Cheers!
Posted on 05/08/2006 2:57:12 PM PDT by Pharmboy
A number of studies have shown that restricting calories increases the lifespan of animals, but the biological basis for this has remained elusive. A new report hints that growth hormone, as well as insulin, are key factors in the life-extending effects of calorie restriction.
"The implication ... for pharmaceutical development would be that the signaling pathways of growth hormone and insulin may be logical targets for development of anti-aging medicine," Dr. Andrezej Bartke from Southern Illinois University in Springfield told Reuters Health.
"Although it would be irresponsible to recommend that healthy people start using anti-diabetic drugs," said Bartke, "it is reasonable to suggest that treatment(s) causing an improvement in insulin sensitivity combined with modest reduction in insulin release would reduce risk of age-related disease and likely also delay aging."
Bartke's team tested whether growth hormone and insulin are tied to the life-extending effects of calorie restriction in a series of experiments with normal mice and mutant mice deficient in growth hormone.
The mutant mice do not express the receptor for growth hormone (and are therefore growth hormone resistant), have profoundly suppressed insulin levels, and are known to live longer and age more slowly than normal mice, the researchers note in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
As expected, the team observed that restricting food increases longevity in normal healthy mice. Reduced feeding increased lifespan by about 19 percent in normal male mice and by about 28 percent in normal female mice.
However, in sharp contrast to its effects in normal mice, calorie restriction failed to increase lifespan in mutant mice lacking growth hormone receptor. "The present findings show that growth hormone resistant mice fail to respond normally to calorie restriction, a very effective life-extending intervention," Bartke said.
"The key implication of this study is that growth hormone receptor and thus presumably the normal, physiological actions of growth hormone are important in regulation of aging and life span," Bartke said.
The team also found that calorie restriction for 12 months improves insulin sensitivity in normal mice but fails to further enhance the "remarkable insulin sensitivity" in growth hormone knockout mice.
This finding, Bartke said, "supports our hypothesis that increased sensitivity to the actions of insulin is a very important and perhaps the key mechanism of delayed aging and prolonged longevity in growth hormone deficient and growth hormone resistant mice."
SOURCE: PNAS, May 16, 2006.
Cheers!
How DO you cram down (say) the four cups of spinach with breakfast in the morning?
Any advice would be appreciated...
Cheers!
When heaven awaits why live longer?
Time for a quick digression. After eating the above, I would dutifully head back to the bathroom and brush my teeth. I then headed out to my driveway to get into my Porsche 914 to drive to work. Just about the time I would open the car door, I would experience a sudden runny nose and volumes of phlegm to the point of gagging. I blamed it on the mint in the toothpaste or something in the lambskin car seat covers. That turned out to be wrong. I'm horribly allergic to wheat. The timing after eating always repeated the pattern. When I stopped the wheat bran, my sinus problems disappeared entirely. No more gagging after breakfast.
Back to the main topic, the Zone diet recommends carbs with a low glycemic index. The objective is to avoid a sudden rush of glucose into the blood with a corresponding spike in insulin. Finding good quality, tasty, low glycemic carbs is the single most difficult thing to accomplish on a Zone, Atkins or low GI diet.
ping
I've noticed that Asian Indians(I know a few) who have been vegies their whole lives seem to die off about 75 or 80, like most everyone else. The seem to have thes same elderly health problems that we all have.
OK, Keith is not pretty, but he sure can play!
Fewer calories, eh? I guess that solution is out of the running...
Ironically, it was the truck that delivers organic juice.
What about low fat as well as low calorie? I know we need some fat?
"I take chromiumpicolonate in every orifice every day."
EVERY orifice? How do you get it up your nose and up.....
Never mind.
I'd be interested in knowing what the results were. I've been into vitamins, minerals and herbal supplements for 20 years now. I read recent studies that tend to indicate that HGH therapy is a hoax. I'm not saying it is. That's why I'd like to hear from you a brief testimony.
HAH, I knew it!A link to check out:
http://www.futurescience.com/arginine.html
The canker sore virus is similar to the herpes virus. I guess I can only hope that the lysine in the formula offsets the effects of arginine on the canker sore virus.Safety Notes: Arginine can enhance the growth of herpes viruses and pseudomonas bacteria. Anyone with herpes infections of the brain or eye or with any serious pseudomonas infection should never use arginine. Anyone with other latent or active herpes infections should use arginine only with extreme caution. Although arginine can promote the growth of these two infections, arginine also enhances the immune system, so the end result of arginine use can be positive or negative.
bfl
It's the insulin, not the calories that is harmful. Insulin is released when the calories are from carbohydrates. This is stressful to your body- it is like an F-15 using it's afterburners.
Stay off sugar to live longer. Makes a lot of sense.
Well there you go, mission accomplished. You might even be happy to finally die, unlike regular folks who won't let go of their gluttonous yet seemingly brief lives. :-)
Ever notice how fast the days fly when you are really busy? If you could get in the habit of sitting on a cold metal folding chair in the middle of a drab, empty room all day every day, time would practically stand still.
You don't pay her.
Carolyn
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