interesting article about fasting every other day

[Guest guest]

Hi,

I'm a lurker and thought I'd drop a note to share this:

http://www.msnbc.com/news/906310.asp?0cv=CB20

Periodic fasting can be just as good for a person's health as sharply

cutting back on calories, even if the fasting doesn't mean eating

less

overall, a new study indicates.

Researchers are now planning to see if what works in mice is also

good for

people.

Several recent studies have reported a variety of benefits from a

sharply

restricted diet, including longer life span, increased insulin

sensitivity

and stress resistance.

In the new report, mice that were fed only every other day -- but

could

gorge on the days they did eat -- saw similar health benefits to

ones that

had their diet reduced by 40 percent, a team of researchers reports

in

Tuesday's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of

Sciences.

The cause of health improvements from cutting back on diet isn't

fully

understood, though many researchers had assumed that a long-term

reduction

in calories was involved.

BENEFIT EQUAL TO CUTTING CALORIES

But the new study by Mark P. Mattson and colleagues at the National

Institute on Aging found equal benefits for mice that ate only every

other

day, but didn't cut total calories because they ate twice as much on

days

they weren't fasting.

Mattson said a study is in the planning stages to compare the health

of a

group of people fed the normal three meals a day with a similar

group,

eating the same diet and amount of food, but consuming it within

four hours

and then fasting for 20 hours before eating again.

" Overeating is a big problem now in this country, it's particularly

troublesome that a lot of children are overweight. It's still

unclear the

best way to somehow get people to eat less .... One possibility is

skipping

a meal a day, " Mattson said. " Our study suggests that skipping meals

is not

bad for you. "

Dr. Carol A. Braunschweig of the University of Illinois at Chicago,

who was

not part of the study team, said she was intrigued by the suggestion

that a

drastic change in eating patterns might have benefits.

FINDINGS MIGHT FIGHT OBESITY

" With the current epidemic of obesity and physical inactivity facing

the

U.S. today, identification of a beneficial eating pattern that could

address

some of the untoward effects of excess weight would be a very

significant

finding, " she said.

Mattson said an earlier study found that mice that fasted every

other day

had extended lifespans and the new experiment found the mice also

did better

in factors involved in diabetes and nerve damage in the brain

similar to

Alzheimer's disease.

" We think what happens is going without food imposes a mild stress

on cells

and cells respond by increasing their ability to cope with more

severe

stress, " Mattson said. " It's sort of analogous to physical effects of

exercise on muscle cells. "

He said the researchers think this stress occurs throughout the

body, and

that may be the reason fasting seems to increase lifespan and the

animals

become more resistant to the diseases of aging.

The dieting mice consumed 40 percent less food than mice eating

normally and

lost nearly half their body weight (49 percent) in the experiment,

while the

fasting mice weighed only a little less than mice eating normally.

In recent years, some nutritionists have recommended eating smaller

amounts

more often, but this study did not deal with that type of eating

pattern.

In the new report, the researchers said both the fasting mice and

those on a

restricted diet had concentrations of blood sugar and insulin that

were

significantly lower than mice allowed to eat whenever they wanted.

Indeed,

insulin levels in the fasting mice were even a bit lower than the

dieting

ones.

FASTING BRAINS RESIST TOXIN

At the end of the experiment all three groups of mice were injected

with a

toxin that damages cells in the part of the brain called the

hippocampus.

It's cell damage there that that is involved in Alzheimer's in

humans.

When the mouse brains were later analyzed the scientists found that

the

brains of the fasting mice were more resistant to damage by the

toxin than

the brains of either dieting mice or those eating normally.