Eat Less, Live Longer? That's Right - A Secret of Longevity

It's a pretty good bet that a diet high in antioxidants, anti-inflammatory properties and Omega-3 fats will stack the odds in your favor when it comes to longevity. But, what about the amount of food you eat? Could that make a difference?

In 1982, some inventive research scientists decided to investigate the effect of a calorie-restricted diet on longevity and disease. They divided a few hundred male rats into two groups; one group was allowed to eat all the rat chow they desired and the other group was allowed to eat about two-thirds of what they would have normally consumed when left to their own devices.

The results set the stage for some of the most interesting anti-aging research of the past decade. Here's what happened to the rats -

The ones who received the normal diet lived their normal maximum life span of about 1,000 days usually dying from cancer, kidney disease or the deterioration of their hearts. That's a pretty typical story for a rat-nothing out of the ordinary.

However, rats fed the limited calorie diet were a whole different story. These rats lived 1,500 days on average, a whopping 50% percent increase in life span. Even better, they avoided much of what we would consider the accompaniments of aging-feebleness, low energy, sluggish behavior and grizzled appearance.

For example, their coats which normally turn gray after age two, stayed shiny and white for 3 and a half years and even longer! They performed better running mazes more successfully than their "normal eating" lab mates. Immune systems were stronger; their rates of diabetes and cancer were far lower and had fewer cataracts.

When they finally did die, most of them just expired.

Said Edward Masoro, Ph.D., a physiologist at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, "When we look inside them, they are completely clean."

Calorie restriction, at least in rodents, was shown to be a demonstrable anti-aging strategy.

There have now been more than two thousand animal studies confirming these results across species as varied as yeast cells, fruit flies, monkeys and mice. Scientists have produced these dramatic effects hundreds of times under all sorts of laboratory conditions.

Because humans live much longer than, say, rats or fruit flies, and because of the ethical and practical considerations, there are no long-term definitive studies on calorie restriction and humans - nevertheless, some people are voluntarily practicing calorie restriction (here's their website http://calorierestriction.org)

And here's the amazing part - those who do practice calorie restriction are showing the same effects as those seen in the animal studies-less disease, fewer "markers" of aging and much thinner bodies!

Remember last week's protein-packed diet plan with a goal of only losing 10% of your body weight? Now another great reason to shoot for that goal -- longevity and a far better quality to your health.

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I'm Crazy About Longevity

We have a lot of flexibility as far as maintaining our bodies and how long we can actually live... and live well! I reveal much much more about this in my program:

The 7 Pillars of Longevity This learning system can help you: enhance memory and elevate mood prevent killers like diabetes and Alzheimers improve heart health and blood pressure increase energy and physical performance guard against internal and external aging create richer, more meaningful relationships

Cut Calories, Improve Memory!

There've been a ton of studies on "calorie restriction" as an anti-aging strategy. Cutting calories- even by 25%- 33%- has been shown to extend life of every life form tested so far, from fruit flies and yeast to monkeys. Now a new study (published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) shows that in addition to extending life, calorie cutting may also improve your memory.

Researchers took 50 men and women ages 50-72 who ranged from normal weight to overweight. One group was told to cut calories by 30 percent, mainly by eating smaller portions. A second group was told to leave their calories the same but change the proportion coming from fat, and a third group was told to make no dietary changes.

After three months, the subjects took tests involving memorizing words.

The calorie-cutting group averaged a respectable 20% improvement in memory performance. (The second and the third group showed no change whatsoever.)

Lead researcher Agnes Floel of the University of Munster in Germany said that the memory improvement might be linked to a decrease in insulin and inflammation in the reduced- calorie group.

Changes in insulin levels have also been postulated as one of the reasons calorie restriction may extend life. One 1992 study investigated people who were both mentally and physically fit and were at least 100 years old. The three factors they all had in common were: high HDL cholesterol, low triglycerides and… wait for it… low levels of fasting insulin!

Dr. Floel also said that lower insulin levels might "increase the sensitivity of receptors" in the brain and improve insulin signaling, allowing memories to be maintained longer. The reduced calorie diet also seemed to improve inflammation, a known robber of brain function and a contributing factor to every major disease.

