This sounds like hooey to me. I mean, fasting may trigger some survival/distress mode mechanisms, but do such triggers actually consist better health? All other things being equal, to the the extent that you can experimentally make all the other things equal in this case, would I have a higher overall white blood cell count after fasting than I had before fasting? Does fasting (starving?) weaken my immune system initially? To what extent? Is that extent recovered, and exceeded, by the new WBC production that wouldn't have been triggered otherwise? I'm comparing this, admittedly based on zero evidence, with the flight response. Adrenaline makes me run faster, but it doesn't make me a faster runner. That's how I mean when I say this sounds like hooey. Of course, I could be totally wrong, and I really have no basis to make this claim in the first place.
Fasting triggers stem cell regeneration of damaged, old immune system (2014)
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Re: Fasting triggers stem cell regeneration of damaged, old immune system (2014)
#42Once I fasted for 3 days, only drinking water. By day two I was pretty weak, afterwards I recovered pretty quickly. The point being, it shouldn't be to difficult to do if you aren't going to need to be too active.
I've fasted for 2-3 day periods where I was generally as active as I'd normally be, including doing a few demanding 60 and 90 minute yoga classes during that time. The only thing I really noticed was that if I exerted myself above a certain level, such as walking at too fast of a pace, then I'd very quickly feel tired - all it took was reducing my walking pace and I felt fine again; I presume this is related to the d…
After seeing this article the first time, I decided to try the 3 day fast as well. I too continued my normal morning 3 mile runs and noticed that if I couldn't push the pace for very long. I'm just an anecdote, but my immune system seems to be stronger this winter. With two little ones who've been sick a couple of times and a wife that had the flu, I've been able to get by with just minimal congestion.
Re: Fasting triggers stem cell regeneration of damaged, old immune system (2014)
#43I hate the fact that this study seems to be tainted with potential conflict of interest as outlined by @themodelplumber. I wish science could get back to just-being-science and focus on provable, repeatable results sans corporate involvement, as I think if this is really true, it could be a real breakthrough. I have some experience with fasting, and was always surprised how good I felt after a couple of days, and to…
I read Antifragile + The Black Swan once every year to remind me of this - and everytime I read something I think about confirmation bias and silent evidence. they are not tough concepts, but the human brain isn't really weird to think that way - unfortunately (as talked about in Thinking Fast and Slow also)
Taleb, for all his faults, is really good at calling out people for scientific research that contains conflicts of interest - he has been calling out GMO related stuff for the past two or three months on Twitter, before than he became famous for doing it in Finance
Re: Fasting triggers stem cell regeneration of damaged, old immune system (2014)
#44I recognize this as completely empirical evidence, so take it as that. I am a Mormon. As part of our religious observance, we fast for 2 meals on the first Sunday of every month. Also, I have fasted for the entire duration of the Muslim month of Ramadan twice now. For Mormons, food and drink is abstained starting Saturday night after dinner until Sunday night's dinner. By the time dinner rolls around Sunday night, I…
I have Crohn's disease, have therefore been exposed to numerous doubtful stories about 'boosting the immune' system. With my illness, a 'boost' would actually make me sicker, whereas I find that fasting for a couple of days results in improvement of symptoms for me. Why? Obviously because my digestive system becomes empty, and there is less irritation of damaged intestinal lining. Going by this study, an increased pr…
Boosted or unboosted is way too simplistic and one dimensional to explain something as complex as autoimmune dysfunction.
Re: Fasting triggers stem cell regeneration of damaged, old immune system (2014)
#45Does anyone have any links to suggested fasting regimes that they found useful? How often to fast for example?
