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Ca-AKG

Also known as

Calcium alpha-ketoglutarate · Calcium α-ketoglutarate · CaAKG · Ca AKG · Calcium aKG · AKG (calcium salt form) · dAKG (delayed-release CaAKG, product framing) · LifeAKG™ (Rejuvant / timed-release ingredient branding) · Calcium alpha-ketoglutarate monohydrate · AKG-Ca / Ca-aKG (literature variants)

Community talk. May be wrong. Not medical advice. Not a protocol. Not for human or animal use.

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Non-peptide Some talk Systemic Oral Longevity & cellular energy

Systemic — oral Ca-AKG is discussed for whole-body metabolic, inflammatory, epigenetic-clock, and longevity support, not local tissue targeting.

What people say Calcium alpha-ketoglutarate is an oral calcium salt of the metabolic intermediate AKG. Healthy-aging interest is ahead of confirmed human outcome evidence. Doses people talk about
Consumer / longevity discussion~1,000–2,000 mg/day

Dominant retail and community range, with labels commonly near 1,000–1,100 mg per serving.

ABLE randomized protocol1 g/day

Sustained-release Ca-AKG versus placebo for 6 months in a 120-person protocol; protocol publication does not supply efficacy results.

Historical medical studiesUp to ~4.5 g Ca-AKG/day; bone study: 6 g AKG + 1.68 g calcium/day

Older dialysis and osteopenia contexts used larger amounts under different clinical questions and cannot be treated as longevity targets.

Amounts describe distinct products, populations, and study questions; they are not a personal progression.

Half-life & effect duration

Half-life in the body
  • Oral Ca-AKGNo settled estimate
  • Free AKG · pig portal veinUnder 5 minutes
Felt duration people report
  • Positive accountsSubtle energy or endurance changes
  • Other accountsNo change; anxiety in one account with stronger coffee use
Timing context & sources
How it may feel Ca-AKG reporters describe subtle endurance or energy changes, no change, and sometimes anxiety or brain fog. Other AKG-form reports mention loose stool or sleep disruption; one anxiety reporter also described stronger coffee use.
Cycles people discuss Reports include 8–12-week self-experiments, 4–10-month clock-retest periods and ongoing daily use; ABLE specifies 6 months plus follow-up. Pauses for cost or calcium concerns are not a validated longevity cycle. Timing Morning, with-meal and AM/PM routines all appear in oral-use discussion; GI comfort and adherence often drive the choice. Mineral-spacing concerns are general cautions, not a proven Ca-AKG timing rule. Stacks Longevity discussions often pair Ca-AKG with NMN or other supplements, which makes subjective attribution difficult. Watch for Calcium load / kidney stones: Ca-AKG products add elemental calcium (e.g., ~190 mg calcium listed beside a 1 g CaAKG monohydrate serving on Rejuvant-class facts). WebMD and clinical caution language: calcium-containing AKG products may raise concern for people with a history of calcium kidney stones — clinician territory, not DIY escalation.
Related
NMNRapamycin

Tap a line to jump into the full notes. Research only — may be wrong.

Timing context & sources

Half-life in the body

A human oral Ca-AKG half-life was not established by the checked sources.

A pig experiment reported a portal half-life below five minutes for free AKG, not delayed-release oral Ca-AKG in humans.

Different species, route, formulation and analyte; the animal result cannot set a human supplement interval.

Felt duration people report

No dependable single-dose felt window emerged from the inspected accounts.

Ca-AKG users described subtle endurance or energy changes and no change; one anxiety reporter also described stronger coffee use. Loose stool or sleep disruption came from other reports whose AKG salt was not established.

Anonymous, self-selected accounts mix confirmed Ca-AKG with unspecified AKG forms, unverified products, co-supplements, stronger coffee use and inconsistent follow-up; they cannot establish causality or one clock.

