Selasa, 03 Juli 2012

Eating 40% less food could extend your life by 20 years, claim scientists developing treatment for 'disease' of ageing

Eating 40% less food could extend your life by 20 years, claim scientists developing treatment for 'disease' of ageing

  • UCL scientists studying how genetics and lifestyle can be adapted to offset the effects of ageing

By Graham Smith

PUBLISHED: 06:41 EST, 3 July 2012 | UPDATED: 09:58 EST, 3 July 2012

Eating 40 per cent less food could extend a person's life by 20 years, according to scientists.

Researchers at the Institute of Health Ageing at University College London are developing a treatment they hope will combat the 'disease' of getting older.

They are looking into how genetics and lifestyle can be adapted to offset the effects of ageing and add years, possibly decades, to a person's life.

Incentive: Eating 40 per cent less food could extend a person's life by 20 years, according to scientists

Incentive: Eating 40 per cent less food could extend a person's life by 20 years, according to scientists

Age-related diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and neurodegeneration can also be combated, it is claimed.

One line of inquiry that the team is developing is how the life of a rat can be increased by up to 30 per cent simply by reducing its food intake.

Lead researcher Dr Piper told the Independent: 'If you reduce the diet of a rat by 40 per cent it will live for 20 or 30 per cent longer. So we would be talking 20 years of human life. This has shown on all sorts of organisms, even labradors.'

The scientists are also studying fruit flies, which share 60 per cent of human genes and age in a similar manner, and mice.

They have already prolonged the healthy lifespan in both flies and mice by using drug treatments and a modified diet.

It is hoped that this combination will also work to extend human life.

Dr Piper said: 'If we discover the genes involved with ageing, we should be able to delay ageing itself. This is what we've found.'

He added that his team has extended the life of organisms by mutating single genes.

The researchers have also lessen the effects of a mutation which can cause Alzheimer's.

However, Dr Piper cautioned that the field of research into extending life is only a decade old, so remains 'theoretical'.

It is their unique approach to treating all age-related diseases as being caused by the 'disease' of ageing itself that sets their research apart, he said.

The research is being displayed at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition in London.

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What they don't mention is that the rats have to be 60% of normal size to survive on 60% of normal calories!

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Live 20 years longer? NO THANKS...........This country and society is a living hell, might as well shuffle off to the real one.

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Cam will roll this out so we have to work until were 110.

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I can never understand when people just keep stuffing themselves with food all the time like their is no tomarrow

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The way the great divide between rich and poor is widening daily in this country it won't be an option but to eat less - the austerity diet - we're all in it together (yeah, right).

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With a nice cushy government Job and a wonderful index linked pension the extra 20 years would come in handy. On the other hand for the rest of us who are working until we drop with no sign of retirement I think I will take my chances thanks.

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Tell that to a kid in Ethiopia

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Yes, but think about all the extra tax you'll have to pay. Also, as the elderly-care cost is bound to rise, so will the tax, until people say, 'I'd be better off ....!' Swings and roundabouts?

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If you starved yourself miserable to live longer you'd be pretty annoyed if you got run over by a bus tomorrow.

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I think the Germans experimented with this with mixed results.

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