As more people live into their 80s and 90s, researchers have delved into the issues of health and quality of life during aging. A recent mouse study at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine sheds light on those questions by demonstrating that a high-fat, or ketogenic, diet not only increases longevity, but improves physical strength. – University of California – Davis.
“The results surprised me a little,” said nutritionist Jon Ramsey, senior author of the paper that appears in the September issue of Cell Metabolism. “We expected some differences, but I was impressed by the magnitude we observed — a 13 percent increase in median life span for the mice on a high-fat versus high-carb diet. In humans, that would be seven to 10 years. But equally important, those mice retained quality of health in later life.” – University of California – Davis.
Ramsey has spent the past 20 years looking at the mechanics that lead to aging, a contributing factor to most major diseases that impact rodents and humans alike. While calorie restriction has been shown in several studies to slow aging in many animals, Ramsey was interested in how a high-fat diet may impact the aging process. – University of California – Davis.
Ketogenic diets have gained popularity for a variety of health benefit claims, but scientists are still teasing out what happens during ketosis, when carbohydrate intake is so low that the body shifts from using glucose as the main fuel source to fat burning and producing ketones for energy. – University of California – Davis.
Diet and aging
In the examination mice were part into three gatherings: a consistent rat high-carb eat less carbs, a low-carb/high-fat eating routine, and a ketogenic consume less calories (89-90 percent of aggregate calorie consumption). Initially worried that the high-fat eating routine would expand weight and abatement life traverse, the analysts kept the calorie check of each eating routine the same.
“We composed the eating regimen not to concentrate on weight reduction, but rather to take a gander at digestion,” Ramsey said. “What does that do to maturing?”
Notwithstanding essentially expanding the middle life expectancy of mice in the investigation, the ketogenic eat less expanded memory and engine work (quality and coordination), and kept an expansion in age-related markers of aggravation. It had lessened the occurrence of tumors, also.
“For this situation, a large number of the things we’re taking a gander at aren’t vastly different from people,” Ramsey said. “At a principal level, people take after comparative changes and experience a lessening in general capacity of organs amid maturing. This examination demonstrates that a ketogenic eating regimen can majorly affect life and wellbeing range without real weight reduction or confinement of admission. It additionally opens another road for conceivable dietary mediations that affect maturing.”
Analysts don’t know as of now if there is an ideal fat for a ketogenic slim down.
A companion study published by the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in a similar issue of Cell Metabolism demonstrates that a ketogenic eat less carbs expands life span and enhances memory in aged mice.
Mice on high-fat vs. high-carb diet had 13 percent longer lifespan
Study focused on effect of diet on aging process
Researchers do not yet know if there’s an optimum fat for a ketogenic, or high-fat, diet.
Source & Credit @ University of California – Davis. The original article can be found HERE. Find article on Cell Metabolism Journal HERE.
Reference:
Roberts, M. N., et al. “A Ketogenic Diet Extends Longevity and Healthspan in Adult Mice.” Cell Metabolism 26(3): 539-546.e535.