Mild calorie restriction for 2 years vastly reduces biological aging: Study

Scientists have been trying to predict an individual’s biological age to promote healthy aging by identifying early signs of unhealthy aging.

Recently, they succeeded at devising two approaches namely PCAge and LinAge to measure biological age, predict mortality, and offer insights for healthier aging.

In order to provide actionable insights that help foster healthy aging, researchers used principal component analysis (PCA) to simplify complex clinical data and identify patterns indicating healthy or unhealthy aging.

Identifying contrasts between healthy and unhealthy aging

The study noted that employing the PCA technique helped scientists create a tool called PCAge, which can identify patterns (signatures) that show the difference between healthy and unhealthy aging.

“We found signatures of metabolic dysregulation, cardiac and renal dysfunction, and inflammation that predict unsuccessful aging, and we demonstrate that these processes can be impacted using well-established drug interventions,” the authors stated.

While undertaking the study including analyzing data sourced from the national Comprehensive Assessment of Long-term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy (CALERIE) study spanning over two years, the scientists discovered signs of issues with metabolism, heart and kidney problems, and inflammation that predict poor aging.

The study emphasized that the examination of CALERIE participants proffered two years of mild caloric restriction significantly reduces biological age.

Scientists found that these problems can be treated with existing medications.

“The CALERIE data in this paper confirm our previous findings indicating that the CALERIE intervention slowed the pace of biological aging ,” Daniel Belsky, an associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, told Newsweek .

“The observation of this similar result is important because the authors are using different tools developed in different ways to test the hypothesis and get the same result,” he added.

Re-training a custom clinical clock

LinAge method has been described as a simplified version of PCAge that uses fewer data points but still accurately predicts aging outcomes.

“We generated a streamlined aging clock (LinAge), based directly on PCAge, which maintains equivalent predictive power but relies on substantially fewer features,” the authors added.

LinAge uses fewer data points but still accurately predicts biological age and health outcomes. LinAge is directly based on the more complex PCAge method for stance, LinAge relies on fewer details to determine health outcomes but is still effective in predicting biological aging.

“Finally, we demonstrate that our approach can be tailored to individual datasets, by re-training a custom clinical clock (CALinAge), for use in the CALERIE study of caloric restriction,” the authors added.

“Our analysis of CALERIE participants suggests that two years of mild caloric restriction significantly reduces biological age.”

This study seeks to demonstrate that certain lifestyle changes, such as a reduced-calorie diet, can significantly reduce biological aging , thus improving overall health and longevity.

Therefore, scientists also suggested that individuals could benefit from a customized approach – CALinAge, to fit the unique characteristics and data of the CALERIE study.

Additionally, the CALERIE participants saw a reduction in cardiovascular disease risk factors and biological age despite a moderate calorie restriction of 12 percent.

Overall, scientists determined that dietary interventions can play a crucial role in slowing down the aging process and promoting healthier aging trajectories.

“Altogether, we demonstrate that this dimensionality reduction approach, through integrating different biological markers, can provide targets for preventative medicine and the promotion of healthy aging,” the authors said.

The study was published on June 19, 2024, in the journal – Nature Aging.