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Heart Holds Clues to Aging
ScienceNOW Daily News ^ | 18 January 2006 | Robert Frederick

Posted on 01/20/2006 11:59:58 PM PST by neverdem

People who keep up their low-calorie diets may be able to count on more than their waistline shrinking: A new study suggests that the heart's diastolic blood pressure goes down, too. The results bode well for the theory that such diets can prolong lifespan in humans, as dieters' hearts worked as well as those of individuals on a calorie-packed western diet who were 15 years younger.

Previous research has shown that caloric restriction increases the lifespans of mice, fruit flies, and the tiny worm Caenorhabditis elegans (ScienceNOW, 2 March 2005). Mice on such diets show improved heart function, indicating caloric restriction may improve longevity by keeping the heart in good shape. Whether the same applies to humans, however, remained unclear.

To explore the issue, gerontologist Luigi Fontana of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and his colleagues recruited 25 subjects who had been practicing caloric restriction for an average of 7 years. Compared to 25 additional volunteers on a typical western diet, the caloric restrictors consumed nearly half as much saturated fat, 30% less salt, and an average of about 750 fewer total calories per day.

Heart activity differed almost as drastically. When the researchers compared the current diastolic function (how well the heart relaxed between beats) of the caloric restrictors against both their prediet figures and those of the western dieters, they found that the diastolic blood pressure of the caloric restrictors had dropped an average of 22 points--or about 25%--from their prediet pressure; the same drop was seen between caloric restrictors and western dieters. In addition, compared to western dieters, caloric restrictors had signs of less inflammation and fewer markers of fibrosis--both considered to be mechanisms of aging.

The results indicate that the same mechanisms that slow the aging process in mice may be at work in people, says Fontana, whose team reported its findings 17 January in the Journal of the American College of Cardiologists. Still, he says, because the study was not randomized, the team cannot claim that a calorie restrictive diet directly leads to improved diastolic function.

The study also does not indicate whether people on a caloric restrictive diet have younger looking hearts because the diet keeps their hearts in prediet shape or because caloric restriction alters their physiology to make their hearts work at more youthful levels, says biochemist Stephen Spindler of the University of California in Riverside. "This is an important distinction," he says, "because we would like to know if older people can begin such a diet and reap the benefits."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aging; gerontology; heart; medicine; science
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Young pumper. Ventricles in the hearts of caloric restricted individuals expand more easily, passively filling to greater capacity than nondieters' hearts.
The Calorie Restriction Society

American Federation for Aging Research's Calorie Restriction Information Center

National Institute on Aging

1 posted on 01/21/2006 12:00:00 AM PST by neverdem
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To: El Gato; JudyB1938; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Robert A. Cook, PE; lepton; LadyDoc; jb6; tiamat; PGalt; ..
Sorry, but it's a pdf. format.

Empathic neural responses are modulated by the perceived fairness of others

Thinking Thin

FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.

2 posted on 01/21/2006 12:31:06 AM PST by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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To: El Gato; JudyB1938; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Robert A. Cook, PE; lepton; LadyDoc; jb6; tiamat; PGalt; ..
Sorry, but it's a pdf. format.

Empathic neural responses are modulated by the perceived fairness of others

Thinking Thin

FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.

3 posted on 01/21/2006 12:34:23 AM PST by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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To: neverdem

So can I smoke.


4 posted on 01/21/2006 12:36:32 AM PST by fatima
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To: neverdem

Ohforpetesake!!! I cut back enough as it is to keep at 115 pounds!!! I'm not going to cut back more just to make yahoos like you happy!!!

Go away!!!


5 posted on 01/21/2006 12:38:06 AM PST by paulat
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To: paulat

Anorexia, anyone?


6 posted on 01/21/2006 1:38:41 AM PST by browardchad
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To: neverdem

Lift weights


7 posted on 01/21/2006 3:27:15 AM PST by larryjohnson (FReepersonaltrainer)
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To: paulat
It just seems like you are living longer...
8 posted on 01/21/2006 3:28:29 AM PST by Khurkris ("Hell, I was there"...Elmer Keith.)
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To: neverdem

Thanks....I'll eat more apples!


9 posted on 01/21/2006 4:48:30 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach (History is soon Forgotten,)
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To: neverdem

Thanks for the ping, links...especially the "desire for revenge" studies. Interesting.


10 posted on 01/21/2006 5:19:08 AM PST by PGalt
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To: paulat

115 pounds??? I think my left leg outweighs you. :)


11 posted on 01/21/2006 5:21:40 AM PST by RightOnline
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To: RightOnline
LOL! Now how about me? I am admittedly overweight, but my blood pressure is quite low - any lower and I wouldn't be able to stand up! Does that mean I can keep eating?

Please, oh, please!!

12 posted on 01/21/2006 7:33:49 AM PST by Mygirlsmom ("Sheep are very dim. Once they get an idea in their 'eads, there's no shiftin' it.")
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To: neverdem
Interesting article, thanks for posting.

I wonder if the benefit comes from calorie restriction per se, or from the fact that a calorie restricted diet will probably have more fruits and vegetables and less of the less healthy foods.

13 posted on 01/21/2006 9:25:36 AM PST by SupplySider
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To: neverdem

Is it true that grape juice helps the heart?


14 posted on 01/21/2006 10:30:30 AM PST by diamond6
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To: diamond6
Is it true that grape juice helps the heart?

Just enter (grapes or grape juice) and CAD into PubMed.

You'll get 3 free full text articles off the bat, although 2 are animal studies. Click on Related Articles for more citations. CAD = Coronary Artery Disease

15 posted on 01/21/2006 11:09:28 AM PST by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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To: Mygirlsmom

Go for it, hon. :)

Now look, if ya want some good fitness tips, remind me and I'll post some really, really good ones. Seriously. Don't have time right this sec, but will gladly put 'em up on here. This list of about ten things to do has helped a LOT of people I know; everyone I've turned onto this has lost weight.....


16 posted on 01/21/2006 2:56:03 PM PST by RightOnline
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To: RightOnline

When you have time it would be appreciated!!!


17 posted on 01/21/2006 3:26:05 PM PST by Mygirlsmom ("Sheep are very dim. Once they get an idea in their 'eads, there's no shiftin' it.")
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To: neverdem

Thanks for finding the article.


18 posted on 01/21/2006 6:30:33 PM PST by phantomworker (A new day: begin it well & serenely, with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.)
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To: paulat; browardchad

115 lbs?

"Those were the days, my friend, we thought they'd never end..."

That's not anorexic at my height. But I'm somewhat vertically challenged.


19 posted on 01/21/2006 7:34:53 PM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: RightOnline

OH! OH! Me too, me too.


20 posted on 01/21/2006 7:36:39 PM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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