If caloric restriction has such a huge benefit, couldn't we get it in an easier-to-swallow package?

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In Dr Sinclair's view, the way caloric restriction prolongs life revolves around genes for proteins called sirtuins.

ECONOMIST: Abolishing ageing

Meanwhile, studies in animals dating back to the 1980s show caloric restriction can extend lifespan and slow aging.

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Dr Watabe and his colleagues first looked at whether caloric restriction does, indeed, work its magic on rotifers.

ECONOMIST: Extending lifespan

The life-extending results of caloric restriction could still be caused by something else.

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The genetic domino effect that his team uncovered may have less to do with extending life, he says, then with making it possible to survive caloric restriction at all.

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The current findings are "another piece of evidence that what we see in laboratory rodents on caloric restriction translates to humans, " said Richard Weindruch, of University of Wisconsin--Madison, who has studied caloric restriction since 1975 but did not participate in Floel's study.

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Unlike those trying to fight the causes of ageing or to repair the damage done, Dr Sinclair thinks he has found, in caloric restriction as the technique is known, a specifically evolved natural anti-ageing mechanism that is quite compatible with disposable-soma theory.

ECONOMIST: Abolishing ageing

On the other hand no diet alone, restriction diet or otherwise, will double lifespan. (See further below.) Media focus on caloric restriction diets is for the sole purpose of diverting attention from megadoses of antioxidants, especially Coenzyme Q10, combined with interval training and no meat in the diet and the daily inclusion of oatmeal, an approach which can indeed double lifespan.

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