By
Dr. Mercola
We are just beginning to understand the biological intricacies of
aging. A growing body of research is challenging the belief that aging
is beyond your control, prompting scientists to begin thinking about
ways we can slow our aging clocks to a slow crawl.
Although this is a relatively new branch of science, there are some
factors that appear to be key in controlling how quickly you age. One
major factor seems to be insulin signaling and the metabolic “engines”
you have running day to day, which are largely controlled by the foods
you eat.
In the first featured video, Dr. Peter Attia discusses how a
ketogenic diet can optimize your metabolism. But before I discuss the
specifics of this, I want to tell you about a remarkable mouse study,
presented in the second video. Scientists just accomplished quite a
feat: extending the lifespan of mice by 20 percent just by manipulating
just one single gene.
The Aging of Mice and Men
In a report published in the August 2013 issue of
Cell Reports, scientists
discovered that the “mTOR gene” is a significant regulator of the aging
process—at least in mice. This gene is thought to be involved, in some
capacity, with insulin signaling.
In this study, a drug was used to suppress the action of the mTOR gene by 25 percent in a group of laboratory mice. The drug,
rapamycin, is an immunosuppressant used to treat certain cancers and also to prevent organ rejection in transplant patients.
The mice whose mTOR was suppressed lived
20 percent longer than
the control mice—which in human terms, equates to an additional 15
years of life! But they had other effects as well—some that were
beneficial, and some that were not.
For example, the mTOR-suppressed mice demonstrated improved memory
and cognition and had a much lower cancer risk. However, they also
developed softer bones, more infections, and more cataracts than normal
mice.
The mTOR gene is known to play a role in cellular metabolism and
energy balance. Researchers believe it’s also somehow involved in the
effects of
calorie restriction, which is associated with longevity. It’s been known for nearly a century that animals consuming less food live longer.
Those on restricted calorie diets are living longer probably as a result of improved
insulin regulation, as insulin resistance is a major factor in many chronic illnesses. Researchers concluded that
mTOR is a significant regulator of aging and are optimistic that targeting this gene may someday be part of an anti-aging strategy.
But mouse studies don’t always translate to humans. There is no
guarantee that inhibiting the action of mTOR in humans would produce
similar life-extending effects—and it could be harmful in unforeseen
ways.
For now, your best bet is to use diet and exercise to optimize your
mTOR pathway, which is part of your insulin pathway. You can learn more
about this in this previous interview with fitness expert
Ori Hofmekler.
The role that insulin plays in longevity was also demonstrated by earlier research involving
worms,
of all things! By adding just a tiny amount of glucose to worms’ diets,
their lifespan was shortened by 20 percent. Believe it or not, when it
comes to insulin signaling, there are many similarities between you and
those wiggly creatures. Consuming lots of sugar and grains is the
equivalent of slamming your foot on your aging accelerator.
A High-Fat Diet May Also Lengthen Your Life
Numerous studies have shown that lowering your caloric intake may
slow down aging, help prevent age-related chronic diseases, and extend
your life. As you age, your levels of glucose, insulin and triglycerides
tend to gradually creep upward.
A 2010 study examined the effects of a high-fat diet on typical
markers of aging.
Study participants were given a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet with
adequate protein, and the results were health improvements across the
board. Serum leptin decreased by an average of eight percent, insulin by
48 percent, fasting glucose by 40 percent, triglycerides by nearly
eight percent, and free T3 (thyroid hormone) by almost six percent.
What we know now about calorie restriction is that, in animals, it
reduces metabolic rate and oxidative stress, and it alters
neuroendocrine and sympathetic nervous system function. We also know
that calorie restriction improves insulin sensitivity, and high insulin
levels accelerate aging.
Therefore, it is safe to assume that much of the longevity phenomenon can be attributed to
improved insulin signaling. What this means for you is that your longevity depends more on
whatyou eat than on
how much you eat.
