Do You Feel The SAMe?

S-Adeonsyl-L-Methionone (SAMe) is a chemical found naturally in the body, and/but enjoyed widely as a supplement. The main reasons people take it are:

• Improve mood (antidepressant effect)
• Improve joints (reduce osteoarthritis symptoms)
• Improve liver (detoxifying effect)

Let’s see what the science says for each of those claims…

Does it improve mood?

It seems to perform comparably to St. John’s Wort (which is good; it performs comparably to Prozac).

Best of all, it does this with fewer contraindications (St. John’s Wort has so many contraindications).

Here’s how they stack up:

St. John’s wort and S-Adenosyl Methionine as “natural” alternatives to conventional antidepressants in the era of the suicidality boxed warning: what is the evidence for clinically relevant benefit?

This looks very promising, though it’d be nice to see a larger body of research, to be sure.

Does it reduce osteoarthritis symptoms?

The good news: it performs comparably to ibuprofen, with fewer side effects!

The bad news: it also performs comparably to placebo!

Read into that what you will about ibuprofen’s usefulness vs OA symptoms.

Read all about it:

S-Adenosylmethionine for osteoarthritis of the knee or hip

If you were hoping for something for OA or similar symptoms, you might like our previous main features:

• Avoiding/Managing Osteoarthritis
• Managing Chronic Pain (Realistically!)
• The 7 Approaches To Pain Management
• (Science-Based) Alternative Pain Relief

Does it help against liver disease?

According to adverts for SAMe: absolutely!

According to science: we don’t know

The science for this is so weak that it’d be unworthy of mention if it weren’t for the fact that SAMe is so widely sold as good against hepatotoxicity.

To be clear: maybe it really is great! Science hasn’t yet disproved its usefulness either.

It is popularly assumed to be beneficial due to there being an association between lower levels of SAMe in the body (remember, it is also produced inside our bodies) and development of liver disease, especially cholestasis.

Here’s an example of what pretty much every study we found was like (inconclusive research based mostly on mice):

S-adenosylmethionine in liver health, injury, and cancer

For other options for liver health, consider:

How To Unfatty A Fatty Liver

Is it safe?

Safety trials have been done ranging from 3 months to 2 years, with no serious side effects coming to light. So, it appears quite safe.

That said, as with anything, there are contraindications, such as:

• if you have bipolar disorder, skip this unless directed by your health care provider, because it may worsen the symptoms of mania
• if you are on SSRIs or other serotonergic drugs, it may interact with those
• if you are immunocompromised, you might want to skip it can increase the risk of P. carinii growth in such cases

As always, do speak with your doctor/pharmacist for personalized advice.

Summary

SAMe’s evidence-based qualities seem to stack up as follows:

• Against depression: good
• Against osteoarthritis: weak
• Against liver disease: unknown

As for safety, it has been found quite safe for most people.

Where can I get it?

We don’t sell it, but here is an example product on Amazon, for your convenience

Enjoy!

Think Pink For Brain Health!

Astaxanthin is a carotenoid that’s found in:

• certain marine microalgae
• tiny crustaceans that eat the algae
• fish (and flamingos!) that eat the crustaceans

Yes, it’s the one that makes things pink.

But it does a lot more than that…

Super-antioxidant

Move over, green tea! Astaxanthin has higher antioxidant activity than most carotenoids. For example, it is 2–5 times more effective than alpha-carotene, lutein, beta-carotene, and lycopene:

Antioxidant activities of astaxanthin and related carotenoids

We can’t claim credit for naming it a super-antioxidant though, because:

Astaxanthin: A super antioxidant from microalgae and its therapeutic potential

Grow new brain cells

Axtaxanthin is a neuroprotectant, but that’s to be expected from something with such a powerful antioxidant ability.

What’s more special to astaxanthin is that it assists continued adult neurogenesis (creation of new brain cells):

❝The unique chemical structure of astaxanthin enables it to cross the blood-brain barrier and easily reach the brain, where it may positively influence adult neurogenesis.

Furthermore, astaxanthin appears to modulate neuroinflammation by suppressing the NF-κB pathway, reducing the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, and limiting neuroinflammation associated with aging and chronic microglial activation.

By modulating these pathways, along with its potent antioxidant properties, astaxanthin may contribute to the restoration of a healthy neurogenic microenvironment, thereby preserving the activity of neurogenic niches during both normal and pathological aging. ❞

Source: Dietary Astaxanthin: A Promising Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Agent for Brain Aging and Adult Neurogenesis

That first part is very important, by the way! There are so many things that our brain needs, and we can eat, but the molecules are unable to pass the blood-brain barrier, meaning they either get wasted, or used elsewhere, or dismantled for their constituent parts. In this case, it zips straight into the brain instead.

See also:

How To Grow New Brain Cells (At Any Age)

(Probably) good for the joints, too

First, astaxanthin got a glowing report in a study we knew not to trust blindly:

A Multicenter, Randomized, Double-Blinded, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of a Krill Oil, Astaxanthin, and Oral Hyaluronic Acid Complex on Joint Health in People with Mild Osteoarthritis

…and breathe. What a title that was! But, did you catch why it’s not to be trusted blindly? It was down at the bottom…

❝Conflict of interest statement

NOVAREX Co., Ltd. funded the study. Valensa International provided the FlexPro MD® ingredients, and NOVAREX Co., Ltd. encapsulated the test products (e.g., both FlexPro MD® and placebo)❞

Studies where a supplement company funded the study are not necessarily corrupt, but they can certainly sway publication bias, i.e. the company funds a bunch of studies and then pulls funding from the ones that aren’t going the way it wants.

So instead let’s look at:

Astaxanthin attenuates joint inflammation induced by monosodium urate crystals

and

Astaxanthin ameliorates cartilage damage in experimental osteoarthritis

…which had no such conflicts of interest.

They agree that astaxanthin indeed does the things (attenuates joint inflammation & ameliorates cartilage damage).

However, they are animal studies (rats), so we’d like to see studies with humans to be able to say for sure how much it helps these things.

Summary of benefits

Based on the available research, astaxanthin…

• is indeed a super-antioxidant
• is a neuroprotective agent
• also assists adult neurogenesis
• is probablygood for joints too

How much do I take, and is it safe?

A 2019 safety review concluded:

❝Recommended or approved doses varied in different countries and ranged between 2 and 24 mg.

We reviewed 87 human studies, none of which found safety concerns with natural astaxanthin supplementation, 35 with doses ≥12 mg/day.❞

Source: Astaxanthin: How much is too much? A safety review

In short: for most people, it’s very safe and well-tolerated. If you consume it to an extreme, you will likely turn pink, much as you would turn orange if you did the same thing with carrots. But aside from that, the risks appear to be minimal.

However! If you have a seafood allergy, please take care to get a supplement that’s made from microalgae, not one that’s made from krill or other crustaceans, or from other creatures that eat those.

Where can I get it?

We don’t sell it, but here’s an example product on Amazon, for your convenience

Enjoy!