(A Little) Less Calories, Better Muscle Health

Moderately reducing your calorie intake has benefits, even mild sleep deprivation is harmful and your weekly recommendations.

The Rundown

(A Little) Less Calories, Better Muscle Health. Researchers from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) have published a new study that says a moderate reduction in calorie intake can improve muscle health and activate biological pathways that are important for good health in general.

Calorie restriction, or decreasing caloric intake without depriving the body of essential nutrients, has been shown to positively impact muscle and delay the progression of age-related diseases in animals. But, there’s been little information on the long-term effects of calorie restriction on humans.

The team from NIH found that over a two-year period, participants in the CALERIE (Comprehensive Assessment of Long-Term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy) study were able to reduce their calorie intake by 12%. The goal was 25%. However, this moderate reduction was enough to show positive results toward healthy aging.

Using RNA sequencing analysis on the skeletal muscle of ninety CALERIE participants, the researchers were able to confirm that calorie restriction affected the same gene pathways in people as it did in mice and primates.

They found that gene expression related to protein regulation, circadian rhythm regulation, DNA repair and inflammation was significantly changed in calorie-restricted participants compared to controls.

There were also changes in biological pathways involved in muscle repair and skeletal muscle formation, leading to an increase in the quality of skeletal muscle and the mechanisms of aging.

Corresponding author, Luigi Ferrucci, sums it up this way, “Since inflammation and aging are strongly coupled, calorie restriction represents a powerful approach to preventing the pro-inflammatory state that is developed by many older people.”

Sleep & Women’s Heart Disease Risk. Getting enough sleep lowers your risk of developing health issues, particularly heart disease. For women, who more frequently report sleep disturbances and have been found to have a more significant inflammatory response and cardiovascular risk thanks to insufficient sleep, it should be a top priority.

With this in mind, researchers at Columbia University Irving Medical Center wanted to find out what happens to women’s blood vessels during longer-term mild sleep deprivation.

Their study divided healthy women who habitually sleep seven to nine hours daily into two groups. The control group slept for the usual amount of time. The other group’s bedtime was delayed by one-and-a-half hours but their wake time stayed the same. The study lasted twelve weeks, with the participants switching groups halfway through.

The team found that endothelial oxidative stress levels increased by 78% after sleep restriction compared to adequate sleep and antioxidant responses were entirely lacking.

To put it another way: Mild sleep deprivation led to cells that were inflamed and dysfunctional, which is an early step on the road to developing cardiovascular disease.

The overall message is simple. Make sure you get enough sleep. As one researcher put it, “Many problems could be solved if people sleep at least seven to eight hours per night.”

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