Category Archives: Diet And Food

Its Wednesday, and my butt wont fit in any skinny bundles.

Hello from Los Angeles, where were scrutinizing our cable bills, waiting for Jim Gianopuloss car to drive through the Paramount gates, and handing out barf bags at the Nuart.

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Every month I pay a DirecTV bill roughly equivalent to the G.D.P. of Samoa for the handful of channels I watch most oftenHBO, TCM, FX, Bravo, and HGTV. My husband also watches a lot of sports and cable news, so we also pay for a bunch of channels where guys in fitted suits yell at each other. Along the way come freeloaders we dont ever watchsorry, Golf Channel. But that might change soon. Both Variety and The Wall Street Journal published in-depth, data-driven reports this week about how these kinds of giant cable packages are going on a diet, as media companies shut down the niche networks with smaller audiences to trim costs, and cable companies try to hold onto consumers deserting them for cheaper streaming services. Journal reporters Shalini Ramachandran and Keach Hagey analyzed the financial and viewership information for more than 100 TV networks, and found within some downright bargainsthe Hallmark Channel, for instance, is super-cheap for cable operators to carry considering the giant audience it brings in for its feel-good original movies. MTV Classic, meanwhile, is priced well above retail.

Matthew Broderick in The Cable Guy, 1996.

From Columbia/Everett Collection.

In a slightly more wonkish Variety cover story on the same phenomenon, Cynthia Littleton and Daniel Holloway quote Turner Broadcasting distribution president Coleman Breland on the effect niche channels have on the marketplace. So many of these networks do less than 100,000 viewers in total-day average; there just arent enough eyeballs to support them, Breland said. But theyre taking money out of the ecosystem. The Variety piece also has an exhaustive, color-coded chart that lays out all five of the slimmed-down cable options currently available. Alas, none contains the precise collection of shows I watch, so Ill just keep shaking my fist at the sky every month when my bill comes.

Complaining about your cable/satellite bill is, of course, a long-standing consumer practice. (If youre wondering what a cable bill is, its the thing your parents pay so you can have their HBOGo password.) Which is why I found this one little statistic in a Morning Consult study out this morning on the future of TV so interesting: 80 percent of Americans have a favorable view of Netflix, the biggest name in streaming, vs. 43 percent who have a favorable view of Xfinity, the biggest name in cable/satellite. Buffer that news.

The Motion Picture Association of America released its 2016 Theatrical Market Statistics report today, and there are some interesting nuggets in here. Overall, global box office grew 1 percent to $38.6 billion, while the market in the U.S. and Canada rose 2 percent to $11.4 billion. The average cinema ticket price in the U.S. increased by 22 cents to $8.65 in 2016, and moviegoing in the U.S. essentially stayed steady, with 1.32 billion tickets sold. Still, the M.P.A.A. wants us to know, Movie theaters continue to draw more people than all theme parks and major U.S. sports combined.

One thing that stands out is that per capita attendance is up among non-white audiences. The group the M.P.A.A. classifies as Asians/Other Ethnicities reported the highest annual attendance per capita, going to the cinema an average of 6.1 times in the year. And the movie that drew the most ethnically diverse audience, the M.P.A.A. says, was Disneys live action Jungle Book remake, a big-screen spectacle that starred an Indian-American newcomer (Neel Sethi) and an international cast of voice actors including Idris Elba, Bill Murray, Lupita Nyongo, Scarlett Johansson, and Ben Kingsley. Two other Disney movies, Finding Dory and Captain America: Civil War, were next in line. I can tell you categorically that there is an effort to provide more diversity and inclusion in the creation of content, M.P.A.A. chief Chris Dodd said on a conference call about the data. Theres no question in my mind the message has been received [by the studios].

After a two-week courtship, Paramount Pictures and former Fox chairman Jim Gianopulos appear close to making their match official. The negotiations for the man the town knows as Jim G to take the top Paramount job have played out in the trades with increasing breathlessness. Will he or wont he?! Gianopuloss insistence on autonomy in greenlighting has been a sticking point for Via, according to multiple outlets. The Hollywood Reporters Kim Masters and Gregg Kilday quote multiple sources saying the parties are closer together than ever now, writing, Viacom is now offering Gianopulos greenlight authority for films with budgets up to about $100 million or perhaps more, ensuring that he can operate without a greenlight committee except for the most expensive movies.

VF.coms Joanna Robinson e-mails:

Even smaller-scale dramas are getting in on the Game of Thrones and Walking Deadesque secret-keeping. Until she cropped up unexpectedly in Tuesday nights episode of FXs The Americans, the fate of Alison Wrights much-abused secretary Martha Hanson was up in the air. In an interview, Wright told us that, like Thrones star Kit Harington and The Walking Deads Steven Yeun before her, shes been endlessly hounded with questions since the day Martha disappeared last season. Martha isnt a typical hero like Jon Snow or Glenn Rhee, but Wright explains the allure of her low-level F.B.I. employee: Shes what all of us would most likely be in this scenario. Wed like to think that wed be the Jenningsthat wed be badasses. But the likelihood is that wed be the Martha. This is a huge week for Wright, who also makes her Broadway debut in Sweat and steals the show on this Sundays Feud. In other words, never count a Martha out.

VF.coms Yohana Desta e-mails:

Raw, French director Julia Ducournaus bloody drama, is making quite a name for itself. The gory cannibal film, about a girl whose palate shifts to something more carnivorous (a.k.a. human flesh), made headlines when it was reported some filmgoers at the Toronto International Film Festival gagged and passed out during screening due to the movies graphic content. Paramedics had to be called intwice. But never fear, the Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles has come up with a fun way to ease queasy viewers: handing out custom-made barf bags, of course. Pamela McClintock of The Hollywood Reporter writes that a staff member at the Nuart thought it would be fun to make barf bags out of paper lunch bags, and pass them out right before a screening. Just in case. Imagine the pure horror of someone who decided to blindly go into a Raw screening, only to later be approached by an usher wielding a barf bag and going, Hereyou might need this.

Thats the news for this cloudy Wednesday in L.A. What are you seeing out there? Send tips, comments, and the name of a channel I should be watching to rebecca_keegan@condenast.com. Follow me on Twitter @thatrebecca.

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TV Is Going on a Diet - Vanity Fair

Some people become vegetarians because they love animals. Some, as comedian A. Whitney Brown put it, because they hate plants.

But vegans are committed. Not only do they not eat food that harms or kills animals, some don't even want food that inconveniences animals.

