The benefits of intermittent fasting (for mice with Alzheimer's)
Just as you probably do, I am besieged daily by advertisements on the internet about the use of intermittent fasting for weight loss, offering different diets depending on your age group. Although intermittent fasting is nothing new, there is so much talk about it these days because it has become yet another fad. When I say it's a fad, I'm not criticizing whether or not there are health benefits to adopting this technique, I'm simply stating a fact.
Fasting has been widespread for millennia for a variety of reasons. It has been used to alleviate the 'desires of the flesh', as a form of philosophical reflection on the importance of vices or even as an act of personal sacrifice. But what I saw today on the website of The Scientist Magazine transcends all these reasons: a pair of scientists from the field of neuroscience and pathology at the University of California, San Diego, found, based on studies using mice genetically modified to develop Alzheimer's disease, that intermittent fasting has several health benefits.
They observed the impact of restricting the mice's diet to a 6-hour window. These mice, which remained fasting for the remaining eighteen hours of the day, showed a significant improvement in their sleep cycle, which is usually severely compromised in individuals with Alzheimer's disease. But it wasn't just the circadian cycle that was affected. Several other improvements were observed.
Restricting the mice's eating schedule improved sleep, metabolism, memory and cognition, reduced inflammatory processes in the body as well as the formation of amyloid deposits in the brain. Fasting also stimulated autophagy, which is the process by which the body gets rid of all cellular waste, such as metabolites, amyloid deposits and cancer cells.
I was impressed by the results of this research. Don't you think it's worth trying to join the latest fad?
For more details, please see the link below:
https://www.the-scientist.com/you-are-when-you-eat-71487
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
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