In the News

Earth.com, New York Post (republished by Yahoo News) and Telegraph reported on a study led by Valter Longo that showed a fasting-mimicking diet can lower a person’s biological age. “This is the first study to show that a food-based intervention that does not require chronic dietary or other lifestyle changes can make people biologically younger, based on both changes in risk factors for ageing and disease,” Longo said.

Medical Xpress and Medriva covered a study by Valter Longo that indicates cycles of a fasting-mimicking diet can reduce disease risk factors and lower biological age in humans.

Los Angeles Times, in a column, noted that Valter Longo of USC Leonard Davis advises that supplement-heavy diets that include drug therapies like the one promoted by Bryan Johnson could be harmful. “You can cause short-term benefits, but eventually that will probably turn into long-term problems.”

US News & World Report and UPI ran a Health Day article about research by Caleb Finch of USC Leonard Davis showing there was very little mention of dementia in ancient Rome and Greece, based on a text analysis. More coverage appeared in Lab Roots and Daily Mail.

IFL Science, Earth.com and The Times (Greece) featured a study by Caleb Finch, a University Professor at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, in which he analyzed medical texts from ancient Greece and Roman and found only rare mentions of severe memory loss, suggesting that today’s widespread dementia stems from modern environments and lifestyles. “The ancient Greeks had very, very few – but we found them – mentions of something that would be like mild cognitive impairment,” Finch said. “When we got to the Romans, and we uncovered at least four statements that suggest rare cases of advanced dementia – we can’t tell if it’s Alzheimer’s. So, there was a progression going from the ancient Greeks to the Romans.”

Inside Edition interviewed Edward Schneider regarding Donald Trump’s cognitive health following a verbal gaffe. “There are changes in your brain; you’re not as sharp as you would be at 35, but the trade-off is you have a lot more experience.”

Medical News Today quoted USC Leonard Davis adjunct professor Linda Ellerby on research that indicates intermittent fasting could slow brain aging. Ellerby is also affiliated with the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. “Finding factors that make the brain resilient or prevent the aging process will be important to slowing aging. … It is possible that simple changes in our diet can increase the levels of OXR1 in the brain and this would be protective.”

HuffPost interviewed Jennifer Ailshire of USC Leonard Davis and USC Price for tips on improving longevity. Ailshire gave advice such as being physically active, socially engaged and doing what you can to reduce controllable stress. The story also ran on Yahoo News sites

Wall Street Journal interviewed Eileen Crimmins of USC Leonard Davis for an in-depth story about Americans’ growing health issues with age. Crimmins said: “We are living longer and better, even if the length of life with diseases increased.”