新澳门六合彩内幕信息

Eat Fat, Live Longer?

Mouse Study Shows a Ketogenic Diet Increases Longevity, Strength

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scientist with mouse
Jon Ramsey with the 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis School of Veterinary Medicine holds a mouse. His study found that a high fat diet makes mice live longer. (Don Preisler/新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis photo)

Quick Summary

  • Mice on high-fat vs. high-carb diet had 13 percent longer lifespan
  • Study focused on effect of diet on aging process
  • Researchers do not yet know if there鈥檚 an optimum fat for a ketogenic, or high-fat, diet

As more people live into their 80s and 90s, researchers have delved into the issues of health and quality of life during aging. A recent mouse study at the 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis School of Veterinary Medicine sheds light on those questions by demonstrating that a high-fat, or ketogenic, diet not only increases longevity, but improves physical strength.

鈥淭he results surprised me a little,鈥 said nutritionist Jon Ramsey, senior author of the paper that appears in the September issue of Cell Metabolism. 鈥淲e expected some differences, but I was impressed by the magnitude we observed 鈥 a 13 percent increase in median life span for the mice on a high-fat versus high-carb diet. In humans, that would be seven to 10 years. But equally important, those mice retained quality of health in later life.鈥

Ramsey has spent the past 20 years looking at the mechanics that lead to aging, a contributing factor to most major diseases that impact rodents and humans alike. While calorie restriction has been shown in several studies to slow aging in many animals, Ramsey was interested in how a high-fat diet may impact the aging process.

Ketogenic diets have gained popularity for a variety of health benefit claims, but scientists are still teasing out what happens during ketosis, when carbohydrate intake is so low that the body shifts from using glucose as the main fuel source to fat burning and producing ketones for energy.

Diet and aging

The study mice were split into three groups: a regular rodent high-carb diet, a low-carb/high-fat diet, and a ketogenic diet (89-90 percent of total calorie intake). Originally concerned that the high-fat diet would increase weight and decrease life span, the researchers kept the calorie count of each diet the same.

鈥淲e designed the diet not to focus on weight loss, but to look at metabolism,鈥 Ramsey said. 鈥淲hat does that do to aging?鈥

In addition to significantly increasing the median life span of mice in the study, the ketogenic diet increased memory and motor function (strength and coordination), and prevented an increase in age-related markers of inflammation. It had reduced the incidence of tumors, as well.

鈥淚n this case, many of the things we鈥檙e looking at aren鈥檛 much different from humans,鈥 Ramsey said. 鈥淎t a fundamental level, humans follow similar changes and experience a decrease in overall function of organs during aging. This study indicates that a ketogenic diet can have a major impact on life and health span without major weight loss or restriction of intake. It also opens a new avenue for possible dietary interventions that have an impact on aging.鈥

Researchers do not know at this time if there is an optimum fat for a ketogenic diet.

A companion study published by the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in the same issue of Cell Metabolism shows that a ketogenic diet extends longevity and improves memory in aging mice.

For more information on the Buck Institute paper, please contact: Kris Rebillot, 415-209-2080 office, 415-717-3268 mobile, krebillot@buckinstitute.org.

Funding for this study was provided by the National Institutes of Health and the 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis Mouse Metabolic Phenotyping Center.

Media Resources

Jon Ramsey, 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, 530-754-8122, jjramsey@ucdavis.edu

Trina Wood, 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, 530-752-5257, tjwood@ucdavis.edu

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