5 ms·

I tried searching for the original article, but this is the closest I could find that had a better writeup than from the telegraph: https://news.usc.edu/63669/

by xarope 10y ago

I tried searching for the original article, but this is the closest I could find that had a better writeup than from the telegraph: https://news.usc.edu/63669/fasting-triggers-stem-cell-regeneration-of-damaged-old-immune-system/ https://news.usc.edu/63669/fasting-triggers-stem-cell-regene... This is the most relevant summary: "In both mice and a Phase 1 human clinical trial involving patients receiving chemotherapy, long periods of not eating significantly lowered white blood cell counts. In mice, fasting cycles then “flipped a regenerative switch,” changing the signaling pathways for hematopoietic stem cells, which are responsible for the generation of blood and immune systems, the research showed." So, mice, and people undergoing chemotherapy. Not exactly (for those who have had friends and relatives ever had to undergo chemotherapy, you will understand what I mean) the common population. I'll pass on this intermittent fasting "fad" for now!

coldtea 10y ago
>So, mice, and people undergoing chemotherapy. Not exactly (for those who have had friends and relatives ever had to undergo chemotherapy, you will understand what I mean) the common population. Why would it be any different for the "common population"? >I'll pass on this intermittent fasting "fad" for now! Fad? It's being around for millennia for.
- erelde 10y ago
  >Why would it be any different for the "common population"? Because the "common population" does not have half their blood replaced by burning chemicals every week. >Fad? It's being around for millennia for. And for millenia, many people thought the Earth was flat, the age of a belief doesn't validate that belief.
  - radiorental 10y ago
    Intermittent fasting is a well documented & proven phenomena. It also regularly appears in the form of various articles on HN with many proponents here. I don't follow it, I like my food. However, a cursory glance through other comment on this thread may give you cause to rethink your pov.
  - castis 10y ago
    No one is saying the belief was validated, only that it wasn't a fad.
  - mamcx 10y ago
    >And for millennia, many people thought the Earth was flat, the age of a belief doesn't validate that belief. And dismiss things just because is against your own assumptions is also far older.
yodsanklai 10y ago
> I'll pass on this intermittent fasting "fad" for now! It's amazing how people are prone to experiment with this type of things. They're willing to undergo a very unpleasant experience because it might (unlikely) give them a (slight) health improvement.
- forgetsusername 10y ago
  >It's amazing how people are prone to experiment with this type of things. As opposed to over-eating resulting in a global epidemic of obesity? Which eating habits do you think are the biggest "experiment"?
  - yodsanklai 10y ago
    There's a middle line between over-eating junk food and fasting!
    - forgetsusername 10y ago
      I agree. And I think the vast majority of people overeat and don't realize it. I think the obesity rates reflect that. Observe the conversations around these articles every time they pop up: people think it's unhealthy to go without calories for any amount of time. Where does that come from?
      - gtirloni 10y ago
        It's one's wishful thinking against other's wishful thinking. Luckily science has produced good evidence in favor of fasting / calorie restriction that this is slowly changing.
- tbihl 10y ago
  Going most of the day without eating is hardly "very unpleasant", and a lot of people are happy to play with moderate subtractive means to possibly improve their health or sense or well being. It's a lot more appealing than pharmaceuticals, even if those are provided free. If nothing else, the dread of doing a short fast is a pretty decent indicator that you should try it. Being tied to a strict eating schedule is awful.
acconrad 10y ago
It's not a fad, there is quite a wealth of research supporting it's efficacy[1][2][3]. That also doesn't mean you need to fast for 3 days straight to consider your fasting intermittent - you can go 16 hours without eating and still reap the benefits. Skip breakfast and concentrate your calories into lunch and dinner - now you are intermittent fasting. [1] http://easacademy.org/trainer-resources/article/intermittent-fasting http://easacademy.org/trainer-resources/article/intermittent... (see cited sources) [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25546413 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25546413 [3] https://health.clevelandclinic.org/2015/10/interested-fasting-health-get-facts-first/ https://health.clevelandclinic.org/2015/10/interested-fastin...
- vlehto 10y ago
  So it's good for losing weight. But not anything magic compared to simply eating less?
  - ak39 10y ago
    It's both. IF forces you to schedule fewer times to eat, so you eat less. But there are changes to the body when calories are restricted for 16 hour more. Hormonal changes that don't manifest when the body has regular insulin injected into the blood stream. It's both.
    - Retric 10y ago
      This is all short term studies. I ate once a day for over a decade, it just means you eat a large meal. If anything stretching your stomach makes over eating easier as you get used to large meals so eating an extra one is easily adds an extra days food. Worse, you end up getting pushed to calorie dense food. PS: My original thought was it would save a lot of time which it probably did.
      - parasitius 10y ago
        My experience in the past 10 months has been 180 degrees opposite. My friends all know I eat once daily, and when we go to a restaurant with the perfect food to double-up on and pig out, I struggle to eat any more than anyone else eating just 1 meal of 3 for the day. I definitely feel my stomach has shrunk. I'm down 40lbs, but have been at this weight since month 2. A much more athletic friend's experiences combined with mine, we are slowing reaching the conclusion that 1x / 24hr can help with weightloss when you are 20~80lbs overweight. But once you are under that you need to start on 48 hr fasts to make progress. And calorie dense food? Ever since my paleo days 5 years back (a 1 yr experiment) I've continually eaten much more calorie dense foods on purpose, to reach satiety with greater ease. I will never, for example, consume whole milk. I drink straight glasses of half&half for the extra fat content and calories.
rsync 10y ago
"I'll pass on this intermittent fasting "fad" for now!" Presumably you've tried it ? That is to say, starting from a very high baseline of both cardio-vascular fitness and output as well as a high level of muscle training[1] you then tried IF and didn't notice a positive effect in your training or output ? Fair enough. IANAD and YMMV. [1] Since you're not going to notice the effects of marginal changes in a loosely coupled, highly variant system anyway. Adding a high flow air filter to your 1997 chrysler minivan probably won't produce noticeable results.
EGreg 10y ago
Well have you read the literature on calorie restriction? It increased longevity by a lot -- in mice. So intermittent fasting also amounts to calorie restriction if you don't binge later. Everyone's metabolism is different, though. Intermittent fasting can lead to weight loss and avoiding obesity-related problems later. Most people here, being developers or knowledge workers of some kind, probably work late and skip breakfast often, so they do it naturally. With a "fad" like this, by the time all the research is in 100 years later, it might be too late to try. This is a life decision.

