The most robust intervention for slowing aging and maintaining health and function in animals is dietary caloric restriction (CR) (1). Although most studies of this phenomenon have been conducted in rodents and lower animals, data accumulating from rhesus monkeys suggest that CR may also be relevant for primates, including humans (2-5). These findings include CR-induced attenuation of age changes in plasma triglycerides (2) and melatonin (3) as well as oxidative damage (4) and glucose tolerance (5). Current mortality data from our ongoing studies in rhesus monkeys, although not yet statistically significant, reveal that mortality in CR monkeys is about half of that observed in controls (15% compared with 24%, respectively).
Moreover, because we have already demonstrated that two of the most robust biomarkers of CR in rodents, reduced body temperature and plasma insulin, also occur in rhesus monkeys on CR (2), it became important to assess their association with human survival. CR also slows the rate of decline in serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) such that restricted monkeys...
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