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Atmosphere, Metabolism and Longevity

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Life Extension

Part of the book series: Healthy Ageing and Longevity ((HAL,volume 3))

Abstract

Are the current atmosphere gaseous composition and unlimited oxygen consumption mode optimal for the health and longevity? Food and oxygen are the two tightly related substances critical for the life support. Recommendations to restrict food consumption below the ad libitum level are recognized and have many followers worldwide. No analogous suggestions concerning the O2 consumption are known. Living beings originated and most part of their evolution occurred in atmospheres with extraordinarily high CO2 and low O2. In contrast, O2 content in the modern atmosphere is exceeding CO2 more than 500 fold. Such dramatic changes should provoke conflicting situations. According to the proposed ‘nostalgia’ concept, living systems somehow ‘remember’ and are striving to return to the less conflicting primordial environments. Maintenance of Drosophila in hypoxic atmospheres (5, 10 and 15 % of O2) started from the 20 day extended their mean but not maximum life span. Optimal hypoxia was lower for the older flies (15 % O2 started from the 40 days and 18 % for the 50 days). Data accumulated do not exclude that modified atmospheres and diets could have additive positive effects on longevity. People in the developed countries are already living in artificial atmospheres with optimized physical parameters—the air is conditioned, filtered, ozonized, ionized, humidified, deodorized etc. However, the same air composition could hardly be optimal for everyone and in all situations. Supplementation of the air conditioners with additional gadgets could ensure optimization of the atmosphere gaseous composition, as well. Despite the importance and technical availability, little is known about efficiency of the individually and situationally optimized atmospheres in human aging and longevity.

Omne vivum ex ovo in hypoxia et hypercapnia

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Acknowledgments

The author is grateful to Prof. Vadim Fraifeld for his valuable suggestions and contribution in collecting the mammalian data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Institute of Gerontology of National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, 67, Vyshgorodskaya Street, 04114, Kiev, Ukraine

    Khatchik Muradian

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  1. Khatchik Muradian
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Correspondence to Khatchik Muradian .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Epigenetics, Institute of Gerontology, Kiev, Kievs'ka, Ukraine

    Alexander M. Vaiserman

  2. Laboratory of Molecular Radiobiology and Gerontology, Institute of Biology of Komi Science Center of Ural Branch of RAS, Syktyvkar, Komi Republic, Russia

    Alexey A. Moskalev

  3. Laboratory of Genome Variation, Institute of Molecular Genetics of RAS, Moscow, Russia

    Elena G. Pasyukova

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Muradian, K. (2015). Atmosphere, Metabolism and Longevity. In: Vaiserman, A., Moskalev, A., Pasyukova, E. (eds) Life Extension. Healthy Ageing and Longevity, vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18326-8_13

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