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A Fasting Diet Can Regenerate A Diabetic Pancreas


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2017 Feb 24, 6:06am   2,161 views  22 comments

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Fasting diet 'regenerates diabetic pancreas'
By James Gallagher
Health and science reporter, BBC News website
1 hour ago
From the section Health 90 comments
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Blood sugar testImage copyrightSPL
The pancreas can be triggered to regenerate itself through a type of fasting diet, say US researchers.
Restoring the function of the organ - which helps control blood sugar levels - reversed symptoms of diabetes in animal experiments.
The study, published in the journal Cell, says the diet reboots the body.
Experts said the findings were "potentially very exciting" as they could become a new treatment for the disease.
People are advised not to try this without medical advice.
In the experiments, mice were put on a modified form of the "fasting-mimicking diet".
It is like the human form of the diet when people spend five days on a low calorie, low protein, low carbohydrate but high unsaturated-fat diet.
It resembles a vegan diet with nuts and soups, but with around 800 to 1,100 calories a day.
Then they have 25 days eating what they want - so overall it mimics periods of feast and famine.
Previous research has suggested it can slow the pace of ageing.
Diabetes therapy?
But animal experiments showed the diet regenerated a special type of cell in the pancreas called a beta cell.
These are the cells that detect sugar in the blood and release the hormone insulin if it gets too high.
Dr Valter Longo, from the University of Southern California, said: "Our conclusion is that by pushing the mice into an extreme state and then bringing them back - by starving them and then feeding them again - the cells in the pancreas are triggered to use some kind of developmental reprogramming that rebuilds the part of the organ that's no longer functioning."
There were benefits in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes in the mouse experiments.
Type 1 is caused by the immune system destroying beta cells and type 2 is largely caused by lifestyle and the body no longer responding to insulin.
Further tests on tissue samples from people with type 1 diabetes produced similar effects.
Dr Longo said: "Medically, these findings have the potential to be very important because we've shown - at least in mouse models - that you can use diet to reverse the symptoms of diabetes.
"Scientifically, the findings are perhaps even more important because we've shown that you can use diet to reprogram cells without having to make any genetic alterations."
What's it like?
Peter's blood is tested
BBC reporter Peter Bowes took part in a separate trial with Dr Valter Longo.
He said: "During each five-day fasting cycle, when I ate about a quarter of the average person's diet, I lost between 2kg and 4kg (4.4-8.8lbs).
"But before the next cycle came round, 25 days of eating normally had returned me almost to my original weight.
"But not all consequences of the diet faded so quickly."
His blood pressure was lower as was a hormone called IGF-1, which is linked to some cancers.
He said: "The very small meals I was given during the five-day fast were far from gourmet cooking, but I was glad to have something to eat"
Peter Bowes: Fasting for science
Peter Bowes: Intermittent fasting and the good things it did to my body
Separate trials of the diet in people have been shown to improve blood sugar levels. The latest findings help to explain why.
However, Dr Longo said people should not rush off and crash diet.
He told the BBC: "It boils down to do not try this at home, this is so much more sophisticated than people realise."
He said people could "get into trouble" with their health if it was done without medical guidance.
Dr Emily Burns, research communications manager at Diabetes UK, said: "This is potentially very exciting news, but we need to see if the results hold true in humans before we'll know more about what it means for people with diabetes.
"People with type-1 and type-2 diabetes would benefit immensely from treatments that can repair or regenerate insulin-producing cells in the pancreas."
Follow James on Twitter.
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Comments 1 - 22 of 22        Search these comments

2   jenn   2017 Mar 6, 4:15pm  

https://www.jenreviews.com/intermittent-fasting/

Fasting is the practice of abstaining or reducing consumption of food, drink, or both, for a specific period of time. Everyone fasts for at least some part of the day, generally the eight or so hours that one spends sleeping every night. Physiologically, fasting can refer to a persons metabolic status after not eating overnight, or even the metabolic state after the complete digestion of a meal. Once youve gone eight to 12 hours without eating, the body enters a state of fasting. The practice of fasting can lead to a number of metabolic changes within the body. These changes...

3   MMR   2017 Mar 6, 5:57pm  

ohomen171 says

said people could "get into trouble" with their health if it was done without medical guidance.

How many doctors could effectively counsel people how to do intermittent fasting and ditto for so-called ADA certified diabetes educators who push the 1800 calorie/day diet like it's a cookie cutter plan

4   🎂 Tenpoundbass   2017 Mar 6, 5:57pm  

I believe that. I had a keyboard playing friend. Who grew enamored by a girl that was Oxy/Heroin junky. He spent every penny he made on her habit. It got to the point he was getting thin as a bone.
Before that he was diabetic, he couldn't eat anything. Any sugar in the sauce or an ingredient that created sugars he would go in a diabetic shock. He pretty much walked around with his own food for every social gathering he went to. By time I noticed how bad he was looking we were asking if he was on drugs. But he swore up and down he was just spending all of his money on her. But after he lost about 70 lbs he was eating anything and it didn't bother him. That was a few years back, she's gone, he's gained back weight, and his chronic diabetes is back. I say "had" because now we probably only jam with him about once a year now if that.

