Both calorie restriction and plant-based diets exert their anti-aging effects through hormesis, at least in lab animals, and there’s increasing evidence of similar mechanisms at work in humans, too. These repair mechanisms fix everything from faulty proteins to leaky cell membranes. They allow extra calcium into nerve cells, strengthening their activities. Certain growth factors become stimulated, such as neuron-loving BDNF (which, as you recall, does many positive growth-related things for the brain’s neural constituencies). Dietary restriction stimulates hormesis by convincing the cells that
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