Supplements company founder on having a holistic longevity vision and why we should all start our healthy aging journey now.
Longevity companies and products set out to change people, through diet, exercise, supplements, devices, diagnostic tests and monitoring. It was interesting, therefore, to come across a longevity company who puts changing how people think about aging – as well as how they experience it – at the top of its agenda.
Longevity.Technology: SRW Laboratories is a company that aims to understand and address the cause of aging at a cellular level, and then to support your health at that same cellular level, supporting your cells to help you age well. The company’s research-backed supplements are complemented by SRW’s epigenetic age test DNAage that measures cellular age, rate of aging and telomere length.
Understanding aging is a message that runs through SRW’s platform, and the company is keen foster that, using its website to educate visitors on key topics such as biological age and the Hallmarks of Aging. SRW’s holistic approach to longevity also includes a focus on sustainability when it comes to its products – after all, what is the point of good health for longer if the state of the planet means you can’t enjoy it? We sat down with SRW’s Founder Greg Macpherson to find out more about the company, its vision and its Cellular System product range.
Macpherson says sustainability was a key factor in his thinking right from the get-go.
“When I was designing our brand, product, packaging and impact, I was keenly aware that if I am responsible for putting something out into the world, then it’s got to work and it’s got to be done sustainably using recycled and/or recyclable materials.
“At some point we will all eyeball the younger generation when they question why things got a little out of hand from an environmental perspective and I plan to be able to answer that question with hand on heart that we were part of the solution not part of the problem.”
Macpherson acknowledges that it’s an ongoing journey, however, and to that end, SRW regularly revisits its products and platform, actively seeking ways to improve, including reviewing its suppliers and partners that it works with.
Understandably for a company geared towards cellular aging, SRW is healthspan-focused. Macpherson explains that by keeping cellular age as young as possible, healthspan is extended, which in turn supports a longer lifespan.
“There is technology coming that will radically increase both healthspan and lifespan and the better we are from a cellular health perspective when that time comes, the better we will be able to enjoy the benefits of the new technology,” Macpherson says, explaining that it is important that we all start now, rather than wait for the new breakthroughs to come.
“The single biggest risk of health issues is advancing age, so it literally pays off to look after your cellular health and cellular age as early as possible,” he says.
Longevity is a fast-moving space, and Macpherson spends at least a day a week looking at the latest research around cellular aging and longevity. “It’s an exciting time as breakthroughs are coming almost daily from research teams around the world,” he says.
One important research paper that was published this year by López-Otı́n et al extended and expanded the Hallmarks of Aging, evidence for Macpherson that the longevity field doesn’t sit still for long and companies have to move at a similar pace.
“The number of Hallmarks of Aging continues to extend as we learn more, and we will continue to refine our formula to optimise for new understandings around aging,” explains Macpherson. “However, our formula are very comprehensive and they actually cover most, if not all, of the new Hallmarks.”
SRW validates this across its clinical trials, says Macpherson, by working with Machine Learning platforms to ensure that it keep up with the latest in the understanding of the cellular pathways associated with the Hallmarks and to optimally modulate them.
SRW offers a range of different products, a decision that not only recognises that we all have different healthspan needs, but one that backs into the trend towards personalised medicine – a trend that Macpherson relishes.
“I am super excited about the opportunity for personalised nutrition. The level of understanding that we get from our DNAage epigenetic testing is about to see a significant upgrade that will allow us to understand how to optimise our formula based on an individual’s needs,” says Macpherson, adding that customers will see this technology evolving over the next 12 months or so.
From a product perspective, for now, SRW is encouraging its customers to focus on their cellular health as a first port of call but its platform also recognises that many of us, as we age, have health concerns relating to specific organ systems.
Macpherson explains that SRW works with leading researchers around the world who are experts in specific organ systems to formulate products that focus in on supporting those health concerns.
“It really pays to be proactive,” he says. “If you sense there is a problem in a system like your circulation or memory or joints for example, then you should get ahead of it and start to take formulations that support these areas early to slow down the damage that may be occurring.”
To that end, SRW’s Cellular System range – Cel¹, Cel², Cel³ and the combo Cel¹²³ – are formulated to support 9 functional areas and processes in the cellular system that decline with age. And again, SRW’s broader outlook has played a role in the products’ design.
“Many companies sell you a one size fits all solution. We look at things a little differently,” says Macpherson. “There’s no point taking something to support your mitochondrial function before the age of 30 but it’s very useful to take something to support the primary driver of aging – DNA damage. Cel¹ is formulated to support healthy DNA repair processes. I like to call it sunscreen for your cells and it’s something you can take from your mid-twenties and beyond as a sort of insurance policy that aims to keep all these processes working well and slow down the cellular damage that life throws your way.”
Cel² supports energy production in mitochondria, and Macpherson says he loves mitochondria – especially finding ways to keep them optimal as we age.
“From your thirties they decline in function around 10% a year. You don’t notice it at first but as you head into your forties you feel less energetic and you don’t recover so well from injuries,” he says. “That’s the time to find a formula that looks after those important cellular power-plants!”
Cel³ is all about cellular housekeeping, which, says Macpherson, is something we don’t need to support earlier in life because our body is really good at it then.
“However, from our late forties and beyond we need to help stimulate autophagy – the recycling of cells that are not functioning well – support protein recycling so that our cellular machinery is working as well as possible and also to lower levels of the so-called zombie cells that build up as we get older and lead to increased inflammation in our body – inflammaging by another name. This is what Cel³ is designed to do.
In an optimal world you would take Cel¹ from your mid-twenties, Cel¹ and Cel² from your mid-thirties and the full set from your mid-forties.”
We’ll be finding out more about SRW and its epigenetic age test next month – stay tuned!
You can read Greg Macpherson’s thoughts on Amazon’s decision to withdraw NMN products from its US store HERE.
