Preventing Age-Related Diseases With Nutrition | The Art of Manliness
I came across this article when i was bored yesterday, and though I disagree with several of the points (particularly that some people are meant to ingest PUFA opposed to SFA), there were some interesting viewpoints. The main view that I wanted to throw out to folks more educated on the subject than myself is the notion that fasting repairs cells through "shrinking and regrowing" cells. See below for full interview providing the specifics. Do you think fasting eliminates toxins? Interested in educated folks viewpoints on this subject.
Brett McKay: Fasting. Is that a hormetic stressors as well?
Rhonda Patrick: Fasting is also, yeah. Fasting is another hormetic stressor. In fact, a lot of the benefits of more prolonged fast, which are longer fast, 3-5 days in humans, a lot of that research has been done by Dr. Valter Longo at USC. He has shown, he’s done studies in both animals and humans, and he has shown in animals studies that basically a prolonged fast causes whole organs to shrink during the fast and then literally regrow after the fast, which is quite phenomenal if you think about, like your liver just shrinking, and also, it happens other organs as well, and even parts of the brain.
He’s showing these organs are shrinking and regrowing, and what he’s found is that what ends up happening is that the fasting is a stress that causes any cells that are damaged that already have, that are not healthy cells, they’re more damaged, those cells die by a process called apoptosis. Then this happens during the fast because the fast is such a strong stress, it causes those damaged cells to die, but the non-damaged cells, the cells that are healthier, it increases all these stress response pathways in them so they make more antioxidants, more antiinflammatory molecules. They just become more robust and stronger, and the damaged cells that die, what ends up happening is it causes stem cells to become activated. During the re-feeding phase, so after you’re doing fasting and you start to eat again, the stem cells start to make new cells to replenish whatever cells were lost. That’s where the shrinking and then regrowing of organs comes from.
It also, you have better metabolism and things like that, but I find the clearing away of damaged cells and then essentially replenishing them with healthy new cells, I find that to be a very interesting area of research, and also, it has lots and lots of implications for many diseases as well as just aging in general.
Brett McKay: Yeah, I think I’ve seen studies where reduced calories can increase longevity. In mice, at least they’ve seen that.
Rhonda Patrick: Right. This is another way of doing, instead of having a reduced calories all the time, you just do this three or four-day fast every so often, depending on what your health status is. Some people that are really unhealthy and obese may have to do that more often than others that are not that are already healthy, maybe doing it once a quarter or something like that may be a nice way to clear away all the damaged cells. It’s kind of like taking out the garbage, getting rid of the bad stuff and replenishing it with new healthy cells.
Brett McKay: Does the fast have to be 3-4 days to get the benefits? I mean, I mean, is there a benefit for fasting 16 hours or 24 hours?
Rhonda Patrick: Well, in terms of the stem cell activation, clearing away the damaged cells, Valter has shown that the prolonged fast, so the three, four, five days is important, but he also has what’s called fasting mimicking diet, which is a five-day diet, and it’s a low calorie, and it has a certain macronutrient composition. You can only get a certain amount of your calories from fat, a certain amount from carbohydrates, and a certain amount from protein.
He’s shown that in a lot of ways, that could mimic a water fast. That’s a lot of work that he’s done, but, yeah, there are a lot of benefits from doing just a 14, 16, 24-hour intermittent fast as well. I actually practice something called time-restricted eating, where I eat all of my food within, I try to eat it within a 10-hour time window so that I’m fasting for 14 hours every night. You’re getting this 14-hour intermittent fast on a daily basis.
Studies have shown, and this is a lot of work that’s been done by Dr. Satchin Panda at the Salk Institute, and that has shown to really improve metabolism in general, just to make, your metabolism runs better. That’s something definitely I would say a lot of benefits, but you’re not going to be getting the robust clearing away of damaged cells and regeneration from just doing a short fast like that, but there are benefits just for normal metabolism. That’s important. I think that, I personally think both. I’d like to start doing a little bit more of the more prolonged fast.
I think Dr. Valter Longo’s fasting mimicking diet’s nice because a lot of people don’t want to do a water fast. It’s a really hard stressor, and it’s kind of daunting to some people to not eat for three or four days. The fasting mimicking diet, which essentially is, like I said, there’s a calorie cap. It’s about 750 calories a day, and 44% of those calories from fat, 47% come from carbohydrate, and about 9% come from protein. He’s got this whole diet that mimics that water fast and basically activates a lot of the same cellular pathways and have a lot of the same responses. At least that’s what his preliminary data has shown.
Brett McKay: Right. That’s not for the faint of heart then.
Rhonda Patrick: Yeah.
Brett McKay: Because I was thinking, as a parent, man, that, or you’re a working parent, 3-5 days without food, I think I’m already … You can go bonkers with that.
Rhonda Patrick: Right. Yeah. Yeah. I think the fasting mimicking diet seems like a lot, definitely going to be more compliant where it’ll be a lot easier for people. I know a lot of people that have done it. I haven’t done it yet just because when I started to get into this, I got pregnant, and now I’m at the point where I’m breastfeeding, so I’m not like, I don’t want to do any sort of fasting crazy stuff until I’m done with that whole process, but I am interested in trying it out soon. I’m definitely going to try that out.
