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Slow metabolism promotes longevity
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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An international group of scientists, after a series of studies, found that the development and aging of the body depends on the speed of metabolic processes. The slower the metabolism, the later old age comes. Humans have the slowest metabolic process: even with the most intense activity, less energy is spent than any other mammal. The results of this work were published in one of the scientific journals.
The experts studied 17 species of monkeys that lived in zoos in the United States, and the scientists also analyzed the animals' lives in the wild to determine how much energy the animals expend every day and how the pace of life affects their metabolic rate.
For these purposes, the researchers used a special technology without needles and various surgical interventions, which helped track the production of carbon dioxide by the body. Using this method, scientists measured the calories burned by primates for ten days. Then, the researchers determined how many calories the primates burned each day and compared the results with the rates of energy expenditure in other mammal species.
As reported by Hermann Pontzer, who headed the study, the results obtained were very unexpected for his group. Chimpanzees, baboons and other primate species spent only 50% of their calories, while scientists expected to see the energy expenditure rate typical for mammals. As scientists note, the low level of calorie expenditure is directly related to the rather leisurely lifestyle of primates. The experts also added that fast metabolic processes in the body accelerate development and aging, since the body requires energy for growth. Our pets (cats, hamsters, dogs) develop and grow quite quickly, but they age and die faster than humans. According to experts, the whole point here is precisely the metabolic rate; primates and humans have a slower metabolism than other mammals, which is associated with long development and life expectancy.
During the study, the experts also assumed that primates living in captivity should spend less energy, but in fact, this was not quite true. As the analysis showed, the primates living in the zoo spent the same number of calories every day as their relatives living in natural conditions. Scientists cannot yet say for sure what exactly this is connected with.
The research team is confident that the study will also help humanity, since the discovery of the energy expenditure mechanism will allow a better understanding of the mechanism of human longevity. In addition, the discovery allows scientists to establish an existing connection between activity and daily calorie expenditure, and this, in turn, will help researchers better study the principle by which many diseases associated with metabolism, including obesity, develop.
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