How Intermittent Fasting Can Slow Degenerative Disease, Protect the Brain and Slim the Body

16 APR 2016 by Carolanne Wright


wakeup-world.com...
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“Humans live on one-quarter of what they eat; on the other three-quarters lives their doctor.” ~ Egyptian pyramid inscription, 3800 B.C.

Mark Mattson is an expert on food deprivation. A scientist at the National Institute on Aging and a professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Mattson has been studying for decades the effect fasting has on mental and physical health, as well as how it influences aging. He’s considered the foremost expert in the field of Alzheimer’s and brain research. And he’s a major advocate for skipping meals.
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Mattson himself only eats one meal a day — and says, because of it, he has more energy, mental clarity and focus, along with heightened levels of productivity. “As is similar to what happens when muscles are exercised, the neurons in the brain benefit from being mildly stressed. To achieve the right kind of stress, people might benefit from severely minimizing their food intake,” he told Michael Anft in “Don’t feed your head.” Worldwide, participants involved with various forms of fasting have healed a wide-range of health complaints, from diabetes to obesity and heart disease.
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When we fast, messaging chemicals that operate at the cellular level are stimulated, which encourage the growth of brain cells. As these neurons grow, a protective mechanism kicks in and our brain becomes more resistant to damage caused by Parkinson’s, or the protein plaques that aggravate cases of Alzheimer’s.
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I only eat one true meal a day--and certainly only one eating session with meat--usually chicken, turkey, lamb or fish.

Am still trying to gear up to fast juice only for longer periods. I've done it in the past but not recently. I believe it was helpful in the past but my life was so complicated at those times, it's hard to filter out how much of a benefit it was.

I think the benefits of

--significantly lower risk of cancer
--significantly lower risk of heart disease
--reversing early-stage diabetes

are worthy reasons to fast.

As I understand it, Queen Elizabeth II is on such a severely restricted diet--of her own insistence and choosing--that it will likely extend her life considerably.

Anyway--I think it's worth some serious consideration.

Besides, when the oligarchy brings things down around our ankles . . . we may not have a choice about fasting. LOL. Maybe we should get used to it?

I thought about doing fasting to trigger this, but I have some pretty potent hypoglycemia and it doesn't work to fast. I tried it and because of the ketosis I get all messed up. I can go for quite a while as long as I drink something with some energy to it. My dad could do that and I always wanted to do it but I couldn't. I used to skip breakfast and supper and just have coffee with cream and sugar in it while working. If my sugar goes too low, I get exhausted a little dizzy and get a headache. I used to have a good reserve in my liver, but that doesn't work anymore.

a reply to: rickymouse

Yeah, that's persistently been my problem, too. I have to keep my blood sugar up.

I usually fast juice . . . maybe with graham crackers or other crackers and sometimes cheese.

Or juice and chicken broth.

I find fasting to be a healthy habit.
Don't get me wrong, when I eat, I eat big.
I can go two or three days without any food beyond a hand full of nuts and a little fruit with no discomfort.
My health and appearance for my age are not too pretty bad.

a reply to: skunkape23

Sounds wonderful.

I do pretty well with nuts and dried fruit, too.

a reply to: BO XIAN

Yeah, that's persistently been my problem, too. I have to keep my blood sugar up.

I usually fast juice . . . maybe with graham crackers or other crackers and sometimes cheese.

That is exactly the problem, you won't get the benefit of fasting if you try to keep blood glucose up. You shall lower it instead. When fasting, the body begin to burn fat when the glycogen store is depleted. Burning fat is not primarly a production source of glucose (gluconeogenesis) but mostly ketones. It is ketones that replace glucose at fueling the body.

If you continue to eat carbs while trying to fast, you short circuit required glycogen store depletion and interfere with lipolysis and production of ketones. It is ketones that inhibit your body at using its muscular mass protein when fasting. No ketones = you will loose muscular mass.

a reply to: PeterMcFly

Hmmmm. Thanks for the info.

Am losing weight mostly by just cutting down on the amount of food I eat.

Was 155 until I married . . . 6'1"

Am down to 190 from 200, now. Aiming for 170-175.

a reply to: BO XIAN

Interesting post BO

I'll see if I can dig up the study review for this - it was positive. I think it works by keeping the body slightly outside its comfort zone. Short fasts cause the body to start using the fat stores instead of our food intake which can increase the metabolism.

The Western Way is all about the sugars and putting in more than we ever burn. It's nice to think that fasting can break that cycle and, more crucially, cause a bit of mindfulness about what we eat and how we move.

originally posted by: BO XIAN
a reply to: skunkape23

Sounds wonderful.

I do pretty well with nuts and dried fruit, too.

