#1

Eating less can lead to a longer life: massive study in mice shows why

Weight loss and metabolic improvements do not explain the longevity benefits of severe dietary restrictions

Weight loss and metabolic improvements do not explain the longevity benefits of severe dietary restrictions.

Cutting calorie intake can lead to a leaner body — and a longer life, an effect often chalked up to the weight loss and metabolic changes caused by consuming less food. Now, one of the biggest studies1 of dietary restrictions ever conducted in laboratory animals challenges the conventional wisdom about how dietary restriction boosts longevity.

The study, involving nearly 1,000 mice fed low-calorie diets or subjected to regular bouts of fasting, found that such regimens do indeed cause weight loss and related metabolic changes. But other factors — including immune health, genetics and physiological indicators of resiliency — seem to better explain the link between cutting calories and increased lifespan.

The study was published today in Nature by Churchill and his co-authors, including scientists at Calico Life Sciences in South San Francisco, California, the anti-ageing focused biotech company that funded the study.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03277-6

Actual paper:

Dietary restriction impacts health and lifespan of genetically diverse mice

We show that caloric restriction and intermittent fasting both resulted in lifespan extension in proportion to the degree of restriction.

Health effects differed between interventions and exhibited inconsistent relationships with lifespan extension.

suggesting that dietary restriction does more than just counteract the negative effects of obesity.

Our findings indicate that improving health and extending lifespan are not synonymous and raise questions about which end points are the most relevant for evaluating aging interventions in preclinical models and clinical trials.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08026-3

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#2

OK, and in other news water continues to be wet.

#3

@CronosTempi Are you saying that in regards to

A. CR increased longevity?

B. The longevity effects may (to a large extent) not be due to weight loss or improvement in metabolic health?

C. What is good for lifespan might not be good for health span and vice versa?

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#4

Details on study and full paper, discussion, etc. was discussed earlier, here: Dietary restriction impacts health and lifespan of genetically diverse mice

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#5

All three. This has been common knowledge in CR literature for literally decades. I’m at a loss as to what this study brings to the table. But I haven’t read the study, this is just going off of the stuff posted here, so maybe I’m missing something.