Previous work from our laboratory prompted us to study the effects of short-term, acute administration of TRH or its chronic oral administration, on organs, tissues and aging-related metabolic and hormonal markers, in order to acquire more knowledge on effects, dosage and timing of administration according to its circadian cyclicity. För övrigt, we wanted to verify its anti-aging effects on two most fundamental functions, namely gonadal- reproductive and kidney-urinary. The results demonstrate that both a short-term, acute or a chronic, long-term oral administration of TRH to old, aging mice, results into positive changes and rapid correction to more juvenile levels of most typical aging-related hormonal and metabolic alterations.
These experiments with parenteral and oral administration of TRH show a most remarkable aging-delaying and apparently even aging-reversing effects of the neuropeptide TRH. Again, similarly to melatonin, we are confronted with an anti-aging agent with a broad spectrum of activities which must be necessarily linked to a most fundamental role in the regulation of metabolic and hormonal functions. Aging-Reversing Properties of Thyrotropin Releasing Hormone (TRH) What is TRH? TRH also know as “Thyrotropin Releasing Hormone”, carries the unfortunate and highly misleading designation of a Thyroid releasing hormone. It is a ubiquitous tiny molecule composed of three amino acids and it can be found everywhere in nature, from unicellular algae to the complex mammalian species.
In man, it is concentrated in certain areas of the anterior hypothalamus and the pineal gland in the brain, and in the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. Even at very high concentration and injected by the intravenous route, no side-effects whatsoever or noxious effects have ever been observed. Since its discovery in the 50s by the Nobel Prize Roger Guillemin, hundreds of publications have documented an amazing number of positive effects. i alla fall, its short half-life has prevented its extensive clinical use, since TRH is rapidly destroyed in the stomach and in the gut. Therefore Sub Cutaneous administration has been shown to be advantageous. What does TRH do? In the years 1989-1990, Dr. Walter Pierpaoli published his first relevant paper describing the amazing variety of effects of TRH in the reconstitution of the thymus – the master gland for the immune system which naturally declines during aging, and its anti-viral effects against a lethal virus. i alla fall, all the effects of TRH are not simply produced by an increase of thyroid hormones. Later on additional publications have illustrated TRH and it’s anti-aging effects.