Two interesting articles were posted last week that illustrate why healthcare is so confusing.
One for the Ages: A Prescription That May Extend Life
In the last year, calorie-restricted diets have been shown in various animals to affect molecular pathways likely to be involved in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson’s disease and cancer. Earlier this year,researchers studying dietary effects on humans went so far as to claim that calorie restriction may be more effective than exercise at preventing age-related diseases.
In other words, don’t eat much, stay hungry.
A Compound in Red Wine Makes Fat Mice Healthy
But the mice that received resveratrol remained healthy and were about 30 percent less likely to die, living as long as the animals that ate a normal diet and stayed thin. Preliminary results indicate resveratrol increases their life span by about 15 percent, which is the equivalent of adding perhaps about 10 human years.
Moreover, the hearts and livers of the animals getting resveratrol looked healthy, the activity of a host of key genes appeared normal, and they showed some of the biological changes triggered by caloric restriction. They also appeared to have a better quality of life, retaining their activity levels and agility.
Drink lots of wine, it doesn’t matter what you eat!