Low-calorie diet may help prevent Parkinson's disease Monkey study found an increase of chemicals that protect nerve cells

[John Cottingham <jcott@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The source of this article is the Houston Chronical: http://tinyurl.com/5754s

Dec. 18, 2004, 8:00PM

Low-calorie diet may help prevent Parkinson's disease
Monkey study found an increase of chemicals that protect nerve cells
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - A long-term low-calorie diet, already reported to extend life 
span, also may offer protection from Parkinson's disease ? at least in monkeys.
 
Rhesus monkeys fed a diet that had 30 percent fewer calories than normal were 
less affected by a toxin that produces a Parkinson's-like condition, 
researchers reported last week.

Previous studies of reduced food intake have shown that it extends the life 
span of mice.

The new study, by Mark P. Mattson of the National Institute on Aging, is 
reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

A team of researchers fed one group of monkeys the low-calorie diet for six 
months, during which they lost about 12 percent of their body weight compared 
to monkeys on a normal diet. Then both groups were given a toxin that causes 
damage similar to Parkinson's.

Movement was affected in all monkeys, but the ability to move and speed of 
movement were greater in the low-calorie monkeys than in those that had been 
fed normally.

The researchers found that the monkeys on a restricted diet had significantly 
higher concentrations than normal weight animals of two chemicals that protect 
nerve cells, BNDF and GNDF.

Intermittent fasting has been shown to increase levels of BNDF in rodents, the 
researchers noted.

GNDF, they said, currently is being given to Parkinson's patients in clinical 
trials.

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