An approach, called calorie restriction, involves eating about 30 percent fewer calories than normal while still getting adequate amounts of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. Aside from direct genetic manipulation, calorie restriction is the only strategy known to extend life consistently in a variety of animal species.

How this drastic diet affects the body has been the subject of intense research. Recently, the effort has begun to bear fruit, producing a steady stream of studies indicating that the rate of aging is not fixed and that it can be manipulated.

Calorie-restricted diets have been shown in various animals to affect molecular pathways likely to be involved in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson’s disease and cancer. Researchers studying dietary effects on humans went so far as to claim that calorie restriction may be more effective than exercise at preventing age-related diseases. Tests show that the animals on restricted diets are in indisputably better health as they near old age. Calorie restriction has the potential to help identify anti-aging mechanisms throughout the body.

The number of Americans 65 and older will double in the next 25 years to about 72 million, according to government census data. By then, seniors will account for nearly 20 percent of the population, up from just 12 percent in 2003. Prominent gerontologists are calling for the government to spend $3 billion annually in pursuit of delaying the onset of age-related diseases. Doing so would lay the foundation for a healthier and wealthier country, a so-called longevity dividend.

The demographic wave entering their 60s is enormous, and that is likely to greatly increase the prevalence of diseases like diabetes and heart disease. The simplest way to positively affect them all is to slow down aging.

Science, of course, is still a long way from doing anything of the sort. Aging is a complicated phenomenon, the intersection of an array of biological processes set in motion by genetics as well as lifestyle. Still, in laboratories around the world, scientists are becoming adept at breeding animals with extraordinarily long lives.

In the 1930′s nutritionists discovered that mice that were fed 30 percent fewer calories lived about 40 percent longer than their free-grazing laboratory mates. The dieting mice were also more physically active and far less prone to the diseases of advanced age. This experiment has been successfully duplicated in a variety of species. In almost every instance, the subjects on low-calorie diets have proven to be not just longer lived, but also more resistant to age-related ailments.

Your health really matters!

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