Health

Eating Less Keeps Hearts Young

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Eating Less Keeps Hearts Young

Ivanhoe Newswire) -- New research shows to keep your heart young, you might want to start a calorie-restricted diet now.

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison studied "middle-aged" mice that were put on a calorie-restricted diet. Scientists have known caloric restriction, where diets remain nutritious but are reduced in calories, can extend the life span. Researchers in this study say even when starting in middle age, cutting calories can lead to significant health benefits for the heart and extend its working life. They say it does this by influencing the genetic program that governs heart cells.

When studying animals on normal diets, researchers say aging alters the activity of genes that impair the ability of cells to carry out their functions and remain healthy. In mice that were on a restricted diet, many age-related genetic changes that occur in mice on full diets were prevented. In fact, researchers found hearts from mice that consumed a calorie-restricted diet showed nearly 20-percent fewer age-related gene expression changes than old hearts from mice eating normal diets.

Tomas Prolla, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says, "The most surprising thing to me is that caloric restriction, even when started in middle age, has a very strong effect on changes that occur with aging." Researchers say their study strongly suggests that dietary restriction can slow aging of the heart.

SOURCE: Published in this week's issue of the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences

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