Over the last couple weeks I’ve written about intermittent fasting (IF) and how it can improve your physical health and maybe allow you to live longer. Fasting can also protect your brain, stave off age related memory loss and maybe even protect against Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Mark Mattson is a researcher at John’s Hopkins University Hospital who studies fasting and health. In his research he uses several different types of intermittent fasting.
In one approach study participants use the 8/16 method where people eat during 8 hours of the day and fast for the remaining 16. Another method he studies is the 5/2 approach where people eat normally for 5 days and fast for 2 days. I personally use the 8/16 approach and eat between noon and 8pm and fast from 8pm to noon the next day. IF works by putting the body into ketosis (where energy is derived from fat cells) for a few hours every day.
His research has led him to understand that intermittent fasting acts as a mild form of stress that increases the cells’ defence against damage from toxins and cellular waste. Occasional fasting increases the amounts of chaperone proteins that make sure cell molecule manufacture happens correctly inside the cell. Fasting also increases brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) which protects stressed neutrons from dying.
Low levels of BDNF are found in people with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, depression and dementia. BDNF also strengthens neural connections, increases the production of new neurons and has an anti-depressive effect. The result for intermittent fasters is feeling well, thinking clearly and having a well protected brain. Just as it wouldn’t be a good idea to jump into an intense exercise regime after years of being a couch potato, don’t jump into intermittent fasting too quickly.
If you typically eat three meals a day plus snacks, ease into intermittent fasting so you can transition through the possibility of getting headaches, light-headedness and feeling cranky more easily. Once through the transition you might find that you feel better, have improved energy and mental clarity, and you might even shed a bit of unwanted weight.
