Mitopure review - Does this Urolithin A supplement actually work?
Review of Mitopure before and after - Urolithin A supplement self-experiment
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We review the Urolithin A supplement Mitopure. We review Mitopure through our favourite approach - self-experimentation to answer - does Mitopure actually work?
Mitopure review
Mitopure is a Urolithin A supplement from Timeline Nutrition. In this Mitopure review, we cover what Urolithin A is, how it works and demonstrate the effectiveness of the suppelment in a self-experiment.
Urolithin A supplementation is grabbing some serious attention in the longevity technology space. With its purported benefits in mitochondrial rejuvenation, it appears to be a promising intervention into the known age-related decay of mitochondrial health over time.
Beyond its proven positive impacts on mitochondria, Urolithin A is showing promise in reducing the incidence and intensity of several types of cancer, including prostate, pancreatic and colon cancers. It also appears to have powerful effects in healing the gut barrier and may help support a healthy immune system.
Urolithin A is a by-product of the digestion of ellagitannins, which are found in certain foods, including raspberries, walnuts and pomegranate. However, only 20% of people have the right gut flora to covert ellagitannins into urolithins (more on this shortly).
This is why there are likely many benefits to Urolithin A supplementation.
In this post we’ll review:
what is the best source of Urolithin A?
who makes Mitopure and is it legit?
how can you know if Mitopure will work for you?
our Founder Nick runs a self-experiment with Mitopure
The best Urolithin A supplement is Mitopure
If you’re interested in self-experimenting with Urolithin A, don’t go searching for “Urolithin A supplement Amazon” hoping for an alternative to Mitopure.
Mitopure is currently the *only* and *best* Urolithin A supplement available. Putting your hard earned cash anywhere else at this stage will only lead to disappointment, as our review of the alternatives has not found anything else worth mentioning (as of late 2022).
Why is this the case? Simply put - no other supplement is actually isolating Urolithin A. What you are getting instead are pomegranate extracts. However, if you do not have the correct gut flora, pomegranate extracts will not convert to Urolithin A in your digestive tract. That’s your hard-earned money wasted!
If another source of Urolithin A supplement becomes available, we’ll be sure to share it with you.
Over the course of the next few paragraphs, we’ll explain to you in additional detail why Mitopure is your best Urolithin A supplement option (and how to know if it will work for you).
Who makes mitopure?
First, if you would like to understand the history behind this Urolithin A supplement and its path to becoming a consumer product, you can check out our interview with Amazentis CMO Federico Luna. He details the decade long research effort that Amazentis put into dicovering and developing a Urolithin A supplement.
Who are Amazentis? They are a Swiss pharmaceutical company that was founded by scientists, doctors and entrepreneurs who wanted to create a new class of nutrition supported by the rigor of research you typically only find in biotechs that are solely developing drugs.
To bring Urolithin A to market, they founded Timeline Nutrition, who are the makers of Mitopure.
Is Mitopure legitimate?
Yes! Mitopure is about as legitimate as it can possibly get in the supplementation space.
Timeline Nutrition was founded by a highly respected phamarceutical company that needs to be ensure its reputation is spotless. They then branded the Urolithin A supplement used in their research studies under the brand name “Mitopure”.
Now consumers have access to the exact formulation of Urolithin A which has been producing impressive results in clinical research studies and has proven safety and efficacy.
Furthermore, Amazentis are now putting millions of additional dollars into research efforts to study and better understand the impacts of Mitopure in humans, particularly in age related decline of muscle quality and into its benefits for sport performance (for example, their collaborative relationship with the American College of Sports Medicine).
You’d be hard pressed to find another longevity supplement with such a reputable background.
How much does Mitopure cost?
Mitopure Urolithin A supplement in sachet form. It is also available as a softgel.
You won’t find a better deal on Mitopure than through our 5% discount code (‘longevityblog’) and purchasing directly from Timeline Nutrition on a subscription. That’s the most cost effective way to get your own supply for self-experimentation.
In part two of our interview with Amazentis CMO Federico Luna, we worked with him to break down the costs of Urolithin A supplementation.
We found that Mitopure costs about 50-60% of what it would cost to get an equivalent amount of Urolithin A from pomegranate juice (you’d also have to drink 1.3L of it each day).
The cost of Mitopure is between $2.50 to $4.00 per day, dropping to $2.35 to $3.80 per day with our discount code ‘longevityblog’. The lower cost options are for longer term subscriptions (up to 12 month supply), which save you progressively more as you extend your supply.
We have found that 1-2 months supply is effective for testing before and after to see if Mitopure works for you (read on for those details).