Like honey. Hardcore vegans will not eat honey because, as Noah Lewis of vegetus.org puts it, "the simple fact is that the bees are enslaved." Similarly, some vegans will not eat sugar because, while it comes entirely from a plant, some sugar is whitened by using bone char, which comes from animals.

Although the vegan diet lacks in meat, dairy and egg products or because of it the diet can be better for you than that which the standard American eats. In 2009, the American Dietetic Association took the position that vegetarian and vegan diets reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer and diabetes, and lead to lower cholesterol and blood pressure.

It can be healthy, but there are some things to watch out for when on a vegan diet: You have to make sure to get enough protein and vitamin B-12 and calcium, iodine, vitamin D, iron, zinc and n-3 fatty acids.

Fortunately, a well-balanced vegan diet provides all of these essential nutrients, though you may want to take vitamin B-12 supplements, just in case.

Still, cooking a well-balanced vegan diet can be difficult, at least if you want to stick to what most Americans think of as normal ingredients. Many vegan recipes attempt to re-create meatless versions of familiar meat-based dishes, and to do so they rely on such potentially off-putting ingredients as vegan chicken, egg replacers and nondairy cheese.

Other recipes use soy products such as tofu and tempeh for their protein, and it is one of these that I tried first in cooking a vegan diet for a day.

Mee Goreng, which is a type of stir-fried noodles, is popular street fare in the Philippines. When I have had it before, it always had meat in it, usually chicken or shrimp or both. But then I came upon a vegan recipe for it using tofu, and tofu fans are sure to be instantly hooked.

If they like spicy food, that is. As with a lot of street food, Mee Goreng usually packs a kick. If you want it milder, simply trim down or eliminate the amount you use of sambal oelek, the all-purpose Indonesian and Malaysian ground chili paste.

Also as is the case with much street food, Mee Goreng tends to be a little oily. The recipe calls for 5 tablespoons of oil for four to six servings; I got by with four tablespoons, but that is still a quarter cup of oil.

Do you need it? Yes. The oil brings the dish together, from the spicy sambal to the faintly bitter bok choy to the sweet sauce made from equal parts of soy sauce, brown sugar and molasses.

The tofu, which has the amazing ability to soak up all the flavors in which it is cooked, serves as a protein-rich punctuation to the meal.

1 pound fresh Chinese noodles yellow wheat or "stir fried" or 12 ounces dried spaghetti or linguine

cup packed dark brown sugar

4 large shallots; 2 minced and 2 sliced thin

2 teaspoons sambal oelek, see note

14 ounces extra-firm tofu, cut into 1-inch cubes

5 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided

1 pound bok choy, stalks and greens separated and sliced -inch thick

4 scallions, sliced thin on bias

Note: Sambal oelek can be found in the international aisle of grocery stores.

1. Bring 4 quarts water to boil in a large pot. Add noodles and cook, stirring often, until tender. Drain noodles and set aside.

2. Whisk sugar, molasses and soy sauce together in bowl. In a separate bowl, combine minced shallots, garlic and sambal oelek.

3. Spread tofu on a paper towel-lined baking sheet and let drain for 20 minutes. Gently pat tofu dry with paper towels, season with salt and pepper, then toss with cornstarch in bowl. Transfer coated tofu to a strainer and shake gently over bowl to remove excess cornstarch. Heat 3 tablespoons oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add tofu and cook, turning as needed, until crisp and browned on all sides, 8 to 10 minutes; transfer to bowl.

4. Add 1 tablespoon oil to now-empty skillet and heat until shimmering. Add sliced shallots and cook until golden, about 5 minutes; transfer to paper towel-lined plate.

5. If necessary, add remaining 1 tablespoon oil to now-empty skillet and heat until shimmering. Add bok choy stalks and cook until crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Clear center of skillet, add garlic mixture and cook, mashing mixture into skillet until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir into vegetables.

6. Stir in noodles, tofu, bok choy leaves and scallions. Whisk sauce to recombine, add to skillet and cook, stirring constantly, until sauce is thickened, 1 to 2 minutes. Sprinkle fried shallots on top. Serve with lime wedges.

Per serving (based on 6): 665 calories; 26 g fat; 11 g saturated fat; no cholesterol; 18 g protein; 91 g carbohydrate; 29 g sugar; 6 g fiber; 1,624 mg sodium; 264 mg calcium

Recipe from "The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook," by America's Test Kitchen

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The vegan diet meatless masterpieces | Lifestyles | pantagraph.com - Bloomington Pantagraph

The Mexican had bulked up over the winter to better cope with the more physical nature of 2017s cars, but has been asked by his Force India team to trim off some weight because its new challenger was too heavy in testing.

I have tried so hard to lose weight in the last couple of weeks since Barcelona, said Perez, who has already lost more than two kilos since testing finished.

Obviously I increased my weight from last year purely by training harder, putting on more muscle, but I was on an extreme diet all last week and still now until Saturday [I will do the same].

I am all the time very hungry. As much weight as I can lose, the better it will be for us.

Perez said the issue of car weight had come up at Barcelona, but the team would only find out properly in Australia just how much it needed to lose.

We havent weighed the car actually, because in testing you have a lot of sensors and things on the car, he said.

Right now, considering that I lose two kilos or three since Barcelona, then probably we might be quite close.

Perez was confident, however, that the weight issue would not affect Force India for long, as fixes would be in place by the Bahrain Grand Prix at the latest.

I think the weight, sooner or later we will be on it, he said. If not this weekend, then latest by Bahrain, so I dont think that is a big issue.

Perez believes that Force India has the platform to challenge strongly again in 2017, but says it will not be starting the season in the perfect position.

The objective is still to finish third, to move up, he said. What we have seen in winter testing is that we are not at the level that we would like to be to start the season.

But I think this year especially this year the upgrades we are going to have, not only us but the rest of the teams, are huge. So I am still very optimistic.

It is not important where you start, it is where you finish. The season is very long and I am still very optimistic and very confident that the team will do a great job this year.

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Force India's overweight car prompts "extreme diet" for Perez - Motorsport.com, Edition: Global

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A fasting diet doesnt mean you feel like you're starving.

Numerous studies have shown fasting impacts the reduction of chronic disease risk, longevity and weight loss. Most diets are all about giving up what you love and feeling deprived; whereas fasting diets may actually make those cravings go away. Here are five ways to get started.

This essentially means front-loading all of your calories to avoid consumption after a cut-off time, like 5 p.m. Many of my patients fast while they sleep, or skip dinner all together, allowing at least 12-14 hours between their last meal of the day and their first meal the following day.

Choose your plan based on your goals. Fasting is not a one-size-fits-all approach, and success often means trying different models.

