And it’s not just anyone saying it, it’s Michael N. Hall, Frontiers of Knowledge Laureate, a clear candidate for the Nobel Prize and, above all, one of the people who has contributed the most to our understanding of the development of cancer. What’s more, he says it in a very interesting context.
A few days ago, Hall received the 2024 Balzan Prize for his research on cell growth and Irene Hernandez Velasco was lucky enough to be able interview him for El Confidencial. In that conversation, the journalist asked him if he would take new medications that, using the same TOR that he had discovered, “prevented aging.”
Prevent aging? We must keep in mind that ‘aging’ is not at all simple. Almost the opposite: for years we thought that cell development had a lot to do with nutrition, but we underestimated the complexity of the process. Hall, precisely, worked with a series of proteins which “help control various cellular functions, including cell multiplication and survival.”
We now know that inhibiting the levels of these proteins makes individuals live longer. Therefore, Hernández’s question is very well put.
And the scientist was emphatic. “I don’t take them, nor would I take them.”
Because? First of all, explainedfor “with drugs there is always a risk.” But, above all, because they are not necessary. “What I do is that I eat well, I don’t smoke, I like wine but I drink it in moderation. That is enough. Eating in moderation is very important, because it is the nutrients that activate the TOR,” continued.
And it makes sense. Because “eating little slows aging.” As we have gradually understood, it is precisely “food restriction reduces the activity of TOR, which leads to metabolic changes that, in short, have the effect of a longer and healthier life”
After all, “there are many diseases such as cancer or diabetes that are diseases associated with aging and related to TOR.”
It’s not exactly a surprise. For almost a decade, We know that light diets and consuming low-calorie foods are capable of “reducing the population’s mortality rate by up to 15%, especially due to cardiovascular causes.” It is not the only thing, of course: lifestyle, prevention of risk factors (such as tobacco consumption) or control of infectious diseases also play a key role.
Of course, not being a surprise, it is comforting to hear one of the world’s leading experts on the subject defending that these types of simple actions can have a very important impact on daily life.
Image | Ingrid Singh / Daniel Franco
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