Calories and chronic inflammation

Diet harms immunity, but increases life expectancy

Svetlana Maslova, Hi-tech+

Harvard has discovered a new mechanism for increasing life expectancy that links calorie restriction with the regulation of the immune system. Dietary restrictions will not allow you to live up to 130 years, but they will preserve your health to the maximum.

Scientists have linked together two important trends. Firstly, calorie restriction has a positive effect on life expectancy. Secondly, chronic inflammatory processes increase with age. Their relationship has remained poorly understood for a long time, but now the first important conclusions have appeared.

The team found that the increase in life expectancy really depends on a low-calorie diet that regulates the immune system.

The study showed that calorie restriction reduced the level of innate immunity. But for the duration of life, this is a plus. The fact is that the overactive innate immune system, which is increasingly activated with age, provokes inflammatory processes of varying degrees.

They lead to the development of chronic age-related diseases.

A low-calorie diet reduces the activity of the regulatory protein p38, the authors explain. Its low activity triggers certain mechanisms that contribute to an optimal level of immune response.

The conclusions were obtained in experiments with worms (C.elegans), but the genes responsible for these phenomena are also in humans. Scientists believe that the results should be adapted to search for therapeutic tools for humans. For example, to regulate the immune system or develop drugs to control appetite.

The main goal of researchers is to manage a healthy human lifespan. Scientists expect to apply the results to reduce chronic inflammation, which remains the main factor in aging.

Article by Wu et al. Dietary Restriction Extends Lifespan through Metabolic Regulation of Innate Immunity is published in the journal Cell Metabolism – VM.

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