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This hormone could be a key to beating aging

elderly aging old man walking
An elderly man makes his way down Primrose Hill in London as the sun sets November 12. As the approaching Winter shortens daylight in Britain, many were out in the park making the most of the remaining daylight on a crisp and clear day.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

For thousands of years, humans have searched for ways to extend life, perhaps to become immortal.

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And while immortality seems to be as distant a goal as it ever has been, scientists have made significant progress in terms of extending life. The average lifespan for women in developed countries grew from under 50 to around 80 in the past 150 years or so, for example. But much of that difference comes from reducing infant mortality.

Defeating the diseases that affect us at the end of life — cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and others — has proven a harder venture.

One of the only life-extension strategies that we believe might actually work is extreme caloric restriction, which presents a whole set of practical challenges and potential health concerns. But researchers have been investigating a diet that requires just five days of fasting a month (potentially doing this every few months) to achieve the same cancer and disease fighting benefits. And this diet, the fasting-mimicking diet (FMD), might actually be able to transform health and slow the effects of aging.

Researchers think that perhaps the reason this diet works is that it lowers levels of a specific growth hormone, insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1).

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Scientists have studied people who naturally have low levels of this growth hormone (who also have a form of dwarfism) and have found that they have shockingly low rates of cancer and diabetes, even if they are overweight or obese. The idea behind the FMD is to lower levels of this hormone in otherwise healthy people.

Lowering the same growth hormone in mice created the longest-lived lab mice in the world. And other more extensive studies in mice related to this same diet that may lower levels of this hormone showed changes that led to improved cognitive performance, a stronger immune system, and lower cancer risks. There were no negative side effects.

Although several initial studies of the FMD, including at least one in humans, have been promising and have lowered IGF-1 levels, more research will be needed to show that it's definitively safe and that modifying hormone levels is truly the cause of these potential health benefits. Still, it's fascinating to see how these tiny tweaks of small factors like hormone levels may have a huge impact.

Diet Biology
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