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Originally published 11/20/2010, updated on 8/20/24.
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Have you ever looked back at your past work and realized you’d completely forgotten a really important project you’d done years ago?
Because that’s what happened to me with I was looking back through my articles here on CarbSmart and found this one. I sat up straighter, my jaw dropped, and I thought, how the heck could I have forgotten about this? It’s a little embarrassing to tell the truth, because this is some really important and heartening info.
So, I’ll file it under Better Late Than Never and share it with you now. At least I wrote about it at the time, right?
Hey, gang. We all know that carb restriction causes weight loss, controls blood sugar, and can help treat all of the ugly effects of metabolic syndrome.
But what if carb restriction could make you younger?
It should be noted that this is, to some degree, a reworking of an article I wrote in November of 2010. But the information is still fascinating and very useful. So, here we go.
Can I be allowed a big hug? That, I told you so. When I was blogging, I wrote that eating low-carb was slowing my aging process.
In 2010, University of California gerontologist Cynthia Kenyon hit the news with an animal study showing exactly that she’d actually discovered what she calls the Grim Reaper gene and another she calls the Sweet 16 gene, Insulin. the switch that turns on the former and turns off the latter.
Insulin and insulin like growth factor or IGF-1, which means that by cutting carbs and lowering insulin you can reverse the process, switching off the Grim Reaper gene and turning on your Sweet 16 gene.
Or, at least she can in roundworms. Dr. Kenyon started with roundworms. presumably because, A) they’re inexpensive and plentiful, and B) they have short lifespans. I mean, you try this stuff on a Galapagos tortoise and you’ll be passing the experiment on to your great grandchildren. But roundworms generally hit old age in 18 days and croak by 20 days.
Dr. Kenyon managed to extend some of their lifespans to 144 days. That’s like you or me making it to 450 years. Woo hoo! Many people tell me that they don’t want to live to be old. I have long aspired to make it to at least 120. When I tell people this, they look at me as if I just said I was planning to paint my house fuchsia or wanted to take a vacation to Chernobyl.
Why would you want to live to be that old, they say.
The assumption being, of course, that by the age of 70 I will inevitably be falling apart and I’m asking for another 50 miserable years. Achy, immobile, incontinent years. Nuh uh. Kenyon says, re: her Roundworms, quote, They weren’t sluggish and worn out. They behaved like youngsters.
It was a real shock. In human terms, it was the equivalent of talking to someone you thought was about 30 and finding they were actually 60. We’re not talking just prolongation of life. We’re talking a prolongation of youth. Since Kenyon’s original work with roundworms, labs around the world have looked for and found the same genes and the same effect in other higher animals, and they posit it is the same for primates, including you and me.
For quite a while, the only scientifically proven method of slowing aging and extending lifespan has been caloric restriction. Kenyon says that the reason caloric restriction works is because it includes restricting carbs. Especially seriously refined high impact carbs and therefore it damps insulin release.
I have to tell you, having eaten low-carb for 15 years when I first wrote about Kenyon’s work and almost 29 years later as of now, this sounds a whole lot better to me than deliberately going hungry for the rest of my life. Kenyon apparently agrees. She went low-carb herself. From her Wikipedia profile
Kenyon apparently agrees. She eats low carb herself. From her Wikipedia profile:
No desserts. No sweets. No potatoes. No rice. No bread. No pasta. When I say ‘no,’ I mean ‘no, or not much,’ she notes. Instead, eat green vegetables. Eat the fruits that aren’t the sweet fruits, like melon. Bananas? Bananas are a little sweet. Meat? Meat, yes, of course. Avocados. All vegetables. Nuts. Fish. Chicken. That’s what I eat. Cheese. Eggs. And one glass of red wine a day.
But the diet is unproven, she cautions, and she’s not recommending it for all. Nevertheless, she’s pleased with its performance for her. ‘I have a fabulous blood profile. My triglyceride level is only 30, and anything below 200 is good.’
