Can Fasting increase your lifespan?

“You have to eat in order to live.  But you also have to fast in order to live well.  Eating is effortless, but the ability to complete a fast is also effortless once you learn the skills and the mind-sets…” You can skip eating every now and then.  You can look better and feel better and have the energy to do all the things you want to do - consciously, deliberately, freely”  

- Dave Asprey (Fast this Way) 

Three meals a day is a relatively new trend in the broad spectrum of human life and while it is commonplace today, we did not eat like this until the industrial revolution.  Mostly, meal timing changes came with the adoption of a larger amount of carbohydrates into modern diets and the fact that the human body has a relatively small “storage tank” for keeping carbohydrates easily available as fuel.  Basically, if we do not want to use our other stores to make more or different fuel for the body, we need to refuel every 4 hours or risk feeling “hangry” as our body’s levels of readily available “sugar” falls into the red zone.    Let’s face it, the human body, just like the brain has a tendency to be lazy, if it can get easily digestible sugar without having to convert it from fat, it will.  

But WHY should you not listen to your body’s desire to be lazy?  Why should you consider fasting?  Let’s take a look at the research:

Intermittent fasting has a positive effect on the function of your cells, genes, and hormones.

• Helps to regulate your insulin levels by giving your body a break from a constant need for regulating the sugar coming in at every meal.  

• Increases human growth hormone to facilitate fat burning and muscle gain. 

Intermittent fasting can help you improve your body composition.

• A study in 2014 showed that intermittent fasting can cause a weight loss of 3-8% over 3-24 weeks without a significant loss 0f muscle mass. 

• Fasting also does good work on your microbiome and signals a reaction that allows your body to increase fat burning opposed to fat storing signaling.

Intermittent fasting can lower your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes

• Prevents insulin resistance and reduces your risk of developing type 2 Diabetes.

Intermittent fasting chan reduce inflammation in the body

• Multiple studies show that intermittent fasting enhances the body’s ability to combat inflammation and free radicals

Intermittent fasting can improve heart health

• Intermittent fasting has shown to improve numerous risk factors including blood pressure, total and LDL cholesterol, blood triglycerides, and blood sugar levels. 

Intermittent fasting allows time for autophagy or “taking out the trash” 

• Triggers autophagy, the self-clean process in the body that removes waste, toxins, and pathogens from the cells.  With a bit of time off from digestion, the cells finally have time to take out the trash.  The ability to do this has shown reductions in inflammation as well as the aging process!

Intermittent fasting may reduce your risk of developing cancer

• Animal studies show that intermittent fasting is a promising avenue for cancer prevention

• Interestingly, fasting may also reduce side effects to cancer treatment.

Intermittent fasting is keeps your brain healthy

• A recent study out of California found that there was a pronounced increase of the cleanup of neurons in the brain during fasting.  And possibly even increase the growth of new nerve cells!

• Studies with Alzheimer’s shows that there may be a delay in onset of the disease as well as an improvement of symptoms with bouts of intermittent fasting.

Intermittent fasting may help you live longer

• Calorie restriction has long been shown to increase lifespan, but now research is showing that there are similar benefits with intermittent fasting.

Phase 2: 6 days of 12-hour fasting period and 1 day of 16 hour fast.  

Hopefully last weeks protocol of a 12 hour fast was pretty easy.   This week, we’ll continue with the 12 hour fast period daily and pick one day during the week to do a 16 hour fast. 

• 7 PM Finish dinner then consume nothing else before bed.

• 6-9 AM Wake up and consume nothing but water, or plain coffee / tea.

• 11AM Break your fast and have breakfast, brunch, or lunch (your choice!)

Next week, we’ll discuss some strategies for “hacking” your fasting.  

References:  

Dave Asprey, Fast this Way: Burn Fat, Heal Inflammation and Eat Like the High Performing Human You Were Meant to Be. (New York, HarperCollin 2021)

Healthline “10 Evidence-Based Health Benefits of Intermittent Fasting”

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/10-health-benefits-of-intermittent-fasting#TOC_TITLE_HDR_3