How Fasting Can Reverse Aging and Prevent Disease
Scientists have long recognized the relationship between what we eat and our health and when we eat – both being directly linked. But now researchers are uncovering evidence to suggest timing may also play a crucial role.
Animal experiments demonstrate how extreme caloric restriction dramatically extends the lives of worms, flies and mice. Human studies of time-restricted eating (IF), such as fasting two days a week for example, have demonstrated numerous benefits:
1. Lowers Cholesterol
Cholesterol is an integral risk factor of heart disease and can be reduced by cutting back on saturated fats found primarily in red meat and full-fat dairy products, eating more fish, nuts and vegetables or using intermittent fasting as part of your strategy.
Today’s fasting craze stems from decades of research that demonstrated extreme calorie restriction significantly extended the lives of worms, fruit flies, mice, rats and rhesus monkeys as long as they received all their nutritional needs. More recent research also revealed intermittent fasting (IF), or alternate periods between fasting and low-calorie eating periods (known as intermittent fasting or rapid intermittent fasting ), can improve heart disease risk factors like high blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides levels resulting in improved cardiovascular risk factors including high blood pressure, cholesterol levels and triglycerides levels.
As your metabolism slows and stored fat is used as energy source, cholesterol levels fall and heart risk factors diminish – leading to weight loss as a bonus!
An indirect way that intermittent fasting may reduce cholesterol is its activation of autophagy – the body’s natural self-cleansing mechanism located within cell structures called lysosomes. While food consumption normally turns autophagy off, starvation increases its activity, breaking down damaged cells into their component parts for energy recycling and recycling them back in.
Over one week of intermittent fasting (IF), total cholesterol increased by 1.83 + 0.26 mmol/L; LDL cholesterol rose 1.95 + 0.22 mmol/L while apo B increased 0.54 + 0.08 mmol/L (p 0.0001). LDL-C levels rose in line with weight lost during fasting; however, rises in apo B-containing particles did not correspond with weight lost – proving apo B is a more reliable indicator of atherogenic dyslipidemia than LDL-C alone.
3. Prevents Cancer
Fasting has been shown to significantly diminish or stop tumor growth in many preclinical cancer experiments by depriving cancer cells of glucose they need for rapid proliferation, known as the Warburg effect. Cancer cells tend to have altered metabolism that makes it more difficult for them to switch into alternative energy-producing pathways than normal cells can, further contributing to tumor development. Furthermore, starvation caused by fasting can trigger stress-response mode in normal cells making them more resistant to chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
Studies conducted by scientists have also demonstrated that fasting can significantly boost natural killer (NK) cells, making them better equipped to destroy cancerous cells. This process, known as autophagy, occurs due to fasting; this allows your body to clear away damaged or cancerous cells while at the same time replenishing with healthy ones and regenerate new healthy ones.
Cancer patients have reported that fasting can help mitigate chemotherapy side effects like fatigue and weight loss. One study concluded that when breast cancer patients followed a three-day fasting cycle in conjunction with regular eating patterns, their natural killer cell counts rose and responses to chemotherapy increased dramatically.
As more people are diagnosed with cancer, they’re looking for ways to take charge of their health despite this life-threatening diagnosis. NIH-funded researcher Valter Longo discovered that short-term fasting triggers an anti-stress response which protects animals against disease and slows aging; his team are testing if fasting can have similar benefits in humans by investigating effects such as intermittent fasting on human gut microbiomes and sirtuins; two factors associated with longevity.
4. Prevents Heart Disease
Researchers have discovered that intermittent fasting can significantly decrease heart disease risk factors such as insulin resistance, liver fat storage, triglyceride levels, and inflammation. Before making changes to your diet or exercise routines involving intermittent fasting, please consult with a healthcare provider as this is particularly important if there is any condition affecting heart health.
Cardiovascular diseases are one of the primary causes of death and disability worldwide. Their causes include obesity and excess dietary fat intake. Preventing heart disease risk factors involves eating the appropriate food, exercising regularly, maintaining a healthy weight, as well as intermittent fasting combined with plant-based eating – something research shows can dramatically lower risk factors.
Studies have demonstrated that extreme calorie restriction (CR) extends animal lives, such as those of worms, flies, mice and rats. Furthermore, this practice significantly lowers incidences of age-related illnesses such as cancer; furthermore fasting has also shown to dramatically extend human lives.
Scientists have recently discovered that fasting and caloric restriction trigger a process called autophagy, which breaks down cell waste to be recycled back into energy for use by cells. It may be this mechanism which makes fasting neuroprotective in people suffering from Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s diseases.
Fasting comes in various forms, with most forms involving alternating days of eating normally with days when caloric intake is restricted – for instance the 5:2 diet in which five out of seven days you consume your usual amounts before restricting calories for two days out of seven. A clinical study demonstrated how three cycles of fasting-mimicking diet reduced biomarkers associated with biological aging.
5. Improves Memory
Scientists have discovered that intermittent fasting — in which you eat normally some days while skipping them on others — increases cognitive performance in mice, enhances memory in humans, reduces inflammation and oxidative stress levels, reset circadian rhythms and boost sleep quality, digestion efficiency and energy levels.
Fasting has shown to boost learning and memory while making neurons resistant to stress in lab animals, increasing production of the protein known as BDNF in brain cells. Furthermore, autophagy processes remove defective proteins, mitochondria and cell growth to conserve resources before entering an “expansion mode” upon eating again – producing plenty of proteins and neurons along the way!
Fasting has been shown to significantly enhance thinking and verbal memory in humans. Furthermore, studies have linked it with better heart health as well as reduced risks of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease. Furthermore, in human studies featuring two days of fasting each week – such as 2 day fasts per week diets – has been proven effective at decreasing oxidative stress while improving mood among overweight women at high risk for breast cancer as well as increasing fat loss and physical performance in young men.
Researchers funded by the National Institute on Aging recently conducted research demonstrating that eating an FMD for six months delayed age-related cognitive decline in middle-aged mice, improved memory and hippocampal neurogenesis, enhanced cellular repair and resistance to stress resistance, and protected against harmful effects of aging hormones. This NIA research, published in Cell Metabolism journal, confirms previous findings suggesting intermittent fasting, including Time Restricted Feeding (TRF), can help delay Alzheimer’s by reseting internal biological clocks and altering gene activity within brain tissue.
