Photo: Publicity Still, “The Manchurian Candidate”, by Jonathan Demme, Scott Rudin Productions, Paramount Pictures
A Nutritional Proverb For Your Brain:
Ok, the Chinese have an old saying to remember the benefits of calorie-restriction: “Eat until you are seven-tenths full and save the other three-tenths for hunger…”
Now hold that idea, but Bruce-Lee your way over from one culture to the other & witness the brilliance that is Giovambattista Pani and his team at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome.
Because the man, whose first name I cannot pronounce without spraining something in [most of] my face, has chalked up YET ANOTHER win for our old pal, Calorie Restriction.
Calorie Restriction’s Many Benefits:
It’s long been suspected, and sporadically proved along the way, that some CR does the Body good; -and also the Mind.
Well the doc and his team have just discovered the specifics of it, and they involve a strange, complicated, & refluxing biochemical chain, all centering around a molecule called CREB1.
The Proverb’s Prescription Slows Aging of The Brain:
It turns out that if the mice in the study had their Daily Calorie Allowance Restricted to 70% of standard (just as recommended by our old friends, the Chinese),
They started expressing CREB1, which acts in the aforementioned chain with a Sirtuin-class Enzyme: Sirt-1, and DNA.
And that Mad, Wild, Rachel-Brice-Weapons-Grade, Dervishing-Waltz of reactions, and ‘-NAs, and ‘-ases, and ‘-EBs, and ‘-tuins,
-Turns out to Slow Aging of The Brain.
Significantly.
Photo: Publicity Still, “Enter The Dragon”, by Bruce Lee, Robert Clouse, Golden Harvest, Warner Brothers Pictures
Calorie-Restriction’s Reduction In Disease, Increase In Mental Sharpness:
The restricted mice didn’t develop Obesity, Diabetes, Agression-problems, Alzheimer’s, or Parkinson’s. They retained & possibly Gained some greater cognitive performance.
And if they did get anything similar to Alzheimer’s, the symptoms were much less severe than the other mice; more on the order of a mild-dementia, for the same chronological age.
The Discovery of The Molecule Is Everything:
And here’s the great thing: Our Italian Pals Have Revealed [some of] THE WATCHWORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Before their Discovery, CR’s benefits to the brain at the molecular-level were more like Santeria or Voodoo.
Giov’blsmamamaglaaargggh!;…
-Let’s just Go*D*mn call him Gio’ okay?!! -GIO and his team Discovered and Displayed THE -ACTUAL, FREAKING- MOLECULE AT THE CENTER OF THE BENEFITS!!!!
… annnnd, how can they be sure, you wonder???
-There comes the darker side of the story…
The -Presence- of The Molecule Is Everything, Too:
Mice without CREB1 in their brains, but still Calorie-Restricted, experienced NONE OF THE BENEFITS.
[ahem, …]
BOOM!
[dun, dun, duuuuuuunnnnn!]
AND -HUMANS- CAN BE -JUST- AS CREB1-LESS AS A LAB MOUSE!
DOUBLE-BOOM!
Image: Pinky And The Brain Publicity Artwork, by Tom Ruegger, Warner Brothers Animation, Amblin Entertainment
Can We Get CREB1 To Those Who Don’t Have It?:
So: Going forward, the idea is to somehow:
1) Isolate the compound and get it into the brains of humans who are deficient.
2) Create a drug/Campari-and-Soda-of-Drugs that contain the Molecules AND give the average person the benefit of the Reduction;
-Without the [actual] Reduction.
Calorie Restriction Is Hellish-Awesome:
(because, I can tell you, as somebody who has tried CR, unless you’re eating exclusively Spinach and Horsebread all day, with nary a drop of fat or 1 gram of Fast Carbs, CR is MURDEROUS on a normal person.
-And by “murderous”, I mean, “no more chocolate. zip. zero. zilch. nada. niente. naught. nnnnnnnnnnn….. [ok, I just made myself cry there for a sec…; hang on-…]”.)
So: there you are. Calorie Restriction Benefits. Proved. Once-Again. And this time for your Brains!
JUMP BONUS!, The Lovely Rachel Brice, videoed Live at Zulu Lounge:
Links:
• via: Geekosystem
• More Coverage: UCSC,Rome-M&S Dept. | UCSC, Giovambattista Pani | Wikipedia-Way of The Dragon | HT-Keep Muscles Young, wi- oops; … ; … –I HAVE FALLEN AND I CAN’T GET UP!!! -or: Duck, Duck, UNABOMBER!
• Source Study: PNAS-A role for neuronal cAMP responsive-element binding (CREB)-1 in brain responses to calorie restriction
Leave a Reply