by Robert Fortini

Created on: June 13, 2009   Last Updated: June 14, 2009

Exercise and Increased Quality of Life through Gene Expression.

In my previous article I discussed with you the life quality benefits that can be realized through the application of a regimen of regular exercise in your lifestyle. In this article, we will discuss recent studies that delve deeper into the system wide changes wrought by regular exercise, and show that exercise actually mimics gene expression associated with caloric restriction.

In a myriad of species, (spiders, rats, Fish) calorie restriction has been shown to increase longevity. (1) The mechanisms that produce this increase of life span in these creatures are thought to be the accumulated effects of a wide array of genes that are turned on by the environmental stressor of calorie restriction. However, the benefits of calorie restriction lose their luster when applied to humans. It is thought (though it has never been studied scientifically) that the same array of gene expression will be evinced in humans that partake of a calorie restricted diet, but the sacrifices attendant with a calorie restricted diet appear unacceptable when measured against the meager lifespan gain. (1)

Miranda Hitti writes:

It's long been known that rats live much longer than normal on extremely low-calorie diets.You can practically double their lifespan," says researcher John Phelan, PhD, in a news release.

"The same result has been found in fish, spiders, and many other species," he continues. "If it works for them, some thought, it should work for us; I'm here to tell you it doesn't."

Phelan is an evolutionary biologist at UCLA. He and his colleagues crunched numbers from rat and human longevity studies.

Their bottom line: Severely cutting calories might extend human life a little bit, but not much, and the sacrifice likely wouldn't be worth it. The report appears in Ageing Research Reviews.

Not Your Average Diet

The researchers aren't writing about cutting out a bonbon here or there or making diets a bit leaner.

Instead, rats in longevity studies got so few calories that they could no longer reproduce. The rats simply didn't have enough energy to breed and rear the next generation.

That saved the rats a lot of effort. Without the wear and tear of parenting, their bodies got a break, and they lived longer.

But people are different. They don't give birth to litters of babies per pregnancy or reproduce as often as rats.

So even if someone starved themselves enough to shut down fertility - and stayed that

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