RELATED: Intermittent fasting: Is restrictive eating right for you?

You'll have two "on days, where you'll consume 500-600 calories, split between breakfast and dinner. The other five days of the week are your off days, where you'll follow a healthy diet without calorie restriction. This intermittent fasting plan may help to reduce hunger and cravings and may also have beneficial impacts on insulin and C-reactive protein.

Studies show a monthly, periodic approach to fasting can help to increase longevity and reduce your risk for cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

For five consecutive days each month, consume about 35 to 50 percent of your normal calorie intake, divided between 10 percent protein, 40 percent carbohydrate and 50 percent fat. For example, if your normal intake is 1,800 calories, youll bring it down to 700 calories, and focus on lean proteins, healthy fats and high-fiber carbohydrates.

RELATED: Should you really be fasting? 3 diet myths get busted

While on any of the plans listed above, try to choose carbohydrates that are higher in protein and fiber they'll help you stay fuller, longer. Here are a few changes to make:

Dehydration is often misinterpreted as hunger. Fill yourself up by choosing calorie-free herbal tea, decaffeinated coffee and sparkling or plain water. Avoid artificially sweetened beverages, which will only increase sugar cravings and appetite.

If youre attempting a fasting diet, lack of sleep is a recipe for disaster because it negatively alters your hunger and satiety hormones. Finally, as with any new diet, have a discussion with your doctor beforehand.

Kristin Kirkpatrick, MS, R.D., is the manager of wellness nutrition services at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute in Cleveland, Ohio, and the author of "Skinny Liver." Follow her on Twitter @KristinKirkpat. For more diet and fitness advice, sign up for our One Small Thing newsletter.

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6 ways to make a fasting diet work for you - Today.com

Jessica Murnane suffers from stage four endometriosis, and was told at the age of 33 that she would need to undergo a hysterectomy.

As a last-ditch effort to save my uterus, I decided to try a whole-foods plant-based diet, Murnane writes in Tuesdays Lenny Letter newsletter. Aside from the fact that candy, cheese and fun were not on the approved list of foods, I think a lot of my resistance came from just being plain tired of trying.

Over the years, I had tried everything to feel better, she continues. I went through multiple surgeries, tried yoga, experimented with legal drugs and not-so-legal ones, and even went to therapy because of my depression caused by my pain. Nothing worked.

Naturally, Murnane was skeptical that cutting out junk food and focusing on a plant-based diet would actually make a difference but she says for her, it did.

To my surprise (Im still surprised), it actually worked, she writes. After weeks, my symptoms and pain started to fade. And after a couple of months, I felt better than I ever had. I never got the surgery.Six years later, Icant imagine eating any other way. Good food changed my life.

Gynecological surgeon Ceana Nezhat,MD, FACOG, FACS, fellowship director of the Atlanta Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery and Reproductive Medicine,says that improved diet can alleviate endometriosis symptoms for some women.

Changing yourlifestyle and certain eating habits has a significant, positive effect on severeendometriosis, he tells PEOPLE. Apatient of mine had a similar situation and was offered a hysterectomy. She came to me, and not only did she not have surgery,[but changing her diet]helped her conceive as well.

Cate Shanahan, MD, a Connecticut-based board certified family physician and author of Deep Nutrition, explains that there is indeed a link between diet and endometriosis symptoms.

There is a relationship between diet and pretty much all chronic conditions and certainly hormonal issues, Shanahan tells PEOPLE. The link in all of this is the fact that omega-6 fats, which come from soy oil and canola oil and are also found in animal feed, are pro-inflammatory.

She explains that by eliminating meat and processed foods, you are cutting back on omega-6 fats, which can help with endometriosis symptoms.

There is definitely a direct reason why you would expect someone to be able to improve their endometriosis if they improve theirdiet, she says. One of my patients who suffers from endometriosis got better with diet change, so I have seen it happen.

RELATED VIDEO:Halsey Opens Up About Endometriosis Battle

Ken Sinervo, MD, MSc, FRCSC, ACGE, medical director of Atlantas Center for Endometriosis Care, says that while changing a diet can alleviate symptoms of endometriosis, it will not eliminate it.

The disease is not going to go away with diet alone, he tells PEOPLE. The most effective way of treating endometriosis is with excision or cutting out the disease. That being said, we know that diet can affect many of the symptoms of endometriosis. There are a lot phytoestrogens in certain types of food, especially foods that have soy as their basis, which can result in inflammation. Sugars, carbohydrates and processed meats can also increase inflammation and make symptoms worse.

Sinervo says that Murnanes situation is the exception rather than the rule.

There is a very strict endometriosis diet which eliminates most meat and is largely plant-based, but the diet is extremely limited, he says. I had one patient who did it for 10 years, and it did seem to help to her symptoms, but eventually her symptoms became worse again and she did need surgery.

Rebecca Brightman, MD, FACOG, a board certified OBGYN in private practice in New York City and educationalpartner with the ME in EndoMEtriosis campaign, which encourages women to get educated about the disease, says its imperative for women to seek professional medical advice before trying to self-treat their endometriosis with diet.

Everybodys different, and no one really knows why some people have endometriosis and other people dont, Brightman tells PEOPLE. There is some thought that eating natural foods and clean foods may actually help people feel better. There is also some data that suggests that people that avoid alcohol and caffeine may improve their symptoms. However, it depends on the severity of the symptoms. The care has to be individualized.

People need to talk to their health care providers, she continues. Traditional treatment is medical therapy, surgical treatment or a combination of the two.It would be really unfortunate for someone who can benefit from medical treatment to self-treat.

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Woman with Endometriosis Says She No Longer Needs a Hysterectomy After Changing Her Diet - PEOPLE.com

Most women have poor diets around the time of conception that may increase the risk of pregnancy complications like excessive weight gain, high blood pressure, impaired fetal growth and preterm deliveries, a U.S. study suggests.

During the three months around conception, the study found that women got roughly one-third of their energy from so-called empty calories like alcohol and foods loaded with sugars and fats. Their top sources of energy were soda, pasta, cookies, cake, bread, beer, wine and spirits.

"In particular, the fact that soda was the primary source of calories was concerning," said lead study author Lisa Bodnar, a public health researcher at the University of Pittsburgh.

"Soda provides essentially no nutrition," Bodnar said by email. "But it is something that can be replaced with water or other non-caloric beverages to eliminate those extra calories that may be contributing to obesity."

For the study, researchers examined data from dietary questionnaires completed by 7,511 women when they were 6 to 14 weeks pregnant. Participants were asked to recall what they ate during the three months around conception, then researchers scored women's diets with up to 100 points for following every aspect of healthy diet guidelines.

