The number of calories that enter the body in order to live longer

 

Limit calories to live much longer, a study suggests, although skeptics argue that additional research is needed.

Based on a recent study that aimed to quantify the rate of aging in participants asked to reduce their calorie consumption by 25% over two years, people of normal weight may be able to prolong their life span by reducing calories.

 

According to lead researcher Daniel Belsky, an associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, "We've known for about 100 years that calorie restriction can extend healthy life span in a variety of laboratory animals."

According to Belsky, a scientist on longevity, "it achieves this through altering biology in ways compatible with a slowdown of the aging process, although the particular processes of how this occurs are currently under investigation." To test whether the same is true in individuals, "we decided to drill down to the cellular level in people."

 

The study measured the rate of aging in its participants using what are referred to as "biological clocks." Bioclocks are used to compare a person's biological age to their actual chronological age. randomized research that shows it might be able to halt human aging," Ryan stated in a tweet.

Calen Ryan, an affiliate research scientist at the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center at Columbia University, is the study's lead author. "Our study showed evidence that calorie restriction delayed the process of aging in humans," he stated.

 

In a statement, Ryan claimed that "our findings are significant because they provide information from a randomized study that delaying human aging may be conceivable."

However, Dr. Peter Attia, a specialist in longevity, regarded the study's findings as "noise."

 

Attia, who was not involved in the study, wrote in an email, "I just don't see any evidence that any of the biologic clocks have meaning." He is the host of "The Drive," a podcast that discusses and incorporates longevity science into daily living.

 

The only test that it really matters is to see if 'biologic age' can help predict life more accurately than chronological age, which, to my knowledge, hasn't been done but hopefully will be.

According to calorie restriction specialist Pankaj Kapahi, a professor at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Novato, California, biological age predictors are debatable.

 

The study's non-participant Kapahi remarked, "At most, they're showing you information on a very modest element of aging. We all know people who break apart physically but are still cognitively sharp, so you also need to assess cognitive aging. For instance, grip strength is also a biological age predictor.

 

He continued, "Some scientists are trying to simplify it with bio-aging testing. I believe it is an overstatement to imply that the tests genuinely predict biological age because this is a lot more complicated topic.

CALERIE investigation

Animal studies conducted over many years have demonstrated that calorie restriction has positive health effects, even reducing the aging process. Would this also apply to people?

In a 1950s study, participants were told to cut their caloric intake by 50%, which resulted in malnourished or a lack of essential micronutrients. Later studies frequently concentrated on caloric restriction in persons with body mass indices that would be deemed medically obese.

 

Beginning in 2007, the first clinical trial of calorie restriction in individuals with normal weight (a BMI of roughly 20 to 25) was conducted. The comprehensive assessment of long-term effects of reducing energy intake was known as CALERIE.

CALERIE requested 143 adults between the ages of 21 and 50 to lower 25% of the calories they regularly ate for a two-year period in order to address the malnutrition discovered in the earlier study that dramatically reduced calories. 75 individuals from a different group followed their regular diets as a control group.

 

A variety of tests were conducted throughout the experiment at intervals of six months to learn more about weight reduction, changes in resting metabolic rate, effects on cognitive function and inflammatory marker levels, cardiovascular health, and insulin sensitivity.

As according CALERIE's findings, which have been released in 2015, participants in the restricted group were typically able to reduce 14% of their calories, or around half of the 25% target. However without having a negative impact on their quality of life, that sum cut their cardio - metabolic risk factors and their fat mass by roughly 10%. TNF-alpha, a protein that stimulates insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes brought on by fat, was also decreased.

Other research have investigated further ways that mild calorie restriction might be advantageous to the body using blood samples and other information gathered on the CALERIE participants. For instance, researchers at Yale University discovered that dieting improved the function of the hypothalamus, an organ that creates immune system T cells, one of the body's most crucial defenses against attackers.

A difference inside the result

White blood cells from CALERIE participants were collected at 12-month intervals for the new study, which was published on Thursday in the science Journal Aging. DNA sequences from these cells were collected. Then, in search of aging indicative, Belsky's team examined methylation marks on the DNA, which are indicators of epigenetic changes.

According to the National Human Genome Research Institute, epigenes are proteins and chemicals that sit like freckles on each gene, ready to instruct the gene "what to do, where to do it, and when to do it."

 

As according anti-aging expert David Sinclair, a professor of genetics in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School and codirector of the Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research, changes to our cells' epigenomes, the systems that control which genes in the genome are turned on and off, are increasingly recognized as drivers of the aging process.

According to Sinclair, a non-participant in the study, "clocks that detect these changes are proving to be indications of future health and whether interventions can slow and even reverse the aging process."

 

PhenoAge and GrimAge epigenetic clocks, as well as a new sensor that Belsky and Duke University just developed, were used in the latest study. According to Belsky, this third bioclock, known as DunedinPACE, aims to estimate the amount of aging from a single blood test.

According to Belsky, a researcher from Columbia University's Robert N. Butler Aging Center as well as a PhenoAge and GrimAge bioclock expert, there weren't any indications of delayed aging in the blood samples of CALERIE participants.

 

But according to a statement from Columbia, the clock developed by Belsky's and Duke's teams, DunedinPACE, did discover a 2% to 3% slowing of aging, "which in other research equates to a 10-15% reduction in mortality risk, an outcome similar to a smoking cessation strategy."

Argument concerning bioclocks

However, the study's critics were dissatisfied. According to Attia, the DunedinPACE test performed "mediocre at best," detecting just a slight connection with biological aging.

 

According to Kapahi of the Buck Institute, the lack of anti-aging advantages identified by the other two bioclocks was not unexpected: "These biological age predictors don't necessarily agree with other biological measures and don't necessarily agree with each other.

 

The general public will indeed be confused, and regrettably, persons are purchasing these tests despite the fact that very little helpful information is gained from them.

Despite the fact that true that epigenetic biomarkers aren't yet ready for use in clinical trials, Belsky refuted this claim by stating that "many different studies in many different datasets and populations have shown these algorithms are predictive of differences between people in who gets sick and who lives or dies."

 

"This game is not yet ended. More like a game has begun, Belsky remarked. What we currently have is a proof-of-concept methylation biomarker that indicates slower aging in humans who are known to be at reduced risk for disease, disability, and death rates and quicker aging in individuals who are known to be at higher risk.

Caloric restriction: Does that really work?

Putting aside the argument over how to define slower aging, Attia claimed that caloric restriction can help individuals to live longer, especially those who are "overnourished."

 

He wrote in an email that "I don't want a reader to believe this intervention (calorie restriction) is of no value, but that (the study) does not 'show' a reduction in the pace of aging.

Two further methods for avoiding "overnutrition," which Attia believes is the primary cause of insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and other chronic diseases, include time-restricted eating and dietary limitations of particular foods.

 

"I am not aware of any proof that one "tactic" or approach is better than the others. The optimal method is the one that works for each individual, but Attia said that calorie restriction "definitely works for some, and is therefore obviously useful." "All of these interventions will lead in a longer and healthier life, but these aging clocks tell us less than nothing about that process," the author said.

According to Kapahi, there are many more strategies to prevent aging.

 

Calorie restriction is only one strategy, he continued, "but we're trying to understand more about aging and we are." You definitely need to do that in addition to getting some exercise, getting enough sleep, having a nice mood, and being in excellent mental health. The combination of all these elements will probably be considerably more crucial in reducing aging.