Intermittent Fasting and Life Extension

[Steven Barnes]

# Two of "Seven Secrets"

I'd love posts with questions: what would need to be answered about this subject to satisfy your curiosity?

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#2: Intermittent Fasting. Like the reader said, this is no stranger to those who have been reading this blog.
Intermittent fasting is based on about sixty years of research into caloric restriction, the only known means of extending maximum life span in warm blooded animals. In the most basic form, it is "eating every other day," although there are plans that involve "waving" the number of calories from day to day, say, limiting yourself to 600 calories one day, and gorging the next. There are also patterns involving eating from six PM one day to 6 PM the next, etc. Intense, but probably the simplest diet ever devised. So long as you exercise at almost any level at all, weight loss is ridiculously easy. But the other benefits include positive effects in the areas of: testosterone release, cancer, regrowth of nerve tissue, Alzheimer's, arthritis, general mental functioning, and more. A truly incredible "secret." The question I have is: what sorts of information do you think readers will most desire in connection with Intermittent Fasting?

[Argent'horn]

Something is wrong here. The editor will not let me post the word "s-p-o-o-n" and keeps changing it to "s-t-h-i-n-g-y" when I post.
Steve, I think that one question which someone who has never tried IF might ask would be: "How do you make sure that you get all the nutrients you need eating only every other day." Pointing out that one's appetite changes and junk food becomes much less appealing on this protocol is a good observation. However, I have mixed feelings about it. Sometimes after dinner on eating days, I get the urge to eat a sthingy full of honey or maple syrup. I was never much interested in eating desserts prior to taking up IF, and eating this bit of sweet stuff does not make me feel better, so I am puzzled by the urge. Nevertheless, the general instinct to eat really healthy and nutritious food on eating days is very strong. Of course, I also take quite a few supplements, so this could affect the appetite changes, also.

Since my work schedule is different on different days, I have adopted a MWF fasting schedule, as I have noted here before. This makes it more compatible with my teaching schedule, but it does mean that I eat four days a week instead of three one week and four the next, as someone who fasts strictly every other day would do. (Thus, I eat one more day every fortnight than the others.)

Another thing that is important is to point out that perfection is not required. Although most weeks I fast as I wrote above, if I am visiting family and want to eat on a fasting day with others, I don't beat myself up over it. (Of course I think that this demanding instant perfection of oneself is one of the worst things for any kind of change. Back in the 60's and 70's when I was trying to quit smoking, I had friends and relatives who told me that if I had a cigarette after a month without one, I had not quit, period. Only after I began to ignore this all-or-nothing mentality was I able to quit (which I did, in 1977, although I had an occasional cigarette until 1980. I have not had one since.) I think a similar perfectionistic attitude could easily be a set up for failure at IF. As things stand now, I may eat something in the evening on fasting days maybe once or twice a month, although the frequency is going down. Whether it ever hits zero, I don't really care. I certainly would have cared, and would have told myself that I just couldn't do this and shouldn't try anymore when I was younger.

[Argent'horn]

I have been fasting three days a week pretty consistently, except sometimes when I am on trips and am socially expected to eat, for thirteen months now. Mostly, it has been a positive experience; I have lost about seven pounds (I do not exercise much) and my mind is mostly sharper and more focused.

The only negative I have experienced is that it seems to have led to a bit of trouble with so-called ED. Has anyone else [male] experienced this? I could be caught up in the post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy, of course.

[Steven Barnes]

really? That's interesting. I've noticed pretty much the opposite. You might want to try a bit of high-intensity working out (heavy weight training, windsprints, interval training with kettlebells) to get your testosterone levels up--just in case. As one of my martial arts instructors said: "why win all day, and lose at night?"

[Argent'horn]

Thanks Steve. I did not know that exercise of that sort could raise testosterone levels. I had pretty much believed, since androstenedione was taken off the market four years ago, that there was not much I could do to keep my testosterone levels up. There are supplements such as DHEA, chrysin, and DIM that some people find useful, but I cannot tell that they are especially helpful to me.

[Steven Barnes]

The first 45 minutes of exercise you get GH release (on average). High-intensity exercise (hitting the heavy bag for two-minute rounds, power lifting, sprinting, etc--things that are primarily in the anaerobic range) raise testosterone levels as well. There are SO many reasons to exercise.and the first 15-45 minutes are pure gold. There is just nothing you can do for yourself more important, minute for minute. After 45 minutes, the benifit/cost ratio is nowhere near as high. The perfect balance? Well, if you're 'just" exercising for the physical effects (meaning you take no pleasure, and play no sport) you can probably accomplish everything you need in about 20 minutes, if you're really, really smart.) Say..."The Five Tibetans" plus ten minutes of kettlebell exercise.

[Argent'horn]

[BRIEF EXERCISE BIO] I used to get great pleasure from long distance running; could not get enough of it. But my knees seem to make that mostly impossible nowadays, and I have never found a viable substitute. My knees are better, though, from herbal supplements, so maybe I will try it again, cautiously. When I was younger, I was at different times into Hatha yoga and ballet, which in my experience are totally incompatible with each other. This surprises a lot of people, but I could not do both and had to give up yoga when I started ballet again several years after giving it up. (I quit ballet in 1964 and started it again in 1971, if I recall correctly. I took ballet classes intermittently until the late 1970's when I became interested in running. Yoga, I worked on seriously from 1964 until the early 1970's)

[Steven Barnes]

Wow! Tell me: how are ballet and yoga incompatible? This is VERY interesting.

