Study Finds That Fasting For 72 Hours Can Regenerate The Entire Immune System

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Most people talk about lifespan as the term of your natural life, however an interesting new term has begun to come to prominence: Healthsoan. Healthspan refers to the healthy portion of your life and many are seeking not just to prolong their life but their healthy life. Strategies adopted include living a naturally-healthy and holistic lifestyle designed to reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases. According to recent findings [1] by researchers led by Professor Valter Longo from USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, fasting for 72 hours could help regenerate the immune system.

Fasting is currently a hot topic in wellness circles due to its wide range of health, wellness, and therapeutic benefits. However, there are a wide variety of fasting methods such as water fasting, intermittent fasting, and the trending “fast mimicking.” The fasting-mimicking diet (FMD) was developed by Longo and his colleagues, driven by the challenges faced by people following ‘normal’ fasting methods.

FMD is based on years of research and clinical trials and unlike traditional fasting techniques, the 5-day diet plan typically involves eating some foods – notably whole-food derived meals that are high in healthy fats and low in carbs. The low-calorie content of the meals depletes glycogen stores and forces your body to undergo gluconeogenesis by generating energy from noncarbohydrate sources. The calorie restriction due to FMD causes your body to mimic key physiological responses to conventional fasting – such as fat loss, decreased inflammation and cell regeneration.

In their study [2], the researchers asked a group of participants to fast regularly for 48-96 hours over a period of 6 months. Based on the remarks of Prof Valter Longo [3], the researchers were actually surprised by the effectiveness of FMD and prolonged fasting. They did not know before the study that extended periods of intermittent fasting would promote such stem cell-based regenerative effects.