Calorie Restriction, Immune Response and Aging

By WorldNewsHerald – February 15, 2022

Calorie restriction improves metabolic and immune responses that help determine both how long a person lives and how many years of good health they enjoy, a new study shows.

“Two years of modest calorie restriction reprogrammed the pathways in fat cells that help regulate the way mitochondria generate energy, the body’s anti-inflammatory responses, and potentially longevity,” said Eric Ravussin, Ph.D., Associate Executive Director for Clinical Science at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. “In other words, calorie restriction rewires many of the metabolic and immune responses that boost lifespan and health span.”

The new study used data gathered by Pennington Biomedical’s CALERIE 2 (Comprehensive Assessment of the Long-Term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy), the longest-running calorie restriction trial in humans. The new study is published in the journal Science.

The study found that people who cut their calorie intake by about 14 percent over two years generated more T cells, which play a key role in immune function and slow the aging process.

“As people age, their thymuses shrink and produce fewer T cells. As a result, older people have a harder time fighting off infections and certain cancers,” said Eric Ravussin, Ph.D., Associate Executive Director for Clinical Science at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. “Calorie restriction helps prevent the thymus from shrinking so the person generates more T cells.”

In addition to improving immunity, an increase in T cells is associated with an improved ability to burn stores of fatty acids for energy, Dr. Ravussin said. That’s important because if a person doesn’t burn this fuel, the fat may build up in organs such as the muscle and liver, leading to insulin resistance, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and aging.

The study had another important finding: a potential treatment to reduce age-related inflammation and improve metabolic health.

Studies have shown that restricting calories by 40 percent in rodents extended their lives. But there were tradeoffs in growth, reproduction, and immunity.

However, calorie restriction also reduces the levels of gene encoding platelet activating factor acetyl hydrolase (PLA2G7). Reducing PLA2G7 produces health benefits that include lowering age-related inflammation and improving metabolic health.

“If researchers can find a way to harness PLA2G7, they could create a treatment to extend a person’s health span, the time an individual experiences good health,” said Pennington Biomedical Executive Director John Kirwan, Ph.D.

Reference: “Caloric restriction has a new player” by Timothy W. Rhoads and Rozalyn M. Anderson, 10 February 2022, Science.
DOI: 10.1126/science.abn6576

This research was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health under awards AG031797, AG045712, P01AG051459, and AR070811 to V.D.D.); the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research (V.D.D.); Cure Alzheimer’s Fund (V.D.D.); and the Aging Biology Foundation (M.N.A.). The CALERIE study was funded by the National Institute on Aging under awards U01AG022132, U01AG020478, U01AG020487, and U01AG020480. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

From Submarines to Birch Trees

By Dr. David C. Kolbaba

It’s World War II, German submarines are prowling the North Atlantic Sea, attacking ally supply ships.

Scandinavian countries in the Northland are now left starving, for lack of food.

Every ship that was sunk by the German U-boats, left countries like Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark more vulnerable with each passing day.

Those living in the country of Finland sought to find replacements for the terrible shortage of their most basic life-sustaining staples.

In their urgent search, they were led to the large birch forests that carpeted the landscape.

They discovered a remarkable sugar found in the bark of the birch trees.

Not only did this newly-discovered sweetener, known as Xylitol, suffice as a sugar replacement, many other remarkable medicinal attributes were discovered with Xylitol over the years to follow.

These attributes, these later discoveries of this natural sugar, Xylitol, has now become a “present-day” therapeutic compound.

It can help lower the risks of three of today’s most common deadly diseases, not to mention the therapeutic-connection between Xylitol / infectious diseases and infections . . . per se.

And, when I think of all the “useless” information coming at us through our “Life’s-Windshields” every day, this is one item… this one critically-important therapeutic compound, Xylitol, needs to be included in your (what I call) “Lifelong” … “Live-long” Daily supplementation routine!

We’re going to learn today, how utilizing something so safe, so natural, so effective as Xylitol and how it can become a “main-stay” helping to prevent and protect all of us as a true “post-war” ally, for sure!

Rosemary and Memory

Smelling the fragrance of Rosemary has been linked to memory improvement…

Some 75% increase for some.

It turns out that there are compounds in rosemary oil that may be responsible for improvements in memory performance.

One of them is called 1,8-cin-e-ole – and it may act in the same way as the drugs licensed to treat dementia, causing an increase in a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine…..causing better cellular communication….linking thoughts, between cells for retrieval….ie memory retention…etc.

Home experiment in the making?