X-Message-Number: 27914 Date: Fri, 5 May 2006 09:53:56 -0700 (PDT) From: Doug Skrecky <> Subject: CR and brain aging [Tim, when it comes to preservation of cognitive skills, CR could politely be described as not being on the short list of consistently effective interventions. However there are a number of people on this list who practive CR, often at great personal effort, whom I do not wish to antagonize. Below is one more CR related abstract on brain aging. I would prefer to end this discussion on CR and brain aging with that. For the record I doubt that mild CR in humans would reduce brain function at all, but severe CR might be another matter. I have my own personal medical library, which I have been building for about 20 years, with particular emphasis on gerontology. I recognize that there is no one web site on the net where the facts behind the science of gerontology can be accessed at one go. I am considering bringing part of this library online at some point, in the form of database reports recounting all anti-aging interventions on all animal species, including humans. However this would be a very large and time consuming project, and it may be some time before it will see the light of day. In the mean time, I would like to end on a positive note. Effective interventions against brain aging are currently available, and I will upload some information regarding one of them to this forum in the near future.] Neurobiol Aging. 2004 Mar;25(3):325-32. Long-term dietary restriction causes negative effects on cognitive functions in rats. Long-term dietary restriction is reported to increase life span and improve age-related cognitive deficits. The present study shows that the restriction increases the life span of rats but decreases their cognitive ability. Thirty-two rats were divided into restricted and ad lib feeding groups at 2.5 months of age. The restricted rats were kept at a weight of 280g. The restricted rats were poor in performing the Morris water maze task at 7-12 months. At 17-18 months, they were poor in performing the delayed matching-to-place task. At 24-27 months, the surviving 13 restricted and 5 ad lib rats performed the spatial discrimination task. The restricted rats were also poor in performing this task. Injection of glucose prior to the discrimination task improved their performance to the level of the ad lib rats. These results suggest that dietary restriction is beneficial for longevity but has negative effects on the performance of cognitive tasks, and that the cause of the negative effects may be a reduced availability of glucose in the food-restricted aged rats. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=27914