Fasting Regenerates Your Pancreas from Dr. Mercola
Fasting Regenerates Your Pancreas
March 19, 2018 • 19,506views
Story at-a-glance
Research
involving lab mice shows a fasting-mimicking diet not only can help
your pancreas regenerate itself, but it can also reverse diabetes
symptoms
Other
animal studies suggest restricting calories to a six-hour window can
significantly reduce levels of a particular mutant protein known to play
a role in Huntington's disease
Fasting
has been shown to be beneficial in lowering your risk of cancer,
cardiovascular disease and diabetes; it also boosts your body’s immune
system and antiaging potential
Three fasting methods I encourage you to consider are: the fasting-mimicking diet, intermittent fasting or water-only fasting
I
personally have experienced great results with both intermittent fasting
and water-only fasting, and I believe fasting is one of the best tools
you can use in the fight against chronic disease
By Dr. Mercola
Fasting is a powerful tool nearly anyone can use to take control of
their health. Animal research indicates a fasting-mimicking diet not
only can help your pancreas regenerate itself, but it can also reverse
diabetes symptoms. In another study, also involving lab mice,
restricting daily calories to a six-hour window significantly reduced
levels of a particular mutant protein known to play a role in
Huntington's disease.
Given these results, as well as other research, the tremendous
benefits of fasting continue to emerge. If you haven't yet considered
how fasting can make a positive difference to your health, I encourage
you to keep reading and also consider one of three methods: the
fasting-mimicking diet, intermittent fasting or water-only fasting.
Fasting is one of the best tools you can use in the fight against
chronic disease.
Fasting-Mimicking Regenerates Pancreas, Eliminates Diabetes in Lab Mice
In a study published in the journal Cell,1 a group of U.S. researchers, most of whom were affiliated with the University of Southern California (USC), suggest your pancreas may be able to regenerate itself through a fasting-mimicking diet.
In animal experiments, the scientists, led by Valter Longo, Ph.D.,
professor of gerontology and biological sciences and director of the USC
Longevity Institute, were able to restore pancreatic function using a
modified version of the fasting-mimicking diet. This diet is
characterized by periods of feast and famine.
Longo notes the diet promoted the "generation of insulin-producing
beta cells, resembling that observed during pancreatic development."2
(Beta cells detect sugar in your blood and release insulin if blood
sugar levels get too high.) Given its restorative effects on the
pancreas, the fasting-mimicking diet also reversed diabetes symptoms in
lab mice.
Said Longo, "Our conclusion is by pushing the mice into an extreme
state and then bringing them back — by starving them and then feeding
them again —the cells in the pancreas are triggered to use some kind of
developmental reprogramming that rebuilds the part of the organ that's
no longer functioning."3
The experiments reflected noticeable benefits for mice with diabetes:
Fasting-mimicking diet cycles restored insulin secretion and glucose
homeostasis in both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes mouse models. Longo stated:4
"Medically, these findings have the potential to be
very important because we've shown — at least in mouse models — that you
can use diet to reverse the symptoms of diabetes. Scientifically, the
findings are perhaps even more important because we've shown you can use
diet to reprogram cells without having to make any genetic
alterations."
How Does the Fasting-Mimicking Approach Work?
Unlike traditional fasting centered on abstinence from all food for a
period of time, a fasting-mimicking diet allows you to consume a
greatly reduced number of calories, usually for a five-day period, in a
way that allows you to realize some of the same therapeutic benefits of
traditional foodless fasting.
Longo's fasting-mimicking diet involves restricting your calories to
800 to 1,100 calories per day for five days each month. This approach
greatly improves compliance, as many would find a five-day water-only
fast to be too difficult. The low-calorie strategy provides many
benefits while also reducing your likelihood of suffering adverse side
effects.
The five days of calorie restriction come in the form of choosing foods low in carbohydrates, low in protein
and high in healthy fats. The rest of the month, you are free to eat
whatever you want. The goal is to mimic periods of feast and famine.
