Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Intermittent fasting increases hippocampal neurogenesis in mice

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 123 posts

Re: Intermittent fasting increases hippocampal neurogenesis in mice

#91

Post by haram_masala »

hourislate wrote: post #62
pachico wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope you don't mind me asking but why did you fast for 12 days?

I started experimenting with fasting a about 2-3 years ago. My initial goal was weight loss (lost 100lbs from 272->172). My limit was typically 7 days but I wanted to see what the impact of a longer fast would do in the area of autophagy. I experienced some positive results but would discourage others from doing it, 3-5 days is more than enough. I would also discourage doing alternate day fasting or 24 hour fasting s…

How frequently did you fast? And did you eat “normal” amounts on non-fasting days?

Re: Intermittent fasting increases hippocampal neurogenesis in mice

#92

Post by hourislate »

voisin wrote: post #85
hourislate wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My 5 -7 day water fasts helped with some minor skin issues and I have no joint pain anymore, but that might be from losing some serious weight. For every 1 pound of body weight you lose, I have heard it removes 4 lbs of pressure on the knee and lower back. My 12 plus day water fast cleared up any remaining skin blemishes and a little Vitiligo between my fingers disappeared. I'm thinking after a year of monthly 5-7 da…

I am super interested to hear more about the vitiligo clearing up! Can you elaborate?

I seems like the skin pigment returned to almost normal. It is just a shade lighter than the surrounding skin but otherwise unnoticeable. I of course can see the ever so slight difference since I know where to look and it was basically bleach white before, especially as the surrounding area got sun tanned. I have heard one of the causes of Vitiligo might be the liver and if this is the case then maybe fasting restored my liver health which promoted the healing? Just my guess....

Re: Intermittent fasting increases hippocampal neurogenesis in mice

#93

Post by csomar »

TuringNYC wrote: post #77
csomar wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If 12H is considered IF, then I have been intermittently fasting for the last 4-5 years.

From everything I've read, it is on a spectrum. 12 is on the spectrum, but supposedly the longer the period the more marked the effects. I'm not sure at what point the curve flattens and drops off. 12 is better than, say, 8 or 6 (e.g., snacking at night). Curious how your experience compares to your pre-IF state 5+yrs ago?

I don't know. I know that I'm more miserable than ever but that's an emotional state. So I guess the answer is: non-noticeable.

Re: Intermittent fasting increases hippocampal neurogenesis in mice

#94

Post by mrfusion »

voisin wrote: post #86
mrfusion wrote: post #32

I fast pretty easily from 6pm to noon the next day. So I would be getting an awesome 18 hour fast daily however I have coffee with milk at 8am. Am I cancelling out those last 4 hours? I hate black coffee so I’m not sure what I could do.

Depends on why you are fasting. A little milk won’t kick you out of ketosis, particularly if it is higher fat. But for autophagy benefits, it might.

I’m trying for hippocampal neurogenesis ...

Re: Intermittent fasting increases hippocampal neurogenesis in mice

#95

Post by NullPrefix »

csomar wrote: post #58
diydsp wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the fine article: >We evaluated the impact of 3 months of IF (12, 16, and 24 hr of food deprivation on a daily basis)

If 12H is considered IF, then I have been intermittently fasting for the last 4-5 years.

>24h fast

Stay up all night playing factorio. No food, of course, because you're in a middle of a refactor and you can't be bothered to eat. Crash in the afternoon and sleep until midnight. There you go, easy mode health++, apparently.

Re: Intermittent fasting increases hippocampal neurogenesis in mice

#96

Post by thesz »

fredophile wrote: post #87
sfourdrinier wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

actually there are studies especially from David Sinclair that shows that fasting and calorie restrictions help mice live longer and healthier. For those interested here is a great interview with David Sinclair, Harvard Researcher on aging: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZqAKNPxaxc

I'm very skeptical of any diet related advice based on studying mice. Mouse metabolism is very different from human metabolism.. Fasting a mouse for 24 hours will result in a fairly large loss of body mass. Fasting a person for 24 hours will result in a pound or two of weight loss. I'm not against doing these kinds of studies on mice but the only conclusion you can really get is that we should do longer studies on an…

Pound of fat, or, in SI, 453 grams of fat, is 4077 calories (9 calories per gram of fat).

Most probably, weight loss will be less than pound in water calorie restriction.

Also, there was studies on Ramadan fasting and they've found almost two fold increase of serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor at the end of fast. Level of BDNF correlates with neuroneogenesis in brain.

Re: Intermittent fasting increases hippocampal neurogenesis in mice

#97

Post by globular-toast »

pkaye wrote: post #29
kitotik wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

:/ Anyone care to ELI5 please?

Seems like a literal translation would be "creation of neurons in the hippocampus". And the hippocampus is associated with memory and learning.

Is it good or bad?

Re: Intermittent fasting increases hippocampal neurogenesis in mice

#98

Post by colechristensen »

staticassertion wrote: post #33
hourislate wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A mouse starves to death in 48 hours. I have gone 12 days without food (water fast) and was not even close to starvation. Probably could have gone another few weeks before I expired. I would say 16 hours for a mouse is probably more like 7 plus days without food for a Human.

If you get the necessary vitamins and water I believe, depending on the person of course, you can survive for many months without food. I've done 48 hour fasts. The major thing that keeps me from doing it longer is that it's really hard to do while also socializing.

I’m sure a fat mouse could likewise survive more than 48 hours.

Re: Intermittent fasting increases hippocampal neurogenesis in mice

#100

Post by aaron695 »

csomar wrote: post #58
diydsp wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the fine article: >We evaluated the impact of 3 months of IF (12, 16, and 24 hr of food deprivation on a daily basis)

If 12H is considered IF, then I have been intermittently fasting for the last 4-5 years.

This is for mice, but if done fastidiously cancelling boozing at night and if a caffeine addict changing to black no sugar/diet soda and stopping all night time snacking is not tiny. Losing external nighttime calorific activities might not be great for mental health though.

Generally for health you aim for a longer fast with perhaps social break nights. But whatever works.

Post reply on HN