Fight Aging!

From Spectroscopy Now: "Eat less and you could live longer. That's the view held by an increasing number of people around the world, with the Calorie Restriction Society one of the main standard bearers. ... Following this diet brings about a reduction in the white adipose tissue mass and this has been proposed as a principal factor in longevity. Aging itself tends to have the opposite effect, increasing adipose tissue stores and insulin resistance and this is where clarification is needed. What are the effects of CR and how do they relate to those of aging? ... [researchers] studied the protein profiles of white adipose tissue of rats. One set was maintained on a 40% CR diet from age 12-24 months, with a second age-matched set fed ad libitum (AD). Proteins were extracted from the white adipose tissue ... a total of 133 proteins were found to be differentially expressed between the CR and AD animals. Many of the CR-induced changes were unaffected by age, implying that CR does not simply arrest or reverse age-associated changes. The influences of the two processes appear to operate under different mechanisms. ... [some] protein expression changes induced by CR gave improved protection against oxidative stress by halting the age-associated reduction in the levels of several antioxidant enzymes and decreasing the levels of stress-induced proteins. ... Both CR and aging also changed the expression of proteins involved in the cytoskeleton, iron storage and energy metabolism ... In the long term, the results could also lead to the identification of novel biomarkers of aging and possible targets for mimetics of CR that could provide the same outcome, an extended lifespan, without having to follow a rigorous and controlled diet."

Link: http://www.spectroscopynow.com/coi/cda/detail.cda?id=24357&type=Feature&chId=10&page=1