Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Hold Your Nose for Extra Years

It's totally not fair that roundworms get all the cool scientific breakthroughs, but whatever. Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis went ahead and extended their life spans by up to 29%. And they didn't even have to genetically splice them into chimeras or godless abominations that were half worm, half radioactive monster.

I thought the tag line about eating less helping you live longer was unrelated, but it's actually an interesting part of the test. Reducing your calorie intake increases your lifespan. Researchers found that treating roundworms with a chemical to block their sense of smell prevented them from detecting food. Since they couldn't find food as effectively, they didn't eat as much and ended up living longer.

It looks like Weight Watchers should think about giving out nose plugs with their memberships.

I'm sure that worms everywhere will be happy to hear this news. Of course, that's assuming they can avoid the Rooping iron.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

They may have lived longer, but were they happy? LOL! Let's face it, we all love to eat. :)

Stanley! said...

"Eat right, exercise, die anyway," huh?

It may not be possible to find a way to spend the extra time that would be as enjoyable as eating, but I'm willing to try.

The header image is adapted from a photo taken by Bill McChesney and used under a creative commons license.
 
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