6 ms·

Better publicity materials: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-06/uosc-fts060214.php http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-06/uosc-fts06021...

Better publicity materials: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-06/uosc-fts060214.php http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-06/uosc-fts06021... The paper: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.stem.2014.04.014 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.stem.2014.04.014 Really it's just not worth even reading whatever the popular press has to say about a particular strand of research, especially when lines like "regenerate the entire immune system" are thrown around. No, no, no. Not what is happening: read the paper or even just the publicity materials. It is a very specific mechanism involving specific cell populations. This is of interest to me primarily because it draws a comparatively sharp line in the sand between the occurrence of a beneficial immune system behavior that happens after three days of fasting but not prior to that point. There are not too many other items I can think of in connection with fasting or calorie restriction that have this discrete on/off behavior. It would be interesting to repeat this in healthy volunteers rather than cancer patients.

con-templative 12y ago
> Really it's just not worth even reading whatever the popular press has to say about a particular strand of research, especially when lines like "regenerate the entire immune system" are thrown around. To look at it from the opposite perspective, here's a helpful guide for scientists on how to get a health study into the UK news: http://www.nhs.uk/news/2014/12December/Pages/your-guide-to-hitting-the-headlines.aspx http://www.nhs.uk/news/2014/12December/Pages/your-guide-to-h...
- DanBC 12y ago
  I love the NHS (UK National Health Service) information "Behind the Headlines" site that your link comes from. http://www.nhs.uk/news/Pages/NewsIndex.aspx http://www.nhs.uk/news/Pages/NewsIndex.aspx
  - con-templative 12y ago
    Amen. I imagine they'll have a post on the Telegraph article in a week or so.
- lotsofmangos 12y ago
  "Boffins, are you having trouble communicating the fruits of your labour to a wider audience? Have you spent five thankless years going through stool samples in an attempt to find new treatments for giardiasis only to have your work written up as a single paragraph on page 34 of the Rochdale Observer? Well, worry no more. Drawing on decades of journalistic experience, the Behind the Headlines team has come up with the definitive guide to getting your work featured prominently on News at Ten. Simply follow the 10 tips below and before you know it you’ll be talking p-values with Phil and Holly on ITV's This Morning." --- This reads like a Register article after Lewis Page has forgotten to take his pills again.
  - cbd1984 12y ago
    I can just hear the cherry British accent (RP, if you please) soaking through the text.
    - lotsofmangos 12y ago
      You should try following 'More or Less' on Radio-4. Here's their 'Numbers of the Year 2014' - http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/moreorless/moreorless_20150102-1645a.mp3 http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/moreorless/moreor...
branchless 12y ago
Daily Telegraph is on it's last legs. It's going to die soon (thank god). Surprised to see articles posted here from it. Most of the reddit UK sites don't bother with them.
- DanBC 12y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Telegraph https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Telegraph > Circulation 544,546 Daily[2] (as of March 2014) That's considerably more than the Guardian (at 186,000 daily) or the Independent (at less than 100,000) or both of them combined. Low quality means little in terms of sales - look at the god-awful Daily Mail.
  - nkozyra 12y ago
    Circulation on its own is not necessarily a health metric for companies.
dang 12y ago
Ok, we changed the url to that first one instead of http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/10878625/Fasting-for-three-days-can-regenerate-entire-immune-system-study-finds.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/10878625/Fasting-for-....
minthd 12y ago
For those interested in this subject with regards to allergies, this papers might be of interest: 1/http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4190937/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4190937/ - short term allergic response reduced in mice as an effect of fasting, but returned after a bit of time. The study is from august 2014, and in it's short literature review it doesn't mention any prior research regarding fasting allergy. 2/http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14519913 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14519913 - weekly 1-day fasting decreased symptoms in a single female suffering from skin allergies.there's also some previous research talking about such effects in mice 3/ http://ebm.sagepub.com/content/226/11/1045.short http://ebm.sagepub.com/content/226/11/1045.short , http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378427403003837 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378427403... - dietary restriction reduces skin allergy in mice
guelo 12y ago
The quote about rebuilding the entire immune system was taken directly from Valter Longo, one of the authors of the paper.
Dn_Ab 12y ago
I do not think the manner in which you've apportioned blame is correct. The article is less technical than the press release yes, but the core of both remains the same. They both talk about fasting leading to a depletion of white blood cells, triggering "stem cell-based regeneration" of new immune cells and how this may prove useful when treating cancer patients. The main difference in the two is that the press release does not use the word 'entire' in its headline and the regeneration aspect was only specified for mice. But, and this is important, the press release does not make particularly clear whether the regenerative aspect was also looked for in humans (was it? the quote makes it seem so). I do not blame the likely time starved writer for not bothering with nuance if the press release itself doesn't take the time to be clear. The news article is also better for its attempt at sampling more skeptical views, most 'reporting' does not go that far. A lot of (most?) science reporting is just regurgitating press releases, if science reporting is poor then press releases can explain the bulk of that shoddy reporting. The game of telephone aspect of paper to blogs can't be avoided so it pays to take a much more sober approach when writing press releases: 40% (95% confidence interval 33% to 46%) of the press releases contained exaggerated advice, 33% (26% to 40%) contained exaggerated causal claims, and 36% (28% to 46%) contained exaggerated inference to humans from animal research. When press releases contained such exaggeration, 58% (95% confidence interval 48% to 68%), 81% (70% to 93%), and 86% (77% to 95%) of news stories, respectively, contained similar exaggeration, compared with exaggeration rates of 17% (10% to 24%), 18% (9% to 27%), and 10% (0% to 19%) in news when the press releases were not exaggerated -- http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g7015 http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g7015 Good science reporting on: http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/12/09/the-power-of-a-press-release/ http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/12/09/the-power...
kr4 12y ago
Eating right amount of food that your body really needs at all times is best than eating too much some times and fasting at other times. Stability of food intake insures stability of mind and a stable, calm mind results in stable body. Then there're people who have overcome hunger [0]. But this cannot be achieved through fasting but through practice of Yoga. 0]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prahlad_Jani http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prahlad_Jani "Prahlad Jani, also known as "Mataji", (born Chunriwala Mataji, 13 August 1929) is an Indian sadhu. He claims to have lived without food and water since 1940, and says that the goddess Amba sustains him. Two observational studies of Jani have been conducted, one in 2003 and one in 2010, both involving Sudhir Shah, a neurologist at the Sterling Hospitals in Ahmedabad, India, who had studied people claiming to have exceptional spiritual abilities, including other fasters such as Hira Ratan Manek. In both cases the investigators confirmed Jani's ability to survive healthily without food and water during the testing periods, although neither study was submitted to a scientific journal. "

