World Hair Research

I recently completed reading a book titled Sugar Blues by William Duffy, I picked it up at a closeout sale at a Borders bookstore for half price. I like this one, learned a few things from it and have since recommended it to a few friends. I also have largely gone on a sugar-free experiment. I also recommend you read this book, it’s a classic diet book, yet it sounds as if it was written a couple years ago, there might be a few outdated bits and pieces but again, this is a classic worth reading and has a wealth of insight to offer you. I had reduced my sugar intake for a few years, seeking to be “moderate”, this book is actually helping me far “very easily” resist sugar. I am almost sugar free these days. I appreciate the history in this book, you will learn about the history of sugar, and other things like fermenting, sauerkraut and beer. You will learn how sugar was invented, and you will be reminded that unlike salt (so essential people used it as currency in the past) sugar is a relatively new addition to our diet. This book touched me in a positive way, and I feel it will do the same with you. You just might never look at food and eating the same way again! all good positive things!

Well, what else does the book talk about? Duffy makes it clear how he dislikes how sugar is labeled (or not labeled) on products and how it is inaccurate to lump refined sugar with other healthy carbs under the same label name. See, not all carbs are the same, but a food label doesn’t tell you that, nor does it say how much added sugar is in a product. You might be surprised to learn what I learned about brown and raw sugar products, and what they put sugar in (ketchup, mayo, dressing, etc), you’ll read about sugar and the persians, indians, crusades, and even slavery! The book is easy to read as well, well documented and sourced.

Knowing what I know now, it is difficult to allow myself to eat sugar, and I have this book to thank. This books acts as an anti-sugar vaccine or an anti-sugar booster shot. If you crave sugar simply read this book and you will no longer crave it!

Sugar is not a nutrient, it is not empty calories either, it is actually an anti-nutrient, when you eat it you are eating something that takes away vitamins from your body to rid itself of sugar.. thus Duffy defines it as a poison, and I see why.

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Insulin has been dubbed the “hormone of death” by Life Extension Foundation.

Insulin/IGF signaling itself may mediate communication among various tissues to influence organismal longevity.

Not fat, neither calorie restriction per se, insulin is what matters when it comes to longevity.

Reduction of fat mass without caloric restriction can be associated with increased longevity in mice, possibly through effects on insulin signaling. In the Insulin Levels and Life Span Studies article below, you will see a study titled “Extended Longevity in Mice Lacking the Insulin Receptor in Adipose Tissue”, the genetically altered mice (with fat cells unresponsive to insulin) ate all they wanted (55 percent more food than the control mice) and remained thin, they had 70 percent less body fat than the control group.

The genetically altered mice lived 18 percent longer than the control mice.

I found two main camps, one in favor of fat restriction the other calorie restriction. What is at play in my opinion is insulin. When calorie restriction helps with life extension it is actually the insulin control that is increasing longevity.

Insulin release is stimulated in response to grain, starch and sugar consumption.

I’ve posted various articles here on the harmful effects of sugar you might want to check out.

These are other articles relating to insulin: (more…)

Additional research on Calorie Restriction.

News & Research:

