Today is not about restricted diets for weight loss; instead, we look at a new study showing how a well-tolerated once weekly fasting approach may improve metabolism and potentially lower chronic disease risks such as diabetes and heart failure.

Intermittent fasting basics

People often use intermittent fasting strategies for weight loss. There are many approaches, including time-restricted feeding and alternate-day fasting. Some studies show intermittent fasting is an effective tool for weight loss. Other studies hint that alternate-day fasting is no better than regular dieting.

For example, a 12–week randomized trial of alternate-day fasting (with 25 percent of the energy consumed on fasting days and free eating on other days) showed a 5.2 kilogram (11.4 pounds) weight loss than a control group.

The University of Illinois at Chicago (USA) study authors offer that alternate-day fasting effectively reduces weight and cardiovascular risk.

On the other hand, a one-year experiment of 100 obese individuals showed that alternate-day fasting did not work better than daily calorie restriction. Participants consumed 25 percent of total energy on fasting days and 125 percent on “feast” days for this trial.

Compared with calorie restriction (75 percent of total energy needs consumed each day) and a no-intervention control group, average weight loss in the two diet groups appeared similar.

What about time-restricted feeding? This form of intermittent fasting has us stop eating by a specific time of day (for example, in the early afternoon). One creates a prolonged period of fasting that carries over into the next day.

Short-term experiments looking at time-restricting fasting suggest that aligning our feeding with circadian rhythms may facilitate weight loss and improve measures of metabolism.

Intermittent fasting, once weekly

Publishing in the European Heart Journal Open, researchers followed 67 subjects, ages 21 to 70 years, for six months. Each subject had at least one symptom of metabolic syndrome (for example, obesity) or type 2 diabetes.

All had elevated LDL (bad) cholesterol levels, but none took diabetes or statin medications.

The participants fasted twice weekly for 24 hours for the first four weeks. Then, they fasted once per week for the next 22 weeks. A control group ate whenever and whatever they wanted.

Study results

When compared with the control subjects, the intermittent fasting group had:

Improvements in markers for insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome. Cholesterol levels did not improve.

More specifically, the fasting participants had higher levels of galectin-3. This substance is an essential protein that plays a part in several cellular processes.

Galectin-3 is associated with inflammatory responses. According to the study principal investigator, Dr. Benjamin Horne, the improvement may lead to a lower risk of diabetes and heart failure.

Dr. Horne adds that “unlike some intermittent fasting plans that are quite restrictive and promise magic weight loss, this approach is not a severe fasting form. The best routine is one that patients can stick to over the long term, and this study shows that even occasionally fasting can have positive health effects.”

Reducing inflammation can improve the cardiovascular environment at a microscopic level.

The post Intermittent Fasting and Health appeared first on Medika Life.

Do I think that the research is good enough to have our patients adopt the practice of a fasting-mimicking diet? No, the study does not conclude that such an approach to nutrition has antitumor effects. Let’s look at the study’s merits.

The study authors begin with this observation: In mice with cancer, cyclic fasting or fasting-mimicking diets (FMDs) enhance the activity of anti-cancer treatments by changing systemic metabolism and boosting anti-cancer immunity.

But what about humans? Can a similar dietary approach yield similar effects? To find out, researchers examined 101 patients undergoing treatment for either breast cancer or melanoma. They asked the study participants to do this:

Consume 1800 kilocalories in five days (more specifically, 600 on the first day and up to 300 kilocalories for the remaining four days). The subjects repeated the cycle every three to four weeks. The patients had no diet restrictions in-between cycles, but the investigators recommended a healthy diet and lifestyle.

Here are the results of an interim analysis of the ongoing DIgesT trial, testing a 5-day fasting-mimicking cycle seven to ten days before surgery.

First, dietary interventions (such as fasting) are often challenging for patients to follow. Not for this study: 92 percent complied with the diet approach.

The patients successfully modified both body and within-tumor metabolism and immune response with compliance high.

The average blood sugar concentrations dropped by 19 percent, and insulin levels dropped by 51 percent. Serum insulin-like growth factor-1 levels went down by 30 percent. These changes held over several dietary cycles.

I was concerned about body weight, but the weight loss appeared reversible during the healthy-eating periods between fasting cycles.

That’s a brief overview of this very recent study. It is only in abstract form, but I wanted to share it with you now. I love that the fasting-mimicking diet had a broad and favorable effect on immune system function. The diet approach led to many anti-cancer programs in the cancer cells.

I have recently been thinking more about out-of-the-box approaches for my patients at high risk for cancer-related recurrence or death. I am especially interested in approaches that modulate insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1).

In summary, the new study reveals that a fasting-mimicking diet is associated with a significant rise in tumor-infiltrating CD8-positive T cells. This diet leads to an anti-cancer immune microenvironment at cancer cell and systemic levels.

Let’s close with the words of research team member Licia Rivoltini, MD, head of the immunotherapy of human tumors unit at the National Cancer Institute in Milan:

“Severe calorie restriction generated a metabolic shock that activated several populations of immune cells that could boost the antitumor activity of standard antineoplastic treatments.”

I look forward to seeing results from new clinical research, including the BREAKFAST trial. This experiment is the next step in understanding the anti-cancer effects caused by calorie restriction.

Oh, I cannot resist this shot of me in fabulous Milan:

Thank you for joining me today. I hope you have a joy-filled next year.

The post Fasting May Fight Cancer appeared first on Medika Life.