By Odysseus Zis

Odysseus Zis is currently a 2nd year MSc. candidate in the Neuroscience program at UBC. When not working, he is shredding on his guitar, composing music, or anticipating his next flyfishing trip.

AGING AND CALORIC RESTRICTION: A BRIEF INTRODUCTION

Aging and death are prominent sources of concern for individuals of North America (Neimeyer 2004). It is not surprising that longevity and immortality have pervaded almost every culture at some point in time. The ancient Egyptians believed that preserving the body of the deceased would lead to preservation of the physical form in an after-life. More recently, the arts of western culture have addressed the cost of immortality in a fantastical fashion, for example, in Bram Stoker’s Dracula and JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. The signs of normal aging, especially through the later decades of one’s life are clearly…