A new study found that cutting one's calorie intake by a third can help slow down aging and memory loss.
Study leader and neuroscientist Stephen D. Ginsberg and his colleagues from NYU Langone Medical Center experimented on female mice for the research. The mice were divided into two groups, and both were served with food pellets, except that one group ate pellets with 30 percent fewer calories. When the subjects became adults, the researchers scanned their brain tissues and compared the genetic changes that took place.
The analysis found that the mice with lower calorie consumption showed stable activity levels on 900 different genes that are linked to aging and memory loss, while the other group showed aging on more than 882 genes.
"Our study shows how calorie restriction practically arrests gene expression levels involved in the aging phenotype - how some genes determine the behavior of mice, people, and other mammals as they get old," Ginsberg said in a university press release.
The researchers clarified that their findings do not suggest people cut their calorie intake, but rather provides evidence that it can delay the effects of aging and reduce the likelihood of developing chronic diseases. A healthy diet is long known to reduce the risk to heart disease, hypertension and stroke, but the study is the first to correlate it with memory health on a genetic level.
Ginsberg believes that their conclusions can be used to develop a drug that will target the genes.
"The beauty of this is that you could still choose as a lifestyle choice to restrict your calories but I think our therapeutic approach could be a daily tablet. A lot of people don't want to have that restricting dieting even though it is a healthful approach," Ginsberg told Express UK.
The study findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Washington, D.C., held on Nov. 17.