Key to a long life - less insulin in the brain
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Good, old-fashioned diet and exercise might keep you young by reducing the action of insulin in the brain, researchers reported on Thursday.
They created mutant mice that over-ate, got fat and even had symptoms of diabetes, and yet lived 18 percent longer than normal lab mice. The secret: they lacked a certain key gene that affects insulin, the hormone that regulates glucose.
The genetic engineering mimicked the effects of eating less and exercising, the researchers report in the journal Science.
"This study provides a new explanation of why it's good to exercise and not eat too much," said Dr. Morris White, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Children's Hospital in Boston who led the study.
The findings also raise questions about how desirable it is to use insulin to treat type 2 diabetes, said the researchers.
Doctors know that people who exercise regularly live longer on average. Researchers have also learned that putting animals on a strict diet makes them live longer, although this has not yet been shown to work in people.
[...]
"Diet, exercise and lower weight keep your peripheral tissues sensitive to insulin," White said. That means the body needs to make less insulin.
"Since insulin turns on Irs2 in the brain, that means lower Irs2 activity, which we've linked to longer life span in the mouse," he said.
One obvious question is whether drugs can mimic the effects of having less Irs2, perhaps by interfering with its action. The researchers note that people who live to be 100 or more often have reduced insulin levels and their cells show better insulin sensitivity.
New diabetes drugs that increase insulin sensitivity may help, too, White said. But, he added: "The easiest way to keep insulin levels low in the brain is old-fashioned diet and exercise."
What kind of diet? A low fat diet, with lots of carbs to shoot insulin through the sky? Probably, right? Certainly not a low carb, atkins style diet. A diet which will lower your insulin, since carbs make insulin. Just blind. Do a study, and then tell people the same thing you would have told them, no matter what the outcome. It's kind of creepy in a way. Old fashioned. So, we've been telling you to eat low fat for so long, now it's just "old fashioned common sense." But when they first told people to eat low fat, we ate way more fat and less carbs then we do now, and heart disease didn't even exist as a condition in medical books. The real old fashioned diet, the one we've eaten for 2 million years, is essentially animal meat, high fat, with some berries and tubers in season- about 90% fat and protein. That's the diet that lowers insulin. Insulin is produced to handle glucose. Glucose is sugar, and it comes from sugar, and any kind of carb in our diet. Veggies make some glucose, but have lots of fiber so they're okay. Fructose doesn't make insulin, but it has its own problems. Eat lots of meat, preferably grassfed beef, and line caught fish, and omega 3's and you'll live longer. Too bad this article is too afraid to tell us the whole truth! Low fat products from the supermarket will shoot your insulin through the roof. Why won't this article tell us this?
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Good, old-fashioned diet and exercise might keep you young by reducing the action of insulin in the brain, researchers reported on Thursday.
They created mutant mice that over-ate, got fat and even had symptoms of diabetes, and yet lived 18 percent longer than normal lab mice. The secret: they lacked a certain key gene that affects insulin, the hormone that regulates glucose.
The genetic engineering mimicked the effects of eating less and exercising, the researchers report in the journal Science.
"This study provides a new explanation of why it's good to exercise and not eat too much," said Dr. Morris White, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Children's Hospital in Boston who led the study.
The findings also raise questions about how desirable it is to use insulin to treat type 2 diabetes, said the researchers.
Doctors know that people who exercise regularly live longer on average. Researchers have also learned that putting animals on a strict diet makes them live longer, although this has not yet been shown to work in people.
[...]
"Diet, exercise and lower weight keep your peripheral tissues sensitive to insulin," White said. That means the body needs to make less insulin.
"Since insulin turns on Irs2 in the brain, that means lower Irs2 activity, which we've linked to longer life span in the mouse," he said.
One obvious question is whether drugs can mimic the effects of having less Irs2, perhaps by interfering with its action. The researchers note that people who live to be 100 or more often have reduced insulin levels and their cells show better insulin sensitivity.
New diabetes drugs that increase insulin sensitivity may help, too, White said. But, he added: "The easiest way to keep insulin levels low in the brain is old-fashioned diet and exercise."
What kind of diet? A low fat diet, with lots of carbs to shoot insulin through the sky? Probably, right? Certainly not a low carb, atkins style diet. A diet which will lower your insulin, since carbs make insulin. Just blind. Do a study, and then tell people the same thing you would have told them, no matter what the outcome. It's kind of creepy in a way. Old fashioned. So, we've been telling you to eat low fat for so long, now it's just "old fashioned common sense." But when they first told people to eat low fat, we ate way more fat and less carbs then we do now, and heart disease didn't even exist as a condition in medical books. The real old fashioned diet, the one we've eaten for 2 million years, is essentially animal meat, high fat, with some berries and tubers in season- about 90% fat and protein. That's the diet that lowers insulin. Insulin is produced to handle glucose. Glucose is sugar, and it comes from sugar, and any kind of carb in our diet. Veggies make some glucose, but have lots of fiber so they're okay. Fructose doesn't make insulin, but it has its own problems. Eat lots of meat, preferably grassfed beef, and line caught fish, and omega 3's and you'll live longer. Too bad this article is too afraid to tell us the whole truth! Low fat products from the supermarket will shoot your insulin through the roof. Why won't this article tell us this?
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