REGULAR FASTING MAY LEAD TO LONGER LIFE

Looking to live longer? You might want to expand the
time between your meals.
A recent study of mice found that those whose diets
were restricted to once a day on average lived
longer and were generally healthier than mice that
had access to food 24 hours a day.
Researchers
say that
the results of
the study, published
in the
medical journal
Cell Metabolism
and
conducted by
scientists from
the National Institute on Aging (NIA), ought to generate
further investigation about the effect of eating
intervals on humans.
“These intriguing results in an animal model show
that the interplay of total caloric intake and the length
of feeding and fasting periods deserves a closer
look,” said Richard J. Hodes, M.D., the director of the
NIA.
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Besides having longer lives, the mice who fasted
experienced “delays in common age-related damage
to the liver and other organs [and] significant improvement
in fasting glucose and insulin levels,” the
NIA reported. In addition, the type of food they ate
“had no significant impact” on life span among the
mice whose diets were restricted.
The study’s lead author, Rafael de Cabo, the chief
of the Translational Gerontology Branch of the NIA
Intramural Research Program, suggested that a longer
fasting period may give the body more opportunity
to adjust to the consumption of food.
“Perhaps this extended daily fasting period enables
repair and maintenance mechanism that would
be absent in a continuous exposure to food,” de Cabo said .