I came across this article when i was bored yesterday, and though I disagree with several of the points (particularly that some people are meant to ingest PUFA opposed to SFA), there were some interesting viewpoints. The main view that I wanted to throw out to folks more educated on the subject than myself is the notion that fasting repairs cells through "shrinking and regrowing" cells. See below for full interview providing the specifics. Do you think fasting eliminates toxins? Interested in educated folks viewpoints on this subject.
Brett McKay: Fasting. Is that a hormetic stressors as well?
Rhonda Patrick: Fasting is also, yeah. Fasting is another hormetic stressor. In fact, a lot of the benefits of more prolonged fast, which are longer fast, 3-5 days in humans, a lot of that research has been done by Dr. Valter Longo at USC. He has shown, he’s done studies in both animals and humans, and he has shown in animals studies that basically a prolonged fast causes whole organs to shrink during the fast and then literally regrow after the fast, which is quite phenomenal if you think about, like your liver just shrinking, and also, it happens other organs as well, and even parts of the brain.
He’s showing these organs are shrinking and regrowing, and what he’s found is that what ends up happening is that the fasting is a stress that causes any cells that are damaged that already have, that are not healthy cells, they’re more damaged, those cells die by a process called apoptosis. Then this happens during the fast because the fast is such a strong stress, it causes those damaged cells to die, but the non-damaged cells, the cells that are healthier, it increases all these stress response pathways in them so they make more antioxidants, more antiinflammatory molecules. They just become more robust and stronger, and the damaged cells that die, what ends up happening is it causes stem cells to become activated. During the re-feeding phase, so after you’re doing fasting and you start to eat again, the stem cells start to make new cells to replenish whatever cells were lost. That’s where the shrinking and then regrowing of organs comes from.
It also, you have better metabolism and things like that, but I find the clearing away of damaged cells and then essentially replenishing them with healthy new cells, I find that to be a very interesting area of research, and also, it has lots and lots of implications for many diseases as well as just aging in general.
Brett McKay: Yeah, I think I’ve seen studies where reduced calories can increase longevity. In mice, at least they’ve seen that.
Rhonda Patrick: Right. This is another way of doing, instead of having a reduced calories all the time, you just do this three or four-day fast every so often, depending on what your health status is. Some people that are really unhealthy and obese may have to do that more often than others that are not that are already healthy, maybe doing it once a quarter or something like that may be a nice way to clear away all the damaged cells. It’s kind of like taking out the garbage, getting rid of the bad stuff and replenishing it with new healthy cells.
Brett McKay: Does the fast have to be 3-4 days to get the benefits? I mean, I mean, is there a benefit for fasting 16 hours or 24 hours?
Rhonda Patrick: Well, in terms of the stem cell activation, clearing away the damaged cells, Valter has shown that the prolonged fast, so the three, four, five days is important, but he also has what’s called fasting mimicking diet, which is a five-day diet, and it’s a low calorie, and it has a certain macronutrient composition. You can only get a certain amount of your calories from fat, a certain amount from carbohydrates, and a certain amount from protein.
He’s shown that in a lot of ways, that could mimic a water fast. That’s a lot of work that he’s done, but, yeah, there are a lot of benefits from doing just a 14, 16, 24-hour intermittent fast as well. I actually practice something called time-restricted eating, where I eat all of my food within, I try to eat it within a 10-hour time window so that I’m fasting for 14 hours every night. You’re getting this 14-hour intermittent fast on a daily basis.
Studies have shown, and this is a lot of work that’s been done by Dr. Satchin Panda at the Salk Institute, and that has shown to really improve metabolism in general, just to make, your metabolism runs better. That’s something definitely I would say a lot of benefits, but you’re not going to be getting the robust clearing away of damaged cells and regeneration from just doing a short fast like that, but there are benefits just for normal metabolism. That’s important. I think that, I personally think both. I’d like to start doing a little bit more of the more prolonged fast.
I think Dr. Valter Longo’s fasting mimicking diet’s nice because a lot of people don’t want to do a water fast. It’s a really hard stressor, and it’s kind of daunting to some people to not eat for three or four days. The fasting mimicking diet, which essentially is, like I said, there’s a calorie cap. It’s about 750 calories a day, and 44% of those calories from fat, 47% come from carbohydrate, and about 9% come from protein. He’s got this whole diet that mimics that water fast and basically activates a lot of the same cellular pathways and have a lot of the same responses. At least that’s what his preliminary data has shown.
Brett McKay: Right. That’s not for the faint of heart then.
Rhonda Patrick: Yeah.
Brett McKay: Because I was thinking, as a parent, man, that, or you’re a working parent, 3-5 days without food, I think I’m already … You can go bonkers with that.
Rhonda Patrick: Right. Yeah. Yeah. I think the fasting mimicking diet seems like a lot, definitely going to be more compliant where it’ll be a lot easier for people. I know a lot of people that have done it. I haven’t done it yet just because when I started to get into this, I got pregnant, and now I’m at the point where I’m breastfeeding, so I’m not like, I don’t want to do any sort of fasting crazy stuff until I’m done with that whole process, but I am interested in trying it out soon. I’m definitely going to try that out.
