The powerful benefits of intermittent fasting
Most people’s bodies are metabolically inflexible, dependent on glucose spikes for energy and aren’t given time to repair, heal and promote autophagy!
How can we fix this? The solution is fasting, in particular intermittent fasting, which means you alternate periods of eating normally and not eating at all. We’ve actually been switching between a state of “feast or famine” for millennia. Thus, our bodies respond extraordinarily well to intermittent fasting, as it mimics the environment in which we lived as we evolved as humans. So what are the benefits of intermittent fasting? Medical articles have shown that fasting can reduce oxidative damage and inflammation, can optimize energy metabolism and can also increase cellular protection in the body. This means that fasting intermittently can help you reduce obesity, hypertension, asthma and rheumatoid arthritis.
Other research suggests however that frequently eating smaller portions of food increases the body’s metabolic rate, and therefore can help you lose weight. But is this really accurate? Researchers from the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine in Prague, Czech Republic, found out that it isn’t. In a study, two groups of type 2 diabetics consumed 1,700 calories, divided daily into either two meals or six meals. Although the amount of calories was the same for each group, the two-meal-a-day group lost an average of three pounds and about 1.5 inches more from their waists than did the group that ate six meals.
Fasting intermittently can be a useful way to keep disease at bay, and scientific evidence to support this claim is growing. An article in the scientific journal Nature states that while much research points to the benefits of fasting, the fundamental mechanisms behind why fasting works are not yet clear. One potential mechanism supporting the benefits of fasting may be the reduction in the amount of the hormone IGF-1, or insulin-like growth factor 1, in your body when you fast. A reduction in this hormone can potentially lead to a decreased likelihood of developing cancer, as well as an extended life span. The cells in your body naturally grow and reproduce as you take in energy in the form of food. Yet when you starve or fast, levels of IGF-1, which helps stimulate this growth, drop off, signalling a sort of “warning” to your body. When this happens, your body abandons its normal grow mode, instead going into repair mode, fixing cell damage and maintaining the status quo.
Dr. Valter Longo of the University of Southern California’s Longevity Institute explored this with mice that were genetically engineered to not produce IGF-1. He found that mice without IGF-1 lived almost twice as long as mice with IGF-1, and also didn’t develop diabetes or cancer. But what about humans? Longo expanded his research to study Ecuadorians with Laron syndrome, a genetic mutation that results in extremely low IGF-1 levels in the body. Interestingly, the individuals with Laron syndrome never developed diabetes or cancer. Longo ruled out environmental factors as an influential variable, as the test cases’ relatives who didn’t have Laron syndrome lived in the same village, and some of them did develop cancer. Longo’s research suggests that while we may need increased levels of IGF-1 when we’re young and developing, elevated levels later in life may lead to accelerated aging or even cancer.
When you consume a lot of carbohydrates, your blood glucose levels rise. To regulate your blood glucose, the body needs the hormone insulin. Insulin helps to extract glucose from your blood, transform it into glycogen, and store it in your liver or muscles as energy. Insulin also forces fat cells to absorb and store energy too, in the form of fat. Yet if your insulin levels become too high, your body holds on to fat more readily, and you gain weight. Over time, if your body produces more glucose and therefore more insulin, your cells simply stop responding to the insulin. When this happens, your blood glucose levels remain high, as your insulin regulator has just quit working! At this point, you become a diabetic, joining the ranks of some 371 million diabetes sufferers in the world. What’s even more troubling is that when you develop diabetes, your chances of going blind, getting cancer or having a stroke or heart attack rise, too.
Fasting can help your body regulate insulin as well as encourage it to work more efficiently. In a study conducted in 2005, eight healthy men were asked to fast every other day for 20 hours a day over a two-week period. On fasting days, they could only eat between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. After the two weeks, the men’s weight and fat levels remained the same, but their bodies’ insulin sensitivity increased substantially. This means that the same amount of insulin worked much more efficiently in the body than it did before the period of fasting. Doctors have ascertained that when we fast, our body breaks down fat cells for energy. It’s these fat cells that distract insulin from its job of regulating blood glucose levels. So fasting helps reduce fat cells and gives insulin the opportunity to work more efficiently.
One study focused on the effects of fasting on obese asthmatics. In the experiment, ten individuals were placed on a fasting diet for eight weeks. On one day the participants could eat what they pleased, yet on the following day, they had to reduce their caloric intake to 20 percent of normal. After two months, participants dropped an average of 18 pounds. Even more surprisingly, within just two weeks many of the participants’ asthma symptoms improved. The researchers suggested that the improvement was related to a significant drop during the period of proteins that cause an inflammatory response in the body, such as tumor necrosis factor. As asthma is an inflammatory disease of the lungs, such a result from fasting is likely to be of benefit. Another inflammatory condition, eczema, affects some 10 percent of the US population.
Again, while there is not yet scientific proof, fasting has been cited as helping to relieve the eczema symptoms of chronic sufferers. One woman had eczema patches all over her body, with especially irritating patches between her fingers. After starting to fast, she reported that her eczema was somewhat improved, and several patches had even disappeared.
However, there are caveats to fasting. You can definitely overdo it! Fasting can be addictive and it can exacerbate eating disorders; so proceed with caution. Start slow and ensure you have a healthy relationship to fasting. If you're tired and stressed, pick another day to fast!
Men and women are not created equally! Women's hormones are a complex and beautiful endocrine balancing act, and fasting can throw out this balance. During menstruation, it is okay to fast as long as you're still prioritizing nutrient-dense foods, especially those rich in iron (due to blood loss). Fasting for 14–15 hours during this phase can be ideal. Save longer fasts for after menstruation but before progesterone peaks — days 7–21 for women on a 28-day cycle.
To tie this all up; fasting is a powerful tool when used safely and correctly. Consult your GP or holistic health care practitioner to discus the pros and cons for your individual needs.