• Exercise and caloric restriction rejuvenate synapses in lab mice – Science Daily, 8/2/10
• Click here of a 10/5/09 news clip (I put it on YouTube) that claims that metformin may provide the same anti-aging benefits as calorie restriction (you won’t need to look like a POW).
• The Way You Eat May Affect Your Risk For Breast Cancer – Science Daily, 8/4/09
• Glucose-To-Glycerol Conversion In Long-lived Yeast Provides Anti-aging Effects – Science Daily, 5/13/09
• Calorie Restriction Causes Temporal Changes In Liver Metabolism – Science Daily, 5/4/09
• Fewer Calories, Better Memory? – WebMD, 1/26/09 – “older men and women who follow a restricted-calorie diet score better on verbal memory tests than those who do not make such diet changes”
• Why Starving Cells Prolong Life – Science Daily, 10/13/08
• Cutting Calories Could Limit Muscle Wasting In Later Years – Science Daily, 9/16/08 – “The researchers found increasing amounts of iron in the muscle cells of aging rats fed a typical unrestricted diet. The older the rats got, the more iron accumulated in the mitochondria and the more damage was done to its RNA and DNA. Rats of the same ages that were kept on a calorie-restricted diet — about 60 percent of the food typically ingested — seemed to maintain more normal iron levels in mitochondria”
• Looking For The Fountain Of Youth? Cut Your Calories, Research Suggests – Science Daily, 7/3/08 – “While scientists do not know how calorie restriction affects the aging process in rodents, one popular hypothesis is that it slows aging by decreasing a thyroid hormone, triiodothyronine (T3), which then slows metabolism and tissue aging” - All the studies I’ve read seem to support the opposite:
  • Longer-lived Rodents Have Lower Levels Of Thyroid Hormone – Science Daily, 10/12/06 – “T4 levels varied significantly between all of the groups, with the shorter-lived groups having higher levels of T4 than longer-lived groups … However, because T3, levels did not differ significantly among all the groups, further research in this area using larger sample sizes (numbers of rodents in each group) is needed”
  • ACUTE EFFECTS OF TRIIODOTHYRONINE REPLACEMENT THERAPY IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC HEART FAILURE AND LOW-T3 SYNDROME: A RANDOMIZED, PLACEBO-CONTROLLED STUDY – J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2008 Jan 2 – “Low-triiodothyronine (T3) syndrome is a predictor of poor outcome in patients with cardiac dysfunction … dilated cardiomyopathy (DC) … In DC patients, short-term synthetic L-T3 replacement therapy significantly improved neuroendocrine profile and ventricular performance”
  • Low triiodothyronine: a strong predictor of outcome in acute stroke patients – Eur J Clin Invest. 2007 Aug;37(8):651-7 – “The 1-year mortality was 27.34% for low T3 and 19.37% for normal T3 cases (P = 0.006). A smaller percentage of patients with low T3 values were independent at 1 year compared to those with normal T3 values [54.2% vs. 68.7%, chi(2) = 12.09, P < 0.001, odds ratio (OR) = 0.53"
  • Natural killer activity and thyroid hormone levels in young and elderly persons - Gerontology 2001 Sep-Oct;47(5):282-8 - "Decreased serum concentrations of total T(3) may contribute to low NK activity in the 'almost healthy' subgroup of the elderly"
  • Does low tri-iodothyronine independently predict mortality in elderly hospitalised patients? -  Int J Clin Pract 2001 Jul-Aug;55(6):409-10 - "Our study shows an association of low serum T3 with patient mortality in elderly hospitalised patients"
• Substance In Red Wine, Resveratrol, Found To Keep Hearts Young - Science Daily, 6/4/08 - "Resveratrol is active in much lower doses than previously thought and mimics a significant fraction of the profile of caloric restriction at the gene expression level ... In animals on a restricted diet, 90 percent of those heart genes experienced altered gene expression profiles, while low doses of resveratrol thwarted age-related change in 92 percent. The new findings, say the study's authors, were associated with prevention of the decline in heart function associated with aging" - You can ger it here: Jarrow Formulas - Resveratrol 100
• Low-dose resveratrol may slow ageing: for mice at least - Nutra USA, 6/4/08 - "animals in the calorie-restriction and low-dose resveratrol groups had altered gene expression profiles in 90 and 92 per cent, respectively, in the heart ... In short, a glass of wine or food or supplements that contain even small doses of resveratrol are likely to represent "a robust intervention in the retardation of cardiac ageing,"" - You can get it here: Jarrow Formulas Resveratrol 100
• Red wine may protect heart from aging’s toll - MSNBC. 6/3/08 - "Resveratrol at low doses can retard some aspects of the aging process, including heart aging, and it may do so by mimicking some of the effects of caloric restriction, which is known to retard aging in several tissues and extend life span" - See resveratrol products at iHerb.
