Scientists studying how controlling the metabolic clock affects aging have found that a low-calorie diet can make the body look younger.
Scientists have begun to better understand how circadian rhythms (in other words, the body's biological clock) change as a result of physiological aging.
Researchers at the University of California tested the same group of mice 6 months and 18 months later, taking tissue samples from the liver, an organ that functions as an interface between caloric intake and energy distribution in the body.
It was found that the 24-hour metabolic cycle in a controlled group of aged mice remained unchanged, but there were marked abnormalities in the circadian mechanism that turns genes on and off depending on the cells' energy use. To put it simply, old cells did not process energy as efficiently.
However, in the second group of aged mice, which were placed on a diet 30 percent less in energy terms for six months, the processing of energy within the cells remained unchanged.
The conclusion of the scientists was unanimous - in fact, restricting the calorie intake is the most effective way to rejuvenate the biological clock.
At the same time, other studies by their colleagues at the University of Barcelona found that the functioning of the biological clock in the skin and muscle stem cells of young and old mice is different. But a low-calorie diet retains most of the indicators characteristic of young people in the older generation.
It is clear that scientists have found a way to keep mice youthful as they age, making them malnourished, but we hope for further research, the results of which could be applied to humans.
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