Overall, the average score was just 63 points, researchers report in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

However, more white women got close to achieving an ideal diet than the Hispanic or black women in the study. About one quarter of white women scored in the top-fifth, with scores typically around 79, while only 14 percent of Hispanic women and 4.6 percent of black women were in this healthiest-diet category.

Among all the women, higher education levels tended to go along with higher-quality diets.

It's possible the racial and ethnic differences in diet quality may help explain differences in pregnancy and birth outcomes for women of color, who have higher rates of complications like preterm birth and poor fetal growth than white women, Bodnar said.

One limitation of the study is that it relied on women to accurately recall and report on what they ate right before pregnancy, the authors note. The study also isn't a controlled experiment designed to prove that eating or avoiding certain things might influence the risk of specific pregnancy complications.

It's also possible that the women were reporting eating habits during rather than before pregnancy or describing healthier diets than they really had because they were already pregnant when they completed the surveys, said Dr. Emily Oken, a public health and nutrition researcher at Harvard University in Boston who wasn't involved in the study.

Women planning a pregnancy should ensure they are consuming a healthy diet at least three months before they conceive and try to maintain this diet throughout pregnancy. This includes avoiding soda and sugary drinks as well as eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein and low-fat dairy, Bodnar said.

One place women can go for guidance is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's MyPlate Daily Checklist, she added (http://bit.ly/2b9ygoS).

Nutrition is important, but it is just one aspect of health women should try to focus on before getting pregnant, Oken said by email.

"It is critically important that women enter pregnancy with healthy levels of characteristics that are related to diet and nutrition - adequate nutrient intake, healthy weight, normal blood pressure, and normal blood sugar," Oken said. "These factors are important for long-term maternal health, as well as child health, and the very early pregnancy period is especially critical."

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Many US women start pregnancy with poor diets - Fox News

Keith Roach, To Your Health 5:43 p.m. ET March 21, 2017

Dear Dr. Roach: There was some controversy recently in a medical journal about the risk of sugar intake for heart disease. What is your take?

M.P.

Dear M.P.: There was a recent article in the Annals of Internal Medicine that evaluated recommended limits on added sugar in food. The guidelines came from the World Health Organization, Public Health England and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Although their guidelines were different, all recommended limiting added sugar intake.

The paper, which was funded by a trade group, concluded that the guidelines were based on low-quality evidence and do not meet criteria for trustworthy recommendations. Thats the controversy.

I did an extensive search of recent articles on the health effects of high-sugar diets. I found two fairly well-done trials that show a modest increase in risk of chronic diseases (diabetes, heart disease, breast cancer and gallbladder disease) in people who have higher-glycemic-index diets.

I also reviewed a companion piece in the Annals, which found evidence that studies supported by manufacturers of sugar-sweetened beverages were much more likely to find that sugar is NOT a good cause of chronic disease than studies that were independently funded.

This suggests that the sugar industry may be trying, as did the tobacco industry, to discredit work on diet. I must unfortunately conclude that the Annals review paper has a potential for conflicts of interest.

Nearly all authorities agree that excess dietary sugar is a significant risk factor, not only for the development of diabetes, but also for other serious medical conditions. I continue to recommend against excess sugar intake. However, I cant say exactly how much is safe, so I think using a guideline, such as the U.S. Health and Human Services recommendation to limit to less than 10 percent of daily calories, is rational.

Dear Dr. Roach: It seems a lot of people have high total cholesterol and take drugs for it.

But what do you think of an elderly person having a total cholesterol of 138 without taking any drugs? It seems to me this is an unhealthy situation, and somehow this person needs to do something to increase his cholesterol. How would a person do this? The stats are triglycerides 99, HDL 45 and LDL 74.

R.I.

Dear R.I.: Unfortunately, I cant answer the question, because a low cholesterol level can be either a healthy or an unhealthy finding, depending on the circumstance.

For a healthy, active elderly person of normal weight, the numbers you told me about would represent a low risk of heart disease. However, low cholesterol levels, particularly in the elderly, often go along with poor nutritional status and chronic disease. It wouldnt surprise if you told me the person you are referring to has a serious chronic illness (of almost any type).

If the person does have chronic illness, the cholesterol is a marker for a problem, not a problem in itself. Therefore, the treatment isnt increasing the cholesterol (especially with unhealthy foods); rather, the treatment should be directed at the underlying disease. If a disease is unknown but suspected, then a careful history and physical exam, with a judicious laboratory evaluation, is warranted.

Email questions to ToYourGoodHealth@med.cornell.edu.

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Doc: Authorities agree too much sugar intake is risky - The Detroit News

A long-awaited study has found that limiting caloric intake not only preserves health but also increases longevity. The paper, which was published in Nature Communications, involved decades of study of rhesus monkeys, is said to resolve the debate over whether caloric restriction (CR) extends lifespan. 1, 2,3

The main message from this studyis that the amount you eat influences how you age, said Rozalyn Anderson, study author and associate professor, Department of Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison. The work shows that in primates, reducing calorie intake in adulthood and later in life confers benefits in terms of both health and survival.1, 4

The latest findingsrepresent the collaboration between two competing research teamsone at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) and the other at the National Institute on Aging (NIA)that worked together in an effort to explain their differing observations on the impact of CR on longevity. 1, 2, 3

Both teams had initially set out to study the effects of caloric restriction--defined as a diet comprised of about 30% fewer calories but providing the same nutrients as a standard dieton rhesus monkeys, who as they age are vulnerable to many of the same diseases as humans. 1, 2, 3

In 2009, the UW research team reported significant extension of life and reductions in cardiovascular disease, cancer and insulin resistance in the monkeys whose diets were calorically restricted. But in 2012, while the NIA group also found better health among its CR monkeys, the researchers observed no significant improvement in survival. 1, 2, 3

The conflicting findings cast doubt on the benefits of CR on longevity and appeared to go against nearly a century of laboratory research showing that CR significantly extends lifespan, albeit in non-primates. Beginning in the 1930s, for example, researchers found that laboratory rats and mice live up to 40% longer when fed a diet that has at least 30% fewer calories than they would normally consume. Substantial research over the last two decades has also demonstrated the benefits of CR in short-lived organisms such as yeast, nematodes and fruit flies.1, 2, 3, 5

But, after sifting through all the information from the two study sites including data from nearly 200 monkeys, the authors concluded that CR is indeed associated with longer survival. The observed discrepancies, they said, stemmed from a variety of factors including: diet composition (the NIA monkeys ate naturally-sourced foods while the UW group ate relatively more processed foods with higher sugar content); the age of the monkeys when the restricted diets were introduced (eating less confers benefits in adult primates but not in younger animalswhich, by the way, is unlike in rodents, where the earlier the animals begin CR the longer the resulting lifespan); and genetics. 1, 2, 3

