For decades, scientists have known that restricting calories puts the brakes on aging in everything from worms to mice. But, last year, University of Wisconsin researchers inched closer to the holy grail (human proof) when they found that r
hesus monkeys on a calorie-restriction diet were half as likely to get cancer, heart disease and diabetes than their calorie-munching peers. And less disease equals longevity. Indeed, those monkeys eating and aging “normally” died at three times the rate of those nibbling on 30 percent fewer calories.

“There is no question that calorie-restriction dieting increases the life span of any species,” says Eric Ravussin, Ph.D., director of the Nutrition Obesity Research Center at Louisiana State University. But the potential for longevity in people is still not clear. However, not everyone is waiting for the final verdict. Lisa Walford, 55, coauthor of The Longevity Diet, has followed a calorie-restriction diet for more than 20 years. She attributes her physical and mental vitality to yoga and consuming fewer calories.

Calorie-restriction dieting is about minimizing calories and maximizing nutrients. The first step is to determine the number of calories you need to maintain your body’s “set point,” which is the weight your body naturally gravitates toward if you make no effort to lose or gain weight. Then you aim to eat fewer calories, which is where the weight loss enters.

In animal studies, the biggest boon—a 50-percent jump in life span—surfaces when calories are sliced by 40 percent, but the most people can reasonably expect to cut is 25 percent, says Ravussin. Researchers have tried to cut people’s calories by 30 percent, but volunteers find the diet unsustainable.

So, what does a 25-percent restriction look like? If you can consume 2,000 calories a day and maintain your “set point” weight, your new goal should be 1,500 calories. A typical day’s menu may include a bowl of lentil soup for lunch, and a heaping salad full of colorful vegetables for dinner. The motivation is to eat fewer calories and more nutritional foods.

Obesity increases the likelihood of many diseases such as cancer and diabetes, but being very thin also brings its own health problems and may also put the body under great stress. So, it is important to sustain yourself with enough food that maximizes the most nutrition known to man. By eating dark colored organic produce and sprouted beans like mung, garbanzo and adzuki plus adding quinoa and other whole grains like hulled barley, wheat berries and buckwheat, your body will thrive with these super foods.

To sum up, restricting number of calories consumed along with doing regular exercises will be the sanest course to ensure weight loss acquire physical fitness and lead a long and healthy life. It is unwise to opt for either calorie restriction or physical exercises and renounce the other as both are equally essential.

Fasting for Health and Longevity: Nobel Prize Winning Research on Cell Agin

Japanese cell biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2016 for his research on how cells recycle and renew their content, a process called autophagy. Fasting activates autophagy, which helps slow down the aging process and has a positive impact on cell renewal.

What is Autophagy?

During starvation, cells break down proteins and other cell components and uses them for energy. During autophagy, cells destroy viruses and bacteria and get rid of damaged structures. It’s a process that is critical for cell health, renewal, and survival.

Ohsumi’s Work

Ohsumi created a whole new field of science with his work studying autophagy in yeast. He discovered that the autophagy genes are used by higher organisms including humans, and that mutations in these genes can cause disease. Animals, plants, and single cell organisms rely on autophagy to withstand famines.

Although first discovered in the 1960’s, Ohsumi’s research from the late 1980’s and early 1990’s through today has shown autophagy has a role in protection against inflammation and in diseases like dementia and Parkinson’s. When Ohsumi started researching autophagy, there were fewer than 20 papers published each year on the subject; now there are more than five thousand each year as it is the subject of diverse fields including cancer and longevity.

Fasting for Health

Scientists have found that fasting for 12+ to 24+ hours triggers autophagy, and is thought to be one of the reasons that fasting is associated with longevity. There is a large body of research that connects fasting with improved blood sugar control, reduced inflammation, weight loss, and improved brain function; Oshumi’s research provides some of the “how” to this research. Exercise can also induce autophagy in some cells, allowing cells to start the repair and renewal process.

“Sporadic short-term fasting, driven by religious and spiritual beliefs, is common to many cultures and has been practiced for millennia, but scientific analyses of the consequences of caloric restriction are more recent. Published studies indicate that the brain is spared many of the effects of short-term food restriction, perhaps because it is a metabolically privileged site that, relative to other organs, is protected from the acute effects of nutrient deprivation, including autophagy. We show here that this is not the case: short-term food restriction induces a dramatic upregulation of autophagy in cortical and Purkinje neurons…Our observation that a brief period of food restriction can induce widespread upregulation of autophagy in CNS neurons may have clinical relevance. As noted above, disruption of autophagy can cause neurodegenerative disease, and the converse also may hold true: upregulation of autophagy may have a neuroprotective effect.”