con-templative 12y ago

> Really it's just not worth even reading whatever the popular press has to say about a particular strand of research, especially when lines like "regenerate the entire immune system" are thrown around. To look at it from the opposite perspective, here's a helpful guide for scientists on how to get a health study into the UK news: http://www.nhs.uk/news/2014/12December/Pages/your-guide-to-hitting-the-headlines.aspx http://www.nhs.uk/news/2014/12December/Pages/your-guide-to-h...

DanBC 12y ago
I love the NHS (UK National Health Service) information "Behind the Headlines" site that your link comes from. http://www.nhs.uk/news/Pages/NewsIndex.aspx http://www.nhs.uk/news/Pages/NewsIndex.aspx
- con-templative 12y ago
  Amen. I imagine they'll have a post on the Telegraph article in a week or so.
lotsofmangos 12y ago
"Boffins, are you having trouble communicating the fruits of your labour to a wider audience? Have you spent five thankless years going through stool samples in an attempt to find new treatments for giardiasis only to have your work written up as a single paragraph on page 34 of the Rochdale Observer? Well, worry no more. Drawing on decades of journalistic experience, the Behind the Headlines team has come up with the definitive guide to getting your work featured prominently on News at Ten. Simply follow the 10 tips below and before you know it you’ll be talking p-values with Phil and Holly on ITV's This Morning." --- This reads like a Register article after Lewis Page has forgotten to take his pills again.
- cbd1984 12y ago
  I can just hear the cherry British accent (RP, if you please) soaking through the text.
  - lotsofmangos 12y ago
    You should try following 'More or Less' on Radio-4. Here's their 'Numbers of the Year 2014' - http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/moreorless/moreorless_20150102-1645a.mp3 http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/moreorless/moreor...

branchless 12y ago

Daily Telegraph is on it's last legs. It's going to die soon (thank god). Surprised to see articles posted here from it. Most of the reddit UK sites don't bother with them.