  • What did you feel after you started taking AKG? (opens in a new tab)Biohorology identified Ca-AKG/Rejuvant and later LongJuvity while describing subtle endurance changes with continued use; Bull_shit_artist reported no effect with DoubleWood AKG; other GI or sleep reports did not establish calcium form.Anonymous self-reports mix confirmed Ca-AKG with unspecified AKG forms, varied products, doses, stacks and follow-up periods; no control group or identity verification.
  • Does Ca-AKG cause anxiety for you? (opens in a new tab)Several-Yellow reported anxiety while taking Ca-AKG and later disclosed stronger coffee use; Prudent_Assistance93 described a later retrial and identified a liposomal product while reporting brain fog, headache and anxiety.Anonymous self-reports with unverified products, co-supplements and a disclosed coffee confound; they cannot establish prevalence, causality or a dose-response clock.

Other context in this card

What people say 19

  • Clock critique (community + authors): Epigenetic-age shift ≠ proven extra healthy years; TruAge is a limited-site proprietary assay; authors themselves call for placebo-controlled trials and other clocks/clinical markers. ConsumerLab-style reviews stress that good clinical evidence for human lifespan/healthspan extension is still lacking. forum
  • Subjective energy / recovery: Longevity and supplement forums report steadier daytime energy or better training sessions on ~1 g oral for some users; many report no feel at all. Confounded by sleep, caffeine, and multi-stacks. forum
  • Training anecdotes: Occasional logs claim acute strength/session quality around ~1 g near training — not a consensus sports-science finding and not the main longevity evidence base. anecdote
  • Sleep anecdotes (minority): Isolated community comments of deeper sleep on higher multi-gram evening dosing with magnesium — not a controlled finding; most longevity charts prefer morning or with meals for adherence/GI. anecdote
  • vs AAKG: Longevity threads generally prefer Ca-AKG (or delayed-release CaAKG) over arginine-AKG “pump” sports products; AAKG is framed as a different exposure and goal set. forum
  • vs free AKG powder: Free AKG is cheaper in some catalogs but longevity discourse centers on CaAKG because that is what the mouse lifespan paper and Rejuvant-class products used; delayed-release is marketed as solving short free-AKG kinetics. forum
  • Multi-ingredient formula signals: NOVOS Core–style products list ~1,100 mg Ca-AKG per serving among other actives; Rejuvant pairs CaAKG with vitamin A (men’s formula) or vitamin D (women’s). Attribution to Ca-AKG alone is confounded in formula users. forum
  • Mouse lifespan (females stronger): Shahmirzadi / Asadi et al., Cell Metab 2020 — C57BL/6 mice switched at 540 days (~18 months) to chow with 2% CaAKG (w/w). Female cohorts: median lifespan extended ~16.6% and ~10.5% from treatment inception; survival to 90th-percentile mortality ~+19.7% and ~+8%. Male median lifespan ~+9.6% and ~+12.8% but survival gains not statistically significant in either cohort. animal
  • Late-life start still mattered: Starting CaAKG in already middle-aged/old mice is repeatedly highlighted in longevity media as more translationally interesting than lifelong neonatal dosing. animal
  • C. elegans / model-organism lore: Earlier worm work (e.g., Chin et al. ATP-synthase / TOR-linked AKG lifespan extension, often cited ~50% in adults) underpins the geroprotector story before the mouse paper. animal
  • Rejuvant retrospective (clocks): Demidenko et al., Aging 2021 — 42 self-reported healthy users, timed-release Rejuvant (CaAKG monohydrate LifeAKG™ + sex-specific vitamin), average ~7 months (range ~4–10). Saliva TruAge proprietary clock: mean biological-age decrease ~8 years overall (~7.96 years paired mean); males ~8.44 years, females ~6.98 years; only 2/42 slightly increased. Not placebo-controlled. trial
  • Who responded more (same retrospective): Larger epigenetic-age drops associated with higher baseline chronological age and with being biologically older relative to chronological age; treatment duration within the 4–10 month band was not correlated with magnitude (authors discuss possible saturation around the ~7-month median). trial
  • Homogeneous lifestyle subset: Among 13 users reporting no diet/sleep/exercise/supplement changes, mean improvement still ~7.69 years on the same clock — still non-randomized product use. trial
  • Bone / osteopenia human work: Filip et al. — postmenopausal women with osteopenia, 6 months, randomized double-blind: AKG calcium salt providing 6 g AKG + 1.68 g Ca/day vs calcium alone 1.68 g Ca/day (n=76). Bone-resorption marker CTX fell (max mean decrease ~37% at 24 weeks in AKG-Ca arm); lumbar BMD +1.6% from baseline in AKG-Ca; between-group BMD difference ~0.9% non-significant. Safety at that high dose was acceptable in the report. trial
  • Dialysis / nitrogen-balance history: Multiple clinical windows used Ca-AKG in hemodialysis patients at doses up to ~4.5 g/day — framed as increasing plasma arginine and decreasing plasma urea; cited as multi-year safety context (not a longevity indication). trial
  • ABLE RCT (protocol): Sandalova et al., GeroScience 2023 — double-blind placebo-controlled RCT of 1 g/day sustained-release Ca-AKG (Ponce de Leon / Rejuvant-class product) for 6 months (+3 months follow-up) in 120 adults 40–60 with DNA-methylation age > chronological age (NCT05706389). Primary endpoint: DNA-methylation age change. Secondary: inflammation/metabolic labs, grip/leg strength, arterial stiffness, DXA, CPET, etc. Protocol-level evidence that 1 g SR is the modern longevity trial anchor — do not invent completed outcome numbers here. trial
  • Other registered CaAKG trials: e.g., NCT07114536 discusses 2 g/day total (two tablets twice daily) for 12 weeks with bone-related primary metrics — shows dose culture can sit above the common 1 g retail band in clinical designs. trial
  • Inflammation narrative: Animal reduction of inflammatory signaling is a core marketing pillar; human inflammatory biomarker changes remain a secondary/exploratory theme in ongoing longevity trials. animal
  • Mouse healthspan / frailty compression: Same work and secondary coverage emphasize reduced frailty and compressed morbidity (popular summaries often cite healthspan measures improving far more than modest average lifespan extension — e.g., “~12% lifespan / much larger healthspan” style headlines). Lower systemic inflammatory cytokines and higher anti-inflammatory IL-10 are part of the published framing. animal

