4 ms·

Short Term Fasting helps the treatment of cancer, but what is the official definition of STF? 1 day? 2? Or is it in hours?

by neves 7y ago

toomuchtodo 7y ago
Paper says 24-60 hours.
irrelative 7y ago
And worth noting, it helps in conjunction with chemo
paulcole 7y ago
I found the answer by reading all the way to page 2 of the article: 24-60 hours.
el_cujo 7y ago
The text says 24-60 hours, but then in the table where they talk about the other studies being considered, a lot of them did 48 hour minimum and as much as 96 hours for some. When I saw the headline I was excited because a 16-18 hour fast really isn't very hard for most people, but 48 hours sounds a little rough. I guess if it's just a one-off event while you're doing chemo it's not that bad, but I'm not about to fast 48 hours once a week for the rest of my life.
- coldtea 7y ago
  >but I'm not about to fast 48 hours once a week for the rest of my life Why not? I mean why reject it a priori? Who said it will be difficult after the first few months? And what if it has beneficial properties?
  - randcraw 7y ago
    Most people have trouble even taking a pill regularly. And that's painless. Regularly self-inflicting pain like hunger for 40+ hours at a time has absolutely no hope of becoming a standard therapy in medicine. The percentage of patient compliance would be in the single digits.
    - jplayer01 7y ago
      I don't even know how people fast for that long. I start getting head-aches and feel awful long before that. So just deciding to fast for 48 hours/week seems untenable to me.
      - coldtea 7y ago
        >I start getting head-aches and feel awful long before that. Well, people often also get cramps when they first start working out. After keeping at it though...
Pete_D 7y ago
Other commenters have given the 24-60 hours figure, but it's also worth seeing the section "From animal models to the clinic": "may also mean that humans need to fast for a (much) longer period of time than mice to obtain the same benefits".

Short Term Fasting helps the treatment of cancer, but what is the official definition of STF? 1 day? 2? Or is it in hours?

by neves 7y ago

Short Term Fasting helps the treatment of cancer, but what is the official definition of STF? 1 day? 2? Or is it in hours?

toomuchtodo 7y ago

Paper says 24-60 hours.

irrelative 7y ago

And worth noting, it helps in conjunction with chemo

paulcole 7y ago

I found the answer by reading all the way to page 2 of the article: 24-60 hours.

el_cujo 7y ago

The text says 24-60 hours, but then in the table where they talk about the other studies being considered, a lot of them did 48 hour minimum and as much as 96 hours for some. When I saw the headline I was excited because a 16-18 hour fast really isn't very hard for most people, but 48 hours sounds a little rough. I guess if it's just a one-off event while you're doing chemo it's not that bad, but I'm not about to fast 48 hours once a week for the rest of my life.

coldtea 7y ago
>but I'm not about to fast 48 hours once a week for the rest of my life Why not? I mean why reject it a priori? Who said it will be difficult after the first few months? And what if it has beneficial properties?
- randcraw 7y ago
  Most people have trouble even taking a pill regularly. And that's painless. Regularly self-inflicting pain like hunger for 40+ hours at a time has absolutely no hope of becoming a standard therapy in medicine. The percentage of patient compliance would be in the single digits.
  - jplayer01 7y ago
    I don't even know how people fast for that long. I start getting head-aches and feel awful long before that. So just deciding to fast for 48 hours/week seems untenable to me.
    - coldtea 7y ago
      >I start getting head-aches and feel awful long before that. Well, people often also get cramps when they first start working out. After keeping at it though...

Pete_D 7y ago

Other commenters have given the 24-60 hours figure, but it's also worth seeing the section "From animal models to the clinic": "may also mean that humans need to fast for a (much) longer period of time than mice to obtain the same benefits".