As people engage in more advanced methods of increasing the time they get to spend on this planet, research shows that living longer might take less than you think. A study put together by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in collaboration with Duke Molecular Physiology Institute indicates that embracing dietary restrictions from time to time might reinvigorate cells and promote healthy aging. Similar results can be obtained through genetic manipulation, researchers says.

The study linked longevity to changes in mitochondrial networks, which are cell structures responsible for producing energy. Researchers found that the networks could be manipulated through fasting, and changes to the shape of these networks can affect lifespan.

“Low-energy conditions such as dietary restriction and intermittent fasting have previously been shown to promote healthy aging," said Heather Weir, author of the study and currently a research associate at a biotechnology company, in The Harvard Gazette. "Understanding why this is the case is a crucial step toward being able to harness the benefits therapeutically.”

As part of the study published in Cell Metabolism, a journal focusing on physiology, researchers noticed that a type of worm called C. elegans tended to live longer if the connections formed by their mitochondria were ideal. When a protein that was important in the processing of energy in the cells was blocked, thus simulating a dietary restriction, similar longevity results were obtained.

Minimalism and Lifespan

Researchers have been looking into the link between diet and quality of life since at least the 1970s, when doctors noticed the long term benefits of extreme fasting on people looking to lose weight. According to a 1973 case, a 27-year-old man weighing more than 450 pounds lost around 270 after almost a year of dietary restrictions and maintained his weight throughout the next five years.

Studies have moved beyond the aspect of weight and transcended into connecting a healthier food and diet to an increase in lifespan. Researchers in Japan found that if people ate specific carbohydrates, vegetables, fruits, fish and meat, they tended to register lower mortality rates. "Closer adherence to Japanese dietary guidelines was associated with a lower risk of total mortality and mortality from cardiovascular disease, particularly from cerebrovascular disease, in Japanese adults," a study published in 2016 found.

While fasting has been linked to higher chances of curing cancer by better exposing cancer cells to the immune system, there is little global data to currently support the claim that people in countries that fast the most also live the longest, as life expectancy, as well as fasting, are influenced by numerous factors. Even from a religious perspective, fasting is practiced differently around the world and in various degrees by various religions, from Muslims to Christians. Differences are registered even within the same religion. For Ramadan, for instance, a celebration that usually falls in May and June, Muslims in Iceland fast longer than those in Chile as the religious habit is in tight connection to daylight, and days are longer in those months in the Northern Hemisphere.

People in countries such as Japan, Singapore and Korea that tend to embrace more of a minimalist diet tend to top the life expectancy list. According to most recent data from the World Health Organization, Japanese live the longest with a life expectancy rate of 83.7 years, while Singapore comes third with 83.1. Research has also linked low life expectancy rates with high meat and poultry consumption, yet according to global data on meat and poultry consumption from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Japanese seem to fall somewhere in the middle range.

The Harvard study on fasting might be just the beginning of new research done on mitochondria and the impact of locking them in ways that simulate dietary restrictions, say the authors. “Although previous work has shown how intermittent fasting can slow aging, we are only beginning to understand the underlying biology,” William Mair, associate professor of genetics at Harvard and senior author of the study, told The Harvard Gazette.