Faculty Opinions recommendation of Impact of caloric restriction on health and survival in rhesus monkeys from the NIA study.

Life extension by calorie restriction (CR) has been widely reported in a variety of species and remains on the forefront of anti-aging intervention studies.We report healthspan(definition) and survival effects of CR from a 23-year study in rhesus macaques conducted at the National Institute on Aging (NIA).CR initiated at older ages did not increase survival relative to Controls; however, CR monkeys demonstrated an improved metabolic profile and may have less oxidative stress as indicated by plasma isoprostane levels.When initiated in young monkeys, there was a trend (p=0.06) for a delay in age-associated disease onset in CR monkeys; but again, survival curves were not improved, in contrast to another study reported in the literature.This suggests that the effects of CR in a long-lived animal are complex and likely dependent on a variety of environmental, nutritional, and genetic factors.Calorie restriction (CR) is often reported as the most robust non-genetic mechanism to extend lifespan and healthspan.Typically involving reductions of 10-40% in intake of a nutritious diet, the CR paradigm is frequently used as a tool to understand mechanisms that contribute to aging and age-associated diseases.In addition to lifespan, CR has also been reported to delay or prevent the occurrence of many chronic diseases in a variety of animals.