Study: Eating More Cheese Could Help People Live Longer

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A new study suggests that eating more cheese can help people live longer.

According to Medical Daily, researchers found that a compound in certain cheeses called spermidine gave mice healthier hearts and led them to live longer.

"The mice do not only live longer, when we supplement spermidine to the drinking water, but they are also healthier in terms of cardiac function," study co-author Dr. Frank Madeo, of the Medical University of Graz in Austria, told Medical Daily.

Researchers told Medical Daily that spermidine allows heart cells to do away with parts of itself that are no longer necessary, in a process known as autophagy.

In the study, one group of mice were given water mixed with spermidine while the others were given plain water. The mice given spermidine outlived the mice who were given plain water.

Mateo explained to Medical Daily that spermidine could play a role in the aging process of humans.

"We are planning a trial where we administer spermidine to humans and measure their cardiac function," Mateo said to Medical Daily.

The study was published in the journal Nature Medicine.