Volunteer participants in the Comprehensive Assessment of Long Term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy [or CALERIE], are losing weight in the traditional manner – they are eating less than normal, much less. The study being conducted at Tuft University in Boston has its contributors eating up to twenty five percent less food calories over the past eight months. They are most certainly losing significant amounts of fat; some weigh in at what they were over thirty years earlier.
However, losing weight is not the primary reason why these folks are committed to eating just seventy five percent of what they were consuming prior to the trial. Scientists in charge of the multiregional CALERIE study are attempting to discover if limiting food consumption will slow down the process of aging and increase life expectancy. Those being observed claim to feel healthier, not to mention lighter and more fit. They hope it will also extend their lives.
The entire initiative contradicts well evolved certainties, we are meant to eat in order to sustain our life so by starving ourselves, how can we achieve additional years to our life expectancy? Nevertheless, many years of scientific data has determined that calorie limitation when done on various organisms from yeast to rats has indeed increased longevity. Some of these living test “subjects” were deprived of fifty percent of their average food intake.
In mid 2009, a long term study was performed at the University of Wisconsin on a primate for the first time; the rhesus monkeys were contracting the very humanlike age related diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer and brain illnesses far less regularly than their much better fed peers were.
As interesting as the study appears to be, there may well be something else going on here. It is a fact that when someone diets they will reduce, in all likelihood, their risk of diabetes and other dangerous ailments. They will lower their blood pressure as well as cholesterol levels also and these results will probably mean added years to their lives. When calories are restricted by twenty five to thirty percent – the average reduction for the studies but with no loss of essential nutrition requirements- there seems to be another force at play regarding the extension of longevity.
The intent of the CALERIE study is to answer just that question- also to see if it will truly have the same affect on humans. Having individuals on a well planned diet for a couple years will give the research analysts the information they require regarding the biological workings that connect less food consumption to prolonged life. Part of the study will delve into whether a diet such as this will even work in a North American population that is already much too overweight.
The question of whether the identical metabolic variations happening with calorie limited rodents and monkeys will be the same in humans will also be investigated according to one of the lead authors of the study. It is also paramount to determine if people are going to continue with the diet or not.
Scientific research as far back as seventy five years ago was drawing suspicions toward calorie restriction and life extension in animals due to a study conducted at Cornell University when lab rats on heavily reduced diets lived double their normal life expectancy versus average raised rats – they were also much healthier overall. This discovery prompted further study and scientists realized the phenomenon was not simply a matter of dropping pounds, rats that exercised, losing weight because of it did not display the same longevity characteristics. Only the rats that were on reduced calories showed beneficial signs.
A specific hypothesis is that being in a semi starved condition causes a consistent stressor that increases an organism’s strength and makes it defiant to the issues of the aging process. It is thought to be a result of evolutionary adjustment that makes an animal better able to live throughout a period of insufficiency. Receiving fewer calories will also reduce the metabolism confirming some information that a slowed metabolism can aid a person to live longer.
Still, should these theories prove accurate, just understanding how it works is unlike knowing the molecular pathways driving it. In the event that scientists could figure out the pathways behind this, perhaps they might find a drug to mimic the effect of calorie limitation on humans. That would be the major breakthrough for the entire CALERIE study. Currently, calorie restriction is the only process available that will not only thwart disease and illness but also increase a person’s maximum life expectancy.
unpaid participants involved with the study are required to begin the trial at a relatively healthy body weight. Their resting metabolic rate is evaluated along with the amount of calories they burn through in a day. It is that total that is reduced by twenty five percent. When animals were tested, the more calories that were cut from a diet, the larger the results on aging were.
Researchers decided upon twenty five percent as an achievable yet effectual level for humans to contend with. During the initial month of testing individuals receive precooked meals designed to supply them with enough calories and the essential nutrition they require and that is it. Subsequent to that, they begin to make up their own meal plans and continue to get regular checkups.
There is nothing out of the ordinary in the meals that are consumed. Some participants are allowed choices in their menu seemingly out of sync with the study – one participant made room for some fudge to go along with a grilled chicken salad for lunch. Rather than exercise portion control, subjects tended to try having low calorie but high volume diets, eating plenty of vegetables, fiber and fruit in order to satisfy their hunger. They basically eat a lot of common foods and plan wisely, what they are going to be eating.
Those on the CALERIE diets begin to drop weight rapidly, body mass reduced by as much as fifteen percent in their initial year then they level off. They see the impact of the results and benefit by lowering their cholesterol and see dramatic results with blood pressure as well. The CALERIE researchers are finding interesting is the number of unexpected consequential benefits for instance, a decrease in the creation of the protein IGF-1 [this aids in regulating aging process] as it happened in the animal studies of caloric restriction. They look forward to seeing if perhaps the humans begin making the identical adjustments.
Should the study exhibit that calorie restriction works to slow the aging process in humans, there is enough cause to doubt that such drastic dieting will be a likely option for the majority of people. In North America these days, food is still reasonably inexpensive and easy to attain, reducing consumption by twenty five percent means people will be continuously denying themselves. There can be no alcohol, eating out with friends who are not on the same diet will be at the least, challenging if not painful.
There have been some adverse reactions to the diet – active lifestyles are tougher to maintain when on this diet and the libido takes a bit of a hit as well. There is concern that given the risk of eating disorders, particularly in teenager girls, doctors would be wary of recommending such a drastic course of action. There is doubt among the members of the Calorie Restriction Society [a group that formed a few years back by people enamored by the benefits of partial starvation] that the diet can be maintained by many people. Their concern is that too many people believe it is a crazy idea, not suited to most of the population and they would not want to recommend it.
All that said, evaluating calorie restriction would be able to cast an important spotlight on the natural science of aging. When a chance presents itself to learn more about something there is a better opportunity to control it. Some of those who have been on the CALERIE eating program – or non eating program as it were – are adjusting to the abstinence even wanting to continue the process of caloric limitation beyond the end date of the study. They are impressed with the better health they have achieved which on its own is a form of age renewal. Of course, they are still holding out hope that they will outlive their peers as well.
Anti Aging, Anti Aging Theories, Health And Aging, Longevity
Fri, Feb 19, 2010
Anti Aging, Anti Aging Theories, Health And Aging, Longevity