LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--On July 10, L-Nutra, Inc. became the first company to market a product that has been granted a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for optimizing human healthspan, the length of time that a person is healthy. This follows a landmark patent issued in 2016 for treating diabetes and multiple patents previously issued for cancer treatment, but this is the first patented protocol to address health and wellness prior to the onset of disease. The patent is for the Fasting Mimicking Diet® (FMD®), discovered and clinically tested by the laboratory of Valter Longo and Keck Hospital at the University of Southern California (USC), a nutrition technology that is proven to reduce markers for age-related disease as well as promote tissue regeneration.
Fasting has always been part of human history; but recently, humans have become accustomed to eating multiple times a day, every day, causing a worldwide obesity epidemic. Over 70% of Americans are overweight or obese. Carrying excess fat accelerates the aging process and often leads to the early onset of diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer’s. Water-only fasting is an effective way to prevent obesity; however, the most effective regimen consists of several consecutive days without food, which is not only very difficult to comply with, but could pose health challenges and side effects if done outside of a specialized clinic. FMD protocols allow people to nourish their body with food while keeping the body in “fasting mode.” The current embodiment of the patent is ProLon®, a five-day FMD designed to minimize side effects and hunger thus making periodic fasting easy, effective, and safe. It is also currently being tested for positive effects that are even superior to those of water-only fasting.
The patent distinguishes the Fasting Mimicking Diet from other diets in its ability to promote tissue regeneration. This is critical because the majority of diets only impact fat metabolism (e.g. weight loss), and the fasting period of most forms of time-restricted eating (such as intermittent fasting) are not sufficient to yield this effect. The FMD positively stresses the body to induce major cellular benefits such as autophagy (awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Medicine) and stem cell-based regeneration. This regeneration and reset of the body could support healthier aging by helping maintain body weight and improving physical and mental performance in a way that takes advantage of natural human evolution, tradition, and cutting-edge science.
“This is a milestone achievement for public health, and L-Nutra is proud to be the first to market a product developed, tested, positioned, sold, and now patented for optimizing longevity and healthspan,” says Joseph Antoun MD, CEO of L-Nutra. “L-Nutra’s vision is to disrupt the current ‘sickcare’ model of medicine and to advance the concept of healthy and youthful longevity.”
The Fasting Mimicking Diet is one of few nutri-technologies that has undergone extensive scientific research and clinical trials at major universities across the world. Last year, a landmark human trial published in Science Translational Medicine demonstrated that ProLon is clinically proven to reduce markers of the body’s aging process, optimize weight, and maintain healthy levels of multiple metabolic markers such as cholesterol, triglyceride, glucose, and CRP (an inflammatory marker). The secret to the Fasting Mimicking Diet relies on the body’s activation of the epigenetic, metabolic, and cellular reprogramming to survive prolonged periods of fasting.
“At L-Nutra, we believe that by understanding and respecting nature, tradition, and science, we can promote remarkable self repair and reset mechanisms in the human body, which eventually may also be used to treat and cure disease,” adds Dr. Antoun. L-Nutra’s plans include ongoing university studies to develop additional types of Fasting Mimicking Diets for addressing specific conditions such as multiple sclerosis, diabetes, cancer, and Alzheimer’s. For more information, please visit L-Nutra.com.
About L-Nutra, Inc.
L-Nutra’s team of researchers and collaborators are leaders in the field of nutrition related to longevity and healthspan. L-Nutra has the exclusive rights from the University of Southern California to market ProLon® and other FMD®s, which mimic and enhance the effects of fasting, unleash the body’s natural ability to rejuvenate itself, and promote healthy longevity. These nutri-technologies are the result of decades of lab and clinical research to demonstrate safety and efficacy. For more information, please visit l-nutra.com and prolonfmd.com.