Human fuel efficiency

Considerable breakthroughs have been on-going in research attempts to understand the aging process. First, it is necessary to place some emphasis on the aging process and how we might define it. Largely, aging has a great amount to do with hereditary factors tied to an individual's genetic material in each cell nuclei. However, the effects of aging are manifest in another part of the cell, mitochondria. Mitochondria are the gas-tanks, so to speak, of our cells and convert glucose into ATP (adenosine-5'-triphosphate) to power cellular functions. ATP is a form of intracellular chemical energy as various enzymes "feed" off of it in a number of processes. Most of these processes include aspects of the cell cycle including its growth, differentiation, and death. As mitochondria perform these tasks, a by-product of the chemical reactions are molecules with unpaired electrons called free-radicals. Free-radical Theory suggests that these molecules when oxidized can cause damage to the cell and lead to their atrophic demise (antioxidants are molecules which prevent the free-radicals from oxidizing). Aside from genetics, this cellular death can be understood on a more readily observable level as tissue degeneration.

So, the question is, how are we to stop or at least delay cellular death? Leading the research on this question, or at least at the forefront of the media seems to be research from Sirtris Pharmaceuticals. Published last year in NATURE, studies dating back some years found that the natural compound resveratrol caused life-prolonging and disease resistant effects in animal test subjects. More recently, tests in caloric restriction on lab animals has shown a similar reaction at the cellular level. Cells go into a defensive state and become more efficient with the fuel they have when less is coming in. Caloric restriction places less biological stress on cells by reducing the reactions to produce ATP. A reduction in these reactions therefore limits the amount of free-radicals and their oxidized cell-killers. As far as similarities go, both resveratrol and caloric restriction activate the same enzyme, namely SIRT-1. SIRT-1 is a sirtuin, a family of enzymes which regulate cellular function. The SIRT-1 enzyme is believed to rejuvenate damaged mitochondria and unraveling DNA where other cell-repair proteins fail.

Other cellular regulators such as the gene IGF-1 have been tested for their ability to increase lifespans with limited success. While simpler organisms like yeast lived an amazing 10 times longer, complex organisms could have serious growth defects such as the presence of Laron Syndrome in an Ecuadorean population with a naturally occurring mutation to the gene.

From the published successes of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, nearly all large pharmaceutical companies are now working to develop mitochondria directed treatments. This could reach milestones in the prevention and treating of age-related illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and others. It is only a matter of time and money before a substantiated breakthrough ends up on the market. In the meantime, for any human guinea pigs, while I'm no dietitian as opposed to the self-imposed starvation of calorie restricted diets, I'd recommend a diet with plenty of antioxidants and more grape leaves, a known plentiful source of resveratrol.