The Longevity Diet - chapter 2: Aging, programmed longevity, and juventology
The Longevity Diet
Chapter 2
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Here's more from the book about the fasting mimicking diet …and what's good to eat when you're not fasting! |
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Chapter 2 Here I am about to read again chapter 2 of Valter Longo’s best selling book The Longevity Diet. So let’s get on with a summary of: Aging, Programmed Longevity, and Juventology. |
Dear Rookie
Why we age
Does nature protect organisms until they've had a chance to generate healthy offspring who can look after themselves? And what happens when their children are off their hands? Is it a more efficient use of resources for older organisms to wear out and die?
Well, that's an old idea. But there's little science to prove it.
About 20 years ago Valter Longo proposed a new way to think about ageing: programmed longevity.
What about a biological strategy that promotes cellular regeneration to help you stay younger, longer? The body's protective systems are improved – and are kept working for extra decades.
In humans, this means 'reprogramming' the 'youth period' to last from four or five decades to six or seven decades.
Valter gave up his dreams of being a rock guitarist and concentrated on working with mice in Roy Walford's lab at UCLA. Then, in search of a breakthrough, he began studying much simpler organisms: yeast. Once his team could identify the ageing genes in yeast they could look for them in mice and humans.
Discovery 1: Starve yeast and they live twice as long.
Discovery 2: Sugar activates two genes that accelerate ageing.
Over the years, many more scientists became involved and more ageing genes were identified.
A group of short individuals in remote villages in Ecuador were found to have mutations in the growth hormone receptor gene which protected them from the diseases of ageing. Valter and members of his team visited them regularly.
This led to further discoveries about how sugars and proteins affect key genes and pathways widely recognised to accelerate ageing – by triggering the diseases of ageing, such as cancer and diabetes.
Could dietary strategies provide simple and powerful therapies for complex problems?
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Next time I'll summarise chapter 3 of Valter Longo's international bestseller.
We'll learn about the five pillars of longevity, and how they form the basis of the longevity diet.
In the meantime may I encourage you to buy the book for yourself?
It's easy to read. It could change your life.
Best wishes…
Peter Jerrim
LifeX Australia
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About the author Professor Valter Longo is the Edna M. Jones Professor of Gerontology and Biological Sciences and Director of the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California – Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, Los Angeles, one of the leading centres for research on ageing and age-related disease. Dr Longo is also the Director of the Longevity and Cancer Program at the IFOM Institute of Molecular Oncology in Milan, Italy. You're welcome to view Youtube videos featuring Dr Valter Longo on the science page of our website. |
