Re: (OFFLIST) RE: specific amino acid restriction does the same thing as calorie restriction?

From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Sun Apr 20 2003 - 09:41:37 MDT

  • Next message: Robert J. Bradbury: "RE: specific amino acid restriction does the same thing as calorie restriction?"

    On Sat, 19 Apr 2003, Harvey Newstrom wrote:

    > I wrote,
    > > The only way I know of currently to activate these pathways
    > > is to remove some of the essential amino acids from the diet.
    >
    > Should this read "non-essential" amino acids?

    No, its correct -- you want to short change the body on the
    essential amino acids so it is forced to breakdown "aged"
    (damaged) proteins. If you short change on the non-essential
    amino acids it compensates by up-regulating their production.

    > Eliminating "essential" aminos would cause a deficiency that the
    > body could not recover utilizing other aminos.

    That is one reason why it is "tricky". You want to force the
    body to up-regulate recycling without going into a "deficit" state.
    I suspect one could try a "hormesis" approach where you do a
    day or two in a protein (or essential amino-acid) restricted
    state, then go back to a normal diet so anything lost gets
    replenished. The benefits of the off-on-off-on cycle is that
    when you are "off" of proper protein intake you get the gene
    upregulation that would continue after you went back "on" proper
    protein intake.

    Of course we need to know how long higher levels of protein recycling
    remain after you do the up-regulation.

    > I am
    > not sure if the protein restriction is reducing the amount of protein the
    > body can produce, or if it avoids the condition of excess proteins being
    > available that are not needed.

    There "should" be feedback loops that control the amount of amino
    acids that get synthesized. Presumably also loops that regulate
    the number of 26S Proteosomes and lysosomes that are present in
    cells to breakdown proteins. And there are definitely detection
    systems for damaged proteins that find them and target them to
    the lysosomes or proteosome.

    If you think about kwashiorkor (protein malnutrition) the body
    actually "consumes" itself -- so I'm reasonably certain there
    are links between all of these. The trick is to bump the
    recycling without entering a malnourished state.

    Robert

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