Caloric Restriction Extends Life in Monkeys, Study Finds

Reader Comments
Back to article

Dear Editor
An exceptional paper on human body size and its ramifications in terms
of human health and survival was just published by the Journal of World Public
Health Nutrition Association. The commentary, described by the journal
as an "epic vision" can be found in htm or PDF format at
http://www.wphna.org/2011_mar_wn3_comm_small.htm
The commentary discusses controversial but well documented
findings on how increasing body size affects human performance,
longevity, intelligence, resources, the environment, the economy
and survival.
A 7 page editorial on my work is also in the March issue of the
journal.
http://www.wphna.org/2011_mar_wn2_editorial_size/htm
The author has research the ramifications of human body size
for over 35 years and has published in dozens of medical and
scientific journals. He is also the editor of the book: Human Body
Size and the Laws of Scaling, 2007, Nova Science Publishers, NY.
A book reviewer described the work as a Herculean Accomplishment.
If you have any questions, please contact me at the above
email address or 858 735 5668 or 858 576-9283.
Best regards,
Thomas T. Samaras, Director,

Thomas Samaras of CA 7:32PM March 06, 2011

Dear Editor
An exceptional paper on human body size and its ramifications in terms
of human health and survival was just published by the Journal of World Public
Health Nutrition Association. The commentary, described by the journal
as an "epic vision" can be found in htm or PDF format at
http://www.wphna.org/2011_mar_wn3_comm_small.htm
The commentary discusses controversial but well documented
findings on how increasing body size affects human performance,
longevity, intelligence, resources, the environment, the economy
and survival.
A 7 page editorial on my work is also in the March issue of the
journal.
http://www.wphna.org/2011_mar_wn2_editorial_size/htm
The author has research the ramifications of human body size
for over 35 years and has published in dozens of medical and
scientific journals. He is also the editor of the book: Human Body
Size and the Laws of Scaling, 2007, Nova Science Publishers, NY.
A book reviewer described the work as a Herculean Accomplishment.
If you have any questions, please contact me at the above
email address or 858 735 5668 or 858 576-9283.
Best regards,
Thomas T. Samaras, Director,

Thomas Samaras of CA 7:28PM March 06, 2011

This cruelty to animals who would NEVER choose such a diet on their own and have NEVER had a nice day in their poor miserable confined lives HAS TO END!
This experiment has gone on long enough and little, if anything new (scientifically) will be learned. The only purpose to continue on with these types of "experiments" is to get more funding, more papers and possible break some kind of record for keeping an animal alive against their will. Indeed, these results are almost useless as applied to humans (as has been found with cancer research). Indeed the NIH strongly recommends AGAINST calorie restriction for humans! What kind of hypocrisy is this? It's OK to calorie restrict caged animals, against their will, who have no freedom and are miserable for their entire life, but it's DEFINITELY NOT OK for humans?
Let these poor creatures at least enjoy a small part of the life remaining to them! They have served they purpose and sacrificed enough. FREE THESE poor creatures NOW! Let's all work together to see to it that they get at least some shred of a normal life in the time remaining to them.

truth Seeker of MI 1:15PM March 18, 2010

I've never been able to find a bottom line explanation of the results of such long-term low-cal diets. Does animal just keep getting thinner and thinner until ??? Or does their metabolism reduce so that they have little energy? Or do they reach a weight consistent with the number of calories provided --- then the true key being that non-overweight extends lifespan (which we already know), not caloric restriction in and of itself.

Linda Palmer of CA 7:13PM July 17, 2009

For fear of ridicule and criticism outside the scientific community, researchers in this topic didn't publish their full report.
They also found that the longer-living calorically-restricted monkeys didn't drink, smoke, cuss, lie, cheat, or charge interest on money they loaned -- and they attended church on a weekly basis. As a group, they preferred to watch PBS specials while their fat-bottomed cage-potato brethen wanted CNN on all the time, until they fell asleep in front of the tube with empty bags of chips on their chests and empty beer bottles littering the floors of their cages. 95% of the longer-living monkeys also had a library card, registered to vote, and volunteered at least four hours per week to help their local communities.
Countering the benefit of increased longevity, researchers noted that the shorter-living all-you-can-eat monkeys took endless and raucous delight in flinging their substantially greater volume of watery crap at them -- particularly when the researchers had their heads down taking notes on a clipboard.
A follow-up study is planned, to better quantify the carbon footprint of the piggie-poo monkey population -- pending a $60 million government earmark in the second stimulus package currently debated.

