Stay cool and live longer!

Nov 6 2006

If new research is to be believed living longer may simply be a case of staying cool.

Researchers in California in the U.S. say living longer may be as simple as reducing body temperature, regardless of calorie intake.

They say by lowering the body temperature of mice they extended their life span by up to 20 percent.

The scientists were conducting studies on how to prolong life and they found that the life span of warm-blooded animals could be lengthened by slightly lowering their core body temperature.

The science already exists which shows that there is a link between body temperature and aging in cold-blooded animals, but this is the first study to show body temperature changes also have an impact on how long warm-blooded animals live.

The mice in the study, were allowed to eat as much food as they wanted while their core body temperature was lowered modestly.

Lead researcher Bruno Conti of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California says they found in earlier studies involving calorie restriction that animals experienced lower body temperatures as a side effect and they wanted to find out what was the key factor in life span.

The team reduced the mouse body temperatures by focusing on the hypothalamus, a brain structure that acts as the body's thermostat and found that mice with reduced body temperatures lived longer than those with normal temperatures.

The median life span in females was extended by about 20 percent and in males by about 12 percent.

The researchers say the male mice weighed roughly 10 percent more than the females which could have been down to the diminished energy needed to maintain a lower body temperature.

But the practice is unlikely to apply to humans as the technique though "technically feasible, is essentially impractical and information on the safety of such an approach is scant.

The authors say the study has addressed issues less basic than the amount of food eaten and the mechanism could be a good target for pharmacological manipulation or heating.

The study is published in the journal Science.