Professor's anti-aging study draws national attention

Professor's anti-aging study draws national attention

Madison, Wis. — A professor who has worked for the last two decades to see if he can extend the lifespan of rhesus monkeys was featured in the MIT Technology Review’s March/April issue.
Richard Weindruch, who works with a colony of 78 monkeys at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been experimenting with low-calorie diets that are known to expand the lifespans of mice. But while testing on mice is relatively easy, it’s too early even now to tell whether a diet low in calories has really extended the rhesus monkey’s lives, because they live so long normally.
What Weindruch has found is that monkeys fed 30 percent fewer calories – but just as manhy other essential nutrients – have not developed diabetes, and fewer so far have died from age-related diseases.
Though low-calorie diets are not among the easiest to follow, they have proponents among humans already. But scientific research in the area can take a lifetime.
MIT Technology Review: The Fountain of Health