I came across a recent interview with Lenny Guarente, a biology professor at MIT and a well know Sirtuin researcher, and thought you all might want to check it out. The interview was done on the Earth & Sky Radio Series part of www.earthsky.org.
The interview posted on the website was brief but it had some very interesting response from Guarente. (You can also find the complete 13 min video at the bottom of this post) One part I found particularly helpful was a very simple explanation as to why calorie restriction is beneficial:
Guarente said a low-calorie diet – below 1,500 calories daily – triggers anti-aging genes called sirtuins.
"That can extend their life span by something like one-third."
Guarente said there’s an evolutionary reason for this.
"When conditions become harsh, and food is less available, what these sirtuin genes do is they shift the strategy towards maintenance, and that’s the state that would promote longevity and disease resistance."
The last part of the excerpt is what I find to be a great simple explanation into the mechanics of SiRT1. When we tell our cells that maintenance is what should occur we stop them from telling the cell to die. Thus we create more longevity for our individual cells and hopefully in turn longer life.
The last part of the interview talks about his "realistic" take on what a drug could accomplish that activates SiRT1. Guarente believes it is more realistic to think we could live healthier later in life more so then add 20-30 years to our current lifespan.
Check out the interview here:
Anti-aging gene could extend lifespans
Program #5636 of the Earth & Sky Radio Series
with hosts Deborah Byrd, Joel Block,
Lindsay Patterson and Jorge Salazar.
Written by: Lindsay Patterson
For an interesting look at longevity research check out this video that aired on PBS a little while ago:
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