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Aging News for Seniors
Cutting a Few Calories, Taking Short Walk May
Reverse Aging Damage
Study shows it can
even reverse aging cell and organ damage
May 8, 2006 - A lifelong habit of trimming just a
few calories from the daily diet can do more than slim the waistline - a
new study shows it may help lessen the effects of aging. Scientists from
the University of Florida's Institute on Aging have found that eating a
little less food and exercising a little more over a lifespan can reduce
or even reverse aging-related cell and organ damage in rats.
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The discovery, described this month in the journal
Antioxidants and Redox Signaling, builds on recent research in animals
and humans that has shown a more drastic 20 percent to 40 percent cut in
calories slows aging damage. The UF findings indicate even small
reductions in calories could have big effects on health and shed light
on the molecular process responsible for the phenomenon, which until now
has been poorly understood.
"This finding suggests that even slight moderation
in intake of calories and a moderate exercise program is beneficial to a
key organ such as the liver, which shows significant signs of
dysfunction in the aging process," said Christiaan Leeuwenburgh, Ph.D.,
an associate professor of aging and geriatric research at the UF College
of Medicine and the paper's senior author.
UF scientists found that feeding rats just 8
percent fewer calories a day and moderately increasing the animals'
activity extended their average lifespan and significantly overturned
the negative effects of cellular aging on liver function and overall
health.
An 8 percent reduction is the equivalent of a few
hundred calories in an average human diet and moderate exercise is
equivalent to taking a short walk.
To reveal the workings of the body's chemical
climate when aging-related damage happens, UF researchers tracked levels
of biomarkers - chemicals and molecules present in the liver - in groups
of rats. The liver, a crucial organ for maintaining good health during
aging, cleans the blood and helps regulate the body's immune system. The
researchers also plan to assess the same biomarkers in a study of rats'
hearts, muscle and brains.
The research team was surprised to find one of the
biomarkers, RNA, which is important for coding DNA and for protein
synthesis, is more quickly damaged by aging than the more frequently
studied DNA. RNA damage, therefore, could be an excellent early signal
to indicate the onset of aging, researchers say.
"Because it is more sensitive to oxidative stress,
RNA can be useful as an early marker of oxidative damage and even
aging," said Arnold Y. Seo, a doctoral student in UF's Institute on
Aging.
Seo authored the report along with Tim Hofer,
Ph.D., an Institute on Aging research associate.
"To avoid disease, we can increase our defense and
look for aging biomarkers and then test interventions," Hofer said. "It
is better to protect what is there to improve the quality of life than
to have to resort to invasive procedures."
In the study, which followed the rats over their
lifespan, one group of animals ate as much food as they wanted and did
not exercise, another group of animals exercised lightly and were fed
slightly less than they would have eaten if allowed to have their fill.
Liver samples from these groups were compared with samples taken from
young rats.
The old sedentary rats that ate until they were
full had increased levels of harmful oxidizing and inflammatory
molecules in the liver that were associated with cell damage caused by
aging. Meanwhile, aging rats that exercised and consumed a
calorie-restricted diet, had the reverse outcome - they showed a
decrease in these molecules in the liver.
Leeuwenburgh said the study results support the
theory that cell death and aging-related organ damage are caused by
unstable molecules known as free radicals and by cellular oxidation and
inflammation.
"In a calorie-restricted environment, you reduce
the inflammatory response and prevent cell death," Leeuwenburgh said.
John O. Holloszy, a professor of medicine in the
division of geriatrics and nutritional sciences at Washington University
School of Medicine in St. Louis, said the study is of major importance
because it shows a mild degree of caloric restriction - just enough to
prevent weight gain with advancing age - can have beneficial effects
against aging. From a scientific perspective, he added, it is important
to learn that RNA is a very good marker of aging damage.
"I'd never really thought about RNA before,"
Holloszy said. "Research has always looked at DNA. Because RNA is the
template for the information on the genes on the DNA, RNA damage is a
major problem because it results in mutations in the transcription of
proteins."
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