Intermittent Fasting and Life Extension

[Steven Barnes]

I invite all readers to look up "Intermittent Fasting" on the net, and report back what they find. My initial investigations suggest that it may well be a viable alternative to Caloric Restriction, currently the only scientifically proven method of life extension: up to 40% increase in life span! Holy crap! This methodology, in simplist terms, is eating every other day. There may be other, milder variations that also work. But I'd like very much to have some cold-blooded evaluation of the available research. Any thoughts?

[Argent'horn]

I have not looked at the internet yet, but I suppose I practice a mild form of this by eating a light breakfast of bacon and eggs (no carbohydrates) and then not eating again until a late dinner. I have a Palestinian friend who has at times urged me to fast one or two days a week. He does so himself, and finds it really helpful.

This makes me wonder whether there are cultures which practice variants of intermittent fasting as standard behavior. If so, what does their health and longevity profile look like? When my head is above water, workwise, I shall do some searching and try to find out. (Maybe someone else will find out before I manage to.)

Also, it makes me wonder whether our ideas of life expectancy among primitive humans are wrong. Anthropologists have told me that every culture has a few people who live into their sixties and, occasionally, beyond that. But, if an erratic food supply slows the aging process, is it possible that humans from cultures which we know only through archaeology were actually older at death than modern day scholars estimate from their bones or other remains? Would an eighty year old hunter gatherer have bones that to modern physical anthropologists appear to be only sixty because of slowed aging?

[Steven Barnes]

I doubt that an erratic food supply extends life in any organic situation--it would be accompanied by protein starvation and lack of essential micronutrients. The trick would be to trigger whatever brain mechanisms react to survival stress without actually depriving the body of what it needs. I think that makes sense...

[AdamCrafter]

Hi Steve,

I've started reading about IF, and I am intrigued by the idea that IF might be convincing the body to start expressing a different phenotype out of the available genotype.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genotype-phenotype_distinction

I like to think of my entire genetic bank as a library, and that what I do with my thoughts, actions, and practices ... well...
it can Influence what books I take out and Use.
(Adam needs to polish this metaphor... I'll be taking suggestions below) *grin*

This is why sustained practice over months is needed for a person to truly adopt those new habits, the cells built under the older pattern are still present, and 'getting their vote in'.

I'm thinking that IF, in the pattern you are outlining might encourage new cells that are created during this time to have different characteristics.
And from your experience so far, it seems like you like the new variation of rules that these cells seem to be laying out. *grin*
-=-
I'm planning on joining you in this endeavor after May 20th, after Finals are over.
I'm leery of major body change before finals.
As I am not taking classes this summer, it seems like a good time to try this out.
I'll have 2 jobs, but no classes.

[Steven Barnes]

Let me know how this goes!

[paul wolfe]

Just saw this in the Telegraph (a UK paper) - thought it might be of interest.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=0EU3IP5KFKOIZQFIQMFCFFOAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2007/05/02/nlong102.xml



Regards



Paul

[AdamCrafter]

HI Steve,

If you remember, I hold a student job at The Center for Physical Activity and Weight Management at Kansas University, where we do research, training and outreach on weight loss and weight maintenance.
ebl.ku.edu/

I have been talking up IF to some of the other researchers here, and 3 of us (2 males and 1 female) so far are thinking about taking metabolism measurement of ourselves, and then doing IF for a month and rechecking our metabolisms.
We would be doing this for the month of June, I think.


We have all the standard metabolism stuff, but we also have a DEXA machine and a metabolism chamber.

DEXA: We can check for bone density changes, and fat /lean muscle redistribution.
www.gehealthcare.com/usen/bone_densitometry/products/idxa.html
This thing still looks like it should give me super-powers ala Dr. Banner.
www.gehealthcare.com/usen/bone_densitometry/images/flash/3d-product-tour.html


WHOLE ROOM CALORIMETER:
NOT MY version, but good pictures of a WRC
www.uow.edu.au/health/smartfoods/wholeroom_calorimter.html


We are hoping to suck in (technical term, heh) some more of our other co-workers,
and if we start getting personal results in a month or two, we are going to try for a grant from NIH to study it further under controlled conditions.


Would you be willing to work with us on this?
I'm interested in the data you have been collecting, and any patterns or rules you have generated.

Yours in practice,
Adam

[AdamCrafter]

The LONGEVITY Gene that expresses in CR identified.... likely to be the same expression in IF.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6612411.stm

This means that someday we'll be able to Identify whether CR or IF is better at making a gene similar to this express in humans.

mm mmmm mmmm, science!

[Steven Barnes]

Adam--

Absolutely would be interested in helping, in any way whatsoever. Drop me an email at [e-mail] and I'll shoot you my phone number. We should talk!

Steve

[AdamCrafter]

sent it!

[Argent'horn]

I have spoken to two people who have very little body fat. One is 5'1" tall and weighs less than 100 pounds. The other is maybe 5' 3" and weighs about 105. They are very athletic women; ten mile runs are not unusual for either of them. Both of them have told me that they cannot function if they do not eat several times a day. They cease to be able to think clearly and their strength and stamina plummett quickly if they do not eat when they feel the need.

This makes me feel that IF may well be a very different proposition for people with little or no natural reserves of energy in their bodies.

I am not in this category muself, and I intend to begin IF sometime this summer.

[Steven Barnes]

David:

My comment is that these ladies are possibly not as healthy as they look. What sense does it make to get dizzy and weak if you don't eat for a few hours? They seem possibly over-trained, "athletic anorexics" is a term sometimes applied to such folks. On the other hand, they might be just fine, and I.F. simply isn't for their body type. Don't know, but it makes my alarm bells go off a bit. To say "I don't like that idea" is a personal choice. To say "I can't" implies a lack of health (to me.) BTW: how often do these ladies catch colds?

[Argent'horn]

One of the two, my daughter, rarely gets colds at all. She does on rare occasions (two or three times a year, perhaps) get migranes. The other one, who is a former neighbor of mine, I am not sure about.

[Steven Barnes]

That doesn't sound too bad. Well, it's true that no program works for everyone...although I question being unable to go more than a few hours without eating. Sounds like a problem waiting to happen.

[AdamCrafter]

Some Friends asked me (in my livejournal) if IF will cause Mood Swings.
Below are my thoughts on the subject!
--------------- copied from myself --------------------
Warning: Ahead lies Adam's opinion...

To a mild degree (or sometimes to the level of a disease state),
fed-state driven mood swings, hypoglycemia/hyperglycemia, and diabetes type II are all (partially?) related to fed-state OR insulin insensitivity.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin_insensitivity
--------------------------------
It is Adam's opinion that Adam (and most of modern society) has some degree of insulin insensitivity based on the modern diet patterns.

I also think that since the collection of cells and tissues that are the fed-state thermostat were built/grown (in modern humans) in the presence of unlimited food supply, they are slow to react to fed-state changes.
This slowness appears/seems to be 'repaired' in cells that are created during a fasting state.
-----------------
*Sigh*
Kim always tells me that if she asks me for the time, I'll tell you how to build a clock. I maintain that (sometimes) I just think out loud, and that this is a good example.
*grin*
-----------------
The upshot of all this?

I think that the IF dietary pattern will fine-tune and repair the food-management systems of the body, and it it this more than anything else that causes the health benefits, including the weight loss.

SO... While there might be mood-swings while I am starting this, by the ?second/third? week, I will already be recovering my insulin sensitivity, and the mood-swings will start to fade away as the ability of my body to self-manage returns.