How getting one could save your life
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Story-At-a-Glance
Hey, Matt Cook here, and decades ago, it was noticed that larger animal species like elephants tend to live longer than smaller species.
Scientists eventually discovered why…
Because of their metabolism.
Here’s how to get an “elephant metabolism” so you can live longer…
Why elephants don’t die young
By some estimates, larger animals have slower metabolic rates.
From this rudimentary information, it was assumed that a lower metabolic rate leads to greater longevity.
This is something loosely termed the rate of living theory.
For decades, academics and seemingly well-informed doctors have told people that decreasing your metabolic rate can help you to live longer.
But to make that claim, you need to look at animals of the same species and see whether those animals live longer with higher or lower metabolic rates.
When you do that, you see that animals with greater energy production live longer.
The animal experiments were performed at The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine. This paper was published in Experimental Gerontology.
The first of these observations came in the 1950s when researchers drew connections between longevity, body weight, and brain weight.
“SACHER has previously shown that between mammalian species there is a high degree of correlation between longevity and body weight, and brain weight.”
Soon afterward, these observations were extended to include differences in metabolic rates between animal species.
“Further analysis shows that it is probably not body weight or brain weight that is of importance, but rather that the metabolic rate which is negatively correlated with body weight and the index of cephalization are the important variables.”
The index of cephalization is a measurement that considers brain size to body size ratio.
These researchers theorized that errors in DNA replication are responsible for accelerated aging and death.
This is true, but its significance is massively overplayed.
More importantly, these researchers theorized that these errors would be elevated in animals with a HIGH metabolic rate.
“These errors should be proportional to the metabolic rate and a low metabolic rate (associated with large body size) should lead to increased longevity. ”
So, on to the research….
To properly test this theory, the researchers would have to identify differences in individual animals of the same species.
So they analyzed data from numerous different strains of mice.
“Mean values for lifespan, brain weight, body weight, and metabolic rate were determined for male and female mice in 18 different inbred strains.”
To generate lots of energy, cells need to consume a lot of oxygen.
Energetic metabolism was calculated by tracking the amount of oxygen the animals used.
“Oxygen consumption of individual mice was measured in a commercially available spirometer designed to measure small volume changes in a closed system.”
The researchers found no relationship between brain weight, body weight, and longevity.
But they got an answer to the energy metabolism and longevity question.
Animals that produce more energy live longer.
“The mean metabolic rate was significantly positively correlated with longevity in both genders.”
This is in disagreement with the rate of living theory – which is a dominant idea in academia and medicine to this day.
Over the years, I have pointed toward many beneficial effects of increased energetic metabolism and health.
When the body can produce more energy, it can optimize health, repair, and recovery.
A healthier, more energetic mind and body will live longer.
You only need to look at the effects of optimizing the primary energetic hormone, thyroid, on longevity and chronic disease.
Any proper data analysis will show you that improving energy production improves health and longevity.
