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A couple of articles of fasting in the Independent - curing diabetes and biohacking

Art Of Flowers

Well-Known Member
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1,299
Location
Kent
Type of diabetes
I reversed my Type 2
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Diet only
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Statins
Shame about the inane comments in the second article from "Jo Travers" and the sub heading but apart from that not bad..
 
I never realised I was a trendy “bio-hacker” once I started intermittent fasting.

I think fasting does seem to bring out the “oh your going to die” comments from people who know nothing about it. My wife panics when I say I am not eating all day. In reality, fasting seems to have dramatic health benefits for diabetics and non-diabetics helping the body heal itself and promote longer life. In contrast, the constant stacking of junk food lifestyle that many people have adopted in the West has led to an epidemic of obesity, diabetes and dementia in old age.
 
Now, this is from 2011 you would think that we would have been informed. Seems like fasting is not just good for Diabetics but people's heart also. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110403090259.htm
 
There was an article in the current Oldie in which the author did some serious fasting 4 days and a day after a sessions of chemo and suggested it really helped with the nausea, which I can understand, nothing in the tum react against..
 
Fasting can be a good liver detox, for me. Not the controlled fasting of most posters but the odd skipped breakfast now on a good basal insulin. 2 meals can be enough when my bgs are excellent. Toujeo300 basal allows me to tick over from no food since 7pm to 10am, on occasion too.
It is being prescribed after my operation too.
Plenty of fasting to come for me but not IF.
In times of excellent bgs I could face some IF but I think defeating the object of why some do IF in the first place.

Now losing weight steadily I'm not prepared to interfer with that flow.
I can see why some try it to kick start unmedicated diabetes back into first gear.
 

The second one looked a bit negative but the first one is very interesting.

"
It turns out that the periodic fasting made the pancreas start producing insulin again. The days of restricted eating gave the pancreas a break that allowed it to remove and recycle many of its cells. Then, when the mice started eating again, new cells that were capable of producing insulin emerged.

So the pancreas actually shrunk during the four restricted eating days, and regrew during the seven unrestricted eating days. After several such cycles of shrinking, recycling, and regrowing, the pancreas was nearly as good as new.
"

I'm a bit puzzled over the shrinking and regrowing - if it is like the liver then presumably it is due to the fat cells in the pancreas shrinking as they give up their fat then filling up again.
I wonder if they did a formal count of the beta cells, or just measured the size.

However whatever the way it works, it does seem to revitalise the pancreas.

Another reason to know if your diabetes is due to insulin resistance or low insulin production.
 

Me again

Second article raises a very good point.

"“Practically every process that happens in the body needs a vitamin, mineral or amino acid, and if you don’t eat for long periods then this can affect how the processes work. If you don’t eat protein (the main ingredients of hormones, enzymes, neurotransmitters and important for cell structure), your body will break down muscle in order to recycle the components. So muscle breakdown accounts for quite a bit of the weight loss in fasting diets, rather than fat,” the registered dietician and Low Fat Diet author explained."

Perhaps a water fast is too aggressive, and a small amount of protein and fat should be taken each day.
The question is how much?
 
I'm afraid I think the muscle breakdown thing is a bit of a myth.. I'm sure that Jason Fung has a study somewhere that show's it is not correct or at least not the complete picture.. see if I can find it.
 
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