Doses people talk about 15

  • Modern longevity retail / study-adjacent band: ~1,000–2,000 mg Ca-AKG (or CaAKG monohydrate) per day is the dominant consumer and trial-talk range. forum
  • dAKG / delayed-release premium: Marketed (and priced higher) vs plain AKG or non-delayed CaAKG on the claim of slower gut release against <5-minute free-AKG plasma half-life lore; independent consumer PK comparisons are thin. forum
  • Do not confuse with AAKG scoop culture: Pre-workout AAKG often uses multi-gram arginine-AKG scoops for pumps — different salt, different goal, not a 1:1 substitute for Ca-AKG longevity dosing. forum
  • Single-serving product norms: Many capsules/tablets label ~1,000–1,100 mg Ca-AKG per serving (e.g., ProHealth-style 1,000 mg; NOVOS Core–style ~1,100 mg; various “time release 1,000 mg” Amazon/brand SKUs). forum
  • Community everyday split: Morning only, with meals, or AM/PM split when total is 2 g+; delayed-release labels often 1–2×/day per bottle directions. forum
  • Influencer / stack charts: Often “1 g Ca-AKG daily with NMN” as a default pairing; some aggressive logs push 2–3 g/day without strong RCT support for extra benefit. forum
  • Empty stomach vs with food: Empty-stomach claims appear for absorption lore; with-meals is common for GI comfort — no single gold-standard chrono protocol in longevity RCTs. forum
  • Label literacy: Dose is almost always listed as Ca-AKG salt (often monohydrate) milligrams, not free-AKG molar equivalents and not “elemental calcium only.” Elemental calcium is a separate line (e.g., ~190 mg calcium beside 1,000 mg CaAKG monohydrate on Rejuvant-class facts). forum
  • Powder weighing: Less common than capsules in longevity retail but used for cost; scale accuracy and monohydrate vs anhydrous labeling matter. forum
  • 2 g/day clinical designs: Some registered CaAKG protocols use 2 g total daily (e.g., two tablets twice daily / morning and evening) for multi-week blocks such as 12 weeks. trial
  • Higher historical / medical windows: Hemodialysis literature cites safety of Ca-AKG up to ~4.5 g/day; postmenopausal bone study used 6 g AKG (as calcium salt) + 1.68 g calcium/day for 6 months — far above typical longevity capsule charts. trial
  • Mouse 2% diet is not a capsule math worksheet: Community sometimes tries to “human-equivalent” the 2% w/w mouse chow figure into multi-gram human doses; translation is model-dependent and not a validated OTC protocol. Prefer human product/trial mg when discussing people. animal
  • Framing: Ranges below are from products, trials, and community discussion for research/education only — not medical advice, not prescriptions, not a use protocol. forum
  • Rejuvant / timed-release product dose (retrospective): Fixed commercial use of two tablets per day delivering 1 g Calcium Alpha-Ketoglutarate monohydrate (LifeAKG™) per labeled dose, with ~190 mg calcium on the same serving facts, plus vitamin A (men) or vitamin D (women). Study window ~4–10 months continuous. trial
  • ABLE RCT anchor: 1 g/day sustained-release Ca-AKG tablet vs matched placebo for 6 months in middle-aged adults with accelerated methylation age. trial

