Fisetin is a senolytic – it helps the body destroy senescent cells which is one of the causes of aging. You all have access to search engines and AIs so I won’t put up any links to that fact. I first started taking it in mega-dose form a number of years ago, and do this once or twice a year. The first time I tried it the negative effects were immediately evident. I felt like I was starting to get a cold, but it never materialised. Was this the result of inflammation from the destruction of senescent cells? I didn’t know since I’d only taken it once. Did it have any positive effects in the period after with those senescent cells gone? I thought not at first, but then I noticed something. I’d got into the habit of taking snoozes (well, let’s call them power naps) during the day. I only noticed a few weeks after taking the stuff that this was no longer the case – I did not feel so tired.
On repeat doses I got the cold symptoms every time. Other effects occurred, like on one occasion I got a huge amount of floaters in my vision for a brief period. I’ve had joint aches and other symptoms of illness during dosing, but no actual illness materialising and the symptoms going away after I finished. It’s still questionable whether or not it’s doing any good. The science indicates so but, of course, there are few clinical trials on this stuff since, it being a supplement easily purchased, drug companies don’t stand to make a profit. I’ll persevere with it because despite money now pouring into longevity research, there isn’t much available that isn’t an exercise or fasting mimetic. I do plenty of both of those so they have little interest to me.
I did it again just recently. My protocol, with dosing worked out from the mouse studies, is this: I take 400mg of fisetin, with 1000mg of quercetin (its complementary) in a shot glass of Cretan olive oil (because fisetin is lipophilic) once in the morning and once in the evening for five days. That’s 800mg of fisetin (pure fisetin – there’s a lot out there that isn’t) a day for five days. Apparently this is a low dose because many are taking two or three times as much at a time.
Once again, within two days, I got cold symptoms. This started as earache which moved on in to the Eustachian tubes, a general malaise and weakness – basically feeling crappy. My exercise capacity dropped along with enthusiasm for much else. This went away on day three then returned on the last day, and thereafter went away again. A short while after I got joint pain and some dizzy spells, but suspect this might be due to too much exercise during the recovery period. If the protocol has worked I have killed a lot of senescent cells and the body needs to readjust and recover from that. In a sense it’s like the autophagy etc from fasting. The good stuff doesn’t happen during fasting but in the refeeding period afterwards.
And that’s where I am now: waiting and hoping for good results, or at least a delay in the shitty stuff as I get older.
