Saturday, March 11, 2006

Nutrition and Longevity

There is strong evidence from studies performed on mice and worms that life expectancy experiences a substantial increase , in the case of mice a doubling, once the regular daily caloric intake is reduced by 30%. Apparently such a major drop in calories induces the defence mechanisms to become more efficient and extend life by a substantial margin.

In the case of humans the required drop in nutritional intake is so large that no pharmaceutical company believes that they will be given the green light to conduct such experiments. A number of companies , however, would like to develop druge that will achieve the same results but that do not require a starvation diet. All what would be needed is to pop a pill a day that would replicate in the dbody system the conditions of "caloric deprivation" and if the original hypothesis prove to be true then we can have our cake and eat it too. How does 125 years sound? 25 years of schooling, 75 years of work and 25 years of retirement. Any takers?

4 comments:

  1. Frank, Haddy
    I am in full agreement with you. I only wish that more people will adopt your point of view.
    BTW, many of the old people that I know are tired of their daily routine and actually do not fear death.( I do realize that this is purely anecdotal and I am not suggesting that this attitude is a general one, although it might be).

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