Fasting in the Blue Zones

Throughout the history of humankind, fasting has been part of religious, spiritual, and health practices. In the Blue Zones region of Ikaria, long-living people there observe about 150 days of religious fasting a year.

Note: Fasting for long periods should always be done under the supervision of a doctor. If you don’t eat after 7pm until 7am the next morning, then that is technically a 12-hour fast and why our first meal of the day is called “breakfast.” Dr. Valter Longo, the Director of the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, recommends most people eat two meals a day if they have trouble with overeating. If someone eats their last meal at 4pm and has breakfast the next day at 7am, then this is a 15-hour fast.

“As research into autophagy has expanded, it has become clear that it is not simply a response to starvation. It also contributes to a range of physiological functions, such as inhibiting cancer cells and aging, eliminating pathogens and cleaning the insides of cells. We have also begun to see a small explosion in research that demonstrates a new function with the knocking out genes that contribute to autophagy. However, there is still much we do not know about the mechanism of autophagy and this calls for serious study. I hope to go on to study autophagy at the molecular level, to tackle the mechanism head-on. That is my mission.”

WHAT DOES SPIRULINA CONTENT ?

With over 100 nutrients, Spirulina is often described as the most complete food source in the world. The American National Aeronautical and Space Agency includes it in their astronauts diet and plans to grow Spirulina in it’s space station. It’s easy to see why.

Japan has some good examples of some Japanese seniors who have only relied on Spirulina and water for more than 20 years showing how good is Spirulina for the human body.

Spirulina is often deemed the most nutritionally complete of all food supplements, containing a rich supply of many important nutrients, including protein, complex carbohydrates, iron, and vitamins A, K, and B complex. It also has a high supply of carotenoids such as beta carotene and yellow xanthophylls which have antioxidant properties. It is also rich in chlorophyll, fatty and nucleic acids, and lipids. Thus, spirulina has countless uses as a supplement for maintaining good health and for preventing diseases.

Spirulina is the richest beta carotene food, with a full spectrum of ten mixed carotenoids. About half are orange carotenes: alpha, beta and gamma and half are yellow xanthophylls.Synthetic beta carotene has not always shown these benefits. Research in Israel showed natural beta carotene from algae was far more effective. Natural is better assimilated and contains the key 9-cis isomer, lacking in synthetic. As suspected, natural carotenoids in algae and vegetables have the most antioxidant and anti-cancer power.

Spirulina is an ideal anti-aging food; concentrated nutrient value, easily digested and loaded with antioxidants. Beta carotene is good for healthy eyes and vision. Spirulina beta carotene is ten times more concentrated than carrots.

Iron is essential to build a strong system, yet is the most common mineral deficiency. Spirulina is rich in iron, magnesium and trace minerals, and is easier to absorb than iron supplements.

Spirulina is the highest source of B-12, essential for healthy nerves and tissue, especially for vegetarians. Having said that, there does seem to be lots of evidence that the Vit B12 is in a slightly different form than that which can easily be absorbed by Humans, so it is debatable how much good this B12 will do you. It seems to be only the B12 there is this absorption issue with though, and the rest of the nutrients do seem to be bio-actively available to the body.

Healthy Dieting with Spirulina

About 60% of spirulina’s dry weight is protein, which is essential for growth and cell regeneration. It is a good replacement for fatty and cholesterol-rich meat and dairy products in one’s diet. Every 10 grams of spirulina can supply up to 70% of the minimum daily requirements for iron, and aboutthree to four times of minimum daily requirements for vitamins A (in the form of beta carotene), B complex, D,and K. By itself, it does not contain vitamin C, but it helps maintain this vitamin’s potency.

Spirulina is rich in gamma-linolenic acid or GLA, a compound found in breast milk that helps develop healthier babies. Moreover, with its high digestibility, spirulina has been proven to fight malnutrition in impoverished communities by helping the body absorb nutrients when it has lost its ability to absorb normal forms of food.

Another health benefit of spirulina is that it stimulates beneficial flora like lactobacillus and bifidobacteria in your digestive tract to promote healthy digestion and proper bowel function. It acts as a natural cleanser by eliminating mercury and other deadly toxins commonly ingested by the body.

Spirulina also increases stamina and immunity levels in athletes, and its high protein content helps build muscle mass. At the same time, it can curb hunger that may develop during the most demanding training routines. Thus, it indirectly acts as an effective way to maintain an athlete’s ideal body weight.

The Disease Fighter

As well as beta carotene, Spirulina contains other nutrients such as iron, manganese, zinc, copper, selenium, and chromium. These nutrients help fight free radicals, cell-damaging molecules absorbed by the body through pollution, poor diet, injury, or stress. By removing free radicals, the nutrients help the immune system fight cancer and cellular degeneration. In some findings, spirulina has helped reduce oral cancer tumors in laboratory rats, and may thus provide a big medical breakthrough in cancer treatment.

