Recent Genetic Studies Claiming a Slowing of Aging may be Largely Incorrect

It is fair to ignore most studies showing extension of life span in laboratory species conducted much prior to the turn of the century. A majority failed to control for calorie restriction, and thus the (usually small) effects evaporate when more rigorously tested. The way this works is that an intervention makes mice nauseous or otherwise uncomfortable, they eat less as a consequence, and thus live longer solely due to lowered calorie intake. This is on top of the usual estimate that most of all published research results are flawed in some way. That includes animal studies that use too few animals, and thus tend to be prone to statistical happenstance, for example. Small studies with few animals are distressingly common in the study of aging, where funding is typically very restricted. Matters did improve once it was no longer possible to be ignorant of the size of the calorie restriction effect on longevity in short-lived species, as that research gained increasing popularity and interest after the 1990s. But as the open access paper I'll point out here suggests, not improved enough. I think that part of the problem is that too many people were - and still are - trying to evaluate marginal effects on aging. It is hard to accurately detect and quantify small effects in animal studies. A 10% life span extension observed in a group of twenty mice, as compared to a control group of twenty mice, tells us just about nothing other than perhaps it would be good to seek corr...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs