Can We All Use Prolonged Fasting To Boost Stem Cell Production?

[Light]

What Stem Cells Really Are + How To Boost Them Naturally
Can we all use prolonged fasting to boost stem cell production?
According to research published in early 2017, you can.
The study involved 100 healthy subjects that completed the fasting-mimicking diet (FMD) (800 to 1,100 calories daily of a plant-based diet low in protein and simple carbohydrates that is commercially available) for five consecutive days a month for three months.
Compared with the control group, the participants using the prolonged "fast" had a reduction in body weight, abdominal fat, blood pressure, inflammation, and a tumor marker called IGF-1 while enjoying a significant boost in stem cells circulating in the bloodstream.
Even when the participants were reassessed three to four months after finishing the three cycles of the FMD, there were sustained benefits including maintenance of 60 percent of the weight loss.


I have Valter Longo's book "The Longevity Diet" where he shares all the findings from thousands of people doing the Fasting Mimicking Diet, and on top of what it says above, there's also lowering of cholesterol - but only for people who had high cholesterol. If their cholesterol was normal it didn't go down but remained the same.
Same with blood glucose - it went down (not just during the "fast" but, it seems, permanently) only for people who had elevated blood sugar. For healthy people it remaind the same.

That looks like an important thing, that fasting will give you the effect you need, not a one size fits all.
There's something profound about that.
Like unveiling deep and wholistic processes.
Like what Ray does.

On the Ray Peat Email Advice Depository thread there's this exchange with Ray:

ME:
Do you believe their is. or will be, a time where stem cell injections can be a viable option?

The anecdotal evidence I've read or heard of so far is that placenta stem cells are the most effective have helped a lot of people.

Anything worth reading on this subject in your opinion that helps better understand your view point?

RAY:
Urine and menstrual blood are good sources of stem cells, but I think their main value is in learning the principles of regulating them. As a practical method for health maintenance, I think learning how to activate and regulate the existing system of stem cells is the correct approach.

This really seems to me like this is it.
It works for all the diseases that the RP approach tackles, it works for sick people and healthy people, and most importantly - it's systemic.
There is too much good evidence that fasting taps into the body's natural regeneration and healing capabilities to just throw it away.
There's something here.

Here's what Valter Longo suggests to eat during the five days/month "fast":

Now, it's pretty far from a Peat inspired diet, but what if you exchanged most vegetables for fruits, and omega 3/6 for saturated fat?
It seems that if you still kept it at around 800 kcal/day the results should be the same -it's the calorie restriction that matters, while getting good quality nutrition and no protein for those 5 days.

It's interesting that he doesn't once mention Adrenaline or Cortisol, even though it's well known that fasting increases stress hormones.
Maybe they didn't test for them.
There are, however, mentions that this kinda fasting will increase resistance to stress.
That reminded me of the fat-free mice Ray mentions in one of the KMUD interviews, that could take all kind of trauma that would have killed mice on a regular diet.
I wonder if they tapped into the same thing there...

@haidut @Travis and @AnyoneWhoKnows - could the way he's approaching it, of treading the line between fewer calories while still getting a good amount of carbs and fat be enough to keep stress at bay?
Would 800 kcal/day prevent a stress response for most people - even the not-so-healthy?
Could this be a way to get all the (amazing) benefits from fasting without the down sides?

 

[rei]

I view fasting similarly to working out. The body needs periods of healthy stress to stay strong. Similarly as endurance training is not healthy stress, neither is maintained caloric deficit. But short intervals of manageable stress with proper recovery is magical.

 

[jb116]

Restrict protein, organs shrink tissue is somewhat less repaired enzymatic and immune function decline. The body responds by recruiting stem cells. I don't see the benefit or the mystery. Seems like that's what it's supposed to do.

 

[Light]

Restrict protein, organs shrink tissue is somewhat less repaired enzymatic and immune function decline. The body responds by recruiting stem cells. I don't see the benefit or the mystery. Seems like that's what it's supposed to do.

Exactly.

The point is a rejuvenated immune system, so that it can handle things it couldn't before - like MS.

Also younger, better functioning mitochindria.

 

[jb116]

Exactly.
View attachment 12434

The point is a rejuvenated immune system, so that it can handle things it couldn't before - like MS.

Also younger, better functioning mitochindria.

I strongly suspect it's an exclusion of sorts that is more helpful than fasting itself. Bad things are kept out of the system and that's where the benefit comes.

 

[Light]

I strongly suspect it's an exclusion of sorts that is more helpful than fasting itself. Bad things are kept out of the system and that's where the benefit comes.

I'm sure alot of the benifits (lower blood glucose, lower LDL...) can come from excluding bad fooods,
after all, a vegan diet would give you those results as well.

The important thing for me are the stem cells.
The article also mentions "bouts of acute exercise" and some foods: "polyphenols and antioxidants found in blueberries, green tea, pomegranates, goji berries, and even spirulina" wil "increase circulating bone-marrow-derived stem cells",
So fasting might not be the only way to increase stem cells,

But it's the only thing I know of so far that does ALL of these things and more (kills cancer cells, makes the brain look and behave younger etc.)

You asked earlier where's the mystery - I think it is that one simple natural intervention has so many benifits.