• When It Comes To Living Longer, It's Better To Go Hungry Than Go Running, Mouse Study Suggests - Science Daily, 5/14/08 - "at least two studies which examined people who engage in high-volume exercise versus people who restricted their calorie intake, had a similar outcome: caloric restriction has physiological benefits that exercise alone does not ... One theory is that exercise places stress on the body, which can result in damage to the tissues and DNA. Another theory is that caloric restriction leads to physiological changes which benefit the body" - I still think it boils down to the ravages of higher insulin and blood sugar which increase advanced glycation end products a major cause of aging.
• How Dietary Restriction Slows Down Aging - Science Daily, 4/17/08
• Severely restricting calories could lead to longer life - Nutra USA, 10/30/07
• Severely Restricted Diet Linked To Physical Fitness Into Old Age - Science Daily, 10/25/07
• Eat Less To Live Longer: Calorie Restriction Linked To Long Healthy Lives - Science Daily, 9/20/07
• Dietary Restriction Cleans Cells - Science Daily, 8/23/07
• Eat Less, Live Longer? Gene Links Calorie Restriction To Longevity - Science Daily, 5/2/07
• Dogs Lived 1.8 Years Longer On Low Calorie Diet: Gut Flora May Explain It - Science Daily, 4/19/07
• How Eating Less Might Make You Live Longer - Science Daily, 3/5/07 - "even short-term caloric restriction can produce beneficial physiological changes leading to improved health. Whether caloric restriction and the associated health benefits can be sustained over longer term remains to be established in humans"
• Body Composition May Be Key Player In Controlling Cancer Risks - Science Daily, 1/3/07 - "This study suggests that body composition, being lean as opposed to being obese, has a greater protective effect against cancer"
• Weight Loss From Calorie Restriction Decreases BMD in Older Adults - Medscape, 12/13/06 - "weight loss from calorie restriction produced significant decreases in bone-mineral density (BMD) in older adults"
• One for the Ages: A Prescription That May Extend Life - New York Times, 10/31/06 - "One leading candidate, a newly synthesized form of resveratrol — an antioxidant present in large amounts in red wine — is already being tested in patients. It may eventually be the first of a new class of anti-aging drugs. Extrapolating from recent animal findings, Dr. Richard A. Miller, a pathologist at the University of Michigan, estimated that a pill mimicking the effects of calorie restriction might increase human life span to about 112 healthy years ... Some researchers have even described Type 2 diabetes, which is marked by insensitivity to the hormone insulin, as simply an accelerated form of aging"
• Calorie Restriction without Hunger! - Life Extension Magazine, 7/06 - "excess insulin functions as a death hormone that devastates virtually every cell and organ system in the body"
• Calorie Restriction May Prevent Alzheimer's Through Promotion Of Longevity Program In The Brain - Science Daily, 6/14/06 - "a high caloric intake based on saturated fat promotes AD type beta-amyloidosis, while caloric restriction based on reduced carbohydrate intake is able to prevent it"
• Metabolic Benefits of Calorie Restriction - Medscape, 6/12/06 - "A total of 48 overweight but otherwise healthy adults (body-mass index, 25-30 kg/m2; mean age, 38) were assigned to one of four groups: weight maintenance, 25% calorie restriction, 12.5% calorie restriction plus exercise, or very low calorie intake (890 calories daily until weight was reduced by 15%) ... At 6 months, all three intervention groups showed significant weight loss (10%-14% of baseline weight), as well as significant reductions in fasting insulin levels and DNA damage"
• Calorie Restriction Appears Better Than Exercise At Slowing Primary Aging - Science Daily, 5/31/06 - "Sedentary rats who ate a standard diet had the shortest average life-spans," Holloszy says. "Those who exercised by running on a wheel lived longer, but animals on calorie restriction lived even longer"
• Trim Calories for Healthier Aging? - WebMD, 5/10/06
• Cutting Calories Slightly Can Reduce Aging Damage - Science Daily, 5/8/06 - "feeding rats just 8 percent fewer calories a day and moderately increasing the animals' activity extended their average lifespan and significantly overturned the negative effects of cellular aging on liver function and overall health ... the study results support the theory that cell death and aging-related organ damage are caused by unstable molecules known as free radicals and by cellular oxidation and inflammation"
• Big Study Looks at Longevity-Low Calorie Link - Intelihealth, 4/26/06
• Thinner And Younger - Science Daily, 4/5/06
• Calorie Restriction May Improve Biomarkers of Longevity - Medscape, 4/4/06
• Cut Calories, Boost Longevity? - WebMD, 4/4/06 - "By the study's end, fasting insulin and DNA damage had dropped for all participants whose calories had been limited, but not for the comparison group"
• Starve Yourself to Live Longer? - ABC  News, 4/4/06 - "the decreased body temperature and insulin levels are particularly important in this study because they are good indicators of increased longevity and are often referred to as the biomarkers of longevity"
• Low-Cal Diet May Slow Heart's Aging - WebMD, 1/17/06