5   Patrick   2022 Jun 28, 10:42am  


@EdwardDowd
·
21h
Oh really? I call bullshit on this study. Try fasting instead. Extended fasting induces autophagy which uses useless cells & malformed proteins as energy in the absence of food. I am not a doctor but this seems better to me. Plus it’s free & why your doctor will never tell you to do it.

“Alzheimer's disease is thought to be caused by the abnormal build-up of proteins in and around brain cells.”


The fact that fasting is traditional in all major religions also makes me think there is some big health benefit to it.
6   Bd6r   2022 Jun 28, 10:51am  

Patrick says

The fact that fasting is traditional in all major religions also makes me think there is some big health benefit to it.

There was a study that mice live almost twice longer if they are kept slightly calorie-deficient.
7   🎂 Tenpoundbass   2022 Jun 28, 11:27am  

Bd6r says


There was a study that mice live almost twice longer if they are kept slightly calorie-deficient.


That's probably because a caloric deficient body, isn't going to tax its muscles optimally. They don't give their body as much ware and tear.
It didn't get a chronic injury fighting an alpha male to mate, or push itself to collect garbage to nest, it didn't run to burn off excess energy, wasn't out in the sight of birds of prey.

Lots of reasons that would support one subject that is just under being fit, could outlive another subject, that is optimally fit to pass on their genes.
8   1337irr   2022 Jun 28, 12:29pm  

I fasted 20 days, it works.
9   Hircus   2022 Jun 28, 1:56pm  

I've always suspected occasional fasting was healthy. Mostly because its in our evolution. Not implying I think everything in our history is necessarily healthy for us, but I think it's wise to be skeptical of changes.

You can be fat, and thus have tons of reserve calories, but you will still be starving if you don't eat for a short period of time. And the hunger mechanism is very strong, and difficult for humans to resist the body's calls to eat. I think this made a lot of sense back 10,000+ years ago when food wasnt always available whenever you wanted it, much less tasty food, as it would drive people to constantly pursue badly needed nourishment and energy, and to build up fat stores so you can be like a bear in the winter and not perish. And due to more volatile living conditions, brief periods of no food or low were probably common. Once you go without food for a bit, your body switches out of fat storage and into fat burning mode, giving these bodily systems a constant exercise, keeping them working well.

When I follow a keto diet, its very uncomfortable at first, but the body adjusts and soon I feel normal. If I also restrict calories, and thus push myself into a mild starvation, it's an odd feeling. On one hand, the hunger pangs can hurt sometimes, and my energy is a bit lower, but I also tend to get this very pleasurable high from it that resembles a brain fog. I always assumed the body is trying to keep you going and in high spirits so that you can eventually overcome your food deficit and thrive again, instead of spiraling into death.

So I dunno...the modern life where we never go hungry for more than a few hours seems so different to our evolution which likely included lots of brief periodic starvation. I'm doubtful it's good to let our emergency energy reserve systems atrophy by eating so regularly. I also think our strong hunger drive is no longer suited to us, and its now just too strong in the presence of tasty food on shelves 24/7.
10   Ceffer   2022 Jun 28, 2:26pm  

The last time I regenerated my pancreas this way, it dissolved half my liver with enzymes out of spite. I'm not doing that again.
11   Al_Sharpton_for_President   2022 Jun 28, 2:29pm  

Uighur pancreas farming - more than a cottage industry?
12   stereotomy   2022 Jun 28, 2:44pm  

I hate to admit it, but OhoHomo had a point with intermittent fasting. Like @ Hircus says, you just need to get past the first 24 hours, then your body switches to fat -burning mode. I typically gain 20 lbs in winter, then lose it in summer with near daily grilling of grass-fed beef.

Food tastes so much better when you haven't eaten in 2-3 days. The sense of smell and taste are substantially heightened. If you do OMAD or longer fasting periods, you can eat the fattiest, richest, multicourse meals you can imagine.

Humans are fat accumulation machines. When we reach middle/old age, our caloric requirements drop essentially to near zero. At this point, it's important to maximize micronutrients (since we're just maintaining at this point, to avoid resource competition with the younger breeding population), hence the emphasis on fatty grass-fed meats.
13   HeadSet   2022 Jun 28, 5:19pm  

Ceffer says

The last time I regenerated my pancreas this way, it dissolved half my liver with enzymes out of spite. I'm not doing that again.

