Unless you’ve stumbled across some of the stuff I’ve written in the past, you’ve probably never heard of Fisetin.
It’s found naturally at low levels in some foods, the highest of which are strawberries.
Strawberries are basically the OG for humans in the quest for natural Fisetin. It’s a bit like the food equivalent of Vito Corleone, if a strawberry happened to be the “Capo di tutti capi”.
Fisetin has all manner of benefits, but the really interesting thing, is that in high enough quantities it has a senolytic effect.
You may not know this, but our bodies have something called senescent cells. These are otherwise known as “zombie cells”, which are cells that are basically no longer playing ball but resist death.
Ignore Homer, because this isn’t a wind-up or me just being silly (unusual, I know)…
3 Cell Scenarios In The Human Body:
1) Repair
2) Self Destruct (apoptosis)
3) Go Senescent (zombie cells that won’t piss off unless you eat so many strawberries your neighbours will begin to worry about you)
Fisetin selectively induces apoptosis (cell death) which effectively clears/sweeps up these zombie cells.
The first time I heard about zombie cells, I was a bit freaked out.
We all like to think of cells being living or dead, but these things just kick around ageing us and playing a horrible game of tag with otherwise perfectly healthy cells.
It’s a bit like when one bit of fruit overripens, then touches another piece of fruit and makes that start to rot as well.
It’s enough to put you off your breakfast. Thankfully, I’ve already eaten mine so I will continue…
For a true senolytic effect you’d have to eat about 40 strawberries a day, which is wholly unrealistic unless you had some freakish addiction to that particular berry, so you’d probably have to take supplements for a therapeutic effect.
I know someone who is something of an expert in this area. He swears by this stuff and has two strawberries with blueberries most days.
That’s good enough for me. Fisetin at lower levels does all manner of positive things, so eating a few strawberries and blueberries on a regular basis is not a bad idea. Blueberries are an antioxidant powerhouse (even Bruce Forsyth was a believer) also have some Fisetin in them, but at much lower levels than the OG berry of strawberriness.
Originally I was going to post this as a note but it’s turned into a post.
Here endeth my unplanned lesson about zombie cells and Fisetin. Go easy on the strawberries and I’ll see ya in the next one.
Let’s play this out with Zombie by The Cranberries…