Re: Fasting triggers stem cell regeneration of damaged, old immune system (2014)
#46I recognize this as completely empirical evidence, so take it as that. I am a Mormon. As part of our religious observance, we fast for 2 meals on the first Sunday of every month. Also, I have fasted for the entire duration of the Muslim month of Ramadan twice now. For Mormons, food and drink is abstained starting Saturday night after dinner until Sunday night's dinner. By the time dinner rolls around Sunday night, I…
I have Crohn's disease, have therefore been exposed to numerous doubtful stories about 'boosting the immune' system. With my illness, a 'boost' would actually make me sicker, whereas I find that fasting for a couple of days results in improvement of symptoms for me. Why? Obviously because my digestive system becomes empty, and there is less irritation of damaged intestinal lining. Going by this study, an increased pr…
If your overactive immune system results in worsening Crohn's symptoms, then fasting would improve your symptoms (by reducing the immune system temporarily + the benefit of no irritants in the digestive system). When the immune system returns to a "normal" (or normal-for-you) state afterwards, you also have irritants back in your digestive system, making it impossible to separate.
The question is: do your Crohn's symptoms improve concurrently with the duration of the fast, extend beyond it, or track as expected with the presence of food in your digestive system?
I guess where I'm going is that there may be two variables at play that can't be easily separated in the case of Crohn's.
Re: Fasting triggers stem cell regeneration of damaged, old immune system (2014)
#47I've been eating once a day for the past 3.5 years and I'd read about the supposed immune system benefits. I've not had a cold/flu since then and I used to get 3-4 a year, so I'm sticking with it and I've become used to it anyway.
Another of my kind! I've been eating once a day for about 2 years now. This is obviously just anecdotal, but for me, I certainly feel more mentally alert during a fasted state; though I wouldn't say I've been sick any more / less than other times in my life. Friends think I'm quite bizarre for eating this way - but it just seems to work for me.
When do you eat that one meal of the day, and what does it typically consist of?
I've been doing something similar over the last few months - a very light breakfast, a solid lunch, and then no dinner - but for me, doing this was with the purpose of losing weight - which did happen, at the rate of just under 1 kg a week.
Re: Fasting triggers stem cell regeneration of damaged, old immune system (2014)
#48I recognize this as completely empirical evidence, so take it as that. I am a Mormon. As part of our religious observance, we fast for 2 meals on the first Sunday of every month. Also, I have fasted for the entire duration of the Muslim month of Ramadan twice now. For Mormons, food and drink is abstained starting Saturday night after dinner until Sunday night's dinner. By the time dinner rolls around Sunday night, I…
I have Crohn's disease, have therefore been exposed to numerous doubtful stories about 'boosting the immune' system. With my illness, a 'boost' would actually make me sicker, whereas I find that fasting for a couple of days results in improvement of symptoms for me. Why? Obviously because my digestive system becomes empty, and there is less irritation of damaged intestinal lining. Going by this study, an increased pr…
For your Crohn's, fasting would be similar to total bowel rest, wouldn't it? i.e. it would help the bowel heal.
Re: Fasting triggers stem cell regeneration of damaged, old immune system (2014)
#49>>But I think the most sensible way forward would be to synthesize this effect with drugs.
I'm no naturopath, but something about this attitude really bugs me. I know in context he was cautioning against jumping to conclusions, but if there was a safe, low barrier to entry, non-drug way of achieving an effect, why would you encourage people to take a drug instead?
Re: Fasting triggers stem cell regeneration of damaged, old immune system (2014)
#50I recognize this as completely empirical evidence, so take it as that. I am a Mormon. As part of our religious observance, we fast for 2 meals on the first Sunday of every month. Also, I have fasted for the entire duration of the Muslim month of Ramadan twice now. For Mormons, food and drink is abstained starting Saturday night after dinner until Sunday night's dinner. By the time dinner rolls around Sunday night, I…
I am not religious or anything, but I think some of the religious rules come from their leaders realizing that making them "rules from God" would benefit their people and give a better chance of survival:
- kosher rules are pretty much there to prevent people from preparing food in unsanitary ways or eating potentially dangerous stuff (eating pork will kill you by worms growing in your gut)
- the 10 commandments are basic community rules to ensure they don't end up fighting and killing each other, helping the race to survive.
- fasting on Ramadan was probably created by a religious leader who felt better after doing it himself and though it to be a good idea for everybody else to do it.