Sounds like you were on the "Whiskey Only" fast.
15   WookieMan   2023 Sep 17, 4:10am  

Hircus says

So I dunno...the modern life where we never go hungry for more than a few hours seems so different to our evolution which likely included lots of brief periodic starvation. I'm doubtful it's good to let our emergency energy reserve systems atrophy by eating so regularly. I also think our strong hunger drive is no longer suited to us, and its now just too strong in the presence of tasty food on shelves 24/7.

Our modern history is extremely short. We're talking 70-90 years. Men would work 12 hours a day. Maybe have a lunch. And go back 300 years your job was literally for food, for many at least. Wasn't about money (generally).

I'm not voluntarily fasting, but I've lost 30lbs since July with my new work. I cannot eat from 6am to probably 3-5pm most days. I do take vitamins, generally eat healthy at night which is only from 5pm-9pm roughly. But I also eat a lot during that time and still am losing weight. Can't do breakfast because I can't take a shit once I'm on the road so I can't risk eating in the morning. Just water throughout the day.

I feel the best I have since high school. And I still have my nightly beers. I don't know, I think fasting is normal and was how humans were for 99.9% of our existence until recently. Our increases in lifespan were because of advances in birthing medicine and better practices. Less dead 0-5 year olds. It wasn't having more food or living longer. If anything that's probably bringing it down as evidenced in Patrick's last comment.

It's hard to commit though and keep with it. But you can have days where you go crazy. Today will be one of those for me. Breakfast sandwich, BBQ half rack of ribs and a couple brats for lunch. And I think some spaghetti for dinner. So it's not like you have to starve yourself all the time. Takes discipline or a job that forces it which is rare now.
16   mell   2023 Sep 17, 7:28am  

WookieMan says


weight. Can't do breakfast because I can't take a shit once I'm on the road so I can't risk eating in the morning. Just water throughout the day.

Haha epic! I know that situation. I don't eat anything and even skip the coffee when I have a longer drive in the morning or roadtrip until many hours in. Nothing worse than having to take a dump while in traffic. Water only. It's a great cleanse
17   socal2   2023 Sep 17, 9:04am  

mell says

WookieMan says



weight. Can't do breakfast because I can't take a shit once I'm on the road so I can't risk eating in the morning. Just water throughout the day.

Haha epic! I know that situation. I don't eat anything and even skip the coffee when I have a longer drive in the morning or roadtrip until many hours in. Nothing worse than having to take a dump while in traffic. Water only. It's a great cleanse


I don't even leave the house before my morning ritual! I've been doing 16 to 20 hour fasts for 4+ years which helps keep me regular. I drink coffee from the moment I get up to help speed things along.
18   mell   2023 Sep 17, 9:17am  

socal2 says

mell says


WookieMan says




weight. Can't do breakfast because I can't take a shit once I'm on the road so I can't risk eating in the morning. Just water throughout the day.

Haha epic! I know that situation. I don't eat anything and even skip the coffee when I have a longer drive in the morning or roadtrip until many hours in. Nothing worse than having to take a dump while in traffic. Water only. It's a great cleanse



I don't even leave the house before my morning ritual! I've been doing 16 to 20 hour fasts for 4+ years which helps keep me regular. I drink coffee from the moment I get up to help speed things along.

Good man! Depending on how much I eat the evening before I usually need 2-3 short or 1 long morning dump within an hour. I even get up earlier for this as working out after it is so great. But sometimes I have to leave so early that I can't finish it, so I leave out food and coffee for those rare occasions. Otherwise at least always coffee, and occasionally a small breakfast. Nothing better than intermittent fasting. Also coffee boosts workouts nicely.
19   Ceffer   2023 Sep 17, 10:22am  

A dump of ungulate, hideous majesty, firing all five feet of the large intestine with elevated gas pressure, is the sign of a healthy pancreas.

However, the bathroom is a no man's land for an hour afterward.
20   stereotomy   2023 Sep 17, 10:53am  

On OMAD, either after sleep or within 30 minutes of feeding, the GI fires up and I'm off to the loo.

I remember back in the day in high school - football players who would eat mountains of (largely carb) food would DESTROY toilets with multi-foot loaves. It became a poop-measuring contest in addition to the standard dick measuring contest. Ha, ha, those crazy athletes . . .
21   Ceffer   2023 Sep 17, 10:57am  

To this day, the most perverse, perverted and strange people I have run across in my life were the kids at Uni. They used to have a weekly 'fabulous feces' contest in my dorm, and the math guys calculated length by using equations for the curl factor.
22   HeadSet   2023 Sep 18, 6:11am  

Ceffer says

and the math guys calculated length by using equations for the curl factor.

How derivative. But I guess such antics are integral to college frat life.

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