Dietary restriction adaptively up-regulates cellular recycling mechanisms (e.g. autophagy, apoptosis) to increase resource efficiency and promote immediate reproduction. Old-age pathologies, such as cancer, are reduced as a side effect, extending lifespan in benign laboratory environments. Such benefits are unlikely to translate to the wild, where extrinsic mortality risk is high. In this video, Margo Adler presents a new hyphothesis for the effect of dietary restriction on lifespan.
