Calorie limits don't extend life span but might keep you healthier
Aug-30-2012

For 75 years, scientists have documented a curious fact: If rats and mice eat 30% to 40% fewer calories than normal, they live 15% to 40% longer than is typical for their species. The observation has offered humans hope that our own maximum life span could one day be extended, enabling people to live well past their 100th birthday.
A new study of monkeys pours cold water on that notion - while at the same time offering some heartening health news.
Among a colony of rhesus monkeys tracked for more than 20 years, animals whose calories were restricted to 30% below normal lived no longer, on average, than monkeys whose eating was unrestricted, scientists found. But the diet did offer clear benefits, notably in warding off cancer.
It appears that "we are seeing a separation between what we call 'health span' from 'life span' - they are not hand in hand," said Rafael de Cabo, an experimental gerontologist at the National Institute on Aging in Baltimore and senior author of the study.
The report, published online Wednesday by the journal Nature, suggests that what has proven true for rodents and various other animals may not hold true for primates - humans included - at least under the conditions that were studied. The findings are likely to disappoint the hundreds of people in the U.S. who practice a strict regimen of calorie restriction in hopes of postponing their appointment with the Grim Reaper.
But the results also have some researchers scratching their heads. The results are quite different from a 2009 study of monkeys in a colony in Wisconsin that found a clear survival edge from age-related diseases like diabetes, cancer and heart disease in calorie-restricted animals. That study also saw a trend toward longer life for monkeys on the diet when all causes of death were considered.

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Posted by Ken at 12:00 AM - Link to this entry  |  Share this entry  |  Print