Cutting calories helps rats (and humans!)
Many of you are involved in helping patients lose weight so I thought you might be interested in learning about some interesting information I came across the other day
According to the report, almost all organisms — from yeast to rodents to humans — benefit from cutting calories. The benefits weren’t restricted to being thinner, but covered many wellness areas including longevity. In fact, less complex organisms doubled or even tripled their lifespan and it’s thought that humans who keep their calorie count down could routinely live beyond the 100-years mark.
The report, which was published in the April 16, 2010 edition of Science — and written by nutrition and longevity researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, University College in London, and the Andrus Gerontology Center at the University of Southern California — said that calorie restriction influences the same handful of molecular pathways related to aging in all the animals that have been studied.
But living longer wouldn’t be worthwhile unless the quality of those years was enhanced as well. That’s probably why lead author Luigi Fontana, MD, PhD, said he was 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 Dr. Fontana, research associate professor of medicine at Washington University and an investigator at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Rome. “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. 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.’ However, by extending healthy lifespan, average lifespan also could increase up to 100 years of age.”
Fontana and his co-authors explained that cutting calorie intake between 10% and 50% decreases the activity of pathways involving insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1), glucose and TOR (target of rapamycin), and considerably increases lifespan in animals. Genetic mutations involved in those pathways have the same effect. Those animals have far fewer problems with diseases related to aging such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and cognitive problems.
“About 30% of the animals on calorie restriction die at an advanced age without any diseases normally related to aging,” Fontana stated. “In contrast, among animals on a standard diet, the great majority (94%) develop and die of one or more chronic diseases such as cancer or heart disease. In 30% to 50% of the animals on calorie restriction, or with genetic mutations in these aging-related pathways, healthspan is equal to lifespan. They eventually die, but they don’t get sick.”
I like the idea of working toward a long “healthspan” rather than simply extending the “lifespan.” That’s why we must focus less on disease treatment and more on wellness; we need to make lifestyle changes that enhance the quality of life while lengthening it. Personally, I’m hopeful that we’re on the right track to do that.
Fontana doesn’t share my optimism. Because of the current obesity “epidemic,” Fontana says rather than closing the 30-year gap between healthspan and lifespan, the gap is likely to grow. It’s even possible lifespan may decrease as people develop preventable diseases such as atherosclerosis, type 2 diabetes and certain forms of cancer.
Thankfully, since so many wellness providers are addressing the problems caused by obesity, and helping patients monitor their calories intake, we are definitely on the forefront of the “healthspan” movement!
SOURCE: Fontana L, Partridge L, Longo VD. “Extending healthy life span — from yeast to humans,” Science, vol. 328 (5976) April 16, 2010.
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
One of the biggest indictments on the Health system is we develop new drugs, procedures and interventions to ensure we live longer at times with little consideration for the quality of life. If a small amount of this money could be invested in quality of life through areas such as chiropractic, the long term benefit would be massive savings in health, but most importantly improved quality of life.
I happened on this website by accident but I wanted to let you know that I think you are right. After the birth of my baby, my chiropractor helped me with my weight loss program and now I’m thinner than I was before I got pregnant! I’m a lot healthier, too. So is my baby. I know my weight was causing a lot of my health problems but my medical doctor wanted to put me on medicines to my weight. I’m so glad I went to a chiropractor instead.