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As someone who follows life extension research closely: all the lifestyle stuff like "eating less" is useless. You can't rejuvenate an organism by changing the
by grishka 5y ago
As someone who follows life extension research closely: all the lifestyle stuff like "eating less" is useless. You can't rejuvenate an organism by changing the external inputs to its natural processes. It's half-measures at best.
- jdrc 5y agofasting does have something to do with longevity (in mice and other animals). Maybe not in humans but it's certainly a valid line of research
- grishka 5y agoWhat I'm saying is that it doesn't reverse aging, it merely slows it down, and not by much.
- avazhi 5y agoI don't think anybody's claimed that it reverses ageing, and if they have I think they would have clarified that they did mean 'slows' the ageing process. And there's no doubt that caloric restriction and IF both slow ageing relative to a normal caloric intake. I don't have the paper on me atm, but IIRC it was 30% longer lifespan in mice. Now whether you want to say ageing is slowed or that lifespan is increased, and I'm not denying that there's a legitimate difference, but either way caloric restriction is completely legitimate for both, and to the extent you said it's useless, I don't think that's fair at all. For anybody interested, the mTor pathway is really interesting in this regard, and in general the effects of AMPK on cellular metabolism. TLDR is that in the modern world most people never activate these pathways (since we're always in a fed state). Ostensibly there will be some breakthroughs when we finally learn why these starvation pathways are so beneficial. Inflammation seems a decent guess - eating increases it, and fasting decreases it, as a general rule.
- exhilaration 5y agoIsn't slowing down aging the goal of "longevity"? The word implies extending life, not necessarily renewing it.
- grishka 5y agoSlowing it down feels like a half-measure. Especially knowing that it's a malleable process that can be reversed.
- Cicero22 5y agoare there other studies on animals / mice which have a larger sample size? the one linked in the post has a sample size of 106 which to an untrained eye seems small. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a2069c3ccc5c5325fd05b02/t/5a4745e3652deacfabae5fa9/1514620388820/1935_mccay.pdf https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a2069c3ccc5c5325fd05...
- ramraj07 5y agoAre you sure you’re actually following life extension research as opposed to some “quantified self” hacks? I’ve personally starved and seen worms live much longer than they normally do, and regularly found worms in plates months after they should have all died. There’s nothing unnatural about an organism going into “survival” mode when food becomes scarce. It’s clearly something that benefits a species survival.
- ericmcer 5y agoReally? It makes total sense that aging is related to cell replication mechanisms breaking down and reducing caloric input slows replication down.
- graphpercolator 5y agoWe have known this for so long now. The problem is that is not the answer people want. People want the holy grail, literally. Eat pizza, drink beer while sitting playing video games and take a magic pill that makes you young again.