Apparent Effects of Minor Dietary Polyamine Augmentation on the Muscle, Fat, and Bone Masses of an American Septuagenarian Couple Over the Last 4+ Months

Critical factors behind the development of physical frailty in aging humans and other mammals are possibly avoidable with development of a moderate jones for sharp cheddar cheese

I’m taking another rain-induced break from outside chores to report on some marked positive changes in fat, muscle, and bone mass that have occurred in my wife and me over the last four months. These striking increases in bone and muscle mass, and simultaneous reductions in fat mass, are exactly opposite of those usually negative physical changes observed in aging humans, and appear to have been triggered largely¹ — if not wholly — by minor augmentation of our diet with foods especially rich in putrescine and spermidine.

Here's a graphed summary of these positive changes in my case:

Past year record of fat, muscle, and bone mass changes in a 73 year old American male. See https://grundvilk.substack.com/p/a-few-key-scientific-findings-regarding for a description of the Withings bathroom scale used to obtain these semi-quantitative data. Note that “muscle mass” includes not only skeletal muscle, but also heart muscle and the smooth muscles of the intestinal tract.

And here’s a graph depicting much the same favorable changes occurring in my wife over the same time period:

It appears my wife’s initial bone mass of about 4.4 pounds was quite close to or at the lower detection limit for bone tissue in the Withings weight scale we have been using to get approximate measurements of our fat-muscle-bone masses and hydration states. Also, the very low current values of fat mass for her – not consistent with the external appearance of her body – indicate the Withings tissue mass measurements are not accurate for lower mass values of body fat.

As you can see, compared to last year’s data, in both of our cases muscle and bone masses have significantly increased, and fat masses have simultaneously decreased, during the ongoing polyamine ‘treatment’ period. No change at all in the seasonally characteristic levels of our physical activity or sun exposure has taken place over the one plus year period shown.

For me, dietary changes during the 2025 period of muscle and bone growth, and fat loss, however, were the addition of 50 grams cooked wheat germ 3-5 days/week (spermidine source), ~2 ounces sharp cheddar cheese 5-7 days/week (putrescine and spermidine source), and a daily orange (another putrescine source). My spouse, on the other hand, is slightly allergic to modern wheat varieties so won’t consider eating wheat germ, and has been increasing her polyamine intake instead by eating tangerines and small amounts of sharp cheddar cheese almost daily – and less frequently by eating button mushrooms. Neither of us have made any effort to restrict total food intake each day. Nevertheless, I can report a greater mealtime appreciation of food during the experimental period of eating. That being said, I seem to achieve satiety with less food intake than previously. As will be mentioned again later, perhaps that’s the result of mammals like us being much better able to put fat stores to energy-producing use when body stores of polyamines are not depleted.

For more context, see this thread of posts on the whole subject of polyamines and the health (and longevity) of humans and other organisms:

1) Some Very Interesting Small Cellular Molecules: the Polyamines

2) Where Have All the Little Wigglers Gone, Long Time Passing?

3) Polyamine Addendum

4) A Systems Hypothesis Nicely Explaining Both the American Hispanic Paradox and the Relatively Low (and Decreasing) Average American Lifespan

5) The U-Shaped Curve, Polyamines, and Those Apparently Quite Demanding Gastrointestinal Bacteria

The last (#5) post on this list presents the results of a simple epidemiological/econometric study of international nutritional data showing that about 90% of the nation-to-nation variation in average life expectancy at birth can be predicted just by possessing knowledge of the average national daily intake of the three major dietary polyamines – spermidine, spermine, and putrescine. The experimental augmentation of our local American diet with spermidine-containing wheat germ and button mushrooms, and with putrescine- and spermidine-rich sharp (aged 1+ year) cheddar cheese and putrescine-rich citrus fruits, is supported quite strongly and promisingly by the results of this epidemiological/econometric study.

Again, keep in mind while thinking about the implications of this particular post, that an increase in body fat, and decreases in muscle and bone mass, are ‘normal’, increasingly negative physical changes observed in aging humans eventually leading to the development of physical frailty and consequent inability to carry out the normal physical activities of daily living, including self-care.

It so far appears, then, from our short-term experience reported here, that minor dietary increases in ingestion of polyamines can favorably attenuate the normal age-related and unhealthy trend eventually leading to incapacitating physical frailty. These favorable effects on bone, muscle mass, and fat accumulation are consistent with more academic findings, in particular those of Kiechl et al., 2018, demonstrating that significantly better health and greater longevity are conferred upon those with just slightly higher than average dietary intakes of spermidine.

As to the polyamine-related biochemical mechanisms possibly behind the reported muscle and bone mass gains, and losses of body fat, it has been firmly established that protein synthesis and cell replacement,² and fat transformation into useable energy are both restricted in mammals,³ if not halted, when polyamines are depleted without replacement as organisms age.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the masses of our major tissue types over the longer term as the small dietary modifications reported here are continued. When, for example, will the relatively large muscle gains we’ve been experiencing without increasing our physical exercise or protein intake levels in the first four months slow down and plateau? And will seasonal reduction in physical activity and sun exposure next winter again result in the fat gain and muscle and bone loss we both experienced during winter 2024?

1. Judging by mass records from last year (see graphed data points for 2024 and early 2024), our muscle-bone-fat masses also fluctuate seasonally, probably because a winter-time reduction in physical activity and sun exposure.

2. https://sci-hub.ru/10.1073/pnas.1219002110 (Depletion of cellular polyamines, spermidine and spermine, causes a total arrest in translation and growth in mammalian cells).

3. https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1012711 (Polyamines mediate cellular energetics and lipid metabolism through mitochondrial respiration to facilitate virus replication).