dom youngross 11:02PM July 09, 2009

Autophagy (a kind of cell suicide) activated in both mTOR inhibition with Rapamycin and calorie restriction conditions, where some of our body cells (adipose tissue/fat) open up and used for generating energy for body. In other way, if we stop this process by excess feeding, a kind of stress (ER stress) generated. This sustained stress leads to pancreas beta-cell failure and metabolic syndrome (diabetes, high blood pleassure, cardiovascular disease). High fat deposits also leads coronary heart disease.
http://samsleshana.blogspot.com/

Samsleshana of CA 10:55PM July 09, 2009

[Source: my own independent research of heart rate/rhythm after eating] If one simply analyzes the heart rate of an elderly individual with heart problems (which is the end point for many of us), one will find the heart rate increases considerably after a large meal. If the heart is not healthy, this rate increase (which in a younger individual would correspond to mild exercise), could make heart rhythm problems (and sudden death) more likely. For this reason, frequent small meals rather than "caloric restriction" are often advised by the medicine. So someone on a near starvation diet would see minimal heart rate elevation after a "caloric restricted" meal, particularly one consisting of "rabbit food", since high-glucose meals can also trigger even more short-term heart rate increase.
Medicine loves these random "studies", each contradicting the other, which oddly enough originate in the "social sciences" like sociology, rather than a rigorous scientific approach where facts are deduced and built upon to build a "this is how the body works" conclusion. Only by the "random study method" can medical profits be maximized, such as publishing such recent garbage science as "Natural Insecticide (Caffeine) may Forestall Alzheimer's".

Paul of FL 6:42PM July 09, 2009

In response to "calories schmalories" by aurum79 of TX who stated: "What is the quality of my life, an American of Greek descent who likes good food, on a calorie restricted diet? The descriptons I've seen of these diets border on starvation.".
Having followed a Calorie Restriction (CR) diet of 6 years (with lapses), my experience is that any cuisine is compatible with CR. You only have two rules to follow - cut your calories and meet all your nutritional requirements. Right now my wife is interested in Indian cuisine. I keep track of what ingredients go into the dishes, eat them (they are delicious), and eat whatever other food (usually vegetables and fruit) is needed to get full nutrition by the end of the day on limited calories.
I am sure the same is true of Greek cuisine.
Also, to quickly see substantial health benefits, one does not need to be on a near starvation diet, whatever that is. As soon as you start cutting calories and begin following a diet that does not leave you malnourished (as far as I can tell, virtually everyone in the US is malnourished - lacking essential vitamins and minerals), your health will begin to improve.
No one knows how much you have to cut calories to start increasing the maximal life span of humans, but increasing the healthspan of an individual starts immediately.
In my own case, I eat about 1800 to 1900 calories a day. I can get 100% of vitamins and minerals (as best we know them) from the food I eat without supplements on about 1100 calories if I am careful. One way to look at that is that leaves 700 to 800 calories to eat whatever one wants.
Another lesson I learned on CR is that taste is a learned behavior. I now eat foods that I would never have considered before, and find other foods, such as fast food junk, far less desirable. You might find that healthy (nutrient dense) Greek food becomes more attractive than unhealthy (nutrient sparse) Greek food
Far and away, the hardest part of a CR diet is that it requires you to track and measure what you eat, then enter it in software that can compute the nutrients you have consumed. That takes a good 10 to 20 minutes a day. But everyone should try it just for a day or two. In every case I have heard about, people are surprised with just how malnourished they are, in spite of all they eat.
I have a personal website on the subject at www.nbrhd.net/CR/CR.htm

Bob of KS 2:43PM July 09, 2009

ha ha. well, I'll try to cut my calories just the same. There's some room for me to reduce.

PM in NYC of NY 2:14PM July 09, 2009

This research is obviously begin driven by health insurance companies and government policy makers. What is the quality of my life, an American of Greek descent who likes good food, on a calorie restricted diet? The descriptons I've seen of these diets border on starvation. What about the mental health effects of this diet -- did any of these monkeys kill each other, or stop reproducing.
I suggest we repeat the experiment by teaching the monkeys what suicide means (however this might be done), give them the choice and the means, and then see if the self-annihilation rate increases as they follow a sustenance diet.
By they way, I want these extra years in the front, not at the end, when life starts to suck anyway.

aurum79 of TX 1:56PM July 09, 2009