Caloric restriction boosts immunity

Written by Dr. Cinque
1 to 1 Vitamins

Scientists funded by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) found that volunteers who followed a low-calorie diet or a very low-calorie diet not only lost weight, but also significantly enhanced their immune response. The study may be the first to demonstrate the interaction between caloric restriction and immune markers among humans.

The lead researcher, Simin Nikbin Meydani, is director of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University in Boston, Mass., and also of the HNRCA's Nutritional Immunology Laboratory.

The study is part of the "Comprehensive Assessment of Long-Term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy" trial conducted at the HNRCA. As people age, their immune response generally declines. Calorie restriction has been shown to boost these immune responses in animal models.

In the study, 46 overweight (but not obese) men and women aged 20 to 40 years were required to consume either a 30-percent or 10-percent calorie-restricted diet for six months. Prior to being randomly assigned to one of the two groups, each volunteer participated in an initial 6-week period during which measures of all baseline study outcomes were obtained. All food was provided to participants.

For the study, the researchers looked at specific biologic markers. A skin test used called DTH (delayed-type hypersensitivity) is a measure of immune response at the whole body level. The researchers also examined effects of calorie restriction on function of T-cells--a major type of white blood cell--and other factors on the volunteer's immune system.

DTH and T-cell response indicate the strength of cell-mediated immunity. One positive was that DTH and T-cell proliferative response were significantly increased in both calorie-restrained groups. These results show for the first time that short-term calorie restriction for six months in humans improves the function of T-cells.

Details of this 2009 study can be found in the publication Journal of Gerontology, Biological Sciences. ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's principal intramural scientific research agency.

Dr. Cinque's comments: I have seen visual evidence of this. In 1989, I worked at Dr. Alec Burton's clinic on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia, and there he performed live cell analysis with dark field microscopy. Among the patients who were fasting (which is the ultimate form of caloric restriction) there was a noticable enhancement in the activity of the leukocytes (the white blood cells). It's as though those lobulated cells were unleashed, unburdened, and infused with life as they streamed around the slide with great vigor. It really was quite a sight which I will never forget. It's not easy to restrict one's calories, but sometimes we can catch ourselves stuffing in more food than we need. For instance, does anyone really need to eat dessert? What, are we like children who have to be rewarded for eating their vegetables? Just think about the enormous benefits of calorie restriction, and it may help you to just say no to more food when others are clearly pigging out.

Living and Longevity

Living and Longevity
Look at the outside world. Birds animals and many other creature are living their life. Squandering time is not real living.

Real living is where life is full of joy and happiness and associated with taking and giving, caring and sharing , smiling an calming.

We never care about our real happiness of life un the hectic schedule from morning to bed time and after fanciful and trashy ambitious.

To live up to 100 years is our right because that the way God has given us the body and mind at the time of our birth. Look at the children; how innocent and healthy they are. They have no blood pressure, no acidity, no hypertension, and no diabetes.

They do not discriminate between different castes, colors, religions, languages of origins. They do not care about anything. They just live their live happy go lucky, blither and breezy.

We should live the rest of our life as child. But as we grow up, our mind gets tainted; our health is shattered by wrong eating habits and life styles.

Eating Vegetables and Fruits for Longevity

Eating Vegetables and Fruits for Longevity
Vegetables and fruits do so much for longevity quest in so many different ways. Fruits and vegetables are energy foods. For most part, they’re fiber rich carbohydrates, ideal for optimal energy flow. Fruit, in particular, may be the perfect workout food. While other sugars will give a quick burst of energy, fruit sugars deliver a steady stream of carbohydrate energy over a few hours.

All those vegetables and fruit will keep body weight down too. With some notable exceptions like coconuts and avocadoes, most fruits and vegetables have little or no fat and not much in the way of protein either. They still have calories, of course, but filling up on their fiber will push fat and excess calories out of body system.

By eating lots of fruits and vegetables, it will reduce cancer risk in at least two ways. The fiber they provide pushes digested food through body gut faster, giving potential carcinogens less times to damage cells in digestive tract. But also, the antioxidants that are so abundant in fruits and vegetables destroy cell damaging free radicals. They may also actually reverse existing cell damage before it leads to cancer.

Eating a lot of fruits and vegetables at any age has been shown to slow down, brake or even reverse many if the unpleasant developments associated with the aging process. Heart disease and cancer are just two such problems that antioxidants combat.

They also help keen body mind sharp, body becomes strong, eyesight keen and body immune system powerful enough to fight off infections and other illnesses.

There’s even some promising evidence that the phytochemicals and other good things in fruits and vegetables retard the aging process itself at the cellular levels.

In other words, if antioxidant intake is high from eating lots of fruits and vegetables, people may be biologically “younger” than others age who have low antioxidants intakes.
Eating Vegetables and Fruits for Longevity