metabolic disease. The volunteers also had lower levels of a biomarker for chronic inflammation, which has been linked to heart disease, cancer and mental decline.
“There’s something about caloric restriction, some mechanism we don’t yet understand that results in these improvements,” said study author Dr. William Kraus, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, N.C.
“We have collected blood, muscle and other samples from these participants and will continue to explore what this metabolic signal or magic molecule might be,” he added in a Duke news release.
The findings show “that even a modification that is not as severe as what we used in this study could reduce the burden of diabetes and cardiovascular disease that we have in this country,” Kraus said.
“People can do this fairly easily by simply watching their