by xarope 10y ago

coldtea 10y ago

>So, mice, and people undergoing chemotherapy. Not exactly (for those who have had friends and relatives ever had to undergo chemotherapy, you will understand what I mean) the common population. Why would it be any different for the "common population"? >I'll pass on this intermittent fasting "fad" for now! Fad? It's being around for millennia for.

erelde 10y ago
>Why would it be any different for the "common population"? Because the "common population" does not have half their blood replaced by burning chemicals every week. >Fad? It's being around for millennia for. And for millenia, many people thought the Earth was flat, the age of a belief doesn't validate that belief.
- radiorental 10y ago
  Intermittent fasting is a well documented & proven phenomena. It also regularly appears in the form of various articles on HN with many proponents here. I don't follow it, I like my food. However, a cursory glance through other comment on this thread may give you cause to rethink your pov.
- castis 10y ago
  No one is saying the belief was validated, only that it wasn't a fad.
- mamcx 10y ago
  >And for millennia, many people thought the Earth was flat, the age of a belief doesn't validate that belief. And dismiss things just because is against your own assumptions is also far older.

yodsanklai 10y ago

> I'll pass on this intermittent fasting "fad" for now! It's amazing how people are prone to experiment with this type of things. They're willing to undergo a very unpleasant experience because it might (unlikely) give them a (slight) health improvement.

