Key Words

load combined with low calorie consumption in the past seems to be responsible for exceptional longevity in Oki-nawa. Although severe caloric restriction seems not to be a necessary condition for life extension in humans, DR should not be dismissed as a valid way of delaying athero-sclerosis and eventually extending the life span of non-obese individuals. A more careful look at the existing literature leads us to the conclusion that it is too early to give up the idea of human life extension by DR because the results of the most critical human trials on DR are in progress now and their results are yet to be published [2]. People of the Okinawa archipelago in Japan whose tra-ditional diet is low in calories but nutritionally dense were shown to have one of the highest longevity rates in the world [3]. For example, in 2005 life expectancy at age 65 for Okinawa women was 24.86 years compared to 23.42 for Japanese women (who already had the highest life ex-pectancy among industrialized countries). For men in 2005, life expectancy at age 65 was 19.16 versus 18.33 in Japan [4]. These data show about 5 % longevity advantage for 65-year-old women and about 4 % longevity advantage for 65-year-old men in Okinawa compared to Japan. In 2000, life expectancy at age 65 in Okinawa was 24.1 years for women and 18.5 years for men that demonstrates a continuous increase (rather than decrease) in longevity in Okinawa. A study of older Okinawans demonstrated that they appear to have undergone a mild form of prolonge