mTOR Inhibition via Rapamycin and the Concept of Beneficial Diabetes

Calorie restriction is the best studied of all interventions shown to slow aging and extend life in short-lived laboratory species. In humans it produces significant health gains, somewhat greater than any established medical technology can provide to essentially healthy individuals, at least until the broader advent of senolytic drugs. Unfortunately, it does not extend life by any great degree in long-lived species such as our own. The response to calorie restriction serves to increase evolutionary fitness during periods of famine, increasing the odds of individuals surviving to reproduce once food is plentiful again. Seasonal famines are of a given length, long relative to a mouse life span, short relative to a human life span, so only the mouse evolves to live 40% longer in calorie restricted conditions. The mechanisms by which calorie restriction produces benefits broadly overlap with those of fasting, and in recent years some research groups have made inroads in finding the 80/20 point of calorie intake in humans at which a low calorie intake produces most of the benefits of a zero calorie intake. Calorie restriction upregulates the operation of cellular maintenance processes such as autophagy and the unfolded protein response, which leads to better cell and tissue function over the long term. It also produces sweeping changes in the operation of cellular metabolism, but autophagy appears to be the critical mechanism that mediates effects on long term health and l...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs