The title says it all, so I won’t comment much on this other than to say that yet another myth propagated by mainstream medicine seems little more than wishful thinking. Namely, that calorie restriction (CR) will make you healthier. The official story on CR is not yet that it would make us live longer but using fasting to “combat” obesity, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, CVD, and even conditions such as AIDS and cancer is all the rage right now. Considering that cancer is a surrogate for accelerated aging, I think the study demonstrates that the effects of CR are pretty much the exact opposite of what is being heavily advertised for – extending youthfulness.
The study may also seem like providing disappointing evidence in regards to DHEA supplementation but a closer look reveals that the doses used were absolutely massive – i.e. the daily HED extrapolated from the study would be in the range of 50mg-250mg daily, depending on which treatment group we look at. At such doses, DHEA becomes massively estrogenic, as discussed many times before, and that effect dwarfs any potential benefit the steroid may provide.
https://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/59/7/1642
“…We investigated tumor patterns and longevity in mice subjected to dietary changes, CR, and/or DHEAS administration in middle age. DHEAS supplementation was selected because of extensive current human usage in the face of limited data to support the benefits of this practice. Treatment with DHEAS did not influence body weight, tumors, or longevity at two caloric intakes, despite urine samples from DHEAS-treated mice containing 10-fold higher levels of DHEA and DHEAS compared to samples from unsupplemented mice. In contrast, CR lowered body weight by 26%, increased maximum life span by ∼15% and the age at which tumor-bearing mice died and, unexpectedly, increased the percentage of mice dying with cancers. The lifetime incidence of the most prevalent cancer, PCN, was higher in RD mice (66%) than in ND mice (41%).”
“…A diagnosis of plasma cell neoplasms (PCN) was more frequent in both the RD and RD+D mice, 60 and 73%, respectively, than in the ND and ND+D mice, 34 and 46%, respectively (P < 0.005; Table 4 ⇓ )…A significantly smaller percentage (P < 0.005) of the RD and RD+D mice, 13 and 6%, respectively, ultimately died without a diagnosis of PCN, LL, or hepatocellular carcinoma than did the ND and ND+D mice, 22 and 16%, respectively (Table 4) ⇓ .”
