A new study in mice shows that intermittent fasting and calorie restriction may be the key to living longer.
Jennifer Stern is an assistant professor in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the University of Arizona in Tucson. She and her team have been looking at a hormone called glucagon.
"So, it turns on pathways that promote the breakdown of fats. It also turns on pathways that promote the synthesis and release of glucose from the liver," Stern said.
Which are good things, she says.
"In response to long periods of fasting, for example, in intermittent fasting or when we calorie restrict mice in our studies, glucagon signaling at the liver, which is the main site of glucagon action, increases."
It also turned off the pathways that accelerate aging.
"What's most exciting about this is we're not far from glucagon agonists being available in therapeutics and drugs primarily intended to treat metabolic disease, but they may serve a dual purpose — and also promoting healthy aging, decreasing age-related disease," Stern said.
So drugs like Ozempic or Wegovy. Glucagon also improved metabolic and physical functions in mice.
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