Why fasting slows your rate of ageing
For some time now I’ve known that fasting is good for you. By this I don’t mean going on a hunger strike, but limiting the amount of food you eat and going for longer than usual between meals.
I first came across it in humans (all the early stuff was done on animals but there’s lots of it) when I studied the Okinawans who live off the coast of Japan. They naturally limit their calorie intake and are among the longest living people on the planet.
They deteriorate much more slowly than the rest of us and don’t show the usual signs of ageing.
I’ve taken a leaf out of their book. For myself, I sort of fast each day, eating nothing after 7pm and not eating before 1pm the next day. A fast of 18 hours, so to speak.
Well, some recent animal research goes a long way to explaining why that’s so good for slowing ageing and preserving brain health. Turns out a low-fat diet that includes 40% fewer calories than most of us eat reduces inflammation in brain cells and maintains brain function.
Lead author of the study, Dr Bart Eggen from the Netherlands, said it has to be a combination of a low-fat diet plus limited calorific intake. Both components are necessary – doing only one or the other won’t work – so a low-fat diet on its own isn’t sufficient to prevent inflammation.
Inflammation of the brain has been linked to conditions such as multiple sclerosis and encephalitis, which can cause seizures, and then dementia.
In addition, this research suggests cutting calories is better at maintaining brain health than exercise. This may be because fasting helps the brain “rest” and deal efficiently with damaged brain cells, a process called apoptosis.
Not a lot of people know the brain becomes “old” at just 25 and the volume and weight of the brain begins to shrink by around 5% every 10 years after you reach the age of 40.
Furthermore, cerebrospinal fluid (CFS), which bathes the brain and spinal cord, circulates slower in people older than their mid-20s.
This slowing is linked to breathing rate and heart rate. Heart disease and high blood pressure slow down the circulation of the CSF and could be linked to brain disorders of the elderly.
Most researchers believe “what’s good for the heart is good for the brain”. So giving your heart a workout, aka exercise, will keep your CFS moving too and protect your brain.