Fwd: [SecretsNowRevealed] Regular Fasting Seems to Improve Health

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I thought this was interesting...Be Well, Misty

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Regular Fasting Seems to Improve Health

Tue Apr 29

 

http://story.news./news?

tmpl=story & cid=534 & ncid=534 & e=8 & u=/ap/20030429/ap_on_he_me/fasting

 

WASHINGTON - The health benefits of sharply cutting calories may occur after

periodic fasting, even if the fast does not result in eating less overall, a new

report indicates.

 

 

 

Scientists are now planning a study to see if fasting, which seems to benefit

mice, will also be good for people too.

 

 

Benefits ranging from longer life to less stress and greater

sensitivity to insulin have been reported in recent studies of severe reductions

in diet.

 

 

But mice that were fed only every other day, but were allowed to gorge

themselves on the days they ate, had similar health benefits to ones on a diet

reduced by 40 percent of normal food intake, a team of researchers reports in

Tuesday's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

(news - web sites).

 

 

While the cause of health improvements from cutting back on diet isn't fully

understood, many researchers had assumed that a long-term reduction in calories

was involved.

 

 

The new study by Mark Mattson and colleagues at the National Institute on Aging

found equal benefits, however, for mice that ate only every other day, even if

they didn't cut total calories, because they ate twice as much on days they

weren't fasting.

 

 

Mattson said a study is being planned to test the effect of fasting on people.

The plan is to compare the health of a group of people fed the normal three

meals a day with a similar group, eating the same diet and amount of food, but

consuming it within four hours and then fasting for 20 hours before eating

again.

 

 

" Overeating is a big problem now in this country. It's particularly troublesome

that a lot of children are overweight. It's still unclear the best way to

somehow get people to eat less, " Mattson said.

 

 

" One possibility is skipping a meal a day. Our study suggests that skipping

meals is not bad for you. "

 

 

Dr. Carol Braunschweig of the University of Illinois at Chicago, who was not

part of the study team, said she was intrigued by the suggestion that a drastic

change in eating patterns might have benefits.

 

 

" With the current epidemic of obesity and physical inactivity facing the U.S.

today, identification of a beneficial eating pattern that could address some of

the untoward effects of excess weight would be a very significant finding, " she

said.

 

 

Mattson said an earlier study found that mice that fasted every other day had

extended life spans. The new experiment found the mice also did better in

factors involved in diabetes and nerve damage in the brain similar to

Alzheimer's disease (news - web sites), he said.

 

 

" We think what happens is going without food imposes a mild stress on cells, and

cells respond by increasing their ability to cope with more severe stress, "

Mattson said. " It's sort of analogous to physical effects of exercise on muscle

cells. "

 

 

He said the researchers think this stress occurs throughout the body, which

might be the reason fasting seems to increase life span and the animals become

more resistant to the diseases of aging.

 

 

The dieting mice consumed 40 percent less food than mice eating normally and

lost nearly half their body weight (49 percent) in the experiment, while the

fasting mice weighed only a little less than mice eating normally.

 

 

In recent years, some nutritionists have recommended eating smaller amounts more

often, but this study did not deal with that type of eating pattern.

 

 

In the new report, the researchers said both the fasting mice and those on a

restricted diet had concentrations of blood sugar and insulin that were

significantly lower than mice allowed to eat whenever they wanted. Indeed,

insulin levels in the fasting mice were even a bit lower than the dieting ones.

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of the experiment all three groups of mice were injected with a toxin

that damages cells in the part of the brain called the hippocampus. Cell damage

there is involved in Alzheimer's in humans.

 

When the mouse brains were later analyzed the scientists found that the brains

of the fasting mice were more resistant to damage by the toxin than the brains

of either dieting mice or those eating normally.

 

 

 

 

 

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