You may be able to extend your life and stay fit throughout your old age with a simple change of diet that switches on your “youth” gene.
Professor Cynthia Kenyon, whom many experts believe should win the Nobel Prize for her research into aging, has discovered that carbohydrates directly affect the genes that govern youthfulness and longevity.
By tweaking the genes of roundworms, she has been able to help them live up to six times longer than normal.
The genes that controlled aging in worms also do the same thing in rats and mice, probably monkeys, and there are signs they are active in humans, too. She found that turning down the gene that controls insulin in turn switches on another gene which acts like an elixir of life.
The Daily Mail reports:
“Discovering the … [first] gene has prompted the professor to dramatically alter her own diet, cutting right back on carbohydrates. That’s because carbs make your body produce more insulin (to mop up the extra blood sugar carbs produce) … so the vital second gene, the ‘elixir’ one, won’t get turned on.”
