Are you eating too much protein?
Too much protein has been known to raise IGF-I.
IGF-I, or insulin-like growth factor 1, increases the chances of getting cancer.
Insulin-like growth factor 1 is a protein that is involved in mediating growth and development.
Having too much has been associated with cancer.
Unfortunately, many of the studies on protein have been done on rodents.
Rats and mice.
And new research shows that rats and mice don’t respond to protein restriction quite the same way as people do.
So this is a study on people.
The people in this study were put on a low protein diet.
They stayed on this diet over a long period of time.
And the participants were of different ages to get a really good sample.
But hold the phone.
This is an epidemiological study.
The rodent studies are often clinical studies where they actually feed rats or mice a diet and observe the results.
In this study, they relied upon people’s recall and diary keeping.
There were over 6000 people participating in this study.
But when you rely on someone keeping a diary, there can be forgotten details.
This can be particularly problematic when the person knows someone will be reading their food diary.
Guilt associated with eating something they shouldn’t have can cause people to leave things out of their record.
So these diaries may not present the real and true picture of what they were eating.
So just keep that in mind.
So first, a striking finding that the researchers recount —
We showed that humans with growth hormone receptor deficiency (GHRD), also exhibiting major deficiencies in serum IGF-1 and insulin levels, displayed no cancer mortality or diabetes.
I told you before that human growth hormone is actually a BIG negative.
It’s best to keep growth hormone levels low.
And it certainly does seem like IGF-I and insulin levels should be kept on the low side.
Certain people with certain deficiencies do not get cancer or diabetes.
This seems to be tied in with very low IGF-I and low growth hormone levels.
So now the researchers go on to discuss their findings about protein levels, IGF-I, and lifespan.
Their findings are that lower protein in middle age is protective, but higher protein in old age is protective.
They say that high protein diets in middle-aged increase IGF-I with the effect of increasing the chances of cancer by 400%.
But they say that in older age, high protein diets are protective and lower the chances of getting cancer.
I think they kind of spill the beans though, when they observe:
Restriction of particular amino acids, such as methionine and tryptophan, may explain part of the effects of calorie restriction on longevity and disease risk.
I think this is the entire effect actually.
Much of my work has gone into learning how to restrict bad amino acids.
These are amino acids such as methionine, tryptophan, and cysteine (which he did not mention) and even histamine.
These amino acids are best limited to small quantities when we’re adults.
And limiting them causes a person to live a lot longer.
As the researchers admit, restriction of methionine and tryptophan
is sufficient to reduce IGF-1 levels and can reduce cancer incidence or increase longevity in model organisms, independently of calorie intake.
I would rather not restrict my protein.
Higher protein is very important for liver function.
Low protein taxes the liver.
High-protein is extremely protective of the liver.
In this study they gave men plenty of alcohol.
And they divided the men into two groups.
One group ate a high-protein diet — the other ate a regular diet.
Then researchers compared the effects of alcohol with a high-protein diet, versus alcohol with a regular diet.
High-protein was somewhat protective compared to low-protein.
This has been shown in many studies that high-protein protects the liver.
The liver can get fatty and develop fibrosis regardless of fat intake.
But protein intake, high protein, is very liver protective.
The greatest challenge of living a long life is confronting the vast number of microorganisms that live in our body and our environment.
These include viruses, yeast, bacteria, and more.
They live in our gut, at least 4 pounds of them.
And they outnumber our own cells.
The microorganisms are continually shedding endotoxins which challenge our body.
The microbes themselves are always trying to infiltrate.
Many of these microbes are used by our body for various functions.
But it’s a precarious balance to both work with the microbes, yet defend against them.
The liver is the largest organ in the body.
This is necessary because one of its major jobs is to counteract and fight back against the endotoxin load from all of these microbes.
A high-protein diet seems invaluable to help the liver fight endotoxins.
To live a long life, rather than to restricting protein, it’s much easier to restrict bad amino acids.
It’s better to restrict the ones that cause damage in the long run.
Then you can eat as much as you want.
You don’t have to worry about restricting protein and hurting the liver.
Citations
Low Protein Intake Is Associated with a Major Reduction in IGF-1, Cancer, and Overall Mortality in the 65 and Younger but Not Older Population
http://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/fulltext/S1550-4131%2814%2900062-X
Alcoholic fatty liver in man on a high protein and low fat diet
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0002934368901514
See this for more on Protein Intake, and see more on Living Healthy, and for more information see effects of Fatty liver.