Of course, the research begs the question of what all this means for humans. The study authors say their findings suggest that CR mechanisms are likely translatable to human health. The profound similarities between humans and rhesus monkey in the rate of aging, the types of diseases of aging that occur, and how they manifest clinically makes it extremely likely that the mechanisms of CR in monkeys will be translatable to human health and aging too. Anderson said. 1, 4

It appears that researchers who have looked at CR in humans agree. There are numerous examples from well-studied human cohorts that there is a likely benefit for reduced-calorie diets to promote healthy aging and lifespan extension in humans, said Leanne Redman, Ph.D, associate professor and investigator in the CALERIE study at the PenningtonBiomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. As humans strive for the fountain of youth in today's obesogenic environment, looking to dietary and nutritional approaches for improved health across the lifespan is the most obvious choice. 6, 7

Indeed, one theory is that CR evolved as a protective response to enable animalsand humansto survive periods of food shortage. But this evolutionary advantage might seem to backfire in todays environment of overabundant and chronic accessibility to food combined with a trend of reduced physical activity. 6

Others see in the latest research the value of diet composition. The more wholesome and less-refined diet consumed by the NIA monkeyswhich contained substantially less sucrose, more favorable lipid and protein sources and higher fiber relative to the Wisconsin dietappears to have benefits independent of the level of CR, said Susan B. Racette, Ph.D., professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. This finding is encouraging for human application, given the challenges of adhering to a calorically-restricted diet long-term. 8, 9

Last updated on 03/21/2017

Black Tea Improves Glucose Levels, May Help Prevent Diabetes

Excerpt from:
Caloric Restriction: Key to Better Health, Longer Life? - EndocrineWeb

I'm used to the shaming look I get from my peers when I crack open a can of sugar-free Red Bull. The questions and judgement never end. "That stuff'll kill you," someone said to me the other day, shaking his head. "So many chemicals!" was what I heard last week.

Truth be told, Red Bull (at least the sugar-free kind) isn't all that terrible for you. Besides having only 10 calories and no sugar, it has only 80 milligrammes of caffeine, about a third of the amount in a tall Starbucks drip coffee. As far as its other ingredients namely B vitamins and taurine go, scientific studies have found both to be safe.

But my favourite source of caffeine isn't the only harmless food or drink that gets a bad rap. Here are some of the rest, along with the science behind their safety.

Gluten

The myth: As more and more of your friends go gluten-free, you may wonder: Is there something to this latest diet craze? Is gluten intolerance a thing? Is it getting more common?

Why it's bogus: Only about 1% of people worldwide have celiac disease, the rare genetic disorder that makes people intolerant to gluten, according to the Celiac Disease Foundation. For most of the rest of us, this doughy, chewy ingredient is simply how it tastes: delicious!

Eggs

The myth: The massive amounts of cholesterol in eggs will translate to a massive amount of cholesterol in your veins.

Why it's bogus: Even though eggs are high in cholesterol (a single egg packs roughly 185 mg), eating them likely won't translate into higher blood cholesterol for you. The first studies that suggested that were done with rabbits, as my colleague Kevin Loria reported. So go ahead, pop a perfectly poached egg on that avocado toast. You know you want to.

Caffeine

The myth: Caffeine stunts your growth and messes with your health.

Why it's bogus: According to the Mayo Clinic, the average adult can safely consume up to 400 mg of caffeine daily. Most standard cups of coffee contain between 90 and 120 mg. So if you're limiting yourself to under four cups of joe a day, you should be relatively in the clear. Still, some java packs more of a punch than others. A 12-ounce "tall" cup of Starbucks drip coffee, for example, has about 260 mg of caffeine putting you well over the daily dose after two cups.

Carbonated water

The myth: Fizzy water is all the rage these days, showing up in grocery-store aisles in flavours like coconut or watermelon. But many people worry the bubbles cause kidney stones, leach calcium from your bones, and even strip the enamel from your teeth.

Why it's bogus: The bubbly stuff is just as good for you as plain water, Jennifer McDaniel, a registered dietitian and certified specialist in sports dietetics, told my colleague Dina Spector.

"Carbonated or sparkling water is made by dissolving carbon dioxide in water, creating carbonic acid," Spector wrote. "This process just adds bubbles it does not add sugar, calories, or caffeine. Tonic water, club soda, and mineral water are all types of carbonated water, but these have added sodium, vitamins, or sweeteners, so it's important to read the label."

Fatty foods

The myth: Fatty foods like avocados and olive oil will make you fat.

Why it's bogus: Although it makes intuitive sense, this myth is not borne by scientific research. A recent look at the studies behind the dietary guidelines that suggested we cut back on fat found that there wasn't evidence to support those rules in the first place. In the book "Eat Fat, Get Thin," Mark Hyman, director of the Cleveland Clinic's Center for Functional Medicine, talks about how he incorporated healthy fats from foods like fish and nuts in his diet to lose weight.

Cheese

The myth: Some news outlets have reported that cheese "is like crack" because it's "as addictive as drugs."

Why it's bogus: We tracked down the study that appears to lie at the root of these claims, and it found no such thing. Several University of Michigan researchers asked people to report which foods on a list they had the hardest time cutting out or eating moderately. Cheese ranked toward the middle. Nevertheless, since pizza, a cheesy food, ranked high on both lists, people speculated that cheese was the culprit, going as far to suggest something about the way one of its proteins breaks down in the body is addictive. There's little to no evidence to back this up.

Artificial sweeteners

The myth: Artificial sweeteners like Splenda and Equal have been found to cause cancer.

Why it's bogus: The Food and Drug Administration has evaluated hundreds of studies on sucralose (Splenda), aspartame (Equal), saccharin (Sweet'N Low) and more. So far, it has deemed all of them safe.

That said, some preliminary research suggests artificial sweeteners may not satisfy your craving for sweets and therefore may not be effective at curbing your overall sugar intake.

GMOs

The myth: Genetically modified organisms cause cancer and wreak havoc on the environment.

Why it's bogus: GMO crops, which have been around since the 1980s, have been studied at length, and a recent report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found that they aren't posing any greater risk to the environment than regular crops. It also found no evidence that they "are less safe to eat than conventional food," my colleague Lydia Ramsey reported.

Salt

The myth: Salt causes heart problems and weight gain.