• Caloric Restriction Appears to Prevent Primary Aging in the Heart - Doctor's Guide, 1/12/06 - "This decline in diastolic function is a marker of primary aging ... Diastolic function declines in most people as they get older, but in this study we found that diastolic function in calorie-restricted people resembled diastolic function in individuals about 15 years younger ... Our hypothesis is that low-grade, chronic inflammation is mediating primary aging"
• Researchers Find Pathways Linking Caloric Restriction To Aging Process - Science Daily, 11/18/05
• Bare-minimum diet: Is long life the payoff? - USA Today, 10/23/05 - "very low-calorie diet seems to shield these animals from type 2 diabetes, a common disease of old age ... The average blood pressure for people on the diet was 100/60 — about what is expected for an average 10-year-old ... mice on the diet, which provides food at near-starvation levels, appear cranky. "If you take the lid off the cage, they immediately bite you,""
• How Cutting Calories May Increase Longevity - WebMD, 10/13/05 - "mice that were fed 30% to 40% fewer calories produced more nitric oxide than those who followed an unrestricted diet"
• Extremely Low-Calorie Diet Won't Extend Life - WebMD, 8/30/05
• Caloric Restriction Won't Dramatically Extend Life Span In Humans: UCLA Research - Science Daily, 8/30/05
• Eat less for a healthier life - MSNBC, 5/6/05 - "Laboratory studies show that calorie restriction can lead to fewer and smaller breast cancers. It also appears to inhibit all cancers by slowing down the development of cancer cells, increasing their self-destruction and reducing DNA damage"
• Do Carbs, Calories Affect Alzheimer's Risk? - WebMD, 1/13/05 - "mice eating fewer calories and carbohydrates than those allowed to eat all they wanted showed no signs of Alzheimer's-like disease, even though they had been bred to have the condition"
• Riverside Professor Receives First Age-Reversal Prize - Science Daily, 1/7/05 - "According to Spindler's research, the fewer calories an animal consumes - provided malnutrition is avoided - the slower an animal ages and the lower the death rate from cancer, heart disease and diabetes"
• Caloric Restriction and Life Expectancy - Medscape, 12/22/04
• Cutting Calories May Cut Parkinson's Risk - Doctor's Guide, 13/13/04
• Save Up Your Energy Reserves For A Longer Life! - Science Daily, 12/10/04
• Calorie Restriction Lowers Heart Risk - WebMD, 4/19/04
• Calorie Restriction Prolongs Life, Even Late - WebMD, 3/23/04
• Study: Low-Calorie Diet Extends Life - Intelihealth, 3/23/04
• Restricting calories may increase life span - MSNBC, 3/22/04 - "a strict, low-calorie diet increased the life span of aged mice by more than 40 percent ... the new research shows that even 19-month-old mice, about the human equivalent of 60 to 65 years, can have a longer life when eating fewer calories"
• Restrict Calories, Live Longer? - WebMD, 12/31/03
• Eat Less to Live Longer? - Dr. Weil, 12/29/03
• Fasting Benefits Glucose Metabolism, Nerve Cells - Physician's Weekly, 7/28/03 - "skipping meals frequently can help mice maintain healthier glucose and insulin levels ... when mice were given a neurotoxin mimicking the effects of Alzheimer's in humans, the subjects on the intermittent fasting diet were more resistant to nerve damage or death than mice with unlimited or reduced calorie diets ... mice on the fasting regimen were more likely to produce the protein BDNF, which protects the growth and health of nerve cells"
• BioMarker Pharmaceuticals Develops Anti-Aging Therapy - Life Extension Magazine, 6/03 - "The BioMarker scientists found that all the glucoregulatory agents reproduced some of the gene expression effects of CR [calorie restriction], but that metformin was the undisputed star of the group, being twice as effective as the others in reproducing the effects of CR”
• Skipping Meals Keeps Rodents Healthy – WebMD, 4/28/03
• Survival to 90 Years Linked to Low Weight in Young Adulthood and Exercise – Doctor’s Guide, 4/8/03 – “baseline height and weight were not associated with mortality. However, a higher weight at age 21 was associated with increased odds of dying before reaching 90 years (OR=1.04 per 5 lb increase, P 0.0001). Those who exercised were 24-31% less likely to die by the age of 90 (OR=0.76, P 0.0001 for less than 1 hour per day, OR=0.69, P 0.0001 for 1 hour or more per day). Similarly, being in the mid tertile of BMI at baseline (22-24 for men, 20-23 for women) was associated with decreased odds of dying before age 90 (OR=0.70, P 0.0001)”
• Cut the Calories, Save Your Brain? – WebMD, 1/10/03
• Low-Cal Diet Keeps Heart Young – WebMD, 10/29/02
• Some Non-Original Thoughts on Diet, Health, and Longevity – University of Colorado
• Low-Calorie Diet Keeps Muscles Toned – WebMD, 4/29/02
• Moderate Calorie Cutbacks Fight Cancer – WebMD, 4/24/02
• Study: Lean diet may mean long life – CNN, 9/3/01 – “It’s never too late to cut back on the calories to prolong life, even in your later years … mice they put on a low-calorie regimen — even creatures put on the diet for a short period — exhibited characteristics of slowed aging … Restricting calories reversed the changes in several genes that were altered in aging animals”
• Eat less, and better, to live to 120? – CNN, 9/12/00

Abstracts: (more…)