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ON WISCONSIN, Fall 2000, vol. 101, no. 3, p. 9-10


HUNGRY FOR THE GOOD LIFE?

Rick Weindruch isn't winning many friends in the all-you-can-eat buffet business.

The University of Wisconsin Medical School professor, along with colleagues Tomas Prolla and Cheol-Koo Lee, has been churning out evidence that suggests humans can achieve dramatic health benefits from eating a low-calorie diet. In studies that involve feeding mice a restricted diet, the team has already shown that they can slow the deterioration of muscle that normally accompanies aging.

Now comes more evidence that the low-cal mice are leading longer, healthier lives and avoiding some of the normal pitfalls of getting older.

The latest research is demonstrating that restricted calories may lower the risk of age-related neurological ailments such as Alzbeimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Using a new technique to analyze thousands of genes in the mice they study, Weindruch and company have found that low-calorie diets are slowing the activity of certain genes that may cause the onset of these debilitating diseases.

The researchers observed that in mice that eat a standard diet, age triggers increased activity from some genes, which leads to inflammation responses and damage by molecules known as free radicals. These effects are associated with the early stages of Alzbeimer's and Parkinson's.

In a group of mice whose diet is constrained to 76 percent of the standard caloric intake, however, those genes don't show as much activity, which adds to the evidence, Weindruch says, that low-calorie diets not only extend life, but make for a better quality of life in old age.

The new knowledge may lead to the development of drugs that can help retard the aging process, or suggest new dietary guidelines for a healthy life, he says. But so far the research has been done on mice: more research will be needed to prove that low-cal is the sure way to go for humans, too.

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