It’s never fun getting old–but now there may be a way to slow down the aging process.
A new study from New York University’s Langone Medical Center reveals that low calorie diets help control certain genes linked to aging in the brain.
It was also shown to slow down memory loss in the brain–something connected to Alzheimer’s disease.
“Our study shows how calorie restriction practically arrests gene expression levels involved in the aging phenotype–how some genes determine the behavior of mice, people, and other mammals as they get old,” says Stephen D. Ginsberg, Ph.D., a neuroscientist from the Langone Medical Center and lead researcher of the study. “The study does not mean calorie restriction is the fountain of youth, but that it does add evidence for the role of diet in delaying the effects of aging and age-related disease.”
In the study, researchers used female mice to see how calorie restriction affected their brains–something shown in the past to be beneficial for extending their lifespans. Female mice, like humans, are also more susceptible to dementia, a memory loss disease that increases in risk as a person ages.
To test out how it specifically affected their brains, researchers reduced their calories by 30 percent, examining how it affected the tissue in the hippocampal region of the brain. This region is often affected more quickly by Alzheimer’s disease.
As they soon found out, restricting their calories had a profound impact on their brains.
“Benefits of these diets have been touted to include reduced risk of human heart disease, hypertension, and stroke,” says Ginsberg. “Previous studies have only assessed the dietary impact on one or two genes at a time, but [my] analysis encompassed more than 10,000 genes.”
As a result, Ginsberg says this study only furthers the need for researchers to study how calorie restriction affects a person’s genes–something that will take years, if not decades, to complete. The study also did not focus on the possible side effects prolonged calorie restriction may have on a person’s body, if any truly exist.
Still, the evidence is compelling.
“[The research] widens the door to further study into calorie restriction and anti-aging genetics,” says Ginsberg.
The Bottom Line
While Ginsberg doesn’t recommend restricting your calories just yet for a younger, healthier brain, the evidence is there–and it wouldn’t hurt to take advantage of it. To keep an aging brain at bay, consider cutting off 30 percent of your current calorie intake away, something you can easily do by getting rid of processed foods, keeping sugary foods to a minimum, and placing an emphasis on lean, colorful fruits and vegetables instead.
Readers: Have you tried calorie restriction before? If so, how did it work out for you?
Sources:
Calorie-Restricting Diets Slow Aging, Study Finds – ScienceDaily.com
Research Out of NYU Langone Medical Center Shows Low-Cal Regimen Influences Brain Genes as Female Mice Age – NewsWise.com
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