<story><title>Beginner&apos;s guide to longevity research</title><url>https://www.ldeming.com/longevityfaq</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>semi-extrinsic</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ll offer a contrarian view: longevity research, as in the current scope, is about as accurate and useful as Ray Kurzweil&amp;#x27;s predictions from the 90s.&lt;p&gt;Let&amp;#x27;s take caloric restriction, for instance, which is all the rage. Trouble is, all of the evidence we have is in mice or lesser animals, &lt;i&gt;and the comparison is animals on caloric restriction against animals being force fed to the point of obesity&lt;/i&gt;. Let me repeat that: in research that shows caloric restriction increasing lifespan in animal models, they are not comparing to animals on a normal diet. So it&amp;#x27;s entirely plausible all this caloric restriction research findings is just confirmation of the fact that obesity shortens lifespans.&lt;p&gt;This isn&amp;#x27;t even touching on the point that correspondence between animal models and humans is abysmally bad. It&amp;#x27;s the best we have, but there&amp;#x27;s a very good reason drugs need to go through three stages of human testing after it&amp;#x27;s been proven successful in animals. With caloric restriction, we don&amp;#x27;t even have consistent positive results in monkeys, only in rodents.&lt;p&gt;Has any of this longevity stuff ever been tested in humans? Obviously not, since it would take many decades.&lt;p&gt;Some pointers for further reading:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.sciencedirect.com&amp;#x2F;science&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;pii&amp;#x2F;S0891584914002317&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.sciencedirect.com&amp;#x2F;science&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;pii&amp;#x2F;S089158491...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&amp;#x2F;pmc&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;PMC3765579&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;PMC3765579&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>alexlikeits1999</author><text>While I agree with the general sentiment that CR is probably not very useful for humans, I think you are either misinformed or exaggerating for the sake of generating a response.&lt;p&gt;Ad-libitum feeding is not force feeding. Noone goes and shoves the food into mice. The food is just available.&lt;p&gt;Also, CR has extended lives in many species, including dogs (see &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;avmajournals.avma.org&amp;#x2F;doi&amp;#x2F;abs&amp;#x2F;10.2460&amp;#x2F;javma.2002.220.1315&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;avmajournals.avma.org&amp;#x2F;doi&amp;#x2F;abs&amp;#x2F;10.2460&amp;#x2F;javma.2002.220...&lt;/a&gt;), not just mice.</text></comment>
<story><title>Beginner&apos;s guide to longevity research</title><url>https://www.ldeming.com/longevityfaq</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>semi-extrinsic</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ll offer a contrarian view: longevity research, as in the current scope, is about as accurate and useful as Ray Kurzweil&amp;#x27;s predictions from the 90s.&lt;p&gt;Let&amp;#x27;s take caloric restriction, for instance, which is all the rage. Trouble is, all of the evidence we have is in mice or lesser animals, &lt;i&gt;and the comparison is animals on caloric restriction against animals being force fed to the point of obesity&lt;/i&gt;. Let me repeat that: in research that shows caloric restriction increasing lifespan in animal models, they are not comparing to animals on a normal diet. So it&amp;#x27;s entirely plausible all this caloric restriction research findings is just confirmation of the fact that obesity shortens lifespans.&lt;p&gt;This isn&amp;#x27;t even touching on the point that correspondence between animal models and humans is abysmally bad. It&amp;#x27;s the best we have, but there&amp;#x27;s a very good reason drugs need to go through three stages of human testing after it&amp;#x27;s been proven successful in animals. With caloric restriction, we don&amp;#x27;t even have consistent positive results in monkeys, only in rodents.&lt;p&gt;Has any of this longevity stuff ever been tested in humans? Obviously not, since it would take many decades.&lt;p&gt;Some pointers for further reading:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.sciencedirect.com&amp;#x2F;science&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;pii&amp;#x2F;S0891584914002317&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.sciencedirect.com&amp;#x2F;science&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;pii&amp;#x2F;S089158491...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&amp;#x2F;pmc&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;PMC3765579&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;PMC3765579&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sliverstorm</author><text>I still haven&amp;#x27;t really figured out how CR is supposed to be sustainable. I am around BMI of 19, and have been as low as 17 (6&amp;#x27;2&amp;quot;, 133lb). I become extremely unhealthy when I don&amp;#x27;t eat enough. As far as I know, I can&amp;#x27;t eat less and maintain the same weight. CR would, for me, send me to the hospital. Is CR just another name for &amp;quot;lose weight&amp;quot;? Is it working towards a goal rather than a lifelong steady state of living?</text></comment>