Cutting Calories and TXNIP From the Skeletal Muscle to Restore Insulin Sensitivity

It is quite possible that if she had seen but a glimpse of her young country’s future while writing “The New Colossus” in late 19th-century America, Emma Lazarus might have modified her famous line to read “Give me your…huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” well-nourished and long-lived . And indeed, at a time when food shortage and famine were sources of great suffering throughout much of the world, such a persuasive line would have seemed very compelling to the “masses.” How strange might it also have been for people at that time to be told of what we now know, which is that overnourishment typically prohibits a person from living a long and healthy life. Evidence of this fact is manifested in the rapidly rising rates of obesity-related pathologies, particularly cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome/type 2 diabetes, which of course are hardly unique to the U.S. as recent reports show that rates of obesity and related cardiometabolic diseases are escalating worldwide, with the highest rates in developing countries across Africa and the Middle East (1,2). Lifestyle interventions to combat this epidemic are increasingly being prioritized by health care professionals who recognize that, unless action is taken, the tidal wave of associated costs and resource demands placed on hospitals and primary care providers will wash over us all with devastating consequences.Caloric restriction (CR) is an intervention that consistently leads to …