In my DVD program The 7 Pillars of Longevity I talk about hara hachi bu, a saying in Okinawa inspired by Confucious. Okinawas believe hara hachi bu is one of the secrets to a long healthy life.

Want to know what it means?

"Eat until you are 80% full".

Wise advice, not only if you want to live long, but also if you want to keep your brain sharp and your memory intact!

Senior Moment? Maybe it's Your Blood Sugar!

Is the phrase "I'm having one of those senior moments" becoming an increasingly common utterance?

New research suggests it might be related to your sugar levels.

The new research, published in the December 2008 Annals of Neurology focused on a particular section of the hippocampus- an area of the brain associated with memory and learning. This section- the dentate gyrus- is typically affected by changes seen with aging.

"In this study, we were able to show the specific area of the brain that is impacted by rising blood sugar", said Scott Small, MD, the lead researcher on the study which was partly funded by the National Institute on Aging. Using special high-resolution brain imaging, Small and his team found that rising blood sugar was directly associated with decreased activity in the dentate gyrus.

The result: you forget where you put your keys!

The important point here is that the research strongly suggests that keeping blood sugar under control could be the key to preventing "senior moments" and lapses in memory, even in healthy individuals with no hint of diabetes!

"Our findings suggest that maintaining blood sugar levels, even in the absence of diabetes, could help maintain aspects of cognitive health", said Small.

Two of the most effective measures to manage blood sugar are and a controlled-carb diet!

Yet another reason to not eat high-carb, high-sugar foods.

Living Longer + Living Better = Youngevity

Youngevity. I'm really crazy about that term. It's actually a great new word for anti-aging, which I always thought was kind of a dumb term because anti-aging makes it sound like you're "against" aging, and let's face it, you really can't fight aging. You can't make the clock not happen. But what you can do quite effectively is fight unhealthy aging. You know how you sometimes look at someone and say, 'gee, they haven't really aged well?" Well, we really do have the power to prevent that- we can do an awful lot to prevent that kind of "negative" aging, and conversely, we can really increase what I call optimal aging...

I'll give you an example. I just bought a car recently and one of the reasons I put off buying the new car for so long is I've had this great little Japanese Mazda Miata which is14 years old and never breaks. Literally. Nothing ever goes wrong with the darn thing, it just keeps chugging along, looks great, runs great. And sure, it's had a couple of repairs over the years, but they're really minor, and ultimately, all I ever really have to do is get the oil changed every 3,000 miles. And if the mechanic says it needs some small thing like a filter or something, I just do it. I never put it off. I just keep the basic maintenance up and the car just has this wonderful life.

Now, compare that car with a junker that you kind of run on the lease for the first couple of years, you never get the oil changed, you never do anything with it and a couple years later it's ready for the junk heap. Very different situation, right? Well it's kind of the same thing with our bodies and our lives. As long as we keep "changing the oil" you really have a lot of flexibility as far as maintaining your body which in turn has a lot to do with how long- and how well- we actually live. And sure, maybe with our bodies it's a little more than just "changing the oil", but when you think about it, if we just take care of seven basic areas of our life, we can extend our time on this planet, and not only our time, but the quality of time we spend here. No kidding. And that's exactly what I'm this program, "The 7 Pillars of Youngevity".

Many people in the United States say we have the longest lifespan, which isn't exactly true. Japan and a couple of the Caribbean islands are at the top of the lifespan heap with an 80 to an 82 year lifespan, but we're pretty up there- the average lifespan in the US is 78. But that lifespan number is very misleading. The way we got our lifespan up there is by doing two things. One is we kind of "fixed" the problem of infant mortality. We don't lose a lot of babies in childbirth like we did at the turn of the 20^th century. And at the other end of the spectrum we've gotten really good at keeping people breathing. Our old folks go into assisted living, we hook them up to machines, so yes, we can keep them alive longer, but those last three to five or more years is not necessarily the kind of life you and I want or that you and I could really have if we did everything right. The end of life for many people is a pretty dismal three to five years. We don't want that.

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