Intermittent fasting could unlock lower rates of cancer and obesity as well as cut stress and even make us live longer, new research suggests, but significant hurdles are getting in the way of the diet’s advantage. Rather than the typical current diet plan of three meals per day, spread out fairly evenly through daylight hours, intermittent fasting sees people squeeze their meals into just a handful of hours.
It’s not a new concept, but it has gained traction in recent years with the rise of so-called “paleo” diets and greater attention paid toward atypical eating routines. At the same time, studies have looked at potential health and lifestyle benefits, focusing on how intermittent fasting can prompt what’s known as a metabolic switch, the body shifting from using glucose-based to ketone-based energy.
Usually, those following an intermittent fasting plan would eat within a six hour window each day, and then fast for the remaining 18 hours, though some extend that to as much as 20 hours. The potential benefits from that are more than just around weight loss. According to a new review by Rafael de Cabo, Ph.D., and Mark P. Mattson, Ph.D., of John Hopkins University School of Medicine, “many of the health benefits of intermittent fasting are not simply the result of reduced free-radical production or weight loss.”
Benefits of intermittent fasting
According to the review, “intermittent fasting elicits evolutionarily conserved, adaptive cellular responses that are integrated between and within organs in a manner that improves glucose regulation, increases stress resistance, and suppresses inflammation.” During periods of fasting, the body’s cells would normally shift into processes where damage is removed or repaired, and cellular stress is addressed. However, given the meal cadence of the typical diet, the processes don’t have much time to work.
One of the best-known benefits of intermittent fasting is a change in how the body generates its energy. After a meal, glucose from food is used for energy; fat is stored for later use. When fasting, that fat is broken down in turn, with the liver converting fatty aides to ketone bodies.
Those ketone bodies aren’t just a sign of fat being broken down, but act as “potent signaling molecules” for our cells and organs. For example, they can influence how proteins, molecules, and genes that influence factors like aging, neurodegenerative disorders, and overall health – among other factors – are produced. Other studies found intermittent fasting could also help improve glucose regulation, manage blood pressure, and cut down on body fat.
The problem with intermittent fasting
While the science may be there, the lifestyle changes for intermittent fasting are a much bigger issue, the study’s authors conclude. Perhaps the biggest issue is that we’re just not in the habit of abstaining for extended periods of the day.
“First, a diet of three meals with snacks every day is so ingrained in our culture that a change in this eating pattern will rarely be contemplated by patients or doctors,” they suggest. “The abundance of food and extensive marketing in developed nations are also major hurdles to be overcome.”
There are also barriers to sticking with such a diet, like the inevitable hunger, irritability, and a loss in concentration. That’s usually limited to the first month, the researchers point out, but it can be a significant hurdle during that period, and it relies on healthcare professionals making clear that it’s a temporary side-effect. Problem is, it’s also suggested, physicians themselves often lack the training to give good intermittent fasting advice.
Could a pill replace intermittent fasting?
One other avenue of research, mainly in animal models, has been the hunt for a pharmacologic alternative: a pill that replicates the benefits of intermittent fasting. That has included drugs that impose the same sort of challenge to the body’s metabolic system that fasting does, or that specifically triggers the sort of processes that go on during ketosis.
We’re still some way from a pill that can do that, however. According to the researchers, “the available data from animal models suggest that the safety and efficacy of such pharmacologic approaches are likely to be inferior to those of intermittent fasting.” In short, if you want the best results, you need to stick to the diet.
The best intermittent fasting diet
There are several diet structures that all fall under the umbrella term of “intermittent fasting,” and there’s no one single perfect meal plan for every person. The most common is probably the daily time-restricted feeding regimen, where you eat within a period of around six hours, and then avoid food for the remaining 18 hours period.
However there’s also the 5:2 intermittent-fasting regimen to consider. That limits daily calorific intake to just 500 calories on two days per week, with regular healthy eating on the remaining five days. Whichever structure is picked, there should be a focus on exercise and meal nutrition too.
What intermittent fasting shouldn’t be, though, is a sudden blow to the system. That, at the very least, is a recipe for quickly giving up on the diet. Instead, a four month transition period – preferably with regular monitoring of body weight, along with glucose and ketone levels – is recommended, in the hope of making a long-term behavioral change that maximizes the diet’s potential benefits to health.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
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