[mikeralls]

It's looking like Caloric Restriction is unlikely to have the same dramatic effects in humans that it has had in mice. As some claim IF mirrors the benefits of CR without the drawbacks, this likely means that there will not be any increase in _maximum_ lifespan of IF. It is still possible that IF will increase individual lifespan though.

www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-09/wuso-rnd092408.php

St. Louis, Sept. 24, 2008 — Calorie restriction, a diet that is low in calories and high in nutrition, may not be as effective at extending life in people as it is in rodents, according to scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Previous research had shown that laboratory animals given 30 percent to 50 percent less food can live up to 50 percent longer. Because of those findings, some people have adopted calorie restriction in the hope that they can lengthen their lives. But the new research suggests the diet may not have the desired effect unless people on calorie restriction also pay attention to their protein intake.

In an article published online this month in the journal Aging Cell, investigators point to a discrepancy between humans and animals on calorie restriction. In the majority of the animal models of longevity, extended lifespan involves pathways related to a growth factor called IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor-1), which is produced primarily in the liver. Production is stimulated by growth hormone and can be reduced by fasting or by insensitivity to growth hormone. In calorie-restricted animals, levels of circulating IGF-1 decline between 30 percent and 40 percent.

"We looked at IGF-1 in humans doing calorie restriction," says first author Luigi Fontana, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine at Washington University and an investigator at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Rome, Italy. "For years, we have been following a cohort of people from the CR Society who have been on long-term calorie restriction. We found no difference in IGF-1 levels between people on calorie restriction and those who are not."

The CR Society members, who call themselves CRONies (Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition), had been on a calorie-restriction diet for an average of seven years when Fontana did the measurements, but their IGF-1 levels were virtually identical to sedentary people who ate a standard, Western diet.

[Steven Barnes]

That's interesting. It may be right. Or it might be wrong, and the presupposition that it's the IGF-1 pathway that is the major marker is wrong. Or that mice eat a d**ned near perfect diet, while people eat junk--so that reducing the calories actually causes nutritional imbalances. This is all interesting, though, no?

[erikwingren]

I've lurked here off and on for a long time - latest in this thread prompted me to register so I could post a reply!

The reports I've read about the effect of interval fasting on people's mind-set, their physical training sessions, their mental health, are inspiring.

Maybe interval fasting has -no- effect on increased life span, and maybe it has no effect on increasing the healthy / active / functional percentage of lifespan. I hope it does and that it proves out! I still have reason to believe people's happy reports of what IF does for them right now.

The man I've been most privileged to know in my life died suddenly in his 50s of a brain hemorrhage. One of the last conversations I had with him, he told me he had recently doubled his reading speed - this a man who read a lot. He said "I've just made my life functionally a lot longer!" Helps me deal with losing him, to remember that.

If IF helps you cram more in and get more out -- then I'll claim it is at least expanding your life.

[Steven Barnes]

Is this the same Erik once married to the lovely Jonna? If so, howdy! Yes, I care about life extension, but am infinitely more interested in the quality of life from day to day. If you handle the days, the years take care of themselves.

[erikwingren]

I am indeed that very Erik. Howdy back atchya, Steve. Twenty years goes by, good memory. I'll try to post a couple fresh topics soon: I've meant to say something here about what it was like to try out the genuine licensed prototype Dream Park in Boulder back in 1995 (what a blast! - and I still have a prospectus in my minor Dream Park collection here somewhere...) -- And maybe some questions and feedback on 5MM, etc. Thanks for interesting forum here and your blog, both of which I keep up with to one degree or another.

[mikeralls]

The metabolic changes brought about by caloric restriction, and IF, are pretty d**ned weird. I just learned that when flies smell food, some of the benefits of CR are lost;

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www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-scent-of-a-calorie-wh
"A team of scientists at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, New Mexico State University at Las Cruces and the University of Houston found that the average life span of fruit flies on restricted diets decreased when they were exposed to food odors. The findings, according to lead researcher Scott Pletcher of Baylor's Huffington Center on Aging, suggest that the flies are "actually perceiving the environment," thinking they are in a nutrient-rich place and then their bodies are "adaptively responding to it." The results imply there is likely some olfactory component affecting humans on caloric restriction diets as well."

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By contrast, the same does not happen in flatworms;

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www.newswise.com/articles/view/545665/

Many animals live longer when raised on low calorie diets. But now researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown that they can extend the life spans of roundworms even when the worms are well fed — it just takes a chemical that blocks their sense of smell.

Three years ago, the researchers, led by Kerry Kornfeld, M.D., Ph.D., reported they found that a class of anticonvulsant medications made the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans live longer. But until now, they didn't quite know what the drugs did to give the worms their longevity. They report their latest findings in the Oct. 24 issue of the Public Library of Science Genetics.

"We've learned that the drugs inhibit neurons in the worm's head that sense chemicals in their surroundings — the neurons are like the worm's nose," says Kornfeld, professor of developmental biology. "Like roundworms that are grown in a food-scarce environment, the worms exposed to the anticonvulsant ethosuximide lived longer. But these worms ate plenty of food. That suggests that the worms' sensation of food is critical to controlling their metabolism and life span."

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So are humans going to turn out to be like flies, or worms, or neither?

Time will tell.

[Steven Barnes]

How strange! BTW--I'd bet that the results in humans aren't as positive as those in animals partially because humans eat a crap diet, and therefore are more likely to go borderline malnurished on CR. Lab animals eat a perfectly balanced diet. How come nobody makes "Purina human chow"?