Slashdot Mirror
Fasting Triggers Stem Cell Regeneration of Damaged, Old Immune System
schwit1 sends word of research showing that cycles of prolonged fasting can both protect the immune system from harm and also induce regeneration by causing stem cells to start renewing themselves.
'In both mice and a Phase 1 human clinical trial (abstract), long periods of not eating significantly lowered white blood cell counts. In mice, fasting cycles then "flipped a regenerative switch," changing the signaling pathways for hematopoietic stem cells, which are responsible for the generation of blood and immune systems, the research showed. "PKA is the key gene that needs to shut down in order for these stem cells to switch into regenerative mode. It gives the OK for stem cells to go ahead and begin proliferating and rebuild the entire system," explained [study author Valter Longo], noting the potential of clinical applications that mimic the effects of prolonged fasting to rejuvenate the immune system. "And the good news is that the body got rid of the parts of the system that might be damaged or old, the inefficient parts, during the fasting. Now, if you start with a system heavily damaged by chemotherapy or aging, fasting cycles can generate, literally, a new immune system."'
I've always felt stronger after the Holy Month - that surprised me as a kid. Nice Article.
Stop eating and you'll live forever.
Fasting might also regenerate your syntax.
I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that. Does not compute.
.... it's surely just a bunch of superstitious nonsense......
When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law he tore his robes.2Kings22:11
For unscrupulous nursing homes.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
And the clinical trial was done where? In Somalia?
Is it dose dependent too?
I guess they must be super-rejuvenated there and having rock solid immune system even in old age.
All that time and you still couldn't think of anything worthwhile to post?
.....What!?
The scriptures of the world's great religions include a wide variety of topics. Some of them are very practical. And some are clearly mythological. Trying to lump them all together under a single interpretative approach is obvious folly.
Plenty of foods cause immune reactions, especially after a food chemist screws it up even more than it would be normally. People will continue to eat garbage, and plenty of it, till it kills them. Getting people to fast is like asking a heroin addict to switch over to cannabis.
Classic!
when they fast. Maybe that has more to do with why people are healthier when they fast. I'd love to see a study to determine if people that live with people that stop farting are healthier. Both of my parents have IBS, and our house smelled quite foul at times. I was noticeably healthier after moving out. I had the same symptoms when I lived in a college dorm room next to a bathroom. The cafeteria food was quite bad and a lot of people drank a lot of cheap bee so there was quite a lot of farting.
Are you wearing clothing only made from 100% of one material? Have you shaved? You certainly better not be a woman and quoting the bible.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
On the one hand, it's awesome that anything exists that can make chemo more tolerable, and speed recovery. On the other hand, who the hell thought it was a good idea to go up to a group of cancer patients and say, "we're going to give you some really heavy duty meds that will make you incredibly sick. Would you mind skipping food for three days before we poison you so we can see what happens?"
Does anyone have any idea whether the same effect has been observed for long-term calorie deficit, or low-calorie diets?
As a natural body builder I fast for 3 days every two weeks, the results are more muscle mass less body fat stronger faster trigger muscle...
i'm sorry, your random word generator does not pass the Turing test.
Wait another 2 days and you might see it on soylent!
Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
If rebooting the immune system like this clears out allergic sensitivities it would be far more important than it's impact on people with more seriously damaged systems as allergies are far more common. Perhaps this explains why in first world nations where food is so abundant there is a coincidental rise in allergies?
No harm in individuals testing this hypothesis, but a properly designed study would be needed to confirm it in a scientifically valid way.
There's not enough info here to draw any firm conclusions. And I must say my BS detector went haywire hearing that the signal is given to "rebuild the ENTIRE system" (my emphasis). The appalling analogy about lightening the load of a cargo plane left me wondering also. Finally, this sort of science journalism fits too nicely into the destructive and silly meme of 'cleansing' your immune system. So I'm not swallowing it just yet.
work in progress
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Does fasting omit the consumption of water?
