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When the cold and dark winter arrives, some of us envy animals that can hibernate. This long, deep rest is an example of how nature develops smart solutions to difficult problems. In this case: how do you survive a long, cold and dark period without much food and water.
But hibernation has closer ties to human history than you might expect.
An article in a 1900 copy of the British Medical Journal describes a strange, human-like hibernation called " lotka This was common among farmers in Pskov, Russia. In this area food was so scarce in winter that the problem was solved by sleeping in the dark part of the year.
Once a day, people woke up to eat a piece of bread and drink a glass of water. After the simple meal they went back to sleep and the family members took turns keeping the fire burning. In the Greenlandic stories of the Inuit you will also find descriptions of a prolonged hibernation-like sleep during the long dark winter months. In parts of Greenland it is dark from November to the end of January.
There is a 2020 study that suggests that humans' ancient ancestors, called hominids, may have been able to hibernate 400,000 years ago. Bones discovered in a cave in Spain show seasonal disruption in growth, suggesting that one of humans' predecessors may have used the same strategy as cave bears to survive long winters.
Animals and hibernation
Hibernation is deeper and more complex than usual sleep, including dramatic changes in metabolism. This long rest period combines several conditions associated with longevity, reduced calorie intake, low body temperature and a reduced metabolic rate.
Animals that hibernate tend to live longer compared to other species of the same size. Recent studies using epigenetic clocks, which map activity within genes over time, suggest that hibernation slows aging in marmots and bats. Hibernation may therefore contain important clues about how aging processes can be slowed down.
There are different types of aging: chronological and biological age.
The story continues
Chronological age is actually just about the number of revolutions the Earth has made around the sun since we were born.
It is not time itself that ages us, but rather 'wear and tear'. Biological age measures wear and tear. It is a more comprehensive and personal measure of health than chronological age and a better predictor of lifespan. A 2023 study found that biological age varies and that temporary increases, for example during surgery and stress, are reversed once you recover.
Lifestyle-related diseases that accumulate with age, such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, dementia and chronic kidney disease, are caused by 'wear and tear'. This results in inflammation, an altered composition of the intestinal microbiota and increased oxidative stress. Oxidative stress occurs when there are too many free radicals (unstable atoms that damage cells) in your body.
New science based on epigenetic clocks and lessons from hibernating animals could help us treat patients with diseases caused by 'wear and tear'. We could use medications that can slow down aging.
For example, metformin is the main first-line drug for treating type 2 diabetes. It regulates inflammation, insulin sensitivity and slows DNA damage caused by oxidative stress. There is growing evidence that it may help manage other "wear and tear" diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, and long-term use of the drug may be associated with lower cognitive impairment.
Learning more about hibernation could benefit human medicine in treating traumatic brain injuries, severe blood loss, preserving muscle and bone mass, and providing better protection during organ transplantation.
A 2018 study found that simulating hibernation conditions for storing kidney transplants from deceased donors appeared to improve their preservation. Musculoskeletal degeneration is often determined by genes, but these genes appeared to be deactivated in hibernating bears.
Animals and longevity
There are also long-lived animals that do not hibernate that we can learn from, such as the Greenland shark, the naked mole rat, the Icelandic mussel and the redfish. These species have developed superior mechanisms that protect them against aging. It appears that protection against inflammation, oxidative stress, and protein modifications that occur with age are mechanisms that generally benefit all long-lived animals.
Genetic studies of rockfish fish, which can live more than 200 years, suggest that a food group called flavonoids is linked to longevity. Citrus fruits, berries, onions, apples and parsley contain many flavonoids, which have anti-inflammatory properties and protect against organ damage, for example due to chemicals or aging.
The 2023 rockfish study found that a series of genes that could be linked to longevity were linked to flavonoid metabolism. A long-lived fish can therefore teach us something about what we should eat to live longer.
Lessons from nature and hibernating animals teach us that cell maintenance, regulatory metabolism and genetic adaptations play a key role in longevity. Our lifestyle and eating habits are our best tools to mimic some of these mechanisms.
Forty winks
There's still so much we don't understand about hibernation, but we do know that normal sleep is also linked to longevity. For example, a March 2023 study found that good sleep quality can add five years to the lives of men, and two and a half years if you're a woman. The researchers defined good quality sleep as sleeping seven to eight hours a day, not needing sleep medication and waking up rested at least five days a week.
Animals have huge variations in their sleep patterns, from bears and marmots that hibernate for eight months of the year, to elephants that get just two hours a day.
How elephants can live so long while sleeping so little is still a mystery to scientists.
Discovering how nature has resolved these extremes could help scientists find new ways to improve human health.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