Spirulina’s ability to reduce the bad cholesterol LDL in the body helps prevent the onset of cardiovascular diseases, such as hardening of the arteries and strokes. It also helps lower blood pressure. While not clinically proven, spirulina may also protect against allergic reactions and liver infection.

Removing Toxins

In 1994, a Russian Patent was awarded for spirulina as a medical food to reduce allergic reactions from radiation sickness. 270 Children of Chernobyl consuming 5 grams a day for 45 days (donated by Earthrise Farms), lowered radionucleides by 50%, and normalized allergic sensitivities. Today we are subject to an onslaught of toxic chemicals in our air, water, food and drugs. Our bodies need to continually eliminate these accumulated toxins. Spirulina has a completely unique combination of phytonutrients – including chlorophyll, phycocyanin and polysaccharides, that can help cleanse our bodies.

PHYCOCYANIN is being studied more and more by scientists in recent years. The word “phycocyanin” comes from the Greek word for Algae “phyco” and the Greek word for blue “cyan.”  Phycocyanin is an amazing water-soluble blue pigment that gives Spirulina its bluish tint. Phycocyanin is only found in blue-green algae like Spirulina—you can’t get it in other foods. Phycocyanin is one of the key ingredients that makes Spirulina such a wonderful, health-enhancing superfood, and a vital difference between spirulina and other foods like chlorella, wheat grass and barley grass.

Phycocyanin is a powerful water soluble antioxidant. Scientists in Spain shows that an extract of Spirulina containing phycocyanin is a potent free radical scavenger and inhibits microsomal lipid peroxidation. (Pinero et al, 2001). Spirulina has many different types of antioxidants, and the unique nature of phycocyanin makes Spirulina a level above other antioxidant foods or formulas. It is the phycocyanin in Spirulina that is thought to help protect against renal (kidney) failure caused by certain drug therapies administered in hospitals. Phycocyanin has also shown promise in treating cancer in animals and stimulating the immune system (Iijima et al 1982). A recent study showed that phycocyanin is a powerful anti-inflammatory (Reddy et al 2000). It has also been shown to inhibit the allergic inflammatory response (Remirez et al 2002). Phycocyanin combats inflammation as a Cox-2 inhibitor. Prescription Cox-2 inhibitors can damage the liver, but phycocyanin actually helps the liver.

A great deal of research has been done in Japan on phycocyanin. The Japanese have found the phycocyanin protects the liver and the kidneys during detoxification, as well as activating the immune system. Researchers at the Osaka Medical Center for Cancer and Cardiovascular Diseases said: “Spirulina is surmised to potentiate theimmune system leading to suppression ofcancer development and viral infection.” Their human clinical study showed that a hot water extract of Spirulina rich in phycocyanin increased interferon production and NK cytotoxicity (cancer killing cells) when taken orally. (Hirahashi et al, 2002). Continue on for more eye-opening information.

Another study indicated that Spirulina had an anti-arthritic effect in mice, which they said may be due to the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties of phycocyanin (Remirez et al, 2002).

Study in Cuba concluded that phycocyanin isantioxidant, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective (brain) and hepatoprotective (liver) effects (Romay et al 2003). Their work was done both in-vitro and in-vivo. In 12 experimental modules of inflammation, phycocyanin exerted a dose-dependant anti-inflammatory effect in every case. These scientists also found that phycocyanin reduced levels of tumor necrosis factor in mice and showed neuroprotective effects in rats.

An interesting study was done in Ukraine (where Spirulina had previously shown effectiveness in removing radioactivity from the urine of children suffering from high levels of radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear accident). This study was done with rats that were exposed to x-rays. The study found that rats fed phycocyanin experienced a correcting effect of the radiation exposure

Who should take Spirulina?

1. Children who don’t like or get enough vegetables and or have an imbalanced food intake.
2. Teenagers during their rapid growing period need a sufficient injection of nutrients. Spirulina is ideal for this.
3. Pregnant mums who need extra nutrients.
4. Seniors who have difficulty in having reasonable average 3 meals per day.
5. Sport lovers or athletics who need extra nutrients to keep their energy levels up.
6. Modern busy people who don’t have the time to eat good meals.
7. Patients or people who need high volumes of nutrients to assist recovery (please consult your doctor)
8. Vegetarians who require extra nutrient sources

Who shouldn’t take too much Spirulina?

1. People with hyperparathyroidism
2. People who have serious allergies to seafood or seaweed.
3. Patients current experiencing high fever.