Why it's bogus: The science about whether eating salt in moderation has a net negative or positive effect on our health is somewhat unclear. However, a 2011 meta-analysis of seven studies involving more than 6,000 people published in the American Journal of Hypertension found no strong evidence that reducing salt decreased people's risk of heart attack, stroke, or death even in those who had high blood pressure.

"If the US does conquer salt, what will we gain? Bland french fries, for sure. But a healthy nation? Not necessarily," Melinda Wenner Moyer wrote in Scientific American.

All carbs

The myth: Carbohydrates including rice, bread, cereal, and potatoes contribute to weight gain.

Why it's bogus: While it's a good idea to limit your intake of processed carbs like white bread, white rice, and white pasta, not all carbs are bad for you. Some are healthy and a great source of energy. Take potatoes, for example.

"White potatoes are actually very good for you," Christian Henderson, a registered dietitian, told Health. Potatoes pack potassium and vitamin C, and they have almost 4 grammes of fibre just cook them with the skins on.

Fish

The myth: Fish is high in mercury and will make you sick.

Why it's bogus: While mercury can build up in larger, older predator fish like marlin and shark, it's not generally a problem in smaller fish. The FDA maintains a helpful list of guidelines for mercury in seafood salmon, trout, oysters, herring, sardines, and Atlantic and Pacific mackerel are all considered "good" or "best" choices, according to the FDA.

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11 things people think are terrible for your diet that actually aren't - The Independent

SpaceWorks, a NASA contractor, has proposed Mars transports and studies of induced torpor for their passengers.

Someday astronauts packed inside rocketing tin cans bound for Mars or worlds even more distant may be protected from radiation and space sickness by being placed in a state of torpor, an ultra-low metabolic rate induced by nitrogen gas, icy saline, or some as-yet-undiscovered animal proteins. While their cellular activity is kept at a fraction of its normal rate, theyll hibernate in spinning pods like bears as they hurdle through space for months at a time. They may lie in white hibernation pods like the cryo-preserved astronauts in futuristic fantasies like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, and Avatar.

More likely, though, astronauts and space colonists will learn a few tricks from dehydrated snails, which survive for a year or more ingesting nothing; giant pandas subsisting on low-calorie bamboo; leeches that survive a liquid nitrogen bath; children who have been submerged in frozen ponds yet can still be resuscitated; or skiers buried in an avalanche and brought back to life ever so slowly, reborn from a super-cooled, dreamless state.

Scientists call this phenomenon torpor-induced hibernation. Once considered outlandish, torpor inductionthe old term was suspended animationis under serious study for long-duration spaceflight.

This is due in part to advances in low-temperature surgery, but also to an increased understanding of cases like one documented in 1995 in the journal Prehospital and Disaster Medicine. A four-year-old boy fell through the ice of a frozen lake in Hanover, Germany. A rescue team pulled him out but could not resuscitate him in the field. His pupils were fixed and dilated, and he remained in cardiac arrest a full 88 minutes. Upon admission to the hospital, his core body temperature was 67.6 degrees Fahrenheit, a sign of severe hypothermia.

Twenty minutes later, as doctors worked to warm the boys chest cavity, the ventricles of his heart started contracting. Ten minutes after that, his heart resumed normal sinus rhythm. The boy made a full recovery and was discharged two weeks later. His doctors believed the icy lake had rapidly cooled his body to a state of protective metabolic torpor, preserving all vital organs and tissues while reducing the need for blood oxygenin effect, saving the boys life. Cases like this are exactly why we think that very deep hypothermia can allow our patients to survive, writes Samuel Tisherman, director of the Center for Critical Care and Trauma Education at the University of Maryland Medical Center, in an email. The key is cooling the brain either before blood flow stops or as soon as possible after blood flow stops. The colder [it gets], the longer the brain can tolerate not having blood flow.

Therapeutic hypothermia has become a part of surgical practice. Experimental procedures with cooling started as early as the 1960s, mostly in cardiac and neonatal cases. Babies were placed in cooling blankets or packed in ice and even snow banks to slow circulation and reduce oxygen requirements before heart surgery.

Today, physicians use moderate hypothermia (roughly 89 degrees) as a staple of care for some newborns in medical distress, such as those born premature or suffering from fetal oxygen deprivation (hypoxia). The babies are treated with cooling caps for 72 hours, which lower their metabolism just enough to reduce tissue oxygen requirements and allow the brain and other vital organs to recover.

By the same token, surgeons apply cooling and metabolic suppression to patients whove suffered various physical traumas: heart attack, stroke, gunshot wounds, profuse bleeding, or head injuries resulting in brain swelling. In emergency situations, anesthetists can insert a slim tube into the nose that feeds cooling nitrogen gas directly to the base of the brain. In one experimental therapy, surgeons insert a cardiopulmonary bypass cannula through the chest and into the aorta, or through the groin and into the femoral artery. Through these tubes, they infuse cold saline to reduce core body temperature and replace lost blood. Once the trauma surgeon has control of bleeding, a heart-lung machine restarts blood flow and the patient is given a blood transfusion.

If you get cold fast enough before the heart stops, the vital organs, particularly the brain, can tolerate cold without blood flow for a time, Tisherman explains. He is performing a clinical trial of this cold saline replacement technique in critically injured trauma victims in Baltimore, and he expects the study will last at least until the fall of 2018 and possibly later. The ensuing hypothermia rapidly decreases or stops blood flow for an hour or so, cutting oxygen requirements and giving surgeons time to repair critical wounds and, ideally, warm the patient back to life.

Today, the aerospace community is looking to medically induced hypothermia and the resulting metabolic stasis in transport habitats as a way to save space and mass, along with freight, fuel, food, and frustration on the months-long flights to Mars or more distant planets. The studies are just beginning. One challenge is medical: Whats the best method for putting healthy astronauts into torpor? Even though therapeutic hypothermia is well understood in operating rooms, keeping people in deep space chilled and sedated for weeks, months, or years on end is an entirely unknown area of inquiry. Some scientists studying hibernation in animals suggest that other means of suppressing metabolism would be better: Specialized diet, low-frequency radiation, even the use of proteins that trigger hibernation in animals like bears and Arctic ground squirrels have been shown to regulate metabolic rates safely and, in most cases, reversibly.

Another obvious hurdle is funding. How much will NASA prioritize research into metabolic stasis, both animal and human, when exploratory budgets are being reduced? Pete Worden, former director at NASAs Ames Research Center in California and now the executive director of Breakthrough Starshot, says that with NASAs emphasis on synthetic biology and the ability of organisms to survive and function in exotic environments like Mars, its probably inevitable that the hibernation area is going to get funded.

