Dr. Roy Walford, has been in the field of life extension for decades (currently deceased). He is a gerontologist who has spanned his career for years on evaluating the effects of calorie restriction and other theories of anti-aging.
The facts in this article have been gathered from an interview carried out by researcher Terrie Mitchell from Life Extension Magazine.
Dr. Walford (Roy Walford) one of the most popular and unabashed gerontologist has fruitfully provided hints on how to reach the goal of prolonging healthy human lifespan. One of the most compelling goals of Dr. Walford is to catapult us to the next century.
In one of his laboratory research, he successfully made mice more active and healthier than any other mice. His hypothesis is to make healthy human lifespan a success through consuming low-calorie diets and rich nutrients.
In the first Biosphere-2 project, unabashed findings were revealed on mice research. These new findings on prolonging longevity were to be converted into human treatments. – Thin has always been associated to healthiness while fat the opposite. This is why we can find dozens of diet books discussing on low-fat, low-calorie diets to live longer. Dr. Walford gives a much more in-depth explanation how side effects such as stroke, heart disease and cancer can be circumvented through calorie restrictions.
The big Question is whether Calorie Restriction Works or Not?
Aging retardation is achieved through effective calorie restrictions – adults can have a younger biochemistry: Physical agility, energy, cholesterol of 140 and young skin -. Roy Walford is experimenting on all these benefits as he is going for a diet that helps himself to control his potential longevity.
Dr Walford, consider 110 to 120 to be the actual maximum lifespan. However, a ‘French woman has already reached 122 years of age’ – so maybe if one start calorie restriction at an early age healthy human lifespan might go even beyond 140 to 160 years. This will all depend on how similar animal studies can be applied on humans.
Currently, the association between humans and animals – monkeys and rodents – appear to be very close. Nevertheless, it is true that all test conducted on animals haven’t yet been adopted for humans due to insufficient evaluation of some types of hormones, blood sugar, glycogen and others.
The Biosphere is situated at Tucson, Arizona, an ecological space, which serves as a prototype for a space station. Dr. Walford stayed in Biosphere for two consecutive years. In the laboratory, they were all on a nutrient-dense diet with a low level of calorie intake – A diet alike that of the rodents. The effect was just like the rodents – people lost weight and experienced positive physiological changes.
The two year experiment did successfully demonstrate the biochemical changes derived through human dietary restrictions – Lower blood sugar, insulin, cholesterol, Thyroid (T3) and a slight rise in cortisol. However, to understand the real effect on longevity and disease a two year study is a too short period of analysis.
In laboratory conditions around 1,800 calories were consumed. This is not starvation rather a restriction on food consumption; you might feel a bit hungry after eating, but in general fine.
Effects of Overeating
There are several aging effects of eating inappropriately. Currently kids are turning sexually mature at a relatively young age and even babies are big, if we compare them to facts some 20 years ago. This is a consequence of overeating. According to Dr. Walford, overeating decreases one’s lifespan and raises the risk of potential diseases. For instance, Dr. Morris Ross, made a study using four nutritional programs for rats by reducing the intake of protein by 10, 25 and 40 percent respectively. The last group was free to eat how much they wanted. The outcome was that the last group became sexually mature at a younger age, leading to more babies; they did also decease at earlier, while equally suffering from higher rate of tumors.
The result according to Dr. Walford is that mammals are programmed to consume foods, which hasten maturity age. Equally, women and men tend to make choices (unconsciously) to mature earlier. This is a fundamental aspect for species’s survival through evolution, but it appears to have negative ramifications on individual’s longevity.
The best way to extend human lifespan seems to be to go for a high quality diet. The second phase would be to restrict calorie intake. The following step to proceed with exercise. Exercise doesn’t really compensate for the extra calorie intake – too much exercise can have negative effects to longevity as it increases the development of free radicals and our metabolic rate.
In other words, skinner people might have the chance to live longer. This is what a study entitled: Nurses Health Study, conducted by Manson and co-workers, published in New England Journal of Medicine says. There were 115,000 women involved and the result showed that the thinner you are the longer are you expected to live. However, on the assumption that skinniness hasn’t been developed due to some disease or smoking.
Another determinant of calorie-restriction is that animals undergoing tests have a lower body temperature. – A disparity of one degree – These animals having a lower body temperature are able to live longer especially in areas where the temperature is lower such as for lizards and fish. Fish and lizards have a body temperature tantamount to the environment they live in.
Must We Always Be Hungry to live Longer?
There is a belief that calorie restriction relies on walking around half satisfied, or rather slightly hungry. Dr Walford says, that it is possible to be satisfied by consume fewer calories. A high quality diet, will limit the amount of calorie intake significantly. If an American diet consisted of junk food than if you were to be given the freedom of eating as much as you want, you would consume nearly 3,000 calories. However, for a high-quality diet this can be settled at 2,500 calories. Simple changing eating habits can push your calorie restriction down by 500.
According to Dr. Walford, calorie restriction has 50 years of proven life extension research in animals and a few less in monkeys and humans. The fact is that antioxidants and other research on food consumption are rather new in comparison to lowering calorie intake. The most promising facts about antioxidants, DHEA, growth hormone, melatonin and others cure for aging is that they rather tend to alleviate aging diseases not necessarily prolonging human lifespan. Their real effect on slowing aging, itself, is still under investigation.
How to begin Calorie Restriction?
Dietary restriction isn’t effective if you embark on it instantaneously. For it to work effectively, it has to be introduced gradually. This has been shown on laboratory research on mice.
How much Calories to cut?
Calorie restriction should be determined based on weight. A good start would be to gradually shrink your consumption by 10 percent and thereafter 25 percent of ‘your’ weight. Lowering calorie intake is heavily determined by ‘your’ mindset. It might be easy for some and very hard for others. Yet, it is possible for everyone.
The best way to go for a calorie restriction is to establish a daily consumption list having all the necessary RDA. People are often confused when they search through different nutrition programs. There is a great variation across nutrition programs. However, this is so due to the availability of different foods.
The key to a healthy diet is the nutritional content, the presence of vitamins, amino acids, minerals, fats, calories and more. There are roughly 28 to 30 essential components in a healthy diet yet most dietary programs consist of merely 10.
Will it be Possible to Control Longevity in the Future?
Predictions established for the future are often surmounted well before their dates. For instance, in the 1930-40s great physicians like Niels Bohr, Einstein and Rutherford predicted that it would be merely impossible to obtain energy from an atom. However, only a decade after, immense power was stimulated from the atom bomb. Furthermore, in 1950, the state predicted the industry size of computers. They suggested that in 20 years, there would be around 100 mainframe computers but in the 1970, there were more than 100,000 mainframe computers.
The same might occur for longevity research and radical life extension. It might be possible to indefinitely extend human longevity in 10, 20, 50 or 100 years. In the meantime, calorie restriction is an ideal start.
Source: walford
Mon, Oct 11, 2010
Anti Aging, Longevity