Title : Caloric restriction and longevity
Abstract:
Caloric restriction (CR) in normal human bodies means to maintain a low-caloric diet, balanced in nutrients, vitamins and catalytic mineral ions (ca. 1750 Kcal/day), in order to benefit aging in good health, an active longevity preventing emerging diseases, and avoiding not genetic but certain kinds of obesity.
A correct caloric intake for the energy needs of the human body for normal activity is necessary. Every organism has a particular metabolism that depends on its genetic and epigenetic characteristics, diet and habits (activity, stress, and toxics) and we must adapt its diet, hoping to enjoy good health and achieve an active longevity. Food that we consume our body metabolizes, excretd or accumulated. If it is too much can be stored in the form of fat. The excess of diet leads to cell damage and shortening of life. The mitochondria is like a metabolic turbine of energy production, and eliminates the last steps of nutrients as CO2 and H2O. Its functioning and its good physiological condition is cause of longevity. In humans, caloric restriction (CR) is beneficial, and prevents a long list of diseases of the elderly, which we quote in the text. It protects against the causes of aging, prevents production of free radicals, and the accumulation of fat and damage.
The researcher Guarente discovered that caloric restriction activated the transcription of a gene called Sirtuin2 (SIR2), with capacity to delay aging. Nowadays, as will be mentioned the Spanish researcher Maria Blasco, whose work focuses on the loss of the protective telomere of chromosome ends, which kept young the cells. Telomeres become worn down during cell division, while the enzyme telomerase repairs and lengthens the telomeres and obtains, according to the mentioned research in mouse and rats, increasing active longevity.
The circadian rhythm day-night activity is important in the regulation of psychic, physical activity and obesity. The light of the sun which control our hormonal rhythms (circadian rhythm) determines that the evening rises several hormones (growth hormone (HGH), melatonin and serotonin). HGH uses our fat reserves as fuel. Everyone’s rhythm is different. Melatonin helps maintain the body’s circadian rhythm, and there are reciprocal connections of the serotonin and circadian systems likely have importance for neurobehavioral disorders.
The mitohormetic hypothesis of CR, proposes a mitochondrial organic defense response to the genetic level that induces a new epigenome, which has led several scientist to propose that "we are what we eat". A fact that has opened a new scientific discipline, Nutrigenomics, which studies the effect of the diet on the expression of the genome of our cells.
