Will you excuse a poorly-evidenced observation that’s a positive development I left out of Week 8 of Changing to a youthful phenotype with broccoli sprouts?

I got a haircut last weekend after waiting for Governor Klan Robes Blackface to not arrest barbershop and hair salon owners for the crime of earning a living. A thirty-something tattooed barber wearing a face mask and face shield said my last haircut had been on February 1, 2020, so it had been 14 weeks. She used a #4 clipper to cut everything to about 1/2 inch.

I’d eaten broccoli sprouts every day for 7 weeks at that point. Post-haircut visible hair was all from that period, probably since Week 3, which was also when broccoli sprouts’ effects on inflammation became noticeable.

One evening as I brushed my teeth, I noticed overall hair appearance was mainly dark brown again, an unexpected phenomenon. Maybe white hair will show up as it gets longer?

Feedback on hair color from a back-of-the-head picture was mixed, ranging from “Yes. Definitely!” to Unsupported non-evidence since before and after pictures weren’t taken under the same lighting conditions. Even if validated, other factors could be in play, such as working from home without the stress of going into work.

While eating my usual steel cut oats for breakfast this morning, I remembered a super informative presentation by the lead researcher of clinical trial Reversal of aging and immunosenescent trends. I rewatched it, pausing after two minutes to reabsorb when he said:

“There’s a collapse that takes place somewhere between the ages of sixty to eighty in which you lose 98% of your ability to recognize foreign antigens.”

You will have forgotten why I drew your attention to this super interesting presentation by the 21:25 mark. But pause for the “Hair Rejuvenation?” slide with before and after photos:

“A couple of guys came to us and said they seemed to notice that their hair was growing in darker again. It’s an anecdote. It didn’t apply to most of the guys. But it’s a sign that maybe something interesting is going on.”

That’s followed by epigenetic clock findings using four different clocks. Note that no significant effects on biological age were found until the trial’s 9-month point, and those weren’t as strong as improvements by 12 months.

Improvements accelerated between 9 and 12 months, and at 12 months, subjects had increased their life expectancies by 2 years. The GrimAge clock showed subjects’ predicted lifespan and health span was unchanged 6 months after the trial ended.

I started and have continued four lifestyle “interventions” since last summer:

1. In July I dramatically reduced my consumption of advanced glycation end products after reading Dr. Vlassara’s AGE-Less Diet: How a Chemical in the Foods We Eat Promotes Disease, Obesity, and Aging and the Steps We Can Take to Stop It.
2. In September I started this trial’s non-prescription daily treatments of Vitamin D, zinc, and DHEA.
3. Also in September, I started non-prescription intermittent quercetin treatments of Preliminary findings from a senolytics clinical trial.
4. Eight weeks ago I started eating broccoli sprouts every day per clinical trial Effects of long-term consumption of broccoli sprouts on inflammatory markers in overweight subjects.

In a month or so I should be able to say whether or not my hair really is growing in darker. One way to find out which “intervention” had the largest effect may be to stop one or more of them. That might happen anyway because:

1. Consistently eating AGE-less food is boring.
2. I’m leery of taking more than RDAs.
3. Ehh.
4. I still sadly hope against reality that we’re past the Madness of Crowds phase and can accelerate the “recover their senses slowly, one by one” phase. It would be harder to take care of my broccoli sprout farm if I have to go into work every day.

Or maybe An environmental signaling paradigm of aging is correct, and at a certain point, clocks are reset and none of these “interventions” will be needed? What do you think?