<story><title>Eating fewer calories can ward off ageing</title><url>https://www.economist.com/technology-quarterly/2023/09/25/eating-fewer-calories-can-ward-off-ageing</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>anonnon</author><text>&amp;gt; One of the eight biospherians was Roy Walford, a professor of pathology at the University of California, Los Angeles (ucla). Research by Walford and others had shown that restricting what animals ate could significantly lengthen their lives. The lifespans of nematode worms, fruit flies, rodents and dogs could be extended as much as 50% by laboratory protocols which gave them a diet with all the nutrients they needed in terms of minerals, vitamins and the like but fewer calories than were seen as normal.&lt;p&gt;Roy Walford &lt;i&gt;died at age 79 of ALS&lt;/i&gt;, and there are studies showing both excessive exercise and low-calorie diets (drivers of calorie restriction) increase the risk of ALS, for example: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.thelancet.com&amp;#x2F;journals&amp;#x2F;lancet&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;PIIS0140-6736(14)60222-1&amp;#x2F;fulltext&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.thelancet.com&amp;#x2F;journals&amp;#x2F;lancet&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;PIIS0140-6...&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.neurology.org&amp;#x2F;doi&amp;#x2F;10.1212&amp;#x2F;WNL.0000000000007861&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.neurology.org&amp;#x2F;doi&amp;#x2F;10.1212&amp;#x2F;WNL.0000000000007861&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.thelancet.com&amp;#x2F;journals&amp;#x2F;ebiom&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;PIIS2352-3964(21)00190-0&amp;#x2F;fulltext&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.thelancet.com&amp;#x2F;journals&amp;#x2F;ebiom&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;PIIS2352-39...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;I can&amp;#x27;t believe people are still beating this drum. There&amp;#x27;s no evidence calorie restriction (beyond not being fat) actually significantly (ie more than a few years) extends human lifespan, let alone can consistently get you to 100 (or even 120, like Walford speculated). And if it did work, we&amp;#x27;d probably know already just by looking at existing centenarian populations. And even the best animal studies (where, unlike 99% of the garbage mouse studies, the control group &lt;i&gt;isn&amp;#x27;t allowed to eat itself into obesity&lt;/i&gt;) don&amp;#x27;t paint an impressive picture: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&amp;#x2F;pmc&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;PMC3832985&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&amp;#x2F;pmc&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;PMC3832985&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Our data indicate that under our laboratory conditions, CR does not improve mean survival in rhesus compared to CON monkeys despite clear improvements in overall health and function. Our finding contrasts with previous reports5, 19 and suggests that study design, husbandry, and diet composition are important factors for the life-prolonging effect of CR in a long-lived NHP, similar to what has been shown in rodent studies40–42. It will be valuable to continue to compare findings from on-going monkey CR studies to dissect mechanisms behind the improvement in health that occurred with and without significant effects on survival.</text></comment>
<story><title>Eating fewer calories can ward off ageing</title><url>https://www.economist.com/technology-quarterly/2023/09/25/eating-fewer-calories-can-ward-off-ageing</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>bcherny</author><text>&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;archive.is&amp;#x2F;wOgiW&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;archive.is&amp;#x2F;wOgiW&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>