A very low calorie ketogenic diet can help reverse organic aging

• A new Spain study has examined the link between obesity and epigenetic aging.
• Epigenetic aging refers to the way in which the body is aging at the molecular level; Sometimes the biological age of a person does not always correspond to their chronological age.
• They learned that a very low calorie ketogenic diet can reduce epigenetic aging over 6 years old.

Obesity affects more than 40% of adults In the United States, and one of the health problems linked to obesity is how it affects different systems in the body.

When the age of a person's body is higher than their chronological age, it can put them at a higher risk of developing chronic diseases. It is also linked to a shorter lifespan.

Scientists who conducted the new study explored obesity and Epigenetic aging.

They found that people with obesity who followed a very low calorie ketogenic diet for 180 days had an epigenetic age over 6 years below than when they started.

Ketogenic diets, formerly mainly used by people with epilepsy to reduce crises, are popular for weight loss. Thought behind ketogenic regime is by consuming a reduced amount of carbohydrates – generally less than 50 grams (g) of carbohydrates per day – people can put their body in metabolic ketosis and lose fat faster.

This approach is somewhat controversial Since a food group is restricted and some evidence suggest that it can lead to the increase in cholesterol of low density lipoproteins (LDL), which is linked to a higher risk of developing heart disease or having a stroke.

When a person's biological age is higher than their chronological age, it is sensitive to premature aging and a shorter lifespan.

Researchers in the new study have explored accelerated epigenetic aging, obesity and if a very low calorie ketogenic diet could have an impact on this aging measure.

They tested it using Horvath, Hannum and Levine age clocks in a transverse cohort of two groups and in a longitudinal cohort:

• Group one in the transverse cohort consisted of 20 people with normal weight
• Group two of the transverse cohort included 28 people with obesity
• The longitudinal cohort was made up of 10 people with obesity.

For the transverse cohort, the researchers focused on determining organic age. With the longitudinal cohort, they put the group on a very low calorie ketogenic diet for 180 days and took basic blood samples, after 30 days on the very low calorie ketogen diet, and at the end of 180 days to assess the biological age.

By comparing normal weight and age groups of obesity, researchers found that people in the obesity group had a higher organic age.

People with obesity had an accelerated epigenetic age of 4.4 years, while the inhabitants of the normal weight group presented a deceleration of 3.1 years.

Although this gap in aging between normal and obesity groups is worrying, the researchers have established with their longitudinal cohort that it is possible to reverse the aging process by nutritional choices.

During the analysis of blood samples taken at 30 days in nutritional ketosis – when the body is supposed to be burning fat – the participants had a deceleration of age 6.1 years.

At the end of 180 days, these participants underwent an age deceleration, with a deceleration of average age of 6.2 years.

Researchers suspect that being in nutritional ketosis is responsible for decelerated aging. They noted that the levels of beta-hydroxybutyrate, an ketone body produced during ketosis, were linked to slower biological aging.

In addition to suffering an age deceleration, people with very low ethogenic calories have experienced improvements in glucose and insulin levels, which is significant because people with obesity are more at risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Overall, scientists have established that obesity and biological aging are connected and that it can potentially be reversed. Researchers have noted that greater studies should be carried out to “strengthen and consolidate the role of ketone bodies in the epigenetic regulation of aging”.

Mir Ali, MD, general surgeon certified by the board of directors, bariatric surgeon and medical director of the Memorialcare Surgical Weight Loss Center at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, California, spoke with Medical news today on the study.

“The key factors by which obesity affects aging consists in inducing greater inflammation, oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction,” said Ali, who was not involved in this research, when explaining how obesity can accelerate biological age.

“Stress and inflammation cause increased degradation of critical cellular functions in the body, leading to accelerated aging,” he continued.

As for the results of the study, Ali found them interesting but was not convinced that the very low calorie ketogenic diet alone was responsible for age deceleration.

“It has been shown that a very low calorie ketogenic diet shows advantages, but any weight loss leading to a patient reaching a healthy weight has proven to improve all medical conditions and prolong the lifespan; It is difficult to definitively conclude that the type of diet is independent of weight loss, ”noted Ali.

Tiffany Marie Hendricks, double -sided MD certified in family medicine and lifestyle, also weighed on the study for Mnt. Hendricks, who was not involved in the study, is affiliated with full health and well-being in Athens, al.

It approached the very low calorie ketogenic diet from a clinical perspective. Hendricks had concerns about the security and sustainability of this approach.

“Translating it from the results of very low ketogenic diet in calories in clinical guidelines is faced with several challenges,” she told us.

Hendricks explained that:

“Very low-calorie Ketogenic Diet Involves Severe Calorie Restriction (Typically (Under) 800 Kcal/Day (kilocalories per day)) and high fat intake, which may pose risks like nutrients, electrolyte imbalances, or ketoacidosis if not Monitored.