It’s About TIME!
Why Dr. Oz is fasting and using the clock to lose weight, slow dementia and fight disease.
How does Mehmet Oz, M.D., the star of The Dr. Oz
Show—beginning its 10th season Sept. 17—keep healthy, upbeat and way trimmer than the average 58-year-old grandpa? He’ll tell you it’s all a matter of time.
Exciting new discoveries about the timers within our cells—trillions of them, priming our bodies to work efficiently—are transforming health care, Oz says. “Science has always been focused on the
what: what drugs we give to treat disease, what we eat to lose weight,” he says. “Up until now, we haven’t just underestimated time, we’ve completely ignored its role. We’re now starting to see that the when can be just as important.”
In fact, using the power of time—to prevent disease and treat it—is among the biggest medical breakthroughs Oz has seen since launching his show. And that’s saying something, considering he’s taped 1,575 episodes about health, healing and the far frontiers of medicine. Here’s how time can help us live better.
When You Eat
“New studies suggest that when you eat matters for your health, longevity and even weight loss,” Oz says.
The average American eats pretty much all day long, throughout the 17 hours that most of us are awake. “Our intestines aren’t supposed to work 17 hours a day,” he says.
Before drive-thrus, microwaves and refrigerators, the human body evolved to go for long stretches
without food. During these breaks, vital things happen. Insulin levels drop, which makes stored body fat more accessible for use. Human growth hormone goes up, to help burn fat and build muscle. Damaged cell material is shed faster (called autophagy). Even the way genes are expressed changes.
All this may help us to: Lose weight (or stick to a healthy
weight). Studies show that people who fast—basically not eating for a set period, usually at least 12 hours—tend to consume fewer calories overall and lose more belly fat. A large 2017 study of Seventhday Adventists found that those with the lowest body-mass index (BMI) had a long overnight fast (of 18 or more hours) and ate their largest meal at breakfast.
Slow Alzheimer’s. In animal studies, fasting appears to halt cognitive decline to the point where older subjects perform as well as younger ones. Fasting triggers a “switching over” from using glucose as fuel to fatty acids (a state known as mild ketosis). One theory is that this metabolic switching may aid the brain, Oz says. Also, the release of chemicals that cause inflammation is a side effect of digestion. Too much brain inflammation is one factor thought to fuel Alzheimer’s.
Grow a healthier gut. Other animal studies suggest that feeding/ fasting rhythms can contribute to the diversity of microorganisms in the gut. There’s huge interest in gut
health’s role in metabolic diseases like diabetes, insulin resistance and obesity, as well as autoimmune disorders.
Prevent other diseases—and maybe even slow aging. Fasting can reduce inflammation in people with asthma and rheumatoid arthritis. By also reducing blood pressure and increasing insulin sensitivity, it adds protection against cancer, diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
When You Don’t Eat
Fasting in a consistent pattern—intermittent fasting (IF)— seems key. This “time-restricted feeding,” confining all eating to a certain window of time, works for Oz. He’s in his second year of eating all his meals and snacks in a 12-hour period, usually between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. He then fasts for the next 12 hours.
He says 12:12 intermittent fasting prevents hunger better than dieting and tends to be more sustainable as a lifestyle because it’s not so isolating. You’re not nursing a juice cleanse while your friends down tacos.
“All you have to do is sleep eight hours, which helps with just about every chronic health problem anyway, and then you have four hours left [of not eating],” Oz explains. Stop eating at least two hours before bed. In the morning, instead of automatically grabbing breakfast, have a cup of black coffee, tea or water. Most people aren’t truly hungry when they wake up, he adds.
“I like it because it’s easy to do and I feel sharper,” Oz says. “I’m hacking my system to be able to function at a higher level.”
Mice fed on a 12:12 cycle lose weight even though they eat the same number of calories as mice who eat all day, studies show, and they’re healthier.
Plus, in 12:12 fasting you can pick the 12 “off ” hours that work best for you. Late party? Hold off eating ’til noon the next day. Breakfast meeting you can’t miss? Stop eating earlier the evening before. When You Get Medicine
Another way time influences health: chronotherapy, which considers natural rhythms when treating diseases. This can have powerful effects, especially on how medications work:
Better flu shots. Get yours in the morning, suggests Oz. A large clinical trial found more protective antibodies were created then, versus late afternoon.
Stronger chemo, fewer side effects. Just like any other cell, cancer cells grow and rest on a circadian cycle. “Cancer chemotherapy works by attacking rapidly growing cells,” Oz explains. “By figuring out a cancer’s rhythm, we may be able to administer drugs at the time when the cancer is most vulnerable to the
effects.” Lung cancer patients given the drug cisplatin, for example, had fewer side effects when it was timed to work with the kidneys’ circadian rhythm. More effective blood-pressure
medications. For studies of drugs to lower hypertension, research suggests that using a full 24 hours of blood pressure data to inform a medication schedule can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke, Oz says.
Similar research is underway in every corner of medicine. Have past drugs failed because of timing errors? Are some ailments caused by “broken” body clocks that can be fixed? Last fall’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to three scientists who proved how circadian rhythms work right down on the molecular level.
“Have you ever realized you’ve been completely unaware of something you should be thinking about?” Oz says. “Time is one of those fundamental assumptions of life that you have to get your arms around. When you do, you begin to realize that it affects you in so many ways.”
‘By fasting, I'm hacking my system to be able to function at a higher level.’
Dr. Oz identifies these other big ideas that are quickly transforming health care.
Virtual reality.
Special computer programs, headsets, gloves and other equipment let people experience what doesn’t exist. Used to train surgeons and pilots, it’s now a tool to help stroke or brain injury patients in rehab gain mobility and balance and allow legally blind people with macular degeneration to see.
A health coach in your phone.
Imagine your phone picking up insights about your mood and health based on your voice, your social media usage and other factors—then offering you an immediate way to respond and improve.
“Drug” therapy.
Though Oz says he has never smoked a joint, he’s all for the therapeutic potential of substances once ignored on moral grounds. LSD and psilocybin (a compound produced in “magic mushrooms”) are gaining credibility as treatments for anxiety, depression and addiction because they silence the default pathway in the brain that causes rumination.
The ability to live well with cancer.
Thanks to rapid advances in immunotherapy, stem-cell treatments, genetic testing and more, cancer is increasingly becoming a manageable chronic disease, rather than something you have or don’t have.
Visit Parade.com/oz to find out what Dr. Oz calls the least recognized health problem in America.