How To
Get All The Benefits Of Fasting—Without Actually Having To Do It
Joel Kahn is a world-renowned cardiologist and
the best-selling author of The Whole Heart
Solution. He’s
also one of the lauded instructors in our first-of-its-kind Advanced Functional Nutrition Program,
where we bring the best minds in nutrition together and dive deep into the
healing power of food. You can find out more about Dr. Kahn, the rest of the
faculty (including groundbreaking doctors like Mark Hyman and Frank Lipman),
and this revolutionary training here.
Odds are you’ve heard about fasting. Defined as "abstinence from
eating," the potential medical benefits have
increasingly been substantiated in animal and medical research projects and now
extend to boosting brain power.
I have been using a form of periodic fasting called a fasting mimicking diet (FMD) in my clinic
with my patients. This diet is the evolution of decades of pioneering work on
longevity by Dr. Valter Longo and his team at the University of South
California. Dr. Longo is recognized as a leading expert on longevity (if not the expert) and has
done great work in describing the basic biochemical pathways by which cells
age. Here are some general and some brain-specific data on the FMD and why you
might be interested in trying it.
The basics of a fasting mimicking diet.
The FMD program was patented by Dr. Longo
after years of basic and preliminary research in yeast and animal models. The
diet decreases calories to 1,100 on the first day and then to around 800 the
next four days for five days overall. The nutrients are key and include
plant-based whole foods like nuts, olives, teas, and soup mixes that are 80
percent fat, 10 percent protein, and 10 percent carbohydrate. During the five
days of restricted calories, exercise and alcohol are prohibited and coffee is
limited to zero or one cup a day. The program is also rich in nuts—so it’s not
appropriate for those with a nut allergy—and requires eating whole olives
(something to note if you dislike olives).
The science behind my success.
What is so special about the FMD? The science. After years of
experimenting with FMD in animal models and showing its benefits on
metabolism and life span, Dr. Longo’s team analyzed the effects in a human
clinical trial that was published earlier
this year. One hundred healthy subjects participated in this study; half of
them followed a Prolon FMD five
days a month for three months, and the other half ate their usual diet.
Profound differences were seen in terms of weight loss, visceral fat loss,
drops in blood pressure, blood sugar, blood cholesterol, and markers of
inflammation in the FMD group.
Even more profound was a drop in insulinlike growth factor 1 (IGF-1),
which is a biomarker for cancer growth, and an increase in stem cell
production, which is a marker for regeneration of cells. In fact, the Prolon
FMD program is marketed by Dr. Longo’s teams at USC as a program that promotes
regenerative and rejuvenating changes, which is unique from all other data
published for fasting programs. There are even provocative data suggesting that
combining this FMD with cancer chemotherapy may lead to improved success and
fewer side effects.
How a fasting mimicking diet increases brain power.
In preliminary studies with
FMD, fairly remarkable brain changes were identified on this diet. FMD fed to
mice four days in a row twice a month extended longevity, lowered visceral fat,
reduced cancer incidence and skin lesions, rejuvenated the immune system, and
retarded bone mineral density loss. In old mice, FMD cycles promoted brain
growth (hippocampal neurogenesis), which would be a nice thing to have happen
in humans! Researchers were able to demonstrate improved cognitive performance.
Overall, these preliminary data are encouraging. The best brains may result
from the least calories, at least for five days a month.
Want to do a fasting mimicking diet? Here's what you need
to know.
I advise my patients that if they want to achieve the published results,
they will need to do three cycles chosen at times that they do not have
conflicting events like weddings. After three consecutive months I am confident
some patients will choose to do the program monthly or every other month for
long-term health optimization.
Want to
learn more from Dr. Kahn? Check out the first-ever functional nutrition training,
where he teaches classes on heart health and veganism.
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