Giving up sweets and avoiding vitamins could help you live
longer, according to German researchers.
They found that restricting glucose--a simple sugar found in
foods such as sweets that is a primary source of energy for the
body--set off a process that extended the life span of some worms
by up to 25 percent.
The key was boosting the level of "free radicals"-- unstable
molecules that can damage the body and which people often try to
get rid of by consuming food or drinks rich in anti-oxidants such
as vitamin E, they said in a study published in the journal Cell
Metabolism.
Restricting glucose first spurred the worms to generate more
free radicals, but then they quickly built up long-lasting defences
against them, said Michael Ristow, an endocrinologist at the
University of Jena and the German Institute of Human Nutrition, who
led the study.
"During the process, the worm generates more free radicals,
which activates defences against free radicals within the worm," he
said in a telephone interview. "The bad thing in the end promotes
something good."
The body needs glucose, but taking in too much was unhealthy,
Ristow said.
Scientists have long known that restricting calorie intake in
worms and monkeys increases longevity, and the study narrowed that
idea further, to glucose.
The study also for the first time points to a possible reason
why antioxidants--long thought to promote health--might do more
harm than good, Ristow said.
The German team used a chemical that blocked the worms' ability
to process glucose in a treatment that extended their life span by
up to 25 percent, the equivalent of 15 years in humans.
The worms unable to depend on glucose increased energy power
sources in certain cells for fuel. That activity produced more free
radicals, which in turn generated enzymes that strengthened
long-time protection against the harmful molecules, Ristow
said.
However, antioxidants and vitamins given to some worms erased
these benefits by neutralising free radicals and preventing the
body from generating the defences, Ristow said.
"These latter findings tentatively suggest that the widespread
use of antioxidants as human food supplements may exert undesirable
effects," the researchers wrote.
(Agencies via China Daily October 8, 2007)
