It has been nearly 100 years since scientists first reported that caloric restriction could slow aging and extend life span in rodents. The same holds true for other research model species, including yeast, worms, flies and fish.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s an evolutionarily ancient link between nutrients, the conditions in the environment, and the aging process,\u201d says Kristopher Burkewitz, PhD, assistant professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at Vanderbilt. \u201cAnd it makes a lot of sense. If things are scarce, it\u2019s not a good investment to spend energy on growing and reproducing. Instead, there\u2019s reprogramming at a variety of biological levels to put energy into taking care of things, lasting through the tough times.<\/p>\n
\u201cDietary restriction works great (to extend life span), but it\u2019s hard to tell people to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Laura Niedernhofer, MD\u201998, PhD\u201996, director of the Institute on the Biology of Aging and Metabolism at the University of Minnesota, agrees.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho in their right mind is going to cut their calories by 40%?\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
It might be possible to achieve similar results with dietary modifications like intermittent fasting (fasting every other day, for example) or compressed eating (consuming calories in the shortest window of time possible in a 24-hour period).<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a huge investment by the NIA (National Institute on Aging) right now to study different ways to modulate nutrient intake to extend good health and longevity,\u201d Niedernhofer says.<\/p>\n
Most studies to date have been short (weeks to months), with the longest lasting two years: not long enough to learn about long-term effects.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo really know that dietary interventions work in humans, we\u2019re talking about decades-long studies,\u201d says Rafael Arrojo e Drigo, PhD, assistant professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics.<\/p>\n
The studies also need to consider a multitude of factors including genetics, sex, environment and lifestyle factors, he adds.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd how do you know it\u2019s working? What are the measurements that you can make on someone that will actually tell you that biological age versus chronological age is changing?\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, there isn\u2019t enough evidence to recommend a particular type of fasting or calorie-restricting diet. Instead, researchers agree, stick to the tried-and-true recommendations to eat balanced diets of nutritious foods, exercise regularly, stay socially active, don\u2019t smoke, drink alcohol in moderation or not at all, and get a good night\u2019s sleep.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It has been nearly 100 years since scientists first reported that caloric restriction could slow aging and extend life span in rodents. The same holds true for other research model species, including yeast, worms, flies and fish. \u201cThere\u2019s an evolutionarily ancient link between nutrients, the conditions in the environment, and the aging process,\u201d says Kristopher…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":219,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vm-related-content","category-vm-spring-2022"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcDnub-SX","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/219"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3407"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3408,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3407\/revisions\/3408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}