorie restriction but without the pain and stress of chronic hunger.
HARNESSING THE FULL POWER OF NATURE
FORZA is a rich source of a powerful plant-derived, stress-modulating protein called ‘osmotin,’ which acts like Adiponectin(a human hormone normally produced by fat cells but declining both in aging and in obesity) at two separate Adiponectin receptor systems (APNR1 & APNR2), where it functions to promote protective effects within the calorie restriction network.
(see graphic).
This makes FORZA uniquely appealing as a nonprescription alternative CR mimetic, but without the GI side effects associated with metformin, and without the too-rapid clearance of many polyphenols which limits their activation of the calorie restriction physiology network. We believe this makes Forza special, and currently without a real competitor.
THE LONG TERM PLAN
It would be a mistake to see Forza as an alternative to rectifying unhealthy lifestyle practices (as this should always be your first best option in relationship to protecting your longterm health). Instead, healthy lifestyle practices and the use of a CR mimetic are more properly seen as deeply complementary and synergistic, with both of these also potentially complemented and enhanced by some degree of intermittent fasting, as there is evidence for example that intermittent fasting augments the effects of CR mimetics.
We believe that armed with this basic knowledge, self-aware consumers can make better informed choices about protecting their longterm health.
By Douglas F. Watt, Ph.D. Clinical and Forensic Neuropsychology and Behavioral Neuroscience