Longevity Gene Found 358
quixote9 writes "Calorie restriction while maintaining nutrient levels has long been known to dramatically increase life spans. Very different lab animals, from worms to mice, live up to 50% longer (or even more) on the restricted diets. However, so far, nobody has been able to figure out how this works. Scientists at the Salk Institute have found a specific gene in worms (there's a very similar one in people) that is directly involved in the longevity effect. That opens up the interesting possibility that doctors may someday be able to activate that gene directly and we can live long and prosper . . . without giving up chocolate."
Old News (Score:2, Informative)
Interesting similarities (Score:5, Informative)
We have a breakfast (Suhur) before dawn and do not eat or drink until sunset. After sunset we have a usual meal (Iftar). The only difference to the diet described in this BBC article is that we do not drink while Mr. Cavanaugh does.
abstract of original article (Score:5, Informative)
It does not mean that FOXA family does not do something for our longer lives, it just mean that article does not prove that via sequence similarity. Since I enjoy "trolling" I would add that (once again) Nature capitalizes on the subject importance and publishes articles with overstretching conclusions.
Pha-4 Gene information (Score:2, Informative)
pha-4 Gene Information [wormbase.org]
Re:OTOH (Score:5, Informative)
Maintaining raw population, meaning a growth rate greater than or equal to zero. Many first-world nations (notably, Japan and much of Europe) have more people dying than being born, resulting in negative population growth.
In general, education level and availability of technology correlate negatively with birth rate, and this holds true both between countries and between socio-economic groups within countries.
Re:Earlier death (Score:5, Informative)
All sugars promote tooth decay.
Also http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?ne wsid=65470 [medicalnewstoday.com], http://jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/content/full/89/6 /2963 [endojournals.org], http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/05/05050 3152956.htm [sciencedaily.com]
Fructose depresses leptin and insulin levels. Leptin is normally produced when you eat, and this triggers the "ok, I'm no longer hungry" signal in your brain so you stop eating. Lowering the leptin level causes you to still feel hungry, even after you've eaten. Switching from fructose to sucrose will allow your body to regulate itself better.
Its probably going to take some major lawsuits (and bankruptcies) to fix this problem ...
Surgeon General says "y'all too fat, lardbutts"! (Score:3, Informative)
"The life expectancy these days is longer than it has ever been,"
Wanna bet? Nothing has changed in the 3 years since this, except that people have continued to get fatter ...
http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/news/testimony/child obesity03022004.htm [surgeongeneral.gov]
Re:Earlier death (Score:5, Informative)
So people still fall for this one, eh?
Newsflash - Plain ol' table sugar (aka "sucrose") contains nearly the same amount of fructose as that big-bad-boogeyman, High Fructose Corn syrup!
Sucrose has a 50/50 mix of fructose and dextrose, while HFC contains from 43 to 55% fructose.
But by all means, keep blaming American's fat asses on HFC rather than admitting that we simply eat way too much and exercise way too little...
Re:Population control, NOW! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Earlier death (Score:5, Informative)
HFCS in foods is largely 90/10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_fructose_corn_s
Only in sports drinks is the glucose content of HFCS higher than that of in sucrose.
The wikipedia article also mentions that the most common sweetener for processed foods and soft drinks is HFCS 55 (55/45), which isn't much greater in fructose content than the 50/50 of sucrose. However, they don't mention whether HFCS 90 or HFCS 55 is cheaper to process, which would make that the more prevalent variety. Regardless, it's safe to assume that HFCS foods have more fructose than if they were to have used sugar instead.
I'm not disagreeing that obesity is a result of eating too much and exercising too little. But what we eat also contributes to our health. And consuming large amounts of HFCS through processed foods doesn't help.