Summary: In a new study, researchers found that calorie restriction does extend lifespan. However, these benefits are individual. It means that not all may experience these benefits, though some may experience a significant increase in lifespan, even in the absence of weight loss. It appears that improving health and extending lifespan are two different things.
Humans have always sought a fountain of youth, immortality. Those things are still away from the realm of science. However, science has still significantly extended the average human lifespan, which has almost doubled since the late 19th century. One study shows that one of the simplest ways to extend lifespan is just by eating less.
Of course, science does not propose starving your body, but it has found that calorie restrictions can extend lifespan. But that is not all. It made some other interesting observations, like reducing body weight or improving health is different from extending lifespan!
Studies have long shown that various restrictive diets like the Mediterranean diet, intermittent fasting, and calorie restriction help extend life. However, this study is different in the way that this new study shows that it is not essentially related to weight loss or improved health. It appears that calorie restriction extends life in a way still unknown to science.
This new study was published in one of the most reputed journals, Nature. In the study, researchers used 960 genetically diverse mice. There is a reason to use mice for such studies; for ethical reasons, such studies are challenging to carry out in humans. Additionally, doing such studies in mice also provides faster results.
In the study, researchers wanted to understand what works for extending life and which method is better: calorie restriction or intermittent fasting. Further, they wanted to see how much calorie restriction is good for extending life and whether it works for everyone.
There is a reason why researchers decided to carry out this study. It is long known that calorie restriction extends life. However, this is believed to be mainly due to the health benefits of calorie restrictions, such as weight loss and improved metabolic health. Further, there are also some controversies, as some studies show that calorie restriction may somewhat reduce the lifespan of some.
So, in this latest study, researchers first let mice eat their regular diet. They found that the average lifespan of these mice was 25 months. Then, they used intermittent fasting and found that it extended their lifespan to 28 months, which is quite good.
Next, they experimented with 20% and 40% calorie restriction. They found that an extreme calorie restriction, 40%, was better for extending life than a 20% calorie restriction. Thus, mice with 20% calorie restriction lived for 30 months, and those with 40% calorie restriction lived for 34 months. This came as a significant surprise for researchers and chronic pain specialists.
However, researchers noticed massive individual variances in response to such restrictive diets. This means that extreme calorie restrictions do not extend life for everyone. Hence, they say that it appears that genetics play a significant role here.
They found that on extreme calorie restrictions, some mice lost greater body weight than others, while others were resilient and did not lose much. They found that mice that did not lose much body weight and maintained their fat mass despite calorie restrictions lived longer.
It is these findings that surprised researchers. This is contrary to earlier findings. Till now, researchers have believed that restrictive diet increases lifespan by reducing obesity, helping reverse diabetes, and enhancing metabolic health. However, this experiment found greater benefit in mice who did not lose body weight despite the restrictive diet.
Therefore, researchers concluded that the life-extending benefit of calorie restriction is not just due to weight loss but also due to some other mechanisms.
Of course, researchers warn here against practicing a severely restrictive diet since it may lower immunity. In some individuals, a restrictive diet may rather reduce lifespan. Lifespan is only likely to increase in individuals who are genetically more resilient.
Nonetheless, it would be right to conclude that most people would benefit from modest calorie restriction. It also shows that calorie restrictions work even if one does not experience weight loss.
For those seeking to adopt healthier practices and increase their lifespan, understanding the balance between calorie intake and genetic factors is essential. Interventional Pain Management St. Louis stands ready to support individuals in exploring such personalized approaches for long-term well-being.
Source:
Di Francesco, A., Deighan, A. G., Litichevskiy, L., Chen, Z., Luciano, A., Robinson, L., Garland, G., Donato, H., Vincent, M., Schott, W., Wright, K. M., Raj, A., Prateek, G. V., Mullis, M., Hill, W. G., Zeidel, M. L., Peters, L. L., Harding, F., Botstein, D., … Churchill, G. A. (2024). Dietary restriction impacts health and lifespan of genetically diverse mice. Nature, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08026-3