How it may feel 8

  • Acute (hours): Non-stimulant for most; no caffeine-like buzz. Occasional mild GI, burping, or loose stool if high first dose or sensitive stomach. Inspected reports include Ca-AKG users with subtle endurance changes or no change, and an anxiety reporter who also described stronger coffee use; other adverse reports concern unspecified AKG products. forumanecdote
  • Days 1–7: Little subjective “on” signal is normal. GI tracking (nausea, bloating, stool softness) is the main early feedback users mention. forum
  • Weeks 1–2: Still often flat subjectively. People on delayed-release products usually judge tolerance, not performance. forum
  • Weeks 3–4: First informal energy/recovery check-in window; many remain unchanged and keep going for biomarker goals rather than feel. forum
  • Month 6–12+: Open-ended daily use in aging stacks is common; hard multi-year human outcome data remain limited relative to continuous consumer use. forum
  • Weeks 6–12: Aligns with shorter human blocks (e.g., 12-week bone-interest designs, early lab/self-experiment retests). Still not a “you must feel it” compound. trial
  • Months 4–7: Matches the Rejuvant retrospective retest window (4–10 months, mean ~7) where clock-chasers retest saliva/blood epigenetic age. trial
  • Month 6 (ABLE-style): Protocol intervention length for the main modern DNA-methylation RCT design — community often treats ~6 months as a serious biomarker trial block. trial

Cycles people discuss 8

  • Default culture: Continuous daily oral for longevity — not classic bodybuilding on/off inject cycles. forum
  • Short self-experiment: ~8–12 weeks for tolerance, routine labs, or wearable trends before deciding to continue. forum
  • On/off practice: Informal pauses for cost, travel, calcium-load concern, or stack simplification — no validated washout schedule for maintaining any clock change. forum
  • Load then maintain: Occasional stack blogs suggest higher early grams then 1 g maintenance — more product lore than consistent RCT design. forum
  • Stack seasons: Added or dropped alongside NAD precursors, rapamycin-interest compounds, polyphenols, and multi-ingredient longevity packs rather than as a solo pulsed drug. forum
  • Clock retest blocks: Rejuvant-class users often retest epigenetic age after ~4–7+ months (study average ~7 months; range 4–10). trial
  • RCT-length blocks: ABLE-style 6 months on / then follow-up; bone study 6 months; some bone-interest protocols 12 weeks at 2 g/day. trial
  • Saturation talk: Rejuvant analysis found duration within 4–10 months not predictive of larger clock drops — sometimes cited to argue against indefinite dose-escalation, not as proof of lifelong need or lack of need. trial

