Introduction
Building on the works of the late Roy Walford, CR Society President Brian M. Delaney and CR Society researcher Michael Rae are conducting a study on the effects of Calorie Restriction (CR) in humans.
How To Participate
Aside from being on the diet, participating in the study would involve little work on your part... just a few simple blood tests two to three times a year.
If you think you might be interested, please mail us at crstudy@calorierestriction.org with the following information about yourself:
- Age.
- Sex.
- How long you think you might be willing to stay on the diet. (And, if you've already started the diet: how long you've been on it.)
- Approximately what level of severity of restriction of food do you think (just as an initial guess) you'd be willing to adhere to?
- Mild - Won't have to put up with much hunger at all
- Moderate - Might need to fight hunger at several points during the day
- As much as it takes to live as long as possible - Will be hungry often.
- Any special health problems you have (or have experineced in the past).
- Any other information you think might be relevant.
Importance of Tests
First, and most important: whether or not you now want to participate in any CR study, be aware that one frequently heard lament of those currently on CR is, "I wish I had taken the time to get a few cheap blood tests done before going on the diet!"
Why is it important to get at least a few tests done?
Two reasons: (1) for yourself, (2) for science.
- Although a tremendous amount of research has been done on CR the practice of CR is, at present, still partly an art. Some of what you need to know about yourself in order to determine what to eat on the diet -- above all, what your target CR intake should be (or target CR weight) -- can be made less of an art and more of a science by having some pre-CR "biomarkers."
Moreover, those aspects of CR which currently are still partly "art," and not fully science, may soon become science as research continues to yield new clues about how CR works. But the benefit of these future findings, too, may be lost on you if you don't have pre-CR biomarkers.
Finally, seeing the changes in your biomarkers -- even if it's just those that are markers for heart disease, and not necessarily for aging itself -- can be extremely helpful as a reinforcement to stay on this sometimes difficult diet.
- Then there's helping science! If you decide you want to participate in our study, it would be much more useful to have some pre-CR data. This makes it much easier to test whether the diet has had an effect.
Please see our Tests and Biomarkers page for more information about the tests we think would be valuable to do before going on the diet.
Please send answers to the above survey, or any questions or comments you might have, to crstudy@calorierestriction.org. Thanks for your interest in the study.