A Radical Ketogenic Diet Experiment
Now that you have an understanding of how important insulin is to
your health and longevity, let’s take a look at Dr. Peter Attia, who
presents one of the clearest examples of the effects of diet on overall
health markers. Dr. Attia is a Stanford University trained physician
with a passion for metabolic science, who decided to use himself as a
lab rat—with incredible results.
Although Dr. Attia has always been active and fit, he did not have
genetics on his side. His natural tendency was toward metabolic
syndrome, in spite of being very diligent about his diet and exercise.
So he decided to experiment with a ketogenic diet, to see if he could
improve his overall health status.
For a period of 10 years, he consumed 80 percent of his calories from
fat and continuously monitored his metabolic markers, such as blood
sugar levels, percent body fat, blood pressure, lipid levels and others.
He experienced improvement in every measure of health, as you can see
in the table below. An MRI confirmed that he had lost not only
subcutaneous fat but also
visceral fat,
which is the type most detrimental. His experiment demonstrates how
diet can produce major changes in your body, even if you are starting
out relatively fit. And if you’re starting out with a low level of
fitness, then the changes you experience may be even more pronounced.
What is a Ketogenic Diet?
Dr. Attia consumed what is known as a
ketogenic diet,
which is one that shifts your body’s metabolic engine from burning
carbohydrates to burning fats. Your cells have the metabolic flexibility
to adapt from using glucose for fuel to using ketone bodies, which come
from the breakdown of fats—hence the name “ketogenic.” Another term for
this is nutritional ketosis. As an aside, many types of cancer cells do
NOT have this adaptability and require glucose to thrive, which makes
the ketogenic diet an effective therapy for
combating cancer.
A ketogenic diet requires that 50 to 70 percent of your food intake come from
beneficial fats,
such as coconut oil, grass-pastured butter, organic pastured eggs,
avocado and raw nuts (raw pecans and macadamia nuts are particularly
beneficial). One of the fastest ways to
prevent nutritional ketosis is by consuming sugar or refined carbohydrates.
Besides restricting carbs and limiting protein, you can also
strengthen your ketone engine with intermittent fasting, which is what
Dr. Attia did. He restricted his sugar intake to about five grams per
day, which is quite extreme and much lower than I recommend for most
people. He consumed a moderate amount of protein, and the rest of his
foods—80 percent of them—were fats. But his approach, as radical as it
was, really proves that a ketogenic diet can have profound health
benefits—not to mention blowing the
saturated fats theory of heart disease out of the water, once again.
You Heart LOVES Ketones
Your heart, as well as other muscles, operates quite efficiently when
fueled by ketones. Your muscles can store more glucose (as glycogen)
than your brain because they have an enzyme that helps them maintain
their glycogen stores. But your brain lacks this enzyme, so it prefers
to be fueled by glucose. When your blood glucose levels are falling,
your ketone levels are typically rising, and vice versa. You might be
wondering, then, how your
brain is able to function when you’re in a state of ketosis.
It turns out that your body has a mechanism for providing your brain
with a fuel source it CAN use when glucose is in short supply. When your
glucose is low, your brain tells your liver to produce a ketone-like
compound called beta-hydroxybutyrate (or beta-hydroxybutyric acid). This
compound is able to fuel your brain very efficiently, especially with
“practice.”
The more efficient your body is at burning fats, the more easily it
can move seamlessly between its fat-burning and carbohydrate-burning
engines, and the more stable your blood sugar will be. Your body will be
able to save its glycogen stores for when they are critically needed,
such as when you’re engaged in intense physical activity.
Are You ‘Bonking’?
The problem is that most Westerners, whose diets are typically heavy
in sugars and carbs, have lost their ability to burn ketones
efficiently. If this is you, then carbohydrates are ever-present and
your liver can’t remember how to produce ketones because
it hasn’t needed to.
Your fat-burning engine has been switched off. If you eat the standard
American diet, chances are you’ve lost your ability to burn body fat,
despite carrying around an enormous supply of it! And I say that with
the greatest respect and concern.