While all of this sounds simple, Longo is quick to suggest the diet is
best undertaken with medical guidance. "It boils down to: Do not try
this at home." Longo says, "This [diet] is so much more sophisticated
than people realize."5
Calorie Restriction Also Shows Promise for Huntington's Disease
New research by Canadian scientists, published in the journal Acta Neuropathologica Communications,6
indicates restricting food intake to a specific daily time period could
benefit sufferers of Huntington's disease. More than 30,000 Americans
are affected by this progressive neurological condition, which typically
appears between the ages of 30 and 50.7
Symptoms of Huntington's include cognitive impairment, involuntary
movements (chorea) and mobility problems. Most conventional approaches
involve taking drugs such as tetrabenazine to manage symptoms like
chorea. Using lab mice, the researchers found that limiting calorie
intake to the same daily six-hour period improved mouse models of
Huntington's disease.8
Specifically, this strict eating schedule, which involved fasting for
the remaining 18 hours a day, resulted in significant reductions in the
levels of a particular mutant protein that plays a role in Huntington's
disease. The disease is caused by an inherited mutation in the
huntingtin (HTT) gene known to pass from parent to child. The mutant
form of HTT is referred to as mHTT; it is thought to work with other
bodily proteins to accelerate progression of the disease.
The study revealed food restriction triggered a process in the mice
called autophagy — a cell self-cleaning process known to remove damaged
or unnecessary components. Researchers noticed fasting-induced autophagy
reduced levels of mHTT in the rodents' brains.9
About the research, lead study author Dagmar Ehrnhoefer, Ph.D.,
principal investigator at BioMed X Innovation Center in Heidelberg,
Germany, stated:10
"We know specific aspects of autophagy don't work
properly in patients with Huntington's disease. Our findings suggest, at
least in mice, when you fast, or eat at certain very regulated times
without snacking in between meals, your body starts to increase an
alternative, still functional, autophagy mechanism, which could help
lower levels of the mutant huntingtin protein in the brain."
Study coauthor Dale Martin, Ph.D., assistant professor, department of
biology, Waterloo University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, said, "More
studies are needed, but perhaps something as simple as a modified
dietary schedule could provide some benefit for [Huntington's disease]
patients and could be complementary to some treatments currently in
clinical trials."11
Multiday Water Fasting Is Another Great Metabolic Intervention
After some initial hesitations, I am now embracing multiday water fasting
as one of the best metabolic interventions available. I say that
because this type of fasting switches your cells to a protected
"antiaging mode." It also promotes autophagy, the cell self-cleaning
process mentioned earlier, thanks to the activation of stem cells.
I have completed several five-day water-only fasts in recent months
and highly recommend this as a regular practice. Assuming you are
properly prepared, if you are dealing with insulin resistance, I believe
you could benefit from monthly water-only fasts. Provided you're not
anorexic, old and frail, pregnant or dealing with a serious health
issue, fasting for three to seven days will likely be beneficial; a
short fast certainly won't kill you, nor will it cause significant muscle loss. With respect to water-only fasts, ABC Science states:12
"After two or three days of fasting, you get your
energy from two different sources simultaneously. A very small part of
your energy comes from breaking down your muscles — but you can avoid
this by doing some resistance training … The majority of your energy
comes from breaking down fat.
But very soon, you move into getting all your energy
from the breakdown of fat. The fat molecules break down into two
separate chemicals — glycerol (which can be converted into glucose) and
free fatty acids (which can be converted into other chemicals called
ketones). Your body, including your brain, can run on this glucose and
ketones until you finally run out of fat.
In humans, fasting seems to have health benefits for
high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma and epilepsy in children. In
animals, fasting seems to reduce the cognitive decline that happens in
conditions such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease."
You may find that starting with intermittent fasting first can
prepare your body (and your mind) for a water-only fast. Simply by
lengthening the number of hours you go without food can condition your
body for completely foodless days. My habit of intermittently fasting 20
hours a day definitely made water-only fasting easier for me. Even if
you intermittently fast short of 20 hours, you will be helping your body
begin using fat for fuel.
I recommend you take a high-quality multimineral supplement any time
you do a water-only fast, and you should continue taking your regular nutritional supplements,
too. If you supplement with magnesium, be aware it may cause severely
loose stools during foodless fasts. You also need to consume
high-quality salt.
