[LINK] O/T health information

[Stephen Loosley]

Hi all,

Seems important health information ..

One for the Ages:
MICHAEL MASON 
http://www.nytimes.com 
October 31, 2006 (snip)

.. As a result of a simple lifestyle intervention (people) seem poised to live very long, very vital lives. 

The approach, called calorie restriction, involves eating about 30 percent fewer calories than normal, while still getting adequate amounts of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. 

Aside from direct genetic-manipulation, calorie restriction is the only strategy known to extend life consistently in a variety of animal species. 

How this drastic diet affects the body has been the subject of intense research. 

Recently, the effort has begun to bear fruit, producing a steady stream of studies indicating that the rate of aging is plastic, not fixed, and that it can be manipulated. 

In the last year, calorie-restricted diets have been shown in various animals to affect molecular pathways likely to be involved in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson’s disease and cancer. 

Earlier this year, researchers studying dietary effects on humans went so far as to claim that calorie restriction may be more effective than exercise at preventing age-related diseases. (snip)

In 1935, Dr. Clive McCay, a nutritionist at Cornell University, discovered that mice that were fed 30 percent fewer calories lived about 40 percent longer than their free-grazing laboratory mates. The dieting mice were also more physically active and far less prone to the diseases of advanced age.

Dr. McCay’s experiment has been successfully duplicated in a variety of species. In almost every instance, the subjects on low-calorie diets have proven to be not just longer lived, but also more resistant to age-related ailments.

“In mice, calorie restriction doesn’t just extend life span,” said Leonard P. Guarente, professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  “It mitigates many diseases of aging: cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative disease. The gain is just enormous.”
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Regards all  ..
Stephen Loosley