 

[Light]

Just saw something @haidut posted:

Exercise + Fasting Is Stress, Causes Obesity And IR, And Requires Cortisol Blockade To Reverse

"These findings suggest that following regular exercise and CR there are GC-induced mechanisms that promote adipose tissue mass gain and impaired metabolic control in healthy organisms and that this phenomenon can be inhibited by the GC receptor antagonist mifepristone"
GC=glucocorticoid

So, maybe some Cyproheptadine and/or Progesterone+DHEA after each 5-day cycle of caloric restriction to really bring any negative effects to a minimum?

 

[lvysaur]

I think it probably comes down to moderation. People are saturated with sedentariness and abundant calories, so the extreme response is to exercise and starve a lot.

In reality the better option would be to walk more often and get a little bit hungrier before eating. The western method of rigorous scheduled meals and spread out city planning (anglosphere) makes this impossible to do.

 

[Hugh Johnson]

Nathan Hatch's book's new version has a chapter on thymus regeneration. That seems like a better idea than starvation. Also, urine has stem cells.

 

[somuch4food]

It's a very low protein diet for a few days. I believe that's where the benefits come from. It gives the body a break.

Nathan Hatch mentions in his book that he found 24h protein fasts (skipping proteins for 2 meals) helped him.

 

[Light]

It's a very low protein diet for a few days. I believe that's where the benefits come from. It gives the body a break.

That's definitly a part of it.
The Longevity Diet book quotes a lot of articles that indicate animal protein can affect health negatively.

But there's also actual regeneration, body parts shrink and are re-grown, and one of the things not mentioned in this book but in other places,
is how benificial it is for mitochondria - old ones die off and new oned are generated.

@haidut posted several articles showing that fasting (and endurence exercise) lock you into a cortisol cycle - the stress activates the secondary metabolism of stress hormones and it seems you don't just snap out of it when you're done fasting. It takes intervention with a cortisol blocker.

So maybe using something like Cypro after the fast is done will give you the benifits without slowing down resting metabolic rate.

 

[somuch4food]

But there's also actual regeneration, body parts shrink and are re-grown, and one of the things not mentioned in this book but in other places,
is how benificial it is for mitochondria - old ones die off and new oned are generated.

Yeah, my main belief is that once inflammation reduces, healing can take place. A major inflammatory/acidifying part of our diet is protein, especially when liver and kidneys are not functioning optimally.

 

[Alex Jaramillo]

What Stem Cells Really Are + How To Boost Them Naturally
Can we all use prolonged fasting to boost stem cell production?
According to research published in early 2017, you can.
The study involved 100 healthy subjects that completed the fasting-mimicking diet (FMD) (800 to 1,100 calories daily of a plant-based diet low in protein and simple carbohydrates that is commercially available) for five consecutive days a month for three months.
Compared with the control group, the participants using the prolonged "fast" had a reduction in body weight, abdominal fat, blood pressure, inflammation, and a tumor marker called IGF-1 while enjoying a significant boost in stem cells circulating in the bloodstream.
Even when the participants were reassessed three to four months after finishing the three cycles of the FMD, there were sustained benefits including maintenance of 60 percent of the weight loss.


I have Valter Longo's book "The Longevity Diet" where he shares all the findings from thousands of people doing the Fasting Mimicking Diet, and on top of what it says above, there's also lowering of cholesterol - but only for people who had high cholesterol. If their cholesterol was normal it didn't go down but remained the same.
Same with blood glucose - it went down (not just during the "fast" but, it seems, permanently) only for people who had elevated blood sugar. For healthy people it remaind the same.

That looks like an important thing, that fasting will give you the effect you need, not a one size fits all.
There's something profound about that.
Like unveiling deep and wholistic processes.
Like what Ray does.

On the Ray Peat Email Advice Depository thread there's this exchange with Ray:


This really seems to me like this is it.
It works for all the diseases that the RP approach tackles, it works for sick people and healthy people, and most importantly - it's systemic.
There is too much good evidence that fasting taps into the body's natural regeneration and healing capabilities to just throw it away.
There's something here.

Here's what Valter Longo suggests to eat during the five days/month "fast":
View attachment 12433

Now, it's pretty far from a Peat inspired diet, but what if you exchanged most vegetables for fruits, and omega 3/6 for saturated fat?
It seems that if you still kept it at around 800 kcal/day the results should be the same -it's the calorie restriction that matters, while getting good quality nutrition and no protein for those 5 days.

It's interesting that he doesn't once mention Adrenaline or Cortisol, even though it's well known that fasting increases stress hormones.
Maybe they didn't test for them.
There are, however, mentions that this kinda fasting will increase resistance to stress.
That reminded me of the fat-free mice Ray mentions in one of the KMUD interviews, that could take all kind of trauma that would have killed mice on a regular diet.
I wonder if they tapped into the same thing there...

@haidut @Travis and @AnyoneWhoKnows - could the way he's approaching it, of treading the line between fewer calories while still getting a good amount of carbs and fat be enough to keep stress at bay?
Would 800 kcal/day prevent a stress response for most people - even the not-so-healthy?
Could this be a way to get all the (amazing) benefits from fasting without the down sides?

Great post man, I think the main focus on this forum is to improve health from all parameters. For myself fasting has provided symptom relief on a consistent basis being post Accutane. The reason many things that Peat and Haidut suggest work is because they provide relief systemically. Doctors and big pharma want to isolate things as much as possible so they continue to profit. Where as the ideas preached on this forum help for multiple things at once. Just my 2 cents.

Awesome find my friend!