Mango con Chile.
Food of the Gods.

a reply to: Kandinsky

INDEED.

That would be great. I look forward to your contribution.

I'm trying to gear up to 1-3 days/week of partial fasting and maybe one day or 12-18 hours of water only, if my hypoglycemia will allow it. That's all for spiritual reasons as the first priority but I'm also aware of and seek the health reasons, too.

Thanks for stopping by.

a reply to: skunkape23

Except my esophagus doesn't relate well to fiery foods. LOL.

Love mango, though.

And papaya.

a reply to: BO XIAN

Just a little warning about what I just writen, depending on the individual and the age, it is sometime "difficult" to adapt the body to ketones and sometime must be done progressively. If your are diabetic type 1, it is dangerous as you will goes into diabetic ketoacidosis. It can sometime take 2 or 3 weeks to adapt if possible, and sometime more time is required. During adaptation, the body does not have required enzymes to deal with metabolism of ketones, and then we feel like crap. It is called keto flu.

If fasting, always drink plenty of water. Dehydratation and ketones production does not fit together. Also it is a good idea to use a blood glucose machine to monitor level and detect if something goes wrong. Ketone urine dipstick or better ketone machine monitoring in blood is usefull.

I does not recommend fasting for too long, if you want to experiment with ketones production, you must eat low carb. My advise is to use energy ratio of 80:20 (fat:protein). Avoid excess protein, drink plenty of water and use supplementation (mineral and vitamin).

Not eating is out of the question for me though I have done near starvation a few times for months to a year.

I guess if you fee like fasting helps more power to you but my opinion is that maintaining optimal homeostasis partly by eating right and well outweighs any benefits fasting could have.

Maybe just eat more berries and drink more green tea instead would be the way to go.

a reply to: stabstab

I guess if you fee like fasting helps more power to you but my opinion is that maintaining optimal homeostasis partly by eating right and well outweighs any benefits fasting could have.

You confuse homeostasis with sedentary lifestyle.

Human have adapted to interleave period of fasting with moment of abondance after a successful hunt.

If anyone is thinking of doing this I would advise researching how to do it properly..
This can be harmful to your health I not done correctly.

This method has its benefits, but eating a healthy and balanced diet, small portions, several times a day and plenty of natural 'live' foods. I.e fruit, berries, seeds, etc
Will also bring excellent results.

I have done the 3 day fast a few times, and it's slipped my memory, so thanks for reloading it.

I am known as a big eater, and get very moody when I'm hungry, but amazingly the anger turns to a mild euphoria when you skip a meal with intent.

I got involved after watching Michael Mosley's Eat, Fast, and Live Longer

It's on YouTube but won't load in my country, but I've embedded it just in case.

Intermittent fasting is the real deal. Ive been doing it since august and have lost 45lbs at 2 to 3 a week. Will be at my goal weight by july. A total of 75 will have been lost.

Ive maintained much of my muscle. My insulin sensitivity is dialed in. Was suffering from semi type 2 diabetes before. Brain much more focused and sharp.

It requires more discipline then most are willing to try but it seriously works and totally hits the default switch on your bodys hormones.

for more than 30 years now
I try my best to go on 48 hour fasts (liquids only) one every 6 weeks on average, sometimes a once-a-month ritual...

also I go on 24 hour no-sleep rituals, just about as often as the above periods of time (or month-&-1/2 intervals)'
I find the fasting and sleep deprivation episodes are not stressful but seem to be beneficial in the healthy body & healthy mind senses

a once a year colon cleansing is also a desirable thing imho
enema's are less costly than those herbal formulas at $60+ per pop, for basically similar results...
rebuilding the beneficial stomach/intestine bacteria/germs/flora is a good feeling indeed


Purging your systems, I think I learned in some kind of Yoga... but that was long ago....


just do it
(no reference to the Nike Brand)

I've been IFing for about 3 months now. I usually do between 14-16 on week days and 16-18 on weekends. It is hard when you have a fast paced, on your feet job though.

originally posted by: BO XIAN

I think the benefits of

--significantly lower risk of cancer
--significantly lower risk of heart disease
--reversing early-stage diabetes

I do fast a lot when I have the time for it.

But there are other benefits that I evenso happily welcome,

- No Cooking
- No dishes
- No thinking about what to eat today
- No shopping.

Besides the benefits for my health physically those are triggers mentally appreciated by me... a lot actually.

No nuts, no fruit, no juice just plenty of water


Edit to add:

I don't even see "Intermittent Fasting" as fasting personally as I've been doing that for over two decades. I was talking about fasting for a couple of days to one and a half week. Any longer and yeah it can't be only water for me.