BHB Therapeutics Launched to Develop Ketosis Mimetics

Since ketosis is argued to be a component of the effects of calorie restriction, responsible in some part for the reliable benefits to health and longevity that result, some research groups have investigated ways to induce ketosis via treatment rather than via diet. This is a subset of broader efforts to produce calorie restriction mimetic drugs that mimic some of the effects of a low calorie diet on cellular metabolism. With the funding now pouring into the biotech startup arena, it was inevitable that some of it would make its way towards work on aspects of calorie restriction that was ready to make the leap to commercial development, and here Juvenescence and the Buck Institute have chosen to wrap a company around some of their work on ketosis. I will say that I think the scope of benefits that can be produced via calorie restriction mimetic development is limited. We know what calorie restriction itself does in humans: it is significantly beneficial for long-term health, reduces risk of age-related disease, but doesn't extend human life span by more than a few years. We don't know just how many years, but we do know that it can't be a very large number of years, because otherwise that outcome would have been discovered long ago. Further, mimetics only capture a fraction of the benefits; calorie restriction works through countless changes to the operation of metabolism. Thus I believe that working in this field will do little to nothing to change the shape of...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs