Valter Longo, Professor of Gerontology at University of Southern California, LA, leads the Longevity Institute at the School of Gerontology, a top research center for aging and age-related diseases. His work focuses on the fundamental mechanisms of aging, including the relationship between fasting, health biomarkers, and longevity.
Speaking to NutraIngredients ahead of his presentation at the BSRA’s 75th Annual Scientific Meeting on the Biology of Ageing at the University of Oxford (September 9-11) he discussed the impact that certain nutrients have at a cellular level.
“Proteins and amino acids activate a set of genes that have to do with cell growth and cell function,” he said. “At the center of that is TOR, and downstream of that is something called S6K (S6 Kinase). When you have high levels of certain amino acids and certain factor in the blood, TOR is activated and aging is accelerated.”
He explained this has to do with nutrient sensing in the body’s cells.
“The body’s cells can sense how much protein and glucose is in the bloodstream and the nutrients they detect in the bloodstream affect how the body repairs and ages,” he said.
In a situation where the person is fasting, the body’s cells realize they can no longer rely on energy coming from the outside and will start to rely on energy from within.
“So, the body starts relying on burning fat and ketone bodies that are byproducts of fat breakdown. Then there is glycerol which can be used so the body can make its own glucose. These are just a few examples of some of the things that can happen in the human body during fasting.”
He further noted fasting can switch on autophagy, a process by which cells begin to “eat themselves”.
“This is a good thing. All organisms do it and it’s an opportunity to get rid of junk that has accumulated in the cell. So, in that sense it’s an opportunity to clean up,” he said, adding, “if you fast a person for five days it would be hard to find another intervention that could cause more changes in that same period.”
However, his research reveals people do not actually need to starve themselves for these beneficial processes to kick in.
“There are a lot of things you can do short term. Ketogenic and very low carb diets in the short term are good, but long term it they are associated with a shorter lifespan.”
One popular option is time restricted eating, but he argued that the 16 hours of fasting per day, as many choose to do, is associated with earlier mortality if done over a long term basis, especially if it involves skipping breakfast.
“If you go to 12 hours of time restricted eating then you have no problem. It’s easier, it’s safer, and its less likely to cause muscle loss, so it’s probably a better way to go.”
Periodic mimicking diet
He has further developed the periodic fasting-mimicking diet (only allowing foods that won’t bring the body out of a fasting state) based on mice and human data which indicates this provides the biomarker benefits of fasting without the negatives seen in longer-term fasting interventions.
“We took mice and gave them the worst nightmare Western high fat, high sugar, high calorie diet. As expected, it became huge and the diet almost cut their lifespan in half.
“We gave another set of mice the same diet but with five days a month on the fasting-mimicking diet and they ended up almost exactly the same as the control mice group who were on the healthy diet.”
The five days of fasting-mimicking diet even brought the life span of the mice to nearly as long as the control.
He said this suggested the five days of --mimicking diet in one month can reverse the negative effects of even the poorest diet.
This could be due to a forward effect caused by the five days of fasting mimicking which causes the cells to behave different even during the period where the mice are eating a poor diet.
His human research further indicated that participants who followed the fasting-mimicking diet for five days every month for three months gained a 2.5 year improved biological age.
What’s more, rat and small human studies in kidney damage models have suggested the cycles of the fasting-mimicking diet can switch on ‘Yamanaka” and many other reprogramming factors causing a process by which mature, specialized adult cells can be switched back into versatile progenitor cells, allowing organs to repair themselves.
His team is currently conducting further human research to see if the same benefits can be achieved with five days of the fasting mimicking diet every three or four months.
The BSRA conference will provide three days of presentations and panel discussions centered around the biology of aging. Leading experts from across the globe will present the latest evidence in the field. To find out more about the speakers and agenda visit the website here.
