Calorie Restriction for Longevityby Galina Pembroke

Dr. James Johnson, a double board-certified surgeon at Metairie’s Cosmetic Laser and Skin Care Center, is writing a book. But it’s not about tummy tucks, nose jobs, or anything else you’d expect a plastic surgeon to write about. Dr. Johnson’s book is about a diet that promises not only to make us thinner, but also to simultaneously reduce disease and extend our life—by decades.

Calorie Counting for Longer Life

His book answers the central question asked by everyone whose ever dieted: What matters more, what we eat or how much? Dr. Johnson stresses the importance of the latter. While Atkins advertises carb-reduction and Dr. Perricone promotes antioxidants, Dr. Johnson emphasizes the benefits of calorie counting. His book, tentatively titled the Up day, Down day Diet, describes how people can live up to 140 years by adapting traditional calorie restriction. This unconventional dietary plan reduces caloric intake by a third, while still retaining all beneficial levels of vitamins and minerals. For this reason, the calorie restriction method is being referred to as “undernutrition without malnutrition.” Though Dr. Johnson’s insistence on calorie counting may be familiar to anyone whose ever weighed or measured food, it is also revolutionary. In one of the first studies of its kind, the National Institutes of Health has allocated $20 million dollars over the next three years to study the effects of calorie restriction on humans.



Alternate-Day Fasting

“Caloric restriction (CR) is the only experimental intervention yet studied that can conclusively increase longevity in experimental animals,” states the American Federation for Aging Research. These experiments have persisted for seventy years, with a catalogue of evidence supporting their health benefits. But why write a book about CR, and why now? Says Dr. Johnson: “In my research I noted a phenomenon in rodents treated by one form of calorie restriction, in which they are fed every other day, that might resemble human experience. Those animals had the same beneficial effects as those that were fed 60% of their normal caloric intake.” He adds, “I’m writing a book about the way in which this is applied and it’s going to be for popular consumption.”


Alternate-day fed rodents steadily lose weight and stop when they become slender. This differs from conventional calorie restriction, which routinely creates animals that are unnaturally thin. Curious if this same process would occur in humans, Dr. Johnson decided to try a unique modification of this every-second-day eating (his alterations are hush-hush until his book his released) and lost 35 pounds in 11 week before his weight reached a plateau. “The remarkable thing about it was that after about 10 days I noticed that on the down day I had an increased level of energy, and, almost a feeling of euphoria.”


The Evidence Expands

Though calorie restriction studies were first confined to bugs and mice, scientists have recently started studying its effects on rhesus monkeys. These “non-human primates” share 95 percent of our DNA and live forty years. Because of the monkeys’ relatively long life span, and the fact that most of these studies began only fifteen ago, it will be years before it can be determined how much CR extends their life span. In the meantime, however, the findings are promising. The bodies of calorie-restricted monkeys mimic those of the rodents. Both species maintain lower body temperature, abdominal fat, blood sugar, blood pressure and sensitivity to insulin: the latter reducing their risk of Type 2 Diabetes. How does this relate to humans? Scientists heading the rhesus monkey study told Life Extension magazine: “Human studies of CR conducted since the initiation of our monkey project indicate that humans likely respond to long-term CR similarly to what has been observed in primates and rodents.”


On the CR program, mice routinely live to the human equivalent of 140. Lab studies published in Life Extension magazine, state that at 75 (2 ½ years) CR mice looked younger and had youthful vigor-enough to sprint instead of stroll. “There’s certain things that have been demonstrated in animals very consistently, “says Dr. Johnson. “Lowered glucose levels, lowered insulin level, resistance to injury to the central nervous system, lowered lipid level and basically, a slowing of progression or prevention of a wide variety of diseases for which there are animals models.” The gene responsible for these favorable changes is called SIRT2 in animals and SIRT1 in humans. “It’s the same gene. It’s something that was added to the DNA of all life very early in evolution. So even though it’s called something different in humans than in animals, it produces the same effect.”


Dr. Johnson is also involved in a study of asthmatics, with the goal of proving that activating SIRT1 through alternate-day eating is as beneficial in humans as it is in lab rats. “ One of my patients was a severe asthmatic. She used three different inhalers twice a day. After three weeks she was down to using the inhalers once a day and after six weeks she was down to no medication at all. This is not something that is responsive to losing weight; it has to be suppression of the inflammatory process that mediates asthma. The only logical explanation of this is activation of SIRT1. If we can show that after following this diet for a few weeks the SIRT1 gene is turned on, and also show that their asthma has improved, it means that simply by changing a pattern of eating that you can essentially get rid of a disease.”


CR in a Bottle

Those who want the effects of CR without the deprivation will be pleased to hear about the 2003 findings of BioMarker Pharmaceuticals. According to an official press release, this California Corporation formed primarily to “develop pharmaceuticals that mimic the effects of calorie restriction.” And they did it. The scientists found that Metformin, which is currently being used to treat diabetes, parallels all the effects of daily CR. Even more surprising, was that these effects were gained when tested on elderly mice. Previously it was assumed that the older you were, the less you gained from caloric loss. But the senior mice studied were rejuvenated by Metformin, and lived 20% longer than the control group. As yet, Metformin is not FDA approved for its rejuvenating qualities. BioMarker Pharmaceutical’s is engaged in extensive research to determine it’s side-effects and its fitness for non-diabetic human consumption.



Dieting for Life?

In the meantime, calorie restriction is the only lab-proven option for those who want to gain youthful health and longevity. But there is good news for those who want to have their cake and to eat it too, and not in small portions: The really restrictive component of Dr. Johnson’s diet is temporary, expanding into a maintenance program. “You don’t have to be on this diet consistently, he says. People that have gone on this diet for a period of weeks and then have gone off it for 10 days don’t have regression. There’s a period during which the SIRT1 gene is activated and then it produces complex relationships between genes and enzymes that produce these desirable health benefits. But if you stop and you eat normally those benefits continue for some period of time. How long that is we don’t really know.”


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