The IGF-1 Trade-Off: Performance vs. Longevity
Why Hacker News recommends it
Linked in discussions of diet, aging and cancer as a quick summary of how IGF-1 and mTOR growth signaling cut against longevity.
What it is
A short FoundMyFitness explainer on the trade-off between growth hormone/IGF-1 and longevity. Higher IGF-1 helps muscle and cognition, while lower levels are linked to longer lifespan and stress resistance.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2014 to 2022.
What Hacker News said
Recommends dpatrick86 · 2014-10 · on “What will it take to run a 2-hour marathon?”
Speaking to your question about "what the long term effects of these drugs are": My wife put together a together a pretty interesting video about the "faustian bargain" which is IGF-1 (used as a proxy measure for growth hormone)... video is replete with examples of the effects of low IGF-1/GH or high IGF-1/GH both in animal models and humans. One of the more interesting points in the video is the fact that people with polymorphisms that make their IGF-1 receptor experience some slight loss of function actually live longer (in general). [this video] The video also links to an article which has a bibliography if you're interested.
Cites femiagbabiaka · 2021-04 · on “For 2M years, humans ate meat and little else: study”
1. Bigger groups === more and better data. I didn't know anyone growing up who was interested in ketogenic or carnivorous diets, now it's much more common. 2. Huge difference between the diet of a westerner following carnivore and traditional tribal carnivorous diets 3. The Inuits weren't particularly healthy, I'm not sure why their diet matters: [LINK] 4. And most importantly, there's a lot of research showing that high levels of IGF-1 associated with diets high in red meat are not good for longevity: [this video]
Cites loudtieblahblah · 2022-03 · on “Could cancer cells’ iron addiction be their Achilles heel?”
[LINK] [LINK] Its pretty well know mtor/igf-1 stimulates growth. All growth. This is great for youth. Not so much for aging. [this video]