Fasting produces healthier mice

[Guest guest]

http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2003-04-29-4

Note that the fasting procedure lowered glucose and insulin levels -- other

research has indicated that this might be the operative element; perhaps the

same can be achieved with lowered carb diets?

Fasting Every Other Day Produces Healthier Mice

 

 

Betterhumans Staff

 

Tuesday, April 29, 2003, 4:57:42 PM CT

 

Skipping meals may be as good as caloric restriction for preventing diabetes

and protecting brain cells -- at least in mice.

Reporting in the online edition of the<A HREF= " http://www.pnas.org/ " >

Proceedings of the National Academy of

Sciences</A>, investigators from the US<A HREF= " http://www.nia.nih.gov/ " >

National Institute on Aging</A> have found

that the effects hold up even if mice gorge on the days when they eat.

" The implication of the new findings on the beneficial effects of regular

fasting in laboratory animals is that their health may actually improve if

the frequency of their meals is reduced, " says Mark Mattson, chief of the

NIA's Laboratory of Neurosciences.

Prevention and protection

Mattson and colleagues used three groups of mice in their study: The fasting

group that ate only every other day, a calorie-restricted group that consumed

30% fewer calories than normal and a control group that ate normally.

The fasting group ate unlimited amounts at their meals but still had lower

blood<A HREF= " http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glucose " > glucose</A> and<A

HREF= " http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin " > insulin</A> levels than both the

control group and the

calorie-restricted group.

The fasting mice ate as many calories as the control group because they

gorged when presented with food, suggesting that meal skipping rather than

calorie restriction was responsible for improving glucose and insulin levels.

Meal skipping also protected the brains of fasting mice. Given a neurotoxin

called kainite that damages neurons in the<A

HREF= " http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocampus " > hippocampus</A>, the fasting

group was

more resistant to cell injury and death than the other groups.

Mounting evidence

Caloric restriction has been proven to extend life in every animal studied so

far.

Mattson and colleagues are now building evidence to support the benefits of

meal skipping.

Previously, they have shown that meal-skipping mice are more resistant to

dysfunction and death in mouse experimental models of stroke and other

neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.

Mattson has also found that meal skipping can stimulate mouse brain cells to

produce a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor that promotes

nerve cell survival and growth.

He and colleagues are currently studying the effects of meal skipping on the

rat cardiovascular system, and the results should be available soon.

 

Namaste, Liz