DanBC 12y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Telegraph https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Telegraph > Circulation 544,546 Daily[2] (as of March 2014) That's considerably more than the Guardian (at 186,000 daily) or the Independent (at less than 100,000) or both of them combined. Low quality means little in terms of sales - look at the god-awful Daily Mail.
- nkozyra 12y ago
  Circulation on its own is not necessarily a health metric for companies.

dang 12y ago

Ok, we changed the url to that first one instead of http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/10878625/Fasting-for-three-days-can-regenerate-entire-immune-system-study-finds.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/10878625/Fasting-for-....

minthd 12y ago

For those interested in this subject with regards to allergies, this papers might be of interest: 1/http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4190937/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4190937/ - short term allergic response reduced in mice as an effect of fasting, but returned after a bit of time. The study is from august 2014, and in it's short literature review it doesn't mention any prior research regarding fasting allergy. 2/http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14519913 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14519913 - weekly 1-day fasting decreased symptoms in a single female suffering from skin allergies.there's also some previous research talking about such effects in mice 3/ http://ebm.sagepub.com/content/226/11/1045.short http://ebm.sagepub.com/content/226/11/1045.short , http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378427403003837 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378427403... - dietary restriction reduces skin allergy in mice

guelo 12y ago

The quote about rebuilding the entire immune system was taken directly from Valter Longo, one of the authors of the paper.

Dn_Ab 12y ago

I do not think the manner in which you've apportioned blame is correct. The article is less technical than the press release yes, but the core of both remains the same. They both talk about fasting leading to a depletion of white blood cells, triggering "stem cell-based regeneration" of new immune cells and how this may prove useful when treating cancer patients. The main difference in the two is that the press release does not use the word 'entire' in its headline and the regeneration aspect was only specified for mice. But, and this is important, the press release does not make particularly clear whether the regenerative aspect was also looked for in humans (was it? the quote makes it seem so). I do not blame the likely time starved writer for not bothering with nuance if the press release itself doesn't take the time to be clear. The news article is also better for its attempt at sampling more skeptical views, most 'reporting' does not go that far. A lot of (most?) science reporting is just regurgitating press releases, if science reporting is poor then press releases can explain the bulk of that shoddy reporting. The game of telephone aspect of paper to blogs can't be avoided so it pays to take a much more sober approach when writing press releases: 40% (95% confidence interval 33% to 46%) of the press releases contained exaggerated advice, 33% (26% to 40%) contained exaggerated causal claims, and 36% (28% to 46%) contained exaggerated inference to humans from animal research. When press releases contained such exaggeration, 58% (95% confidence interval 48% to 68%), 81% (70% to 93%), and 86% (77% to 95%) of news stories, respectively, contained similar exaggeration, compared with exaggeration rates of 17% (10% to 24%), 18% (9% to 27%), and 10% (0% to 19%) in news when the press releases were not exaggerated -- http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g7015 http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g7015 Good science reporting on: http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/12/09/the-power-of-a-press-release/ http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/12/09/the-power...

kr4 12y ago

Eating right amount of food that your body really needs at all times is best than eating too much some times and fasting at other times. Stability of food intake insures stability of mind and a stable, calm mind results in stable body. Then there're people who have overcome hunger [0]. But this cannot be achieved through fasting but through practice of Yoga. 0]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prahlad_Jani http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prahlad_Jani "Prahlad Jani, also known as "Mataji", (born Chunriwala Mataji, 13 August 1929) is an Indian sadhu. He claims to have lived without food and water since 1940, and says that the goddess Amba sustains him. Two observational studies of Jani have been conducted, one in 2003 and one in 2010, both involving Sudhir Shah, a neurologist at the Sterling Hospitals in Ahmedabad, India, who had studied people claiming to have exceptional spiritual abilities, including other fasters such as Hira Ratan Manek. In both cases the investigators confirmed Jani's ability to survive healthily without food and water during the testing periods, although neither study was submitted to a scientific journal. "