Eat less, live longer

(08/30/09)

Monkeys live longer on low-cal diet and are healthier.

Rhesus monkeys are his passion. For 20 years the biologist Richard Weindruch has been conducting research at the National Primate Research Center of the University of Wisconsin into the effects of caloric restriction on our closest relatives. The results are spectacular, as a study published in the renowned “Science” journal now shows: “We observed that caloric restriction reduced the risk of developing an age-related disease by a factor of three and increased survival.”

 

The monkeys put on a restricted diet are healthier than their fellows in the control group and display a significantly lower risk of cancer, cardiovascular diseases and brain atrophy. Remarkably, diabetes – which is otherwise often common in monkeys – has yet to be observed in any animal on a restricted diet. “So far, we’ve seen the complete prevention of diabetes,” says Weindruch.

 

It seems that the restricted diet, which has 30 percent fewer calories but is balanced, is also beneficial for brain health. Regions of the brain responsible for motor control and memory were better preserved into old age than in monkeys permitted to eat freely.

 

Richard Weindruch has thereby closed a critical research gap. Back in the 1930’s scientists proved that a diet with 30 percent fewer calories can extend the life span of rodents by 10 to 20 percent. At the same time, the incidence of cancer was reduced and the brain’s performance was maintained for longer. A similar phenomenon has also been established in yeast and in fruit flies. Richard Weindruch has now produced the evidence for primates.

 

Transferability to humans

 

Richard Weindruch said that he assumed that what they had observed in rhesus monkeys would be just the same for humans. Data were available - relating to individuals who had been on a low-calorie diet for five or ten years and had been studied by researchers – which supported the assumption. The studies showed that the probands had a healthier cardiovascular system than the people on a normal diet.

 

Similar human trials are however said to be highly complex and time-consuming. As human beings reach three times the age of rhesus monkeys, such a study would have to run for 60 years. Scepticism is appropriate. Even Richard Weindruch, the author of the study, admits to having problems with practising moderation: “I found it difficult to adhere to such a diet, despite studying it for 34 years.”

 

Apropos therapeutic fasting

 

An American group of researchers led by Horn (Am J Cardiol) established only last year that therapeutic fasting – “temporary abstinence from food” – activates the self-healing forces. Regular fasting reduced the incidence and advancement of coronary heart disease, the precursor of infarction, among patients. Diabetes also occurred in far fewer cases.

 

Bilder:

Two photos of monkeys which are of the same age but look very different. © Jeff Miller/University of Wisconsin-Madison