Peter Attia discusses his diet to delay the aging process
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While it is generally accepted that diet plays a significant role in human aging, conducting randomized clinical trials to elucidate this role is impractical. Therefore, researchers must rely on a combination of animal research and relevant biomarkers to estimate how alterations in lifestyle or diet affect human longevity. While both of these approaches have shortcomings, they remain the best tools available until new methodologies emerge. In this clip, Dr. Peter Attia explains the challenges involved in studying how diet and lifestyle affect longevity in humans.
Rhonda: What are you eating, then, to try to delay the aging process like what is...so diet obviously plays a very important role in aging and I'm trying to figure out exactly the best diet to eat and talk a little bit about what I think, but I'd love to get some of your thoughts.
Peter: So I mean think the short answer is we don't know definitively, and I don't think we're going to know definitively if you define "definitively" as a randomized clinical trial of longevity in humans. We have to posit that we're never going to figure that out. So instead we have to rely on proxies. So we look at proxies in animals where you can do virtually anything you want in a totally controlled setting but then you run the risk of two things. One, are you identifying diets that are clinically and biologically meaningful to your host? For example, if you put a humanized diet into a mouse what you learn may or may not extrapolate to the human.
And then secondly, you're really hindered by the idea that you're studying that animal in an artificial environment and when you reduce the risk of a subset of death, a subset of causes of death which is effectively metabolic disease, you're often unable to measure what in my opinion is an underappreciated risk that comes on, which is, sort of, the more sudden and traumatic causes of death that we take for granted, especially in the case of caloric restriction. So that's the problem with animals. Then what we do in humans is we kind of rely on our best proxy biomarkers that we think reflect the systems that drive aging and we can measure those things over time and sort of estimate what we think is the effective this dietary change or that dietary change or this lifestyle change or that drug change on those things.
And so I basically try to focus my efforts on, sort of, converging those two worlds but acknowledging that we're never going to know the answer for certain and we're going to have to use our best judgment around those things and hope that in time certain other things do become available. For example, it would be really great if there is a way in the blood to measure the activity of mTOR. We don't have that. It would also be great if we could measure other growth pathways like the RAS pathway without having to rely on tissue biopsies and things like that.
A measurable substance in an organism that is indicative of some phenomenon such as disease, infection, or environmental exposure.
The practice of long-term restriction of dietary intake, typically characterized by a 20 to 50 percent reduction in energy intake below habitual levels. Caloric restriction has been shown to extend lifespan and delay the onset of age-related chronic diseases in a variety of species, including rats, mice, fish, flies, worms, and yeast.
An enzyme that participates in genetic pathways that sense amino acid concentrations and regulate cell growth, cell proliferation, cell motility, cell survival, protein synthesis, autophagy, and transcription. mTOR integrates other pathways including insulin, growth factors (such as IGF-1), and amino acids. It plays key roles in mammalian metabolism and physiology, with important roles in the function of tissues including liver, muscle, white and brown adipose tissue, and the brain. It is dysregulated in many human diseases, such as diabetes, obesity, depression, and certain cancers. mTOR has two subunits, mTORC1 and mTORC2. Also referred to as “mammalian” target of rapamycin.
Rapamycin, the drug for which this pathway is named (and the anti-aging properties of which are the subject of many studies), was discovered in the 1970s and is used as an immunosuppressant in organ donor recipients.
A study in which people are randomly allocated to receive one of several clinical interventions. One of these interventions is the standard of comparison or control. The control may be a standard practice, a placebo, or no intervention at all.
Ras is a family of related proteins called GTPases that function as molecular switches regulating pathways responsible for cell growth, proliferation, differentiation, and survival.
Mutations in the Ras family of proto-oncogenes are very common and are found in 20% to 30% of all human tumors.
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