Anti-Aging

Anti-Aging Benefits of DietPhoto results of a 20-year dietary anti-aging study at the University of Wisconsin/Madison

The Chicken Heart That Lived Forever

My favorite anti-aging story starts on January 17, 1912, a surgeon named Alexis Carrel removed a very small piece of heart muscle from an unhatched chicken embryo—still warm and living—and placed it in fresh nutrient solution in a glass flask of his design. He transferred the tissue every forty-eight hours, during which time it doubled in size and had to be trimmed before being moved to its new flask. Thirty years later the tissue was still growing. Keep in mind that the average chicken lives for 5 – 7 years. Twenty years being the longest. (Geeta Dayal, “Brave New Hamburger,” The Village Voice, Aug. 2, 2005)

Every January seventeenth, the doctors and nurses at the Rockefeller Institute (now Rockefeller University in New York) would celebrate with Carrel, singing “Happy Birthday” to the chicken tissue. When Carrel died in 1944, the tissue was still living and did so until April 1946, when the man taking over the experiment decided enough was enough. (http://www.alenasites.com/alexis-carrel/)

This raises the question “How long can a person live given proper nutrition and regular elimination of metabolic and toxic wastes?”

 

Anti-Aging: Scientific Studies

There has only been one scientifically proven method of extending life beyond the normal span of years, demonstrated over and over in eight different species of life, from single-celled yeast to monkeys. This method is calorie restriction, which consists of reducing the amount of calories consumed by 30% to 40%, while ensuring optimum nutrition. This method was originally shown in 1934 to nearly double the life span of laboratory rats.

There are two methods of calorie reduction: continuous and intermittent (on and off). A frequent drawback to continuous calorie restriction is hunger. Another drawback is social occasions. Both of these make calorie restriction difficult. So, intermittent calorie restriction gives the advantage that you can eat anything you want the next day, making it easier.
One study of intermittent calorie reduction found that over a year, mice fed three weeks on and three weeks off a 50% restricted diet with optimum nutrition had eight times less tumors than mice that ate all they wanted!6 More relevantly, a study of humans who fasted one day a month showed they were 39% less likely to have heart disease. Fasting for more than three days, however, has the advantage that after the first two or three days hunger generally disappears, and fasting as a means of calorie restriction offers the same health benefits. The Master Cleanse is a great way to fast once every 3 or 4 months.

The paragraphs above are excerpts from the Anti-Aging chapter of the third edition of Lose Weight, Have More Energy & Be Happier in 10 Days. Much more information can be found in the book along with references to the particular studies.