Timing 8

  • Why daily oral, not weekly depot: Short systemic residence + chronic aging goals → habitual daily capsules/tablets, not peptide-style infrequent inject. forum
  • Delayed / timed / sustained release: Rejuvant and “dAKG” products market slower gut release versus free AKG; ABLE explicitly uses sustained-release 1 g tablets. Robust public multi-hour human PK curves for consumer CaAKG brands remain sparse relative to the marketing claim. forum
  • With meals: Common for GI comfort and adherence; not a proven “must” for efficacy. forum
  • Morning vs evening: Longevity stacks often place Ca-AKG with morning NMN/multivitamin; evening use appears in some multi-gram anecdotes. No strong consensus chrono-pharmacology rule from large human longevity RCTs. forum
  • Calcium / mineral spacing habit: Some users space Ca-AKG from separate high-dose calcium, iron, zinc, or thyroid meds by hours out of general mineral-competition caution — pragmatic habit, not Ca-AKG-specific interaction trials. forum
  • Downstream biology time scale: Subjective energy (if any) may lag weeks; epigenetic-clock retests are framed in months; mouse lifespan effects required chronic dietary exposure from midlife. forum
  • Free AKG kinetics (preclinical PK): Pig work reports very rapid elimination after portal exposure (half-life often cited as <5 minutes) and limited oral absorption fraction (~40% of oral AKG handled in gut mucosa discussions) — core reason salts and delayed-release forms dominate longevity marketing. animal
  • TET / demethylation talk: AKG is a required cosubstrate for TET enzymes in DNA demethylation pathways — mechanistic link often used to explain interest in methylation clocks, not proof that oral Ca-AKG rewinds organismal age. trial

More on what it is 6

  • Why the calcium salt: Free AKG is described as chemically less convenient and systemically short-lived; Ca-AKG (and delayed/timed-release CaAKG / “dAKG”) is the form used in the key mouse lifespan paper and most consumer longevity products. forum
  • Mechanism (bro shorthand): “Refill declining AKG → better mito/TCA flux + less chronic inflammation + epigenetic demethylation support” — mechanistic story is multi-path; hard human outcome proof is thinner than the story. forum
  • What it is: Calcium salt of α-ketoglutarate (AKG), a Krebs/TCA-cycle intermediate involved in energy metabolism, amino-acid synthesis, nitrogen balance, and as a cofactor substrate for TET DNA demethylases — sold as an oral longevity/healthspan supplement, not an FDA-approved anti-aging drug. trial
  • Why people care: Cell Metabolism 2020 mouse work (late-life 2% dietary CaAKG, healthspan + sexually dimorphic lifespan) plus 2021 Rejuvant retrospective claiming large average DNA-methylation-age drops after ~7 months — heavy newsletter, Reddit, and brand amplification. trial
  • Evidence honesty: Stronger animal healthspan/lifespan signals; human data include retrospective product/clock analysis, older bone and dialysis safety/efficacy windows, and ongoing/newer RCTs (e.g., ABLE protocol at 1 g sustained-release) — no large multi-year RCT proving longer healthy human life. trial
  • What it is not: Not a peptide, not NMN/NR/NAD+, not free pure AKG by default on every label, not AAKG (arginine alpha-ketoglutarate pump powder), not FDA-approved to reverse aging. trial

Stacks 13

  • NAD stack (most common): Ca-AKG + NMN or NR — ubiquitous in Reddit r/NMN, longevity blogs, and multi-ingredient formulas; mechanistic story is “NAD+ energy + AKG TCA/epigenetic support,” not a single co-formulated RCT proving synergy. forum
  • NMN + Ca-AKG timing talk: Morning co-dosing is the default chart; some cycle-NMN blogs add Ca-AKG on build days — schedules vary and are not standardized. forum
  • NOVOS-style multi-ingredient: Ca-AKG (~1,100 mg class servings in product talk) plus other actives (e.g., glycine, vitamin C, magnesium, and additional longevity ingredients depending on SKU) — attribution confounded. forum
  • Rapamycin-adjacent longevity kits: Discussed near mTOR-interest compounds and “full stack” aging protocols; high confounding and medical-supervision territory for the drug side. forum
  • Metformin adjacency: Same longevity shopping list as NAD precursors and Ca-AKG; drug, not a supplement peer. forum
  • Spermidine / fisetin / quercetin / urolithin A / taurine: Frequent co-listed “healthspan basket” companions; independent evidence bases. forum
  • Resveratrol / TMG with NMN: When Ca-AKG is added to a Sinclair-style NMN morning stack, resveratrol and methyl-support (TMG) often come along for the NMN — not because Ca-AKG requires them. forum
  • Bone-oriented pairings: Vitamin D, K2, magnesium, and dietary calcium discussion when Ca-AKG is framed for bone — remember Ca-AKG already contributes elemental calcium. forum
  • Magnesium bedtime anecdotes: Occasional multi-gram Ca-AKG + magnesium sleep stacks in comment threads — anecdotal only. anecdote
  • Avoid double-counting calcium: Stacking Ca-AKG with separate high-dose calcium citrate/carbonate and dairy can push total calcium higher than intended. forum
  • Choose-one AKG form: Longevity users usually pick Ca-AKG or delayed-release CaAKG and do not also run multi-gram AAKG pre-workout for the “same” goal. forum
  • Lifestyle stack: Sleep, resistance training, zone-2, protein, and calorie control repeatedly credited when subjective energy or “age” scores improve. forum
  • Rejuvant-style product stack: Timed-release CaAKG monohydrate 1 g/day-class serving + vitamin A (men’s formula) or vitamin D (women’s) — the only multi-ingredient cocktail with a published human methylation-age retrospective. trial