Once you have decided on your volume of supply. You’ll of course want to be able to test and see - does Mitopure actually work? This is where A Longer Life content really starts to shine! It is self-experiment time!
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Does Mitopure actually work?
How to self-experiment with Urolithin A
Mitopure review - is it worth it? We self-experimented to find out
In this self-experimentation, as per usual we had our Founder Nick set off on a detailed self-experiment to test Mitopure before and after.
However, in A Longer Life first, we have also invited members of our readership to participate in self-experimentation as well!
In an upcoming post, we’ll also share the results from both a high performing amateur cyclist (Aaron) and an ironman triathlete (Claire). Be sure to subscribe to get notified when we post their results!
Starting Point: Do your gut flora produce Urolithin A?
The answer to this question is paramount. If you are one of the 20-30% of individuals who can produce Urolithin A from the ellagitannins in foods (pomegranate, walnuts, berries, etc), then you are much less likely to have a measurable response from supplementing Urolithin A.
Nick takes the “Mitopure Challenge” to see if he produces Urolithin A from Pomegranates
Nick undertook the ‘Mitopure Challenge’ to see if he was a natural producer of Urolithin A (no need to supplement) or if he would benefit from taking a Urolithin A supplement.
In this experiment, Nick drank 300ml (11oz) of fresh pomegranate juice and then gave a few drops of blood via finger prick the next morning.
On the following day, he took 500mg of Urolithin A supplement Mitopure and repeated the blood test process. This blood was sent back to Timeline where they analysed it to see the concentration of Urolithin A Glucuronide.
The result? Nick was not a producer of Urolithin A (at left in image). His gut flora did not produce Urolithin A after drinking pomegranate juice.
However, there was a significant increase in Urolithin A in his bloodstream after taking 500mg of Mitopure.
At left (zero), Nick’s Urolithin A Glucuronide levels after drinking 300ml of pomegranate juice (11oz). At right, after 500mg of Mitopure. This result shows that Nick was not naturally producing Urolithin A through his diet and that supplementing with Urolithin A would be likely to provide him with measurable benefit.
Measuring Urolithin A supplement benefits
As we look at the research into Urolithin A, most of the results thus far have focused on muscle strength as the primary measure of performance improvement. However, several studies are underway to look at Urolithin A benefits and safety in athletes.
While the results from these works have not yet been published, we can expect them quite soon. Naturally, given the exceptional role of mitochondria in athletic performance and the primary mechanism for Urolithin A’s health benefits being mitophagy, we can expect that athletic performance is an excellent data point for establishing the efficacy of Mitopure.
“What we’ve shown is Urolithin A acts on the mitophagy pathway... a natural cleansing and renewal process whereby damaged and inefficient mitochondria are identified and cleared away.
This makes room for new healthy mitochondria, a process known as [mitochondrial] biogenesis to kick in and help create and rejuvenate the mitochondria ”
But not just any exercise - we need to look to specific types of exercise which are repeatable, well controlled and which place significant demand on mitochondria.
Given these requirements, Nick decided to use running interval workouts as his primary before and after data point.
This type of exercise is energetically demanding, repeatable and relatively well controlled (if we use the same workout).
It entails running at a very high intensity, where mitochondria are under very high demand for energy production.
If Urolithin A really does trigger mitophagy, then Nick’s older less functional mitochondria should be recycled into new more efficient mitochondria, and this should be observable as an improvement in his athletic performance.
In addition to running data collected from Nick’s Garmin Fenix 6 and HRM Pro (Chest-strap heart-rate monitor), Additionally, a detailed blood panel was collected using the i-Screen Sport Hormone Check (self-ordered blood tests available in Australia).
Mitopure before and after results
Nick’s training load from mid-June to mid-July. Relatively light and recovery focused.
The self-experiment begins as Nick enters the triathlon ‘off season’ where he is not running interval workouts. He travels to the United States for 6 weeks starting in mid-June 2022 and has only intermittent training opportunities; while he is consistent with training his volume/load is much lower (see image) than it was in the preceding 6 months.
Nick’s training load from mid-August to mid-September. It was gradually picking back up, but consisted mostly of ‘base training’ in August and did not train running intervals in August (leading up to the test date).
Nick begins Urolithin A supplementation at the start of July (training load remains low) at 500mg/day and returns to Australia and regular triathlon training at the start of August. At the end of August, he re-tests the VO2 max pyramid workout.
As his first proper interval workout in nearly three months his expectations were low. However, as he began the workout, he was very surprised by how he felt.
Let’s take a look at the data and let it do the talking.
Before - interval run
Data from Nick’s ‘Before’ running interval workout. Click to zoom. Blue is running speed and red is heart-rate.