That optimism is hardly universal. People are frustrated, says Yuri Griko, a Moscow-trained NASA radiobiologist and lead senior scientist in Ames space biosciences division. When Sputnik was put up in space in 1957, our generation was so excited, so inspired, and we believed that wed be on Mars in the millennium. But now its 2016 and were still not on Mars. Its personal for people like me because we expected to be much more progressed than we are right now.

Griko acknowledges that metabolic suppression research is in a kind of limbo itself. He began at NASA in 2005 after spending five years at the biotech outfit Clearant, Inc., using ionizing radiation to inactivate pathogens in therapeutic blood products, transplant organs, and commercial biopharmaceuticals. NASA then invited Griko to research ways to protect astronauts from deep-space radiation. It turns out that metabolic suppression is one of the most effective mechanism nature provides.

When animals go into hibernation their bodies survive radiation without significant damage to their cells. Girko believes this is because metabolic suppression mitigates radiation-induced damage by reduction of biochemical processes and excessive oxidative stress. Hypoxiareduced oxygen consumptionis one of possible explanation for the radioprotective effect: In hypoxia, production of oxygen free radicals and hydroxyl radicals is reduced. Since most ionizing radiation-induced cellular damage is caused by radiation induced free radicals, suppression of metabolism (and as a result of oxygen consumption) significantly inhibits ionizing irradiation-induced cells apoptosis and increases cellular viability. And this protective effect is even more dramatic at lower temperatures. XXX

Griko speculates that hibernation may also protect animals from the muscle atrophy and bone loss people typically experience in microgravity. Humans who eat a balanced diet while confined to bed rest for 90 days lose a little more than half of their muscle strength, Griko says. But bears who consume nothing and are confined to their dens for the same length of time or slightly longer lose only 25 percent of muscle strength and exhibit no signs of bone loss. He notes that animals capable of hibernationtortoises and pocket micehavent been flown in space in decades.

NASA declined his request for flight experiments involving hibernating animals. His current research is limited to surveys of existing hibernation studies worldwide, along with his own laboratory discoveries on stasis in mice, leeches, and snails. Griko proposed a 2015 international conference on torpor that would have brought together the worlds hibernation experts to discuss deep-space applications. NASA declined to fund it, though Griko still hopes to raise the money.

There are significant barriers to torpor research if were serious about going farther in space, says Leroy Chiao, a former NASA astronaut and International Space Station commander who spent 193 days in orbit between October 2004 and April 2005. Animal research is a particularly sticky problem. Even research on simple primates starts getting people up in arms, he says.

Jason Derleth, a program executive with NASA Innovative and Advanced Concepts in Washington, D.C., sees reason to hope. Under his watch, NIAC has awarded two innovation grants in the last three years supporting one companys detailed plans for torpor-enabled Mars transfer habitats. The project leader, SpaceWorks Enterprises, Inc., of Dunwoody, Georgia, about 20 miles north of Atlanta, is an aerospace design contractor for NASA and the Department of Defense and has done work in the development of tiny CubeSat satellite constellations. But its torpor thats captured the imagination of SpaceWorks president and chief operating officer John Bradford.

Ive asked myself for 15 years how to engineer materials, structures, and propulsion systems to enable a mission to Mars and its moons, he says. Bradford is a Ph.D. aerospace engineer who has led several NASA, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and Air Force Research Laboratory projects designing military spaceplanes. He was also a consultant on the 2016 science fiction film Passengers, wherein Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt played interplanetary settlers who wake from hibernation early. Were not in the vein of an Apollo mission anymoreno more flags and footprints, he says. We need to become a two-planet species.

Bradfords engineering and medical team used the first of those NIAC grants, issued in 2013, to design a compact zero-gravity, rigid-structure habitat based on the International Space Station crew module designs. The habitat featured closed-loop oxygen and water production systems, direct access to the Mars ascent and descent vehicles, and support for a crew of six, all of whom would be kept in torpor for the entire six- to nine-month Mars journey.

The proposed medical treatment relies on using techniques similar to the ones surgeons perfected to induce hypothermia. For example, cooling nitrogen gas could be fed to astronauts via nasal cannula, or tubes, lowering brain and body temperatures to between 89 and 96 degreesclose enough to normal to maintain torpor without overcooling the heart or increasing the risk of other complications. Cooling tends to decrease the bodys ability to clot, Tisherman says. He has noted that patients who are cooled to mild levels of hypothermia93 degreesfor 48 hours or more have more infections.

In the SpaceWorks habitat, robotic arms in the module would be programmed to carry out routine chores, manipulate astronaut limbs, and check body sensors, urine evacuation lines, and chemical feeds. Robots would administer electrical stimuli to astronauts muscles to maintain tone, along with sedation to prevent a natural shivering response. The astronauts would also receive complete nutritionelectrolytes, dextrose, lipids, vitamins, etc.via liquid (known as total parenteral nutrition) through a catheter inserted in the chest or the thigh. SpaceWorks outfitted TPN supplies in the experimental module to last 180 days; should the habitat be required for a prolonged Martian stay, the module would have another 500 days worth of nutrition.

In all, the SpaceWorks Mars Transfer Habitat reduced total habitat mass, including consumables, to 19.9 tons (low-Earth-orbit weight). By comparison, NASAs TransHab habitat, with consumables specified in the agencys Mars Design Reference Architecture 5.0, weighs 41.9 tons. Thats a 52 percent decrease in mass. Compared with the NASA DRA model, SpaceWorks was able to shrink total habitat consumables by 70 percent.

NIAC officials, naturally, were intrigued. SpaceWorks made an interesting proposal, Derleth says. People have been studying torpor for medical applications. But no one as far as we could find is actually doing an engineering study of what cryo-sleep or torpor would actually do to the architecture of a mission.

In 2013 NIAC awarded SpaceWorks a Phase 1 grant of $100,000 to develop a rough torpor-enabled architecture for exploration-class missionsthose with four to eight crew members heading to Mars or its moons. But the agency balked at the idea of putting all crew members in torpor for the entire journey. What about medical or spacecraft complications? How long could astronauts stay under without psychological or physical damage? What if some complication required their premature awakening? What about the slow waking and warming times to get the astronauts out of hibernation?

These questions sent the SpaceWorks team back to the drawing board. They designed a crew habitat for torpor that would keep at least a few astronauts awake on a rotating basis for piloting and interventions (as in the 1968 movie 2001, in which two crew members of the Jupiter-bound spacecraft Discovery remain awake while the others sleep).

