What Does This Worm Have to do With You?

Well, according to Cynthia Kenyon, quite a bit. Kenyon is Director of the UCSF Center for the Biology of Aging as well as an American Cancer Research Society Research Professor. I happened upon this video on Art DeVany's private blog (http://www.arthurdevany.com/).

The worm pictured is known as a c-elegan. It is used in the research of aging because it has a relatively short lifespan (about two weeks). I have placed links to Kenyon's talks about her findings at the bottom of this post. For those interested in the information but not in the unabridged presentation, I offer the following brief synopsis:

First, damage to a gene known as daf-2 actually doubled the lifespan of the worms. The damage to this particular gene also enabled the "elderly" c-elegan to move like a young whipper snapper c-elegan. This daf-2 gene is a hormone receptor. Remember from high school biology, hormones send messages. Hang with me on this.

The daf-2 receptors are similar to two receptors in humans. These two receptors are the receptors for Insulin like Growth factor 1 (IGF-1) and Insulin. IGF-1 and Insulin send messages that tell the body to promote growth and food storage. Conversely, low Insulin and IGF-1 signaling tell the body to turn on cell maintenance and stress resistance, not growth.

Current genetic research is suggesting a connection with an organism's ability to resist stress and a long, active lifespan. This is what was displayed with the c-elegan. As mentioned above, low Insulin and IGF-1 signaling promote stress resistance at a cellular level.

So, how do we down regulate these two receptors?

By promoting insulin sensitivity and having overall low insulin levels.

Practical ways to do this include:

• Eating a diet based on meat, vegetables, fruit and nuts. Ditching the grains, sugar and processed food-like substances (these raise insulin chronically and decrease insulin sensitivity).
• Engaging in brief, intense, intermittent exercise. Too much exercise burns out stress receptors, messes up insulin sensitivity and catabolizes lean body mass. In my opinion, most ultra endurance athletes don't age particularly well. More is not always better.
• Getting enough quality sleep and dealing with life's stressors appropriately.

See the primer and nutrition info which are found in the links section for more information.

Here are the links to Kenyon's talk: http://www.scivee.tv/node/8583

http://www.scivee.tv/node/10340

There is far more detail and information presented in the actual lectures. Sorry for the run-on paragraph above. Blogger's toying with me.