Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Calorie restriction is by far one of the most feasible means to increase life span of many species. As a means of treating diseases and increasing life span, calorie restriction has important application value.
OBJECTIVE: To review the history of calorie restriction, implementation plan of calorie restriction, calorie restriction mechanism, calorie restriction mimics and the comparison of calorie restriction and exercises, and to clear the effect of calorie restriction on increasing life span.
METHODS: A computer-based online research of CNKI and PubMed databases was performed to collect articles published between 1980 and 2011 with the key words of “calorie restriction, life span, exercise” in Chinese and English, respectively. There were 579 articles after the initial survey. A total of 49 articles were included according inclusion and exclusion criteria.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Calorie restriction can increase maximal life span of some animals. But whether calorie restriction can increase human being’s maximal life span or not is unclear. It needs further study whether exercise, as one of calorie restriction mimetic, can increase human being’s maximal life span, and what kind of exercise can better increase the average human life span and maximal life span. The combination of exercise with calorie restriction, or the combination of exercise with other calorie restriction mimetics would be an important method for fighting against aging in the future.