Longer daily fasting times improve health and longevity

Scientists from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) at the National Institutes of Health, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, reported that health and longevity improved with increased fasting time, regardless of what the mice ate or how many calories they consumed.

Longer daily fasting times improve health and longevity. Image credit: Michael J. Bennett/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

This study showed that mice who ate one meal per day, and thus had the longest fasting period, seemed to have a longer lifespan and better outcomes for common age-related liver disease and metabolic disorders.

These intriguing results in an animal model show that the interplay of total caloric intake and the length of feeding and fasting periods deserves a closer look.

The scientists randomly divided 292 male mice into two diet groups. One group received a naturally sourced diet that was lower in purified sugars and fat, and higher in protein and fiber than the other diet. The mice in each diet group were then divided into three sub-groups based on how often they had access to food.

The first group of mice had access to food around the clock. A second group of mice was fed 30 percent less calories per day than the first group. The third group was meal fed, getting a single meal that added up to the exact number of calories as the round-the-clock group.

Both the meal-fed and calorie-restricted mice learned to eat quickly when food was available, resulting in longer daily fasting periods for both groups.

The scientists tracked the mice’s metabolic health through their lifespans until their natural deaths and examined them post-mortem.

Meal-fed and calorie-restricted mice showed improvements in overall health, as evidenced by delays in common age-related damage to the liver and other organs, and extended longevity.

The calorie-restricted mice also showed significant improvement in fasting glucose and insulin levels compared to the other groups. Interestingly, the researchers found that diet composition had no significant impact on lifespan in the meal fed and calorie restricted groups.

Increasing daily fasting times, without a reduction of calories and regardless of the type of diet consumed, resulted in overall improvements in health and survival in male mice. Perhaps this extended daily fasting period enables repair and maintenance mechanisms that would be absent in a continuous exposure to food. (National Institutes of Health)

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

How Light Boosts Migraine Pain

Most migraine sufferers know that light can intensify headache pain. A new study of blind patients with migraine may help explain why. The finding ultimately may lead to new approaches for calming severe light-induced headaches.

Smoldering spots in the brain may signal severe multiple sclerosis

New study provides hope for diagnosing and testing effectiveness of new treatments for more disabling forms of multiple sclerosis.

Eosinophilic esophagitis may be due to missing protein

Scientists have discovered that the absence of a specific protein in cells lining the esophagus may cause inflammation and tissue damage in people with eosinophilic esophagitis.

A healthy lifestyle cuts stroke risk, irrespective of genetic risk

People at high genetic risk of stroke can still reduce their chance of having a stroke by sticking to a healthy lifestyle, in particular stopping smoking and not being overweight.

Connectome map more than doubles human cortex’s known regions

Researchers have mapped 180 distinct areas in our brain’s outer mantle, or cortex – more than twice the number previously known.

Preschoolers benefit from peanut allergy therapy

Researchers tested peanut oral immunotherapy in preschool-aged children with a newly diagnosed peanut allergy. After the treatment, most children could eat peanut-containing foods without an allergic reaction.