Diet and exercise might be just what you need to keep young, because they reduce the action of insulin in the brain, researchers reported recently, a study I learned about, thanks to the American Diabetes Association.
Perhaps the strongest take-away point is this comment: "This study provides a new explanation of why it’s good to exercise and not eat too much," Dr. Morris White, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Children’s Hospital in Boston.
"Diet, exercise and lower weight keep your peripheral tissues sensitive to insulin," said Dr. White, who led the study. "That means the body needs to make less insulin."
Learn more here about this study, which involved creating mutant mice that over-ate, became obese and even developed symptoms of diabetes, but lived 18 percent longer than normal lab mice, becausethey lacked a certain gene that affects insulin. (Insulin, as you probably know is the hormone that regulates glucose.)