The article below cites research which claims that burning fats for
energy (ketosis and Low Carb as my interjection) produces fewer oxygen
radicals which can damage cells and exacerbate the effects of aging.

It would be ever so nice to be able to claim that low carb could offer
life extension much like the very low calorie (carbohydrate heavy ? )
life extension diets claim.

=========================== Article ===========

Fat Hormone May Contribute To Longevity

ScienceDaily (Nov. 23, 2007) — Both humans and mice that manage to live
to a ripe, old age show a clear change in their glucose metabolism, but
it's unclear whether this change alone can increase lifespan.

Using a mouse model of longevity, Terry Combs and colleagues report that
changes in metabolism can indeed increase longevity. They demonstrated
that long-lived Snell dwarf mice burn less glucose and more fatty acids
during periods of fasting, and as a result produce fewer free radicals.

The key to this switch may be adiponectin, a hormone produced by fat
cells that helps lower glucose production and stimulates cells to use
fat for energy instead. The researchers found that Snell mice had three
times as much adiponectin in their blood as control mice; Snell mice
also had fewer triglycerides in their cells, indicative of higher fat
metabolism.

The benefit of burning fats instead of glucose for energy is that it
produces fewer oxygen radicals which can damage cells and exacerbate the
effects of aging. Confirming this, Combs and colleagues found far less
free radical damage, measured as the frequency of a chemical
modification on protein known as carbonyl groups, in Snell mice than
controls.

Article: "Low utilization of circulating glucose after food withdrawal
in Snell dwarf mice" by Natasha L. Brooks, Chad M. Trent, Carl F.
Raetzsch, Kevin Flurkey, Gunnar Boysen, Michael T. Perfetti, Yo-Chan
Jeong, Simon Klebanov, Kajal B. Patel, Valerie R. Khodush, Lawrence L.
Kupper, David Carling, James A. Swenberg, David E. Harrison, and Terry
P. Combs

Adapted from materials provided by American Society for Biochemistry and
Molecular Biology.