New research shows restricting calorie intake can help fight disease.
A new study directed by Mount Sinai School of Medicine extends and strengthens the research that experimental dietary regimens might halt or even reverse symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. The study, which will be published in the November 2006 issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, demonstrates the potential beneficial role of calorie restriction in Alzheimer’s disease type brain damage in monkeys. Restricting caloric intake may prevent Alzheimer’s disease by triggering activity in the brain associated with longevity.
“The present study strengthens the possibility that calorie restriction may exert beneficial effects on delaying the onset of Alzheimer’s disease … in humans, similar to that observed in squirrel monkey and rodent models of Alzheimer’s disease,” reported Mount Sinai researcher Dr. Pasinetti and his colleagues, who published their study, showing how restricting caloric intake based on a low-carbohydrate diet may prevent Alzheimer’s disease in an experimental mouse model, in the July 2006 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
“This new breakthrough brings great anticipation for further human study of caloric restriction, for Alzheimer’s disease investigators and for those physicians who treat millions of people suffering with this disease” says Giulio Maria Pasinetti, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Director of the Neuroinflammation Research Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and lead author of the study. “The findings offer a glimmer of hope that there may someday be a way to prevent and stop this devastating disease in its tracks.”
Alzheimer’s disease is a rapidly growing public health concern with potentially devastating effects. An estimated 4.5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease. Presently, there are no known cures or effective preventive strategies. While genetic factors are responsible in early-onset cases, they appear to play less of a role in late-onset-sporadic Alzheimer’s disease cases, the most common form of the disease.
In this new study, Dr. Pasinetti at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, in collaboration with Dr. Donald Ingram at the Laboratory of Experimental Gerontology, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, maintained the Squirrel Monkeys on calorie restrictive or normal diets throughout their entire lifespan until they died of natural causes. The researchers found that approximately 30 percent calorie restriction resulted in reduced Alzheimer’s disease type amyloid neuropathology in the temporal cortex relative to control fed monkeys. The decreased Alzheimer’s disease type damage correlated with increased longevity of related protein SIRT1, located in the same brain region that influences a variety of functions including aging related diseases.
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