Cutting calories before cutting in surgery
Dietary restriction has already been shown to extend the lives of laboratory animals, but recent research suggests the beneficial effects of eating less may extend to improved recovery from surgery and better resistance to disease. James Mitchell, assistant professor of genetics and complex diseases at the Harvard School of Public Health, outlined work on laboratory animals that measured whether a restricted diet or restriction of key nutrients to trigger similar physiological responses could protect against organ damage. The results showed improved resistance to kidney damage after blood was cut off to the organs for 30 minutes and then allowed to flow again. In one experiment, 40 percent of the control mice died from kidney injury, while all of the treated mice survived. Though earlier experiments on life span examined long-term dietary restriction, in this case, Mitchell said, the benefit appeared to accrue after only a few days and then disappear again after...