The before and after running test are a VO2 max pyramid. This type of workout is structured such that you add one minute at your target pace for each interval.
There are 7 intervals. The first is 1-minute, the second is 2-minutes, then 3-minute, 4-minutes and then back down the pyramid (3min, 2min, 1min) each with two minutes of recovery in between.
There is also a warm-up with some 30 second ‘builds’ at the beginning where your work up to your target pace to get your body ready to perform.
In the ‘Before’ test, Nick had a target pace of 4:10-4:15/km, which he was able to hold for the first 3 intervals, but not for the fourth interval.
His heart-rate peaked at 187bpm (Nick’s maximum HR is 210bpm) on the third interval. Nick reported that he was unable to finish the full pyramid after failing to complete the fourth interval at pace. Simply put, he ran too fast and built up too much lactate and couldn’t hold the target pace.
After - matched interval run
Data from Nick’s ‘After’ running workout. Click to zoom.
At the end of August, Nick completes the ‘After’ test, which is the same structure as the first.
This time he was able to complete the work out at the target pace of 4:10-4:15/km. Additionally, he did so at 5-7% lower heart-rate than in the ‘before’ test, running at 175-180bpm.
He also found he had to moderate his pace as he was running the intervals too quickly at the start (3:50/km pace).
This was due to a change in relative perceived effort (RPE) where faster speeds felt easier than they did previously.
There certainly appears to be a significant change in Nick’s performance. So let’s discuss.
Discussion: Does Mitopure Urolithin A supplement work?
Before we jump to any conclusions at A Longer Life - we have a thorough discussion. Sure, the numbers appear convincing, but let’s make sure we consider the results carefully (and scientifically).
There are some potential confounding factors to consider in answering the question, did Urolithin A supplementation boost Nick’s athletic performance?
First - training. It would be expected that Nick’s ability to hold a given running pace would improve over time as he is training. Could he have simply gotten 5-7% faster from his off-season training?
As we mentioned already, Nick wasn’t running any interval workouts during the intervening period. In fact, he had much lower training load while he was travelling.
In run training, it is generally accepted that if you want to run faster, you have to train by… running faster. This is what running intervals are for, they allow you to accumulate training time at a faster pace so that you can hold that pace for longer.
Nick was not doing this. It is safe to say that training was not a factor.
Second - reduced training load; could it be a factor?
It is possible that the several weeks off provide Nick with ample recovery time and that he was able to re-engage the interval workout with ‘fresh legs’ and hence why he was able to perform so well.
However, Nick reports that his ability to run these interval workouts has been sustained as he picked back up his training load in September and October. As he has again become fatigued and picked his training load back up by 3-4x what is was in June, he can still run at this pace for his running interval workouts.
It does not appear that being ‘fresh’ and well rested is why Nick was able to run faster for longer in the ‘After’ workout.
Third - the one off nature of the analysis; Nick could have had a bad day in the ‘before’ workout and a ‘great day’ in the ‘after’. Was this the case?
Our response to the ‘second issue’ about re: training load addresses the latter. Nick’s performance gains have been sustained as he has continued with Urolithin A supplementation. In fact, he can now run 3:50/km intervals for 4-5 minutes at a time and is running a 20-minute 5km race time (that’s 4:00/km for 20 minutes).
As for the ‘before’ data having been a ‘bad day’ as a one off, we searched through the Strava and Garmin case files. We found two matched workout runs of Nick’s from before Mitopure supplementation. In each, we observed the same inability to hold the target pace across the whole workout.
Nick at the Byron Bay triathlon in May 2022. He loves the run leg… is Mitopure helping him improve his times? Evidence suggests - Yes!
Mitopure Review - Conclusion: Nick is running faster after Urolithin A supplementation
In our view, the data support a significant improvement in Nick’s interval run times after supplementing 500mg of Mitopure Urolithin A.
This improvement has not only been sustained, but Nick’s running times continue to quicken as he continues supplementing with Urolithin A.
Anecdotally, Nick reports lower heart-rate at equal pace on his easier runs as well. He has also seen a 20% improvement in his cycling FTP (functional threshold power), but none of these results have been well controlled or directly verified.
His fellow triathlon club teammates have also noted his rapid improvement!
Will Mitopure work For you?
So, will Mitopure work for you? We can’t tell you the answer. There is only one way to find out! Run your own-self experiment!
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FDA & TGA DISCLAIMER
This information is intended for educational purposes only and is not meant to substitute for medical care or to prescribe treatment for any specific health condition. These blog posts are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, and only may become actionable through consultation with a medical professional.