My guess is the placebo effect at work. If fasting is 'healthy', then people in poor countries with inadequate food, will outlive people in rich countries. That obviously isn't happening.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Would you care to elaborate on why you think it results in more muscle mass? The less fat part makes sense. If you fast it means you take in less calories overall. It would make sense that muscle growth would be impaired. Do you fast for three consecutive days without food or three separate days during the two week period? Have you tried working out while fasted? I would imagine strength would be significantly lower on those days.
I was put on a heart lung machine in an induced coma for three days when suffering congestive cardiac failure.
Came out feeling great, as well as seeing flying elephants up around the ceiling when I was coming to.
Go well
Coffee has like 5 calories...and is basically water.
The only reason we find out about all this stuff is because we ignored all those crazy religious books
Anyway, I think it's hilarious how you religious nuts hate science, until a bit of it shows some coincidence with your fairy tales. Then you're all over it.
News flash - religious fasting probably had something to do with some sense of euphoria, of which they attributed regular bodily responses to gods or what not. They did something that felt good to them, so obviously, it must have a god behind the curtain. Then they wrote fan fiction about their biology.
In other words, your religions didn't invent the immune system, or what it does, or how it operates.
I have remarkable personal experience that, in my opinion supports the conclusion in this article. Very briefly, beginning at age 6, I became sickly and had asthma for the next 40 years, requiring two medications almost continually. In an attempt to lose a middle-age related weight gain, I began fasting, eating absolutely nothing but drinking plenty of water. To my unanticipated delight, I noticed that after 5 days, my asthma symptoms had disappeared. Suspecting a food allergy cause, I continued fasting for a total of 10 days, and began eating again, with certain food groups only, in order to determine which one might have been the issue. Nothing that I ate caused the symptoms to return, and I discontinued using any asthma medicine. That was in October of 1999. To my total, unexpected surprise, not only has the asthma never returned, but since then, I never catch a cold, the flu, or any other illness or discomfort. I have to have annual physicals to remain an adult volunteer in the BSA, and I always check out fine, with no problems at all. It would be interesting to hear from anyone else who had similar results from, by all appearances to me, nothing but fasting.
I may be blind, but I can't see where it says what the period between fasting was, 2 weeks? a month?
any recommendations on cycle frequency and/or duration for average/lean 35 year old male with good diet (mainly nutribullet smoothies, raw fruit/veg, superfoods like raw cacao, maca, hemp right now). ?
To anyone who thinks this research has triggered their "bullshit detector" I say "you are so full of bullshit your detector is broken".
Watch this BBC/Horizon documentary http://vimeo.com/54089463
In this video they take before/after blood samples and show at least SOME actual physiological changes, change of things in ways which we currently consider to be "good for your health".
There really (no, really really) DOES appear to be at least some valid science behind this.
Visit CryptoGnome in his home.
If you don't like your random stat increases, save before you level and reload until you're happy.
Mod parent up. Best post I've seen all day.
Chuuch. Preach. Tabernacle.
For most of human evolution, I would think that periods of scarce food supply were pretty frequent. I wonder if part of the human body is optimized for this - when there isn't enough food (cold winter), your body consumes itself, starting with the old and weak parts (think of wolves culling the elderly and diseased members from elk herds during the winter) and then when you have a surplus again (spring and summer) it switches on and builds healthy new ones.
With increasing research coming out about how important sunlight can be to cue physiological sleep/wake cycles, etc, I wonder if there are other environmental signals that produce beneficial responses in the body, and which of them that were around for most of our species' development have been totally lost in a century or so.
This is a really fascinating story. I've got allergies too, however I've only fasted for 4-5 days before, and that was before I acquired my asthma. It's a very strange asthma that the doctors can't explain very well. I've had the whole gamut of tests and they finally just put me on maintenance drugs, most of which react negatively on me. They once tried a "miracle" drug [Xolair] that almost killed me. In short, there's nothing they really know or can do. I do react asthmatically to high pollen counts & such so can't rule out asthma for some other strange thing, but, your story has given me a plan, I don't like asthma & I'm hoping. Thanks.