Calorie restriction

One of the theories of aging suggests that the human cell has a limited number of times it can divide. Cells split to help repair and regenerate themselves. The cell’s ability to divide is limited and eventually stops dividing and hence dies. Some research done indicates on the average a cell is able to divide at most fifty times. As cell divides, there is possibility it loses some of its genetic DNA blueprint information until eventually there is simply not enough DNA information left to complete the any sort of division.

Thus one of the key aspects of slowing down aging is by delaying the division of cells. It was observed that nutrition has a great effect on cells and notably overfed cells divide much faster than underfed cells. Lab experiments indicates that underfed animals live longer thus calorie restriction in some way does plays a part to contributing to reduce cellular damage.

The exact cause is not known, it is postulated that underfed animals are subjected less to inflammation caused by insulin and glucose damage or that less radical activity takes place when the body is underfed. It is possible that calorie restriction helps to reduce metabolic rate and this helps the body to reduce the generation of free radicals which are harmful to the cells.

Thus it is easy to understand by fasting is good for health. Fasting helps to restrict calorie intake which in turn cause the body cells to slow down its division and in other ways helps to lower cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure.
Calorie restriction with adequate nutrition enables the body to boost up immunity. The human hormone DHEA level is found to increase when the body is subjected to calorie restriction and thus the increased of DHEA due to calorie restriction would help to contributes to reduce incidences of kidney disease and other possible cancer risks. Check out my earlier post on DHEA effect on aging.

In summary, reduce intake of calories by means of eating in moderation might be one of the answers to attaining the fountain of youth.