Fountain Of Youth? Cutting Calories May Add Years To Your Life

Main Category: Nutrition / Diet
Also Included In: Seniors / Aging
Article Date: 05 Aug 2009 - 22:00 PDT

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Growing scientific evidence indicates that people who adhere to a special calorie-restricted diet can improve their health and could potentially add years to their lifespan, according to an article in the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News, ACS' weekly newsmagazine.

C&EN contributing editor Laura Cassiday notes in the article that researchers have known for decades that calorie restriction - reducing calorie intake without compromising nutrition - slows aging, extends lifespan, and fights disease in animals. Mice fed a calorie-restricted diet, for example, had a 30 percent increase in lifespan, while calorie-restricted monkeys were healthier and had a three-times lower rate of death from age-related causes than controls, the article notes. Recent studies suggest that people on these diets may gain similar benefits.

But scientists are unclear exactly why or how caloric restriction works. Scientists believe, however, that it may work by blocking an important chemical signaling pathway in the body, called the TOR pathway, that helps control cell growth. Other signaling pathways may also be involved, researchers say. For those who can't adhere to a strict low-calorie diet, some pharmaceutical companies are attempting to develop drugs that mimic the effects of caloric-restriction without requiring drastic changes in eating habits. Scientists appear to be moving ever closer to the elusive Fountain of Youth, the article suggests.

Source
Chemical & Engineering News