Storage notes 2

  • No mix instructions here: STUDresearch does not list reconstitution, diluent volumes, or syringe unit charts. People reconstitute many different ways and vial labels differ — that content creates more confusion than clarity. forum
  • Storage (general talk only): Unopened research products are usually kept cool, dry, and away from light per the seller label. Anything after first use is product-specific — follow the label, not a universal forum SOP. forum

Watch for 13

  • GI upset (most common community complaint): Nausea, stomach discomfort, bloating, loose stools/diarrhea — more often at start or at multi-gram totals; sometimes improved by with-food dosing or splitting. forum
  • Total daily calcium math: Stacking Ca-AKG with separate calcium pills, antacids, and high-dairy diets can overshoot intended total calcium (common adult targets discussed around ~1,000–1,200 mg/day from all sources; upper limits lower for some stone-formers — individualized medical issue). forum
  • Epigenetic-clock over-read: Average ~8-year TruAge drop in a non-placebo retrospective is not equivalent to living eight extra healthy years; clock choice, regression to the mean, lifestyle, vitamins, and expectancy can all confound. forum
  • Product / form variability: Delayed-release CaAKG monohydrate ≠ standard Ca-AKG capsule ≠ free AKG powder ≠ AAKG — different exposures and evidence anchors. forum
  • Multi-ingredient confounding: Feeling better or seeing a clock change on Rejuvant or NOVOS-style blends cannot be cleanly attributed to Ca-AKG alone. forum
  • Drug / disease interactions unknown: Sparse systematic interaction data with common prescriptions (thyroid, antibiotics, bisphosphonates, diuretics, etc.); mineral spacing and clinician review are the cautious community defaults when comorbidities exist. forum
  • Quality / underdose risk: As with other longevity actives, label mg and actual assay can diverge on low-trust bulk sources. forum
  • Calcium load / kidney stones: Ca-AKG products add elemental calcium (e.g., ~190 mg calcium listed beside a 1 g CaAKG monohydrate serving on Rejuvant-class facts). WebMD and clinical caution language: calcium-containing AKG products may raise concern for people with a history of calcium kidney stones — clinician territory, not DIY escalation. trial
  • High-dose precedent ≠ default longevity dose: 4.5 g/day dialysis windows and 6 g/day bone study are sometimes cited as “safe high,” but they are different populations/endpoints than healthy middle-aged clock-chasing at 1 g. trial
  • Long-term healthy-user gap: Large multi-year RCTs for continuous healthy longevity use with hard clinical outcomes remain thin despite years of retail availability. trial
  • Not a substitute for indicated therapy: Bone, kidney, metabolic, or aging-related disease management is medical care — Ca-AKG discussion does not replace indicated evaluation or treatment. trial
  • Pregnancy / pediatric / complex illness: Not the population of the mouse midlife or middle-aged clock trials; out of casual self-experiment framing. forum
  • Generally well tolerated at common grams: Consumer and review sources describe AKG/Ca-AKG as usually well tolerated; GRAS-style framing appears in trial protocols. Absence of dramatic acute toxicity reports is not proof of multi-decade longevity-dose safety. trial

Updated: 2026-08-12

Evidence mix Mostly community / anecdote tags Full: every bullet (trial + community). Use Scan for a faster bro-science read.
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