Cut down on calories to live up to 100 years
April 16th, 2010 - 3:37 pm ICT by IANSWashington, April 16 (IANS) Cutting down on calories can not only make you live up to 100 years but also keep you healthy throughout life, research shows.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis (WUSM-SL), University College London (UCL), and Andrus Gerontology Centre, University of Southern California (USC) report that calorie restriction influences the same handful of molecular pathways related to ageing in all the organisms studied — from yeast to rodents to humans.
In less complex organisms, restricting calories can double or even triple lifespan. It’s not yet clear just how much longer calorie restriction might help humans live, but those who practice the strict diet may hope to survive past 100 years, according to the study.
Study co-author Luigi Fontana is less interested in calorie restriction for longer life than in its ability to promote good health throughout life.
“The focus of my research is not really to extend lifespan to 120 or 130 years,” said Fontana, research associate professor of medicine at WUSM-SL and investigator at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Rome, Italy.
“Right now, the average lifespan in Western countries is about 80, but there are too many people who are only healthy until about age 50,” he said.
“We want to use the discoveries about calorie restriction and other related genetic or pharmacological interventions to close that 30-year gap between lifespan and ‘healthspan’,” Fontana said.
“However, by extending a healthy lifestyle, average lifespan could increase up to 100 years of age,” he added.
Fontana and co-authors write about how cutting calorie intake between 10 percent and 50 percent decreases the activity of pathways involving insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1), glucose and TOR (target of rapamycin), and considerably increases lifespan in animals.
“About 30 percent of the animals on calorie restriction die at an advanced age without any diseases normally related to ageing (such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and cognitive problems),” Fontana says, according to a WUSM-SL release.
Unfortunately, many humans are moving in the opposite direction. As obesity reaches epidemic rates in Western countries, Fontana said rather than closing the 30-year gap between ‘healthspan’ and lifespan, the gap is likely to grow.
The findings were published in the Friday edition of Science.
- Cutting down on calories can make you live up to 100 years - Apr 16, 2010
- Protein inactivation prevents age-related conditions in mice - Oct 02, 2009
- Fasting develops smarter brain, shapelier you - Feb 20, 2012
- Moderate weight loss in obese improves cardiac function - Dec 13, 2009
- What helps us see in bright or low light? - Oct 14, 2009
- Kids deaf in one ear fall behind in language skills - May 10, 2010
- Common lab dye may be the key to longevity - Mar 31, 2011
- Calorie restriction may not increase human lifespan as it does in rodents - Sep 25, 2008
- Excess fat in liver likely to trigger heart disease - Aug 25, 2009
- Feeling itchy? Blame it on specific nerves - Aug 08, 2009
- New discovery could pave way for anti-aging drugs - Aug 19, 2010
- Proteins linked with Alzheimer's clump in normal aging - Aug 11, 2010
- How calorie restriction boosts longevity - Dec 15, 2009
- Aging process in mice linked to hyperactive cellular pathway - Dec 23, 2010
- Right balance of proteins, not cutting calories, 'key' to longevity - Dec 03, 2009
Tags: andrus gerontology, average lifespan, calorie restriction, healthspan, healthy lifestyle, insulin like growth factor, istituto superiore, luigi fontana, molecular pathways, pharmacological interventions, rapamycin, research associate professor, rome italy, southern california usc, strict diet, target, university college london, university of southern california, usc report, washington university school of medicine