17. Can Low-Carb Slow The Aging Process?

08/23/24 • 11 min

Can Low-Carb Slow The Aging Process? Links and Show Notes

We all know that carb restriction causes weight loss, controls blood sugar, and can help treat all of the ugly effects of metabolic syndrome.

But what if carb restriction could make you younger?

It should be noted that this is, to some degree, a reworking of an article I wrote in November of 2010. But the information is still fascinating and very useful. So, here we go.

In 2010, University of California gerontologist Cynthia Kenyon hit the news with an animal study showing exactly that she’d actually discovered what she calls the Grim Reaper gene and another she calls the Sweet 16 gene, Insulin. the switch that turns on the former and turns off the latter.

Insulin and insulin-like growth factor or IGF-1, which means that by cutting carbs and lowering insulin you can reverse the process, switching off the Grim Reaper gene and turning on your Sweet 16 gene.

Or, at least she can in roundworms. Dr. Kenyon started with roundworms. presumably because A) they’re inexpensive and plentiful, and B) they have short lifespans. I mean, you try this stuff on a Galapagos tortoise and you’ll be passing the experiment on to your great-grandchildren. But roundworms generally hit old age in 18 days and croak by 20 days.

Dr. Kenyon managed to extend some of their lifespans to 144 days. That’s like you or me making it to 450 years. Woo hoo! Many people tell me that they don’t want to live to be old. I have long aspired to make it to at least 120. When I tell people this, they look at me as if I just said I was planning to paint my house fuchsia or wanted to take a vacation to Chornobyl.

Read the full article https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-17-can-low-carb-slow-the-aging-process.html

Website

https://CarbSmart.com

Find Hundreds of Articles and Delicious and Easy-to-Make Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender

https://www.carbsmart.com/author/dana

Featured Recipe

Low-Carb Toasted Almond and Coconut “Cereal” Recipe

Show Notes

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-17-can-low-carb-slow-the-aging-process.html

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Check out more CarbSmart Podcast Episodes.

Follow CarbSmart on Social Media

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Can Low-Carb Slow The Aging Process? Links and Show Notes

We all know that carb restriction causes weight loss, controls blood sugar, and can help treat all of the ugly effects of metabolic syndrome.

But what if carb restriction could make you younger?

It should be noted that this is, to some degree, a reworking of an article I wrote in November of 2010. But the information is still fascinating and very useful. So, here we go.

Read the full article https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-17-can-low-carb-slow-the-aging-process.html

Website

https://CarbSmart.com

Find Hundreds of Articles and Delicious and Easy-to-Make Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender

https://www.carbsmart.com/author/dana

Featured Recipe

Low-Carb Toasted Almond and Coconut “Cereal” Recipe

Show Notes

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-17-can-low-carb-slow-the-aging-process.html

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Check out more CarbSmart Podcast Episodes.

Follow CarbSmart on Social Media

#carbsmart #lowcarb #keto #ketodiet #ketorecipes #lowcarbdiet

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

16. Serenity Prayer for a Dedicated Low Carber

Serenity Prayer for a Dedicated Low Carber Links and Show Notes

Years ago, a reader told me that they admired me because I had stuck with my low-carb diet even though it had not given me the body of my dreams. Surely you’re familiar with the Alcoholics Anonymous Serenity Prayer – “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” I don’t care if you’re a praying person or not, nor to whom you pray if you are. But there is something important here.

Growing Up Overweight

When I was a kid, I desperately wanted to look like my Skipper doll. (Is Skipper still around? She was Barbie’s little sister.) I wanted to look like the girls in the magazines. I wanted clothes to fit me the way they fit Skipper, the way they fit the models in Young Miss and Tiger Beat (yes, I am that old).

They never did, and I never did. I could grow my hair to look more like Skipper’s, and I could even lose weight – I was on Weight Watchers starting at age eleven. But the hip clothes just didn’t look so hip on my body. I went straight from having the body of a child to having the body of a matron; I never had a gamine phase.

The things we can change and the things we cannot.

I could and did change my diet, my mental and physical health, my size. I learned to dress to flatter the body I have. But my skeleton? That sucker is literally graven in stone. There’s no changing it.

So there it is: my low-carb diet cannot give me the body of my dreams. Nor can exercise. Hell, radical surgery couldn’t do it, and pain, risk, and expense aside, at sixty-three it seems beside the point.

Read the full article https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-16-serenity-prayer-for-a-dedicated-low-carber.html

Website

https://CarbSmart.com

Find Hundreds of Articles and Delicious and Easy-to-Make Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender

https://www.carbsmart.com/author/dana

Featured Recipe

Low-Carb Blue Trout Recipe (La Truite Au Bleu)

Show Notes

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-16-serenity-prayer-for-a-dedicated-low-carber.html

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Check out more CarbSmart Podcast Episodes.

Follow CarbSmart on Social Media

#carbsmart #lowcarb #keto #ketodiet #ketorecipes #lowcarbdiet

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episode

18. Are You NOT Getting Enough Sodium on Your Low Carb Diet?

Are You NOT Getting Enough Sodium on Your Low-Carb Diet? Links and Show Notes

Sodium Deficiency – hyponatremia

I got to the piece in the beginning of The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living about the symptoms of sodium deficiency, also known as hyponatremia. And guess what? It sounded very familiar. I looked up hyponatremia online and found this: Symptoms of hyponatremia include nausea and vomiting, headache, confusion, lethargy, fatigue, appetite loss, restlessness and irritability, muscle weakness, spasms, or cramps, seizures, and decreased consciousness or coma. Sounded all too familiar. (Except for the coma part, thank heaven.)

I got to thinking about it, and it seemed possible I’d been eating less salt than I used to. I’ve been eating less in general since I went on the blood sugar medication Victoza. Too, I haven’t been eating a lot of dishes that have much salt mixed in, soups and stews and the like, because of the hot weather. There’s a limit to how much salt you can shake on your eggs or steak, you know? More than once I’ve substituted Greek yogurt with strawberries and nuts – very little sodium there – for supper. And of course, like everyone else, I sweat more in hot weather, losing sodium that way. Been eating a lot of veggies, so my potassium intake has been up, and potassium and sodium need to balance. All told, it seemed very possible that I had become hyponatremic.

Salt is an essential nutrient – our body needs sodium

The take-home message here is that despite the demonizing of sodium, it is an essential nutrient; without it we die. Low carbohydrate diets both normalize the body’s ability to excrete excess sodium and dramatically reduce our intake of processed foods, baked goods, chips, and other “snack foods,” the biggest sources of sodium in the modern American diet. So pay attention.

Read the full article https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-18-are-you-not-getting-enough-sodium-on-low-carb.html

Website

https://CarbSmart.com

Find Hundreds of Articles and Delicious and Easy-to-Make Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender

https://www.carbsmart.com/author/dana

Show Notes

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-18-are-you-not-getting-enough-sodium-on-low-carb.html

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Check out more CarbSmart Podcast Episodes.