Active phase calorie restriction enhances longevity, says new study

Research that followed hundreds of mice over their lifespans found that limiting calories and eating at the right time of day boosted longevity in mice.

“Eat less, live longer” is somewhat of a longevity mantra, but now a new study of calorie restriction in mice led by neuroscientists at?UT Southwestern’s Peter O’Donnell Jr Brain Institute?and the?Howard Hughes Medical Institute?shows that it’s not about how much you eat, it’s about when you eat too.

My take on this: Studies in a variety of animals have demonstrated that restricting calories can lead to both increased lifespan and healthspan. Now this new research, published in Science, suggests that the body’s daily rhythms play a significant part effecting these extensions. When feedings were timed to coincide with the active period of the?circadian cycle, the lifespan of the lab mice were extended more than three times as much as calorie restriction alone, according to the researchers.

In the study of hundreds of mice over four years, a reduced-calorie diet alone extended the animals’ lives by 10%. But feeding mice the diet only at night-time, when the animals are at their most active, extended their lifespan by a whopping 35%. In fact, the combination of restricted calorie diet and active cycle feeding added an additional nine months to the mice’s average two-year lifespan.

Of course, most humans have active circadian periods during the daytime, so an analogous plan for us would be to restrict eating to a daytime period.

“We have discovered a new facet to caloric restriction that dramatically extends life span in our lab animals,” says Dr Joseph Takahashi, Chair of Neuroscience at UT Southwestern. “If these findings hold true in people, we might want to rethink whether we really want that midnight snack.”

Read the full article HERE.

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