Clive McCay

McCay was professor of animal husbandry at Cornell University from 1927 to 1963. His main interest was the influence of nutrition on aging.{{cite book|title=Clive M. McCay and Jeanette B. McCay - History of Work with Soyfoods, the New York State Emergency Food Commission, Improved Bread, and Extension of Lifespan (1927-2009): Extensively Annotated Bibliography and Sourcebook|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6MlDn7ZBh5gC&pg=PA55|access-date=12 April 2013|year=2009|publisher=Soyinfo Center|isbn=978-1-928914-27-3|page=55}} He is best known for his work in proving that caloric restriction increases the life span of rats, which is seen as seminal in triggering further research and experiments in the field of nutrition and longevity.{{cite journal |author1=McCay, C. M. |author2=Crowell, Mary F. |date=November 1934 |title=Prolonging the Life Span |jstor=15813 |journal=The Scientific Monthly |volume=39 |issue=5 |pages=405–414 |bibcode=1934SciMo..39..405M}} Scientists are still trying to understand the connection between caloric restriction and longevity.

Following his discovery between a low calorie diet and longevity, McCay played a prominent role in the development of nutritionally-sound rations during World War II, and the creation of Cornell Bread, a type of high protein, high vitamin bread meant to echo the same high protein vitamin meal he fed to his mice in longevity experiments.

Another of McCay's important contributions was the first work in heterochronic parabiosis: the joining of the circulatory systems of a young and an old animal, which leads to rejuvenating effects on the tissues of the old animal and degenerative changes in the young's, thus demonstrating the role of systemic factors in aging.{{cite journal |last1=Conboy MJ, Conboy IM, Rando TA |title=Heterochronic parabiosis: historical perspective and methodological considerations for studies of aging and longevity |journal=Aging Cell |date=June 2013 |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=525–530 |doi=10.1111/acel.12065 |pmid=23489470 |url= |pmc=4072458 }}{{cite web|url=http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMA01087.html|title= Cornell Library Guide to the Clive McCay Papers, 1920-1967|publisher=Cornell Library|access-date=12 April 2013}} Limited work with this paradigm by others continued into the early 1970s before languishing, until it was finally taken up again by researchers at Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley in the mid-2000s.{{cite journal |last1=Scudellari |first1=Megan |title=Ageing research: Blood to blood |journal=Nature |volume=517 |issue=7535 |pages=426–29 |ref=nature|doi=10.1038/517426a |doi-access=free |pmid=25612035 |date=January 21, 2015 |bibcode=2015Natur.517..426S }}

His further research centered on canine nutrition, and fluoride and its use in water treatment. A 1957 study on fluoridation showed that low levels (1-10 ppm) of sodium fluoride added to the drinking water of rats did not have carie-protective effects.{{cite book|author=United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Labor and Public Welfare|title=National Organizations in the Field of Aging: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Problems of the Aged and Aging of the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, United States Senate, Eighty-sixth Congress, First Session, August 4, 5, and 6, 1959|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a3zQAAAAMAAJ|access-date=12 April 2013|year=1959|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|page=232}}

• The Nutritional Requirements of Dogs (1940)
• Nutrition, Ageing and Longevity (1942)
• Nutrition of the Dog (1946)
• The Cornell Bread Book (with Jeanette B. McCay, 1955)
• Clive McCay, Nutrition Pioneer: Biographical Memoirs by His Wife (Jeanette B. McCay, 1994)

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite journal

| last1 = McDonald

| first1 = Roger B.

| last2 = Ramsey

| first2 = Jon J.

| title = Honoring Clive McCay and 75 years of caloric restriction research

| journal = Journal of Nutrition

| volume = 140

| issue = 7

| date = July 2010

| pages = 1205–1210

| url = http://jn.nutrition.org/content/140/7/1205.full.pdf+html?sid=95388266-03db-44fe-a990-9044e2c0aa55

| issn = 1541-6100

| doi = 10.3945/jn.110.122804

| pmid = 20484554

| access-date = 2011-12-17| pmc = 2884327

}}

• {{cite book |last1=Shurtleff |first1=William |last2=Aoyagi |first2=Akiko |title=Clive M. McCay and Jeanette B. McCay - History of Work with Soyfoods, the New York State Emergency Food Commission, Improved Bread, and Extension of Lifespan (1927-2009): Extensively Annotated Bibliography and Sourcebook |date=2009 |publisher=Soyinfo Center |location=Lafayette, CA |isbn=978-1-928914-27-3 |url=https://www.soyinfocenter.com/pdf/136/McCa.pdf}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:McCay, Clive}}

Category:1898 births

Category:1967 deaths

Category:20th-century American biochemists

Category:American nutritionists

Category:Cornell University alumni

Category:Cornell University faculty

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