You have to eat something, and you just have to make your best judgment. And that’s my best judgment. Plus, I feel better. Plus, I’m thin-I weigh what I weighed when I was in college. I feel great – you feel like you’re a kid again. It’s amazing.
Wikipedia adds that Kenyon tried caloric restriction, but didn’t get past two days — she was too hungry.
Nevertheless, she’s pleased with its performance for her. “I have a fabulous blood profile. My triglyceride level is only 30, and anything below 200 is good. You have to eat something, and you just have to make your best judgment. And that’s my best judgment.”
“Plus, I feel better. Plus, I’m thin. I weigh what I weighed when I was in college. I feel great. You feel like you’re a kid again. It’s amazing. Wikipedia adds that Kenyon tried caloric restriction, but didn’t get past two days. She was too hungry. Sounds about right. This is what I have written recently.
Dr. Kenyon was inspired to start her research with the realization that the fact that various animals have such radically different lifespans from American sand-burrowing mayflies who live less than an hour to the ocean quahog, a clam that lives off the coast of Iceland and can make it to 500 hundred. I just looked those up, meant that lifespan is governed by genetics.
She started looking at the genes that could shorten or lengthen lifespan, and ways to turn them on or off. Her first big discovery was the DAF-2 gene in a roundworm called C. elegans. DAF-2 functions much the same way that receptors for IGF-1 do – insulin like growth factor due on the cells of higher animals, humans included.
She found that sugar shortened the roundworm’s lifespan and made them old. Other scientists ran with Kenyon’s research and discovered it functioned the same way in higher animals. Furthermore, the animals not only lived longer, they maintained their youth longer. Reducing insulin in IGF-1 not only lengthened lifespan.
Dr. Kenyon has continued research into the genetics of aging and how to adjust the epigenetics, which genes are turned on and which are turned off, and has found several acting through different biological systems.
For those of you who are as geeky as I am,
here are some of Dr. Kenyon lectures on YouTube:
Triggering favorable epigenetics with life extending substances
I am pleased to say that several substances she found to trigger favorable epigenetics are part of my routine, whether through dietary sources or taken as supplements.
Among these is Metformin, the most commonly prescribed drug for type two diabetes. Despite having never seen my A1C above five, I started Metformin a few years back. Having learned that it is the closest thing to a proven life extension drug that we have, adding an average of 10 years for a cheap drug with 80 years of use behind it. That struck me as worth a shot. Now I am. dying to ask Dr. Kenyon if it’s because by reducing gluconeogenesis, the liver’s production of glucose, and improving insulin sensitivity, metformin reduces the body’s production of insulin.
Other life extending substances Dr. Kenyon describes are niacinamide, which I’ve taken for ages, resveratrol, which is abundant in the red wine we drink and red skinned peanuts and 85 percent dark chocolate we eat, although research suggests that it takes more than we can get from food sources. And, fascinatingly, an anti-rejection drug called rapamycin, also known as sirolimus.
Dr. Matt Andry, my go to for anti-aging and hormone medicine, is a big fan and was happy to prescribe it for me. And my insurance is covering it. I’m paying a big $12.75 a month.
The plasticity of aging: insights from long-lived mutants
But reducing insulin through reducing carbs came first. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again.
The older I get, the better, the more grateful I am that I quit sugar and white flour at 19 and went low-carb at 36. But it’s never too late to make a difference. See what I mean? This is possibly the coolest thing I know about a low-carb diet. And I spaced it out! How could that happen? Still, I have always been convinced that my nutritional habits were helping to keep me younger.
And at 65, that’s a happy feeling.
Has your low-carb diet made you feel and act younger? If you only started in the past couple of years, what differences, if any, in your perceived age have you noticed? If, like me, you’re a long timer, do you feel that Low carbohydrate nutrition has affected your aging process, and if so, how?
Let us know in the comments below.
Until next time, stay low carb, happy, and healthy.
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