http://neurosciencenews.com/ketogenic-diet-aging-7419/
Feels worthy of a deeper dive but don't have the time to read right now...Abstract
Ketogenic Diet Reduces Midlife Mortality and Improves Memory in Aging Mice
Highlights
•Feeding isoprotein ketogenic diet to mice every other week (Cyclic KD) avoids obesity
•Cyclic KD reduces midlife mortality with no change in maximum lifespan
•Cyclic KD prevents memory decline with modest other healthspan effects
•Gene expression of KD is similar to high-fat diet, except for activation of PPARα targets
Summary
Ketogenic diets recapitulate certain metabolic aspects of dietary restriction such as reliance on fatty acid metabolism and production of ketone bodies. We investigated whether an isoprotein ketogenic diet (KD) might, like dietary restriction, affect longevity and healthspan in C57BL/6 male mice. We find that Cyclic KD, KD alternated weekly with the Control diet to prevent obesity, reduces midlife mortality but does not affect maximum lifespan. A non-ketogenic high-fat diet (HF) fed similarly may have an intermediate effect on mortality. Cyclic KD improves memory performance in old age, while modestly improving composite healthspan measures. Gene expression analysis identifies downregulation of insulin, protein synthesis, and fatty acid synthesis pathways as mechanisms common to KD and HF. However, upregulation of PPARα target genes is unique to KD, consistent across tissues, and preserved in old age. In all, we show that a non-obesogenic ketogenic diet improves survival, memory, and healthspan in aging mice.
“Ketogenic Diet Reduces Midlife Mortality and Improves Memory in Aging Mice” by John C. Newman, Anthony J. Covarrubias, Minghao Zhao, Xinxing Yu, Philip Gut, Che-Ping Ng, Yu Huang, Saptarsi Haldar, Eand ric Verdin in Cell Metabolism. Published online September 5 2017 doi:10.1016/j.cmet.2017.08.004
