Intermittent Fasting Links

Intermittent Fasting: Is it Right for You? (University of Michigan)

In Pursuit of Healthy Aging (The Harvard Gazette)

Intermittent Fasting for Beginners (Diet Doctor)

Could a Type of Intermittent Fasting Improve Your Heart Health (Cleveland Clinic)

Professor Valter Longo (USC Longevity Institute)

Peter Attia, MD

Peter Attia is a physician focusing on the applied science of longevity. Lots of good information on metabolic disease, ketosis, and fasting.

TEDx Talk: Why Fasting Bolsters Brain Power (by Mark Mattson, Chief of the Laboratory of Neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging)

Notes

Neurons are generated from stem cells. They grow axons and dendrites. They form connections with each others – synapses. 

Fasting is a challenge to your brain. Your brain responds to that challenge by activating adaptive stress response pathways that help your brain cope with stress and resist disease. 

Some of the changes in the brain that occur with intermittent fasting also occur with vigorous exercise.

Exercise and intermittent fasting both increase the production of proteins in the brain that are called ‘neurotrophic factors’. These factors promote the growth of neurons and strengthening of synapses. 

When the brain is challenged – through exercise, intermittent fasting, or intellectual challenges – it responds favorably with the growth of new nerve cells from stem cells (at least in the hippocampus).

Burning fat produces ketones. 

Ketones produce an alternative fuel for neurons.

Fasting can increase the number of mitochondria in your nerve cells. The mechanism is similar to how exercise increases the number of mitochondria in your muscle cells.

Increasing the number of mitochondria in nerve cells can increase the ability of the neurons to form and maintain synapses; thereby, increasing learning and memory ability. 

Intermittent fasting (and probably exercise and intellectual challenges) will enhance the ability of your nerve cells to repair DNA.