Then Bradfords team moved further. Designing three interconnected habitat modules for a 100-passenger settlement class Mars missioncolonists, in other wordsthe team produced a spacecraft and habitat that departed completely from anything in NASAs plans. The SpaceWorks settlement-class craft includes two compact, rotating habitat modules, each accommodating 48 passengers in torpor. Rotation at varying speeds would produce artificial gravity to mitigate astronauts bone loss.

But in the bolder sentry mode proposal, a separate habitat module would accommodate four care-taking astronauts on duty throughout the mission, although one or more could be rotated with others in torpor to keep crews fresh.

You get 80 percent of the benefits by cycling through the hibernating crew and waking some up, rather than turning out the lights on everybody for six months, Bradford says. Spacecraft accommodating settlers in torpor would be lighter, which would enable much greater velocities, shorter voyages, and, possibly, more efficient radiation shielding because of the radio-protective effect of metabolic stasis. Further, Bradford says, hibernating astronauts wouldnt experience motion sickness, a common problem on the International Space Station.

But what would torpor in space feel like? Not like being frozen dead in cryogenics, then being revived after decades or hundreds of years, according to Doug Talk, an obstetrician who has used therapeutic hypothermia to treat oxygen-deprived babies. [Cryogenics] has had zero success with that, Talk says. The human body isnt meant to be frozen; its mostly water, and when water expands [as it does when it freezes], it produces cellular damage.

More likely, astronaut torpor will be like coma, a state hovering between dreamless sleep and semi-conscious awareness. Coma patients display cycles of brain activity that alternate between seeming wakefulness and non-REM sleep, Talk explains. Even though coma patients are unable to move, their brains remain active and even responsive to outside stimuli, including verbal commands.

Bears experience hibernation in similar ways; their core temperature drops only a few degrees (similar to the mild-hypothermia temperature range in humans), while their metabolism drops 75 percent. Bears in northern climates can remain in torpor for seven to eight months without eating or drinking, and pregnant female bears will bear their young and nurse them even in hibernation.

Someone in torpor will act like the bear does, Talk theorizes. Theyll cycle through non-REM sleep and being awake. And like bears when they finally wake up, theyll be sleep deprived.

In May 2016, NIAC approved a second phase of the SpaceWorks project, this time releasing $250,000 to extend first-phase engineering, operational, and medical research plans. Phase 1 projects have proven that what theyre talking about is real, Derleth says. Were very happy to see Dr. Bradfords progress.

In addition to habitat engineering refinements, the SpaceWorks team initially proposed a two- to three-week hibernation test with a small number of healthy pigs. Pigs, like humans, are natural non-hibernators, and are closer in size and physiological responses to torpor induction than many other primates than mice or snails, obviously. Derleth says agency regulations prevented NASA from funding the pig study.

So SpaceWorks submitted an alternate proposal: research existing metabolic suppression experiments comprehensively to come up with a near-term road map for technology development, including more-methodical animal research leading to human trials. This summer, NIAC will conduct a mid-term review of SpaceWorks progress and determine whether to award them an additional $250,000.

We continue to believe that live-subject research will be necessary to advance this torpor technology toward longer durations, Olds wrote in a follow-up email. That step may require private sponsors.

Regardless of who pays for it, testing with animals continues to raise ethical questions. I think NASA is right: Slow is the way to go, says Arthur Caplan, director of the division of medical ethics at New York University Langone Medical Center. While theres enthusiasm for suspended animation for long durations in space, NASA doesnt need any more troubles from animal rights activists. Pigs are somewhat physiologically similar to humans, so pigs are a reasonable animal model for testing. Though its fair to say to critics: The number of pigs involved in this kind of study wouldnt amount to ones weeks breakfast for the average American.

Sci-fi movies and novels have romanticized torpor, Caplan says, suggesting humans could move in and out of that coma-like state without difficulty. That might not be the case. Eventually, torpor will be tested in humans, and those humans will be unusual peoplemost likely test pilots, Caplan predicts. These people take risks every day; they understand the physiological risks because they test jets and know many colleagues who have died. Ive had astronauts tell me theyll enroll in any experiment just to get into space. Our job is to rein them in.

Human trials, if they happen, would be an unprecedented step. No one has ever tried to use hypothermia to suppress the metabolism of a person who wasnt severely sick or injured, much less super-healthy astronauts. In fact, weve had lots of healthy people who have volunteered for long-term torpor experiments, Talk says. Theres a pent-up demand for people who want to punch out of life for six months. Im sure the FDA wouldnt approve of that.

Meanwhile, Talk has invited two experts on therapeutic hypothermiaAlejandro Rabinstein, the medical director of the neuroscience intensive care unit at the Mayo Clinic, and Kelly Drew, a University of Alaska neuroscientist investigating animal hibernationto join SpaceWorks research team. Drew and other scientists at the University of Alaskas Institute of Arctic Biology are studying the hibernation patterns of endothermic animals like hedgehogs, Arctic ground squirrels, and bears. The hope is to find the key to a healthy hibernation state (and the signaling cascade in the brain that induces it) that could be adapted to human astronauts without side effects. The Arctic ground squirrel, for example, cools itself to 32 degrees in winter. No scientist understands exactly what triggers its hibernation, although a particular brain and muscle receptorthe A1 adenosine receptorappears to make the squirrel grow cold and sleepy, only to emerge with minimal bone and muscle loss eight months later.

Adenosine is a neuromodulator that plays a role in sleep and brain excitability, Drew says. Its ubiquitous in animal brains. She has been able to induce hibernation in hamsters and mice by using a drug to stimulate their A1 adenosine receptors. Drew can actually reverse hibernation by using another drug to block the same receptor, which wakes the animals up. But the signaling cascade and genetic makeup of humans are far more complex and may take years or decades to decipher. And not all hibernators hibernate in the same way: The only primate known to do it, Madagascars fat-tail dwarf lemur, spends seven months a year in torpor, mostly in hot weather; it survives by consuming the fat stored in its tail. Scientists have found that low metabolic rates in animals are not dependent on low body temperatures, suggesting that astronauts can be put into torpor without the complications that could arise with prolonged low-temperature hibernation.

Meanwhile, Rabinstein, who plans to help SpaceWorks evaluate mild hypothermia to induce torpor, says the techniques that work in an ICU might not be so reliable in space.

The fact that little children have drowned and survived in ice ponds and lakes is remarkable and has given us hope, he says. But can we transform this [understanding of deep hypothermia] into a more mild degree of hypothermia and allow people to tolerate it for a longer period of time and get away with it, without psychological or physiological stress? We have to see, but we think there is a a chance.

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Sleeping Their Way to Mars - Air & Space Magazine