forgetsusername 10y ago
>It's amazing how people are prone to experiment with this type of things. As opposed to over-eating resulting in a global epidemic of obesity? Which eating habits do you think are the biggest "experiment"?
- yodsanklai 10y ago
  There's a middle line between over-eating junk food and fasting!
  - forgetsusername 10y ago
    I agree. And I think the vast majority of people overeat and don't realize it. I think the obesity rates reflect that. Observe the conversations around these articles every time they pop up: people think it's unhealthy to go without calories for any amount of time. Where does that come from?
    - gtirloni 10y ago
      It's one's wishful thinking against other's wishful thinking. Luckily science has produced good evidence in favor of fasting / calorie restriction that this is slowly changing.
tbihl 10y ago
Going most of the day without eating is hardly "very unpleasant", and a lot of people are happy to play with moderate subtractive means to possibly improve their health or sense or well being. It's a lot more appealing than pharmaceuticals, even if those are provided free. If nothing else, the dread of doing a short fast is a pretty decent indicator that you should try it. Being tied to a strict eating schedule is awful.

acconrad 10y ago

It's not a fad, there is quite a wealth of research supporting it's efficacy[1][2][3]. That also doesn't mean you need to fast for 3 days straight to consider your fasting intermittent - you can go 16 hours without eating and still reap the benefits. Skip breakfast and concentrate your calories into lunch and dinner - now you are intermittent fasting. [1] http://easacademy.org/trainer-resources/article/intermittent-fasting http://easacademy.org/trainer-resources/article/intermittent... (see cited sources) [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25546413 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25546413 [3] https://health.clevelandclinic.org/2015/10/interested-fasting-health-get-facts-first/ https://health.clevelandclinic.org/2015/10/interested-fastin...

vlehto 10y ago
So it's good for losing weight. But not anything magic compared to simply eating less?
- ak39 10y ago
  It's both. IF forces you to schedule fewer times to eat, so you eat less. But there are changes to the body when calories are restricted for 16 hour more. Hormonal changes that don't manifest when the body has regular insulin injected into the blood stream. It's both.
  - Retric 10y ago
    This is all short term studies. I ate once a day for over a decade, it just means you eat a large meal. If anything stretching your stomach makes over eating easier as you get used to large meals so eating an extra one is easily adds an extra days food. Worse, you end up getting pushed to calorie dense food. PS: My original thought was it would save a lot of time which it probably did.
    - parasitius 10y ago
      My experience in the past 10 months has been 180 degrees opposite. My friends all know I eat once daily, and when we go to a restaurant with the perfect food to double-up on and pig out, I struggle to eat any more than anyone else eating just 1 meal of 3 for the day. I definitely feel my stomach has shrunk. I'm down 40lbs, but have been at this weight since month 2. A much more athletic friend's experiences combined with mine, we are slowing reaching the conclusion that 1x / 24hr can help with weightloss when you are 20~80lbs overweight. But once you are under that you need to start on 48 hr fasts to make progress. And calorie dense food? Ever since my paleo days 5 years back (a 1 yr experiment) I've continually eaten much more calorie dense foods on purpose, to reach satiety with greater ease. I will never, for example, consume whole milk. I drink straight glasses of half&half for the extra fat content and calories.

rsync 10y ago

"I'll pass on this intermittent fasting "fad" for now!" Presumably you've tried it ? That is to say, starting from a very high baseline of both cardio-vascular fitness and output as well as a high level of muscle training[1] you then tried IF and didn't notice a positive effect in your training or output ? Fair enough. IANAD and YMMV. [1] Since you're not going to notice the effects of marginal changes in a loosely coupled, highly variant system anyway. Adding a high flow air filter to your 1997 chrysler minivan probably won't produce noticeable results.

EGreg 10y ago

Well have you read the literature on calorie restriction? It increased longevity by a lot -- in mice. So intermittent fasting also amounts to calorie restriction if you don't binge later. Everyone's metabolism is different, though. Intermittent fasting can lead to weight loss and avoiding obesity-related problems later. Most people here, being developers or knowledge workers of some kind, probably work late and skip breakfast often, so they do it naturally. With a "fad" like this, by the time all the research is in 100 years later, it might be too late to try. This is a life decision.