Shillong, September 3: A study conducted in yeast highlights the potential benefits of eating right and maintaining a healthy diet in early life for promoting good health in old age. Yeast serves as a valuable model organism for studying aging, sharing many cellular mechanisms with animals and humans.
As per IANS, researchers at the Babraham Institute in the UK propose that healthy aging can be attainable through dietary changes without the need for calorie restriction, challenging the notion that ill-health is an inevitable aspect of aging.
While it has long been known that caloric restriction, intentionally consuming fewer calories than usual without malnutrition, can enhance later-life health and potentially extend lifespan, studies in mice have shown that this effect is contingent on lifelong caloric restriction, with health benefits diminishing upon returning to a normal diet.
The new research, published in the journal PLOS Biology, conducted in yeast, offers an alternative to caloric restriction that can promote better health throughout the entire lifespan.
Lead researcher Dr. Dorottya Horkai explains, “We show that diet in early life can switch yeast onto a healthier trajectory. By giving yeast a different diet without restricting calories, we were able to suppress senescence, when cells no longer divide, and loss of fitness in aged cells.”
The study involved swapping yeast’s usual glucose-rich diet for galactose, resulting in a reduction of typical age-related molecular changes. Cells grown on galactose maintained their fitness, resembling young cells even in old age, effectively reducing the period of ill-health toward the end of life.
Importantly, the dietary change’s impact was most significant in young cells, and its effects in old yeast were less pronounced. While the translation of youth between yeast and humans is complex, the research aligns with the concept that establishing a healthy diet from an early age can contribute to a long and healthy life.
This avenue of research in yeast suggests a potentially more practical way to enhance healthy aging through dietary choices compared to sustained and severe calorie restriction, although further research is necessary to fully understand its implications.