Dr. Attia uses the analogy of a huge petroleum truck that runs out of
gas on the highway—in spite of having thousands of gallons of fuel on
board, the truck can’t access it and stops dead in its tracks. When this
happens in your body, he calls it “bonking.” Everyone is born with
their own set of genetics that influences their metabolic tendencies. If
you didn’t hit the “genetic jackpot,” then you may have to work a bit
harder to restart your fat-burning engine.
How is this accomplished?
For starters, eliminating
excess sugar and
grains from your diet will help you “retrain” your body how to burn fat
for fuel. Typically, restricting your carbohydrates to 30 or 40 grams
per day, along with an appropriate amount of protein, is enough to
“starve” your brain into ketosis.
Exercising, particularly while fasting,
is also very effective at jumpstarting your fat-burning engine. The
more consistently you exercise, the better your body will be at using
your own fat stores for energy. In summary, when it comes to your
ketogenic engine, you either “use it or lose it.” And as you saw by Dr.
Attia’s results, using it can have a profound impact on your health and
longevity.
Strategies for Adding Years to Your Life—and Life to Your Years
A key factor in living a long, healthy life is optimizing your
insulin, which increasing numbers of scientific studies are proving. But
other factors are important as well. The following are my top
anti-aging recommendations.
- Proper Food Choices. For a complete guide about which foods to eat and which to avoid, see my comprehensive nutrition plan.
Generally speaking, you should focus your diet on whole, ideally
organic, unprocessed foods that come from healthy, sustainable and
preferably local sources. For the highest nutritional benefit, eat a
good portion of your food raw.
This type of diet will naturally optimize your insulin signaling. Most
people (although there are clearly individual differences) should strive
for a diet high in healthful fats (as high as 50-70 percent of the
calories you eat), moderate amounts of high quality protein, and
abundant vegetables. Non-vegetable carbohydrates should be a fairly
minimal part of your diet. Sugar, and fructose in
particular, can act as a toxin when consumed in excess, driving
multiple disease processes in your body including insulin resistance,
diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and systemic inflammation—any of which
can shorten your life.
- Comprehensive Exercise Program, Including High-Intensity Exercise.
Even if you’re eating the best diet in the world, you still need to
exercise—and exercise effectively—if you wish to optimize your health.
You should include core-strengthening exercises, strength training, and
the right kind of stretching, as well as high-intensity “burst” type
activities. Consider combining this with intermittent fasting to supercharge your metabolism.
- Reduce Your Stress. Your emotional state plays a
role in nearly every physical disease, from heart disease to depression
to cancer, and yet it’s the factor most often neglected. Stress has a
direct impact on inflammation, which underlies many of the chronic
diseases that kill people prematurely every day. Meditation, prayer,
energy psychology tools such as Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), and yoga are all viable options that can help you relieve stress and clear out hidden emotional blocks.
- Optimize Your Vitamin D. The important factor when
it comes to vitamin D is your serum level, which should ideally be
between 50-70 ng/ml year-round, and the only way to determine this is
with a blood test. Sun exposure or a safe tanning bed is the preferred
method, but a vitamin D3 supplement can be used when necessary. Most
adults need about 8,000 IU’s of vitamin D per day to achieve optimal
serum levels. If you take supplemental vitamin D, you also need to make
sure you’re getting enough vitamin K2,
as discussed above. Fermented vegetables can be a great source of
vitamin K2 if you ferment your own using the proper starter culture.
Gouda and Edam cheese are also good sources.
- Avoid as Many Chemicals, Toxins, and Pollutants as Possible. This includes tossing out your toxic household cleaners,
soaps, personal hygiene products, air fresheners, bug sprays,
pesticides and insecticides, just to name a few, and replacing them
with non-toxic alternatives. Avoid prescription drugs in favor of more natural approaches, whenever possible.
Read the full article here:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/02/02/ketogenic-diet-health-benefits.aspx
February 20, 2013. On February 20, 2013 in the journal 
February 13, 2013. In an article that appeared online on February 6, 2013 in the journal 