Word: sinclairism
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Skip it, and go instead for Kuper's far more interesting adaptation of Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel "The Jungle" (NBM; 48 pages; $16). When first published, its exposure of the Chicago meatpacking industry's outrageous conditions created a scandal that resulted in the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act. But far more immortal than mere reportage, "The Jungle" retains its power to shock thanks to the artistry of the novel's characterization and cracking plot. It stars Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian bear of a man who, at the novel's beginning, has just arrived in America...
Those drugs haven't been perfected yet, but Sinclair and other researchers are making progress by trying to understand at the molecular level what it is about CR that seems to slow aging. Sinclair has found, for example, that resveratrol, a chemical found in red wine, increases life-spans of yeast and fruit flies. It works by amplifying the action of a molecule called SIRT1, which is present in all life forms and is produced in response to stress. "It's like a cell's 911 center," says Sinclair, and resveratrol is like a false alarm...
That fits with one of the leading theories about why CR works in the first place: starving the body puts it under mild, constant stress, priming it to resist the more severe stresses that make cells age--a sort of self-vaccination against decline. "With resveratrol," says Sinclair, "we're tricking the body into thinking it's not getting enough calories." If he can create a form of resveratrol that's easily absorbed by human cells and can demonstrate that it works without dangerous side effects, Sinclair may eventually come up with what amounts to an antiaging pill...
...University of Wisconsin at Madison, gerontologist Richard Weindruch studies deprivation, like Sinclair, but has a different idea about why calorie restriction works. He has been comparing calorie-restricted rhesus monkeys with unrestricted ones and has found striking differences. The CR monkeys have shown no evidence of diabetes, for example, while it affects about half of normal monkeys. Only four of his CR monkeys, moreover, have died from age-related diseases--half the rate of the control group. He believes the explanation lies in the complex activities of fat cells. The CR monkeys have much less body fat, and that--just...
Calorie restriction has its downside, though, and it's not just hunger. Weindruch's monkeys experience changes in bone density, and other labs have reported changes in libido, menstrual cycles and body temperature in calorie-restricted monkeys. And Sinclair's worms and flies suffer from loss of appetite and fertility. Researchers hope to create drugs based on resveratrol or on the genetic research that would avoid those pitfalls...