Tyrosol - an Antioxidant Powerhouse

By Dr. Al Sears

Do you know who Jeanne Calment was? She lived to be 122 – the world’s longest-lived woman.

She also said one of my favorite quotes. When she was 120, Jeanne said to a reporter, “I have only one wrinkle… and I’m sitting on it.”

She was there when they built the Eiffel tower. And she met Vincent van Gogh when she was 14. What an amazing life.

She had no signs of dementia, and rode a bike past the age of 100.

When researchers looked into what she might have been doing or eating that made her live so long, they found something unusual: Olive oil.

Jeanne said she used to spread it all over all her food all the time. She even used it to keep her skin healthy.

As it turns out, there’s a reason olive oil worked so well for Jeanne Calment.

Olive oil has a powerhouse anti-aging ingredient called tyrosol. Almost no one has ever heard of it, but tyrosol is also one of the strongest antioxidants we have. It can get rid of free radicals 10 times better than green tea, and twice as well as CoQ10.¹

Tyrosol can also shut down aging in your cells. Tyrosol turns on a group of longevity genes called “forkhead box” genes, or FOXOs.

Scientists have known for a long time that cells which multiply rapidly – like white blood cells – protect themselves from free-radical attacks by using antioxidants.

But there are a lot of other cells in your body that don’t multiply very fast, and don’t have antioxidant protection. So how were they surviving free-radical attacks?

What they discovered was that FOXO genes were doing the work.

FOXOs were shutting down the aging of these cells when under attack, and directly increasing amounts of the body’s “master antioxidant,” superoxide dismutase (SOD).²

FOXO genes were extending life in those cells… and tyrosol turns on FOXO genes.

Tyrosol has also been found to protect cells of the central nervous system from dying after exposure to toxins like glutamate (MSG and artificial sweeteners). And because it’s neuroprotective, tyrosol is being studied as a beneficial treatment for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other diseases.³

To get the antioxidant and anti-aging benefits of tyrosol, you can do three things:

1. The first is to drink more white wine.

The Heart Foundation and Research Center in New Jersey tested white wines for their antioxidant power. They found white wine drinkers had the amount of harmful free radicals reduced by 34%.

Why does tyrosol from white wine work so well? It’s the size that matters. Physicists at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, examined the size of the various antioxidant molecules in wine and showed that those in white wine are smaller.

They’re more effective because they can be absorbed by your body more easily.⁴

2. The second thing you can do is put more olive oil in your meals.

Tyrosol is the main compound in olive oil that helps lower LDL, or “bad” cholesterol. Its antioxidant power can also help stop the chain of free-radical attacks that can damage your DNA and lead to heart disease and cancer.⁵

A study from the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that the tyrosol you get from olive oil is very absorbable.⁶

Even better, a study in the journal FEBS Letters found that there’s no “dose” limit. That means that if you have a little more olive oil, you’ll also absorb more tyrosol.⁷

3. The third thing you can do is to take tyrosol as a supplement.

You can find tyrosol (and it’s nearly identical cousin hydroxytyrosol) included in some green tea and olive oil extract supplements. Rhodiola extracts also have a bit of tyrosol in them.

But to get the full anti-aging benefits, you’ll want to take it on its own. It’s available as a tincture, or in a pill. Many people prefer tinctures because you can easily digest them and you can add them to regular drinks. Try to find a tincture that is at least ten percent tyrosol (1 part extract to 9 parts suspension fluid).

If you want to take a capsule, make sure it has an enteric coating if possible. This will keep the tyrosol from getting broken down too soon by your stomach. I recommend 300mg each day, but you can take as much as 1,200 mg.

Sources

1 "List of Antioxidants." Antioxidant Chart; www.antioxidantchart.com
2 Kops, G.J., Dansen, T.B., Polderman, P.E., et al, "Forkhead transcription factor FOXO3a protects quiescent cells from oxidative stress," Nature Sept. 19, 2002;419(6904):316-21
3 Application for US Patent “Natural Products and Derivatives Thereof for Protection Against Neurodegenerative Diseases Through Use of Novel Phenolic Compounds.” Application Number 20030236202
4 Troupa, G.J., Latterb, Melissa, Cheahb, I, et al, “An EPR and antioxidant study of some brandies," Alcohol In Moderation Digest Nov. 2005;9
5 Manna, Caterina, et al, "The Protective Effect of the Olive Oil Polyphenol (3,4-Dihydroxyphenyl)- ethanol Counteracts Reactive Oxygen Metabolite–Induced Cytotoxicity in Caco-2 Cells," J. Nutr. Feb. 1, 1997;127(2):286-292
6 Miró-Casas, E., Covas, M.I., Fitó, M., et al, "Tyrosol and hydroxytyrosol are absorbed from moderate and sustained doses of virgin olive oil in humans," European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2003;57:186–190
7 Visiolia, Francesco, Gallia, Claudio, Bornetb, Francis, et al, "Olive oil phenolics are dose-dependently absorbed in humans," FEBS Letters February 2000;468(2-3):159-160