Health Benefits of a Fasting-Mimicking Style of Eating
Insulin-like growth factor 1, a marker associated with increased mortality and DNA damage
Stem cells and regenerative markers
Beyond that, according to Longo, the fasting-mimicking diet both
protects and rejuvenates your body by going after multiple body systems
and causing regeneration and improved performance in those systems.
Among the health benefits, Longo says the fasting-mimicking diet:
Reduces cancers by nearly 50 percent
Delays cancer onset and results in more benign tumors than malignant ones
Improves your cognition and markers for aging
Strengthens your immune system, which is transformed to a more youthful state
Fasting-Mimicking Boosts the Effectiveness of Treatment for Malignant Disease
Given his years of research and experience, Longo strongly recommends
actively incorporating the fasting-mimicking diet with cancer
treatment. Not only will it radically improve the effectiveness of your
cancer therapy, he says, but it will also decrease some of the
unpleasant side effects. Longo states:
"This has been a difficult battle. We work with the
top oncology hospitals in the world: MD Anderson, Mayo Clinic [and] USC
Norris Cancer Center … we really didn't want to be the rebels … We
fought very hard, but also, we wanted them to agree with us. We wanted
the oncologists to basically say, 'Yes. This [diet] is a good way to do
it.'
The safety concerns … are really minimal and the
potential benefits are very high … In mice, we consistently see
cancer-free survival even in the metastatic models."
Longo believes fasting-mimicking diets are particularly beneficial in
cases of more advanced cancers that have metastasized, leaving the
patient with very few options. In those instances, he has encouraged
oncologists to seriously consider integrating the fasting-mimicking diet
with standard cancer care. To date, Longo and his team have
demonstrated the effectiveness of the fasting-mimicking diet for kinase
inhibitors, chemotherapy and all kinds of cancers.
He says hundreds of clinical trials are underway that involve the
fasting-mimicking diet, and new data comes in regularly about new
therapies. One of the new therapies, Longo suggests, is immunotherapy.
It makes cancer visible to your immune system so it can be attacked by
your immune system.
Whatever your situation with respect to cancer treatment, Longo
recommends you bring the fasting-mimicking diet to the attention of your
oncologist. For starters, you might suggest he or she "at least … read
the clinical trials that are already published," said Longo. He adds, "I
think it's important to talk to [cancer] patients about this [diet],
and give them an opportunity, particularly where they don't have any
other viable options."
Important Cautions About Fasting
Certain health conditions require more stringent medical supervision
to ensure the safety of fasting. Regardless of your health, be sure to
talk to your doctor before undertaking any fasting program. If you have a
chronic disease,
your doctor will need to closely monitor your condition and any
potential complications related to fasting. I advise you avoid, or at
least cautiously evaluate, fasting if you are:
Anorexic or seriously underweight
Pregnant or breastfeeding
Fragile or in ill health
Taking medication, especially if it must be taken with food
Have liver or kidney disease
Taking an antihypertensive or hypoglycemic medication, due to the risk of overdosing
More than 70 years of age, unless you're exceptionally healthy
Cycling Is Vital for Success With the Fasting-Mimicking Protocol
If you are in good physical health, you may be able to realize
benefits from adopting a fasting-mimicking diet for five days every 90
days. However, if you are facing health challenges such as high blood
pressure, high cholesterol or obesity, you may have more success by cycling on and off the diet monthly, at least until you see improvement in your health.
Longo underscores the need for some form of cycling on and off the
diet because the cycling is vitally important to your success. The
episodic fasting and refeeding is one of the keys that unlocks the many
benefits of this diet. Notably, cycling also helps circumvent the
negative effects associated with continuous fasting or chronic
underfeeding.
If the information presented in this article has stimulated your
thinking about fasting, you may be ready to take your diet to the next
level. The potential benefits of fasting make each type of intervention
worth checking out, mainly because your body was designed to: 1) run on
fat as its primary fuel and 2) cycle through periods of feast and
famine. As a means of taking control of your health, I encourage you —
under the guidance of your doctor — to seriously consider one or more of
the following types of fasting:
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