Neuroscientist explains why fasting is good

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Below are excerpts from a speech by Mark Matson, current director of the National Institute on Aging Laboratory of Neuroscience.

He is also a professor of neurobiology at Johns Hopkins University and one of the preeminent researchers in the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

“I decided to mention pharmaceutical companies because this article is about them as well. In recent years, there have been many examples of pharmaceutical companies manipulating published research.

This is why Harvard University of Medicine professor Arnold Seymour Rahlman has publicly stated that the medical profession has been bought by the pharmaceutical industry.

This is why Dr. Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of The Lancet, recently said that much of today's scientific literature is simply not true.

This is why Dr. Marcia Angell, former editor-in-chief of The New England Journal of Medicine, stated that “the pharmaceutical industry loves to pretend to be a research and development industry and to be a source of innovative drugs. This is completely untrue."

This is why John Ioannidis, an epidemiologist at Stanford University School of Medicine, published an article entitled Why Most Published Research Findings Are False. It subsequently became the most widely read publication in the history of the Public Library of Science."

“Why is three meals a day plus snacks considered a normal diet? In my opinion, this is far from the healthiest approach to nutrition, and there is a lot of evidence to support my opinion. We are being forced on this diet because there is a lot of money involved. Will the food industry make money if I skip my breakfast today? No, in this case she will lose them. If people go hungry, the food industry loses money. What about the pharmaceutical industry? If people go hungry sometimes, exercise periodically and are very healthy, will the pharmaceutical industry make money off healthy people?"

Mark and his team have published several articles showing that fasting twice a week can significantly reduce the risk of developing Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

“It is known that dietary changes have a definite effect on the brain. In children with epileptic seizures, calorie restriction or fasting significantly reduces the number of seizures. Fasting is thought to help trigger defense mechanisms that counteract the overexcited signals that are common in epileptics (some children with epilepsy, however, benefit from a low-carb, fatty diet.)

A healthy brain, being “overfed,” may experience another kind of uncontrolled arousal that disrupts the functioning of the brain."

Overall, when you look at the research on the effects of calorie restriction, many of them show that diet prolongs life and improves the ability to fight chronic disease.

Fasting is good for the brain, and this can be seen in the neurochemical changes that occur in the brain when we starve.

It also improves cognitive function, increases neurotrophic factors, increases stress tolerance, and reduces inflammation.

Fasting is a challenge for your brain, and your brain responds by adapting stress response pathways that help your brain cope with stress and the risk of disease.

The changes that occur in the brain during fasting are similar to those caused by regular exercise.

Both types of changes increase the production of protein in the brain (neurotrophic factors), which in turn promotes the growth of neurons, the connections between them and increases the strength of synapses.

Fasting also stimulates the production of new nerve cells from stem cells in the hippocampus. The author also mentions ketones (a source of energy for neurons), which fasting stimulates, and the hypothesis that fasting can increase the number of mitochondria in neurons.

As the number of mitochondria in neurons increases, their ability to form and maintain communication with each other also increases, thereby improving learning and memory.

"Intermittent fasting increases the ability of nerve cells to repair DNA." The author also touches on the evolutionary aspect of this theory - how our ancestors adapted and could survive for a long time without food.

In a study published in the June 5th issue of Cell Stem Cell, scientists at the University of Southern California showed that prolonged fasting cycles protect against damage to the immune system and even trigger its regeneration. They concluded that fasting shifts stem cells from a dormant state to an active state.

Fasting periods kill old and damaged cells of the immune system, after which the body gets rid of them and uses stem cells to create new, completely healthy cells.

“We could not have imagined that prolonged fasting could have such a remarkable effect in promoting stem cells through the regeneration of the hematopoietic system … cells, especially those that are damaged. We began to notice that in both humans and animals, with prolonged fasting, the number of leukocytes in the blood decreases. When you start eating again, your blood cells return,”says Walter Longo.

In 2007, a scientific review of a number of studies related to fasting was published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. It reviewed many studies in both humans and animals and determined that fasting is an effective way to reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer.

Significant potential has also been found in the treatment of diabetes.

Before you starve

“Before you try to starve, make sure you are ready for it and know enough what's what.

One of the recommended ways - which was tested by Michael Mosley of the BBC to help eliminate diabetes, high cholesterol and other obesity-related problems - is the 5: 2 Diet.

This diet stipulates that on fasting days, you cut the calories in your food to one quarter of your daily intake (up to about 600 calories for men and up to 500 for women) by drinking plenty of water and tea. For the other five days, you can eat normally.

Another way, as mentioned above, is to limit your food intake to between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. every day and eat nothing the rest of the time.

So, taking care of your diet, from my point of view, is one of the most important, if not the most important, factors for maintaining health. What you fill your body with is important, and I believe that this thesis will eventually be finally confirmed in the unbiased, impartial, independent medical literature in the future.