Fasting offers health benefits to the brain. Many claims have been made about the health advantages of fasting, and several studies have shown that it can protect one from neurodegenerative diseases.
Fasting Protects You From Neurodegenerative Diseases
Intermittent fasting has grown in popularity as a dietary weight loss or management strategy. Moreover, it has been marketed as a means of resetting metabolism, managing chronic illnesses, delaying aging, and enhancing general health, per Hayley O'Neill, assistant professor at Bond University's Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine.
Intermittent fasting may give the brain an alternative energy source and offer defense against neurodegenerative illnesses like Alzheimer's disease, according to O'Neill. She added that this is not a novel concept, as ancient Greeks thought fasting improved thinking.
Many intermittent fasting regimens aim to turn on a "metabolic switch" that shifts the body's primary energy source from burning carbohydrates to burning fat. This is known as ketosis, and it usually happens 12 to 16 hours after the fast, when the glycogen and liver stores are exhausted. The molecules called ketones, created during this metabolic process, become the brain's favored energy source.
As a result of its slower metabolic process for generating energy and tendency to drop blood sugar, hunger, exhaustion, nausea, depression, irritability, constipation, migraines, and "fog" in the brain are some of the symptoms associated with ketosis.
Studies have demonstrated that ketones may offer an alternate energy source to maintain brain function and fend off age-related neurodegenerative problems and cognitive decline, just as the brain's ability to metabolize glucose diminishes with aging.
In keeping with this, it has been demonstrated that raising ketones through diet or supplementation improves cognition in persons at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and in those experiencing mild cognitive decline.
Intermittent fasting may protect the brain by enhancing metabolism, lowering oxidants, and enhancing mitochondrial function.
The primary function of mitochondria is energy production, and they are essential to brain function. An imbalance in energy supply and demand, which is most likely caused by mitochondrial failure as we age, is intimately linked to several age-related disorders.
Studies on rodents indicate that cutting calories by up to 40% or fasting on alternate days may preserve or enhance mitochondrial activity in the brain. However, not all studies lend credence to this idea.
Furthermore, an Italian study conducted in 2021 on 883 adults found that those who limited their daily meal intake to 10 hours.
Furthermore, a 2021 Italian study involving 883 adults found that those who limited their daily meal intake to 10 hours had a lower risk of cognitive impairment than those who did not.
Intermittent Fasting Affects Gut Microbiome, Brain Activity
In another study, researchers postulated that alterations in the microbiome were responsible for the observed changes in activity levels in brain areas related to regulating addiction and hunger following a fast.
The team found that several microorganisms, including E. Coli, during weight loss, were associated with reduced activity in the area of the brain related to willpower. They also found that different kinds of bacteria positively correlated with higher activity in brain regions related to emotion, learning, motor inhibition, and attention.
"The gut microbiome is thought to communicate with the brain in a complex, two-directional way," said paper co-author Xiaoning Wang of the Institute of Geriatrics at the PLA General Hospital.
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