Posted on 05/03/2011 1:32:14 PM PDT by decimon
SAN ANTONIO (April 22, 2011) — Since the 1930s scientists have proposed food restriction as a way to extend life in mice. Though feeding a reduced-calorie diet has indeed lengthened the life spans of mice, rats and many other species, new studies with dozens of different mouse strains indicate that food restriction does not work in all cases.
Diet and fat loss Researchers at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio’s Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies, with colleagues at the University of Colorado, studied the effect of food restriction on fat and weight loss in 41 genetically different strains of mice. The scientists then correlated the amount of fat reduction to life span.
The answer: Mice that maintained their fat actually lived longer. Those that lost fat died earlier.
Contrary to view “Indeed, the greater the fat loss, the greater the likelihood the mice would have a negative response to dietary restriction, i.e., shortened life,” said James Nelson, Ph.D., professor of physiology at the Barshop Institute. “This is contrary to the widely held view that loss of fat is important for the life-extending effect of dietary restriction. It turns the tables a bit.”
The results are expected to be published in the June issue of Aging Cell.
More study needed Dr. Nelson’s graduate student, Chen-Yu Liao, who will soon receive his Ph.D. and advance to a postdoctoral fellowship at California’s Buck Institute for Research on Aging, cautioned that the new findings cannot be directly applied to people until similar studies are done in humans.
People are best advised to adopt a moderate approach, not losing all fat but definitely not keeping unhealthy amounts of fat, either.
“None of the mice in this study were what we would consider to be obese,” Liao said.
Genes impact effect The findings bear out what geneticists long have said: there is nothing that works for every genotype, which is an organism’s specific and unique set of genes.
“We know that humans respond to diet very differently as individuals based on their genetics,” Dr. Nelson said. “Some have great difficulty losing weight while others have difficulty maintaining weight. If these results translate to humans, they would suggest that individuals who have difficulty losing weight may benefit from the positive effects of dietary restriction more than those who lose weight easily.”
Authors Fat Maintenance Is a Predictor of the Murine Lifespan Response to Dietary Restriction. Chen-Yu Liao1,2, Brad A. Rikke3, Thomas E. Johnson3,4, Jonathan A.L. Gelfond2,5, Vivian Diaz2, James F. Nelson1,2 DOI: 10.1111/j.1474-9726.2011.00702.x
1Department of Physiology, UT Health Science Center San Antonio; 2Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies, UT Health Science Center San Antonio; 3Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado, Boulder; 4Department of Integrative Physiology, University of Colorado, Boulder; 5Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, UT Health Science Center San Antonio
# # #
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, one of the country’s leading health sciences universities, ranks in the top 3 percent of all institutions worldwide receiving federal funding. Research and other sponsored program activity totaled $228 million in fiscal year 2010. The university’s schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have produced approximately 26,000 graduates. The $744 million operating budget supports eight campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. For more information on the many ways “We make lives better®,” visit www.uthscsa.edu.
Fat Tuesday ping.
Yeah, you are. Brown fat is good: Scientists turn 'bad fat' into 'good fat' (type 2 diabetes?)
I better print this one out and put in on the fridge and smile a great big smile when I have my Skinny Cow ice cream after supper ;)
There’s an entire “starve yourself” movement of folks who are literally going hungry to live a longer life.
Sorry, life is too short, pass the gravy.
It's an interesting result, but how does apply to mice bred to mimic type 2 diabetes in humans? Besides the recent studies showing type 2 diabetes having an autoimmune componenent, and human studies showing that being lean is is associated with increased mortality, when are they going to figure out that it's time to stop making recommendations for a polyglot population like America?
FReepmail me if you want on or off the diabetes ping list.
Who are you calling a polyglot???? They just said my fat is good!
My mother in law was right. Ronald Reagan is the best president of our lifetimes and we should eat whatever we want.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.