The 'rate of living theory' of aging, which suggests slower metabolism leads to longer life, has been disproven by decades of research.

“when we consume more of the polyunsaturated fats and we can just keep it at Omega 6 as first we will incorporate more of them into the structure of our cells the different you know they're referred to as the membranes and that's not only you know that's the plasma membrane of the entire cell but also inside the mitochondria themselves and this has a really dramatic effect on our capacity for efficient energy production and I think this is more so at play than any other mechanism when it comes to the impact of these polyunsaturated fats on our health so there's a couple of things that happen but because of the instability of these fats when they're used as structural components in these membranes as fats as phospholipids they are more permeable to various things Crossing through the membrane and this is specifically going to be different ions like sodium and potassium as well as the hydrogen ion or proton and so this has a number of effects for one I think we'll start at the proton so the main way that we produce the actual ATP has to do with creating a proton gradient at the electron transport chain inside the mitochondria at the inner mitochondrial membrane that proton gradient depends on us being able to essentially pump a lot of protons to one side of this membrane and use the the difference in charge as a way to then produce ATP we use that as as energy when the structure of this membrane has more polyunsaturated fats it's more permeable to the protons so instead of maintaining this really strong gradient with all this energy the protons leak through the membrane so we're trying to produce all this TP but we're not able to to create a strong enough gradient to produce as much and it and it reduces Energy Efficiency dramatically the prod the efficiency of energy production and there's some really interesting research demonstrating just how much that is that we can get to so that's one really important area but then I also mentioned permeability to other ions like sodium and potassium and the sodium and potassium gradient is also incredibly important to be maintained between the intracellular and extracellular space and so when we're leaking the sodium and potassium through we then have to waste a bunch of ATP pumping that back and maintaining that gradient and these two things together account for a massive shift in the efficiency of energy production when we have more polyunsaturated fats versus less polyunsaturated fats so and this is so impactful that there is an entire Theory of Aging that's based around the saturation of these membranes so this is called the membrane PAC maker Theory of Aging so as you had mentioned earlier we've largely been inundated especially in the mainstream with What's called the rate of living Theory where the slower we run our engine the less calories that are coming in the less energy we produce the longer we live because we're just machines and we just wear out over time and that theory has been shown not at all to be true for a long time now for decades now and that's because we're adaptable organisms and when you know we aren't just wearing out we're able to regenerate and heal and there's you know a bunch of other intricacies intricacies there however that theory was aside just being based out of an Theory from the Industrial Revolution was based on the finding that very uh the animals that have a very high metabolic rate for their body size have a very short lifespan so if we think like rodents like mice they have a very high metabolic rate for their body size but they don't live very long compared to let's say us or apes or elephants right that have a much lower metabolic rate relative to lifespan and so they said okay well the higher the metabolic rate the faster we die the faster we age Now there is then another finding that totally threw Wren in this which is that when you look at the same species if you just look at all the mice or all the rats or all the dogs all the apes or all the humans the ones that have the higher metabolic rates live longer have a longer lifespan and age U slower so this totally thre a mention in that and and so you know the these pieces have been put put together what they found essentially is that these organisms that have the high metabolic rate they don't have a really efficient metabolic rate they have a very inefficient capacity for energy production this is because they have more unsaturated membranes they have more polyunsaturated fats in the membranes of their mitochondria of the plasma membranes and so they waste so much energy dealing with this dealing with you know restoring the sodium pottassium gradient and trying to produce ATP when there's you know they can't do it as efficiently that this is the number one factor the driver of the lifespan of why a m a mouse lives only a few years whereas we live you know 70 or 80 or whatever it is and so this is huge and part of this is because within each species there's a range that's kind of a set point but we can change our the saturation of our membranes based on our diet as well within that set point so this is this is absolutely huge this is a massive massive effect this inefficiency of energy production in terms of health aging and lifespan and so would say this is the top Factor when it comes to the polyunsaturated fats and how they're affecting us and that doesn't even also consider all of the oxidative stress that goes on inside the mitochondria when they're when these fats are incorporated into the membranes which just makes it that much worse because then the mitochondria there are incredibly susceptible to damage the membrane is incredibly susceptible to damage and that oxidative stress also impairs respiration and impairs our ability for uh producing energy and the last point”