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

Fasting boosts stem cells’ regenerative capacity (2018)

news.mit.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 176 posts

Re: Fasting boosts stem cells’ regenerative capacity (2018)

#81

Post by beagle3 »

SemanticStrengh wrote: post #65
adrianN wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on how much fat you have. The body is relatively good at living on stored fat for a while. You need to supplement things that aren't stored, like vitamins and electrolytes and you'd better do it under medical supervision. If you fast long enough you also need some amino acids.

You have zero idea of the propensity of hidden damages

Surely there’s documentation you can point us to, since quite a few people have been fasting for a month at a time for ages?

But I’m only looking for documented examples, not extrapolated theory (which is what your first response seems to be), as — already in this thread - we have examples of 60 and 380 day cases with no observable I’ll effects (and I’ll add my own, multiple 15-25 days over the years, starting about 25 years ago — with doctor verified no I’ll effects a month later in most of them)

Re: Fasting boosts stem cells’ regenerative capacity (2018)

#82

Post by eixiepia »

Does anyone else also start to experience heart palpitations after 3 or 4 days of fasting? The heart beats are regular but fast and hard. This interferes with sleep and makes it impossible to go beyond those few days, as it just gets worse. I do drink water during the fasts.

Re: Fasting boosts stem cells’ regenerative capacity (2018)

#83

Post by adrianN »

SemanticStrengh wrote: post #65
adrianN wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on how much fat you have. The body is relatively good at living on stored fat for a while. You need to supplement things that aren't stored, like vitamins and electrolytes and you'd better do it under medical supervision. If you fast long enough you also need some amino acids.

You have zero idea of the propensity of hidden damages

I'm not saying that it's healthy. I'm just saying that many people have successfully fasted for surprisingly long intervals without dropping dead.

Re: Fasting boosts stem cells’ regenerative capacity (2018)

#84

Post by oohaboga »

eixiepia wrote: post #82

Does anyone else also start to experience heart palpitations after 3 or 4 days of fasting? The heart beats are regular but fast and hard. This interferes with sleep and makes it impossible to go beyond those few days, as it just gets worse. I do drink water during the fasts.

Can it be lack of Magnesium? My heart doctor prescribed me Magnesium for heart palpitations and they went away.

Re: Fasting boosts stem cells’ regenerative capacity (2018)

#85

Post by rhinoceraptor »

SemanticStrengh wrote: post #42
wwarek wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

60 days as I understood - first 30 days just water and then the next 30 days water with electrolytes

This guy should be dead, his body should have digested himself. How can someone not eat anything by his own will for more than a few days ? (5-7 max) you should pass out. Also in the case that were true, let me be clear: No food intake for multiple days is extremely dangerous for your health, it will upregulate autophagy, apoptosis and will break your mitochondria bioenegetics which will explode your oxidative stress…

I've done a few 7 day fasts, two 14 day fasts, and one 28 day fast. Every time it gets a lot easier. I'll be a bit hungry on days one and two, but by day three I only really think about food if I smell something good. As long as I keep up on water and electrolytes, I feel great.

Re: Fasting boosts stem cells’ regenerative capacity (2018)

#86

Post by TimMeade »

As a firm believer in extended water fasting (more than 7 days) i find the comments here fascinating. I see a lot of people posting wanting sources: Go to youtube and search for autophagy.

The research going into this over the last few years is off the charts.

https://www.healthline.com/health/autophagy#:~:text=Autophag...

Re: Fasting boosts stem cells’ regenerative capacity (2018)

#87

Post by SemanticStrengh »

lm28469 wrote: post #77
SemanticStrengh wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many. For apoptosis induced by mitochondria deficits you look at the level of cytochrome C. But there are others. For oxidative stress, a good indication is the ratio of reduced glutathione (how much of your antioxidants are being used) for bioenergetics I don't remember the relevant ones although the manifestation is not only molecular, it can be observed (mitochondria respiration rate, uncoupling, etc) ma…

Are you comparing fasting to breathing aluminium particles ?

well I was not, only that between those two stressors, the same major biomarkers are involved. There often is a surprising level of similarities between seemingly distinct things and here I would bet there are possible comparisons however that is not the point of my parent comment, just an answer to which biomarkers are involved. A more direct comparison would be with the acutes and long terms damages of hypoxia, because oxygen is a similar cofactor bottlenecking energy production, as is the absence of glucose/pyruvate from a fasting human which singlehandely rely of lipid/beta-oxidation. e.g. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21542052/ But it's not because those are the same mechanism (a bottleneck on a critical cofactor for ATP) that the effects have the same potency because of course fasting is less dangerous in strength than hypoxia.

Re: Fasting boosts stem cells’ regenerative capacity (2018)

#88

Post by beagle3 »

TimSchumann wrote: post #56
Lio wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I understand it, based on books such as Faster[1] by Michael Hutchinson, it depends on the intensity of what you do. At low intensity exercise you can just burn just fat. The body can only get so much energy from fat in a given time, so at higher intensity levels it will try to get energy from both fat and stored carbohydrates. Once you run out of easily available carbs it will try to supplement energy from the ne…

This is actually my understanding of it as well, though I kind of arrived at the conclusion on my own pulling from various sources and experience. People think about fat as if they have access to it all, but it's a surface area per unit time problem. Like all the chemistry in life, on some level, it's diffusion limited. What you should be thinking about while fasting is not letting your basal rate/time + exercise exp…

The missing part in your description, to the best of my understanding, is fat to ketone conversion - you don’t use the fat directly, the process takes time, so ketones have to already be circulating when you need them.

It can also explain why ketogenic diets work for many people - if you exercise every few days, your body will maintain sufficient blood ketone level for your exercise days, but unlike glucose, ketones that are not used get peed out eventually (and not stored/converted back to fat).

Couldn’t find anyone knowledgeable enough to confirm I am right, but also no one to tell me I’m obviously wrong - still looking for one of those answers.

Re: Fasting boosts stem cells’ regenerative capacity (2018)

#89

Post by SemanticStrengh »

lm28469 wrote: post #74
SemanticStrengh wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) there are tons of substances the body can't make out of nothing/lipids. 2) there are tons of substances the body can't make efficiently with no food, which leads to metabolism/health deficits. and no it's not just vitamins and electrolytes LOL it's much more complex and diverse than that. 3) even if we assume in an ideal world, that the person who fast is able to supplement ALL the useful things and yet not take a…

You went from "This guy should be dead" after 30 days of fasting to "this one guy died 25 years after a one year fast". All I'm saying is that you were wrong. The human body can take much more than you explained in your first comment. You won't die nor fall unconscious and "5-7 days max" isn't anywhere close to the limit

yes I was wrong on the potency of the damages, that does not refute my valid concern about transiently asymptomatic damages.
Post reply on HN