Intermittent Fasting: Scientific Notes on Optimizing Health and Slowing Aging

Intermittent Fasting: Optimizing Health and Delaying Aging Science [Mark P. Mattson]

Title: "Intermittent Fasting: Optimizing Health and Delaying Aging Science"
Author: Mark P. Mattson
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

In contrast, intermittent fasting focuses on when and how often to eat.
Healthy dieting also restricts the daily calorie intake, keeping a person's body mass index within the optimal range of 18-23 (kg/m2).
Perhaps the easiest method to adopt is to limit eating time each day, compressing a person's eating window to 6-8 hours. A person practicing this form of intermittent fasting fasts for 16-18 hours each day, which means they are in a "fat-burning" state for at least 4-6 hours.
Typical American dietary pattern

Exercising your neurons, moving your body, and intermittent fasting enhance the ability of your cells to protect their DNA.
Macrophages are the main cells of the innate immune system and are present in tissues throughout the body.
Unlike cells of the innate immune system, cells of the humoral immune system have the ability to "remember" previous infections.
Cells do not grow during fasting. Instead, they conserve resources and activate genes that encode proteins, which enhance the cells' resistance to stress.
Both exercise and intermittent fasting can improve glucose regulation, reduce fat accumulation, and improve cognition and mood.
Any intermittent fasting dietary pattern that leads to periodic metabolic switching is better than the most common dietary pattern of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.
Numerous randomized controlled trials of intermittent fasting have been conducted in obese populations. Randomized controlled trials are designed so that an equal number of individuals are divided into treatment and control groups.
Individuals with a body mass index of 30 kg/m2 or above are considered obese.
The intermittent fasting diet method, which involves consuming only 500-600 calories three days a week and normal eating on the remaining four days.
Metabolic syndrome (a combination of obesity, insulin resistance, and hypertension) and aging are major risk factors for cardiovascular disease and stroke.
Free radicals can damage DNA, leading to mutations in genes that control cell growth.
Chemotherapy damages cells in the brain, resulting in cognitive impairment, known as chemo brain.
The diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease is based on a series of cognitive tests that measure short-term memory. Brain imaging reveals atrophy of the hippocampus, as well as the frontal, parietal, and temporal lobes. In addition to impaired short-term memory, individuals with Alzheimer's disease often have difficulties with reasoning, judgment, and language. Their circadian rhythm may become desynchronized, causing them to sleep during the day and be awake at night. A definitive diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease can only be made through postmortem analysis of brain tissue.
Moderate fasting, exercise, and exposure to harmful plant chemicals are beneficial to health, while excessive exposure to these environmental challenges can have adverse effects on health.
The complex functions of the brain are based on the coordinated electrochemical signals within and between neurons (also known as nerve cells). The human brain contains over 90 billion neurons, with over 100 trillion connections or synapses between neurons. During brain development, neurons are generated from stem cells. Neurons begin their lives as spherical cells and then extend several thin processes. One of these processes becomes the long axon, while the others become short dendrites.

Throughout the brain, the core neural networks consist of excitatory neurons and inhibitory neurons, as shown in the diagram below.

The shape of the human hippocampus resembles the marine creature seahorse and exhibits well-organized neural circuits.
Scientific evidence suggests that a healthy diet has three simple principles: first, avoid consuming monosaccharides (glucose, fructose, sucrose), high-salt foods, fried foods, and highly processed foods; second, consume a variety of vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains, legumes, and fish, as well as moderate amounts of dairy products; third, cook with extra virgin olive oil.
Excessive salt intake can lead to or exacerbate hypertension.
Omega-3 fatty acids are abundant in fish and also found in certain plants, including brussels sprouts, flaxseeds, and walnuts.
Strong evidence indicates that diets including a variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, fish, and some dairy products (especially yogurt) are beneficial for brain health.
You can learn from their diet and obtain a significant portion of your daily complex carbohydrate calories from legumes, whole grains (oatmeal, whole wheat, etc.), yams, and sweet potatoes. There are also relatively inexpensive fish options, such as sardines. Onions, garlic, and turmeric can be used to enhance the taste of vegetables, and olive oil and nuts can be purchased in bulk. Apples, plums, and bananas are good fruits that are relatively affordable. This diet can also include moderate amounts of milk and eggs. As for beverages, water and tea or coffee are the only drinks you need to consume on most days. Those fortunate enough to have a yard can grow their own vegetables.
Chemicals produced by plants to defend against pests stimulate neurons, thereby protecting the brain from diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
Of course, all children should exercise regularly and avoid consuming sugars and saturated fatty acids, which are important for both physical and mental health. However, several studies have also shown that exercise can reduce behavioral symptoms in children with autism.
Exercise and consuming healthy foods are aspects of a lifestyle that future parents should consider for their own benefit and the well-being of their planned family.
Intermittent fasting is a lifestyle change that comes at no cost to "fasters" and is beneficial for health.
Two books capture well the suppression or distortion of scientific research findings by profit-driven corporations and their deception of the public to purchase their products. These books are "The War on Science" by Shawn Otto and "The Attention Merchants" by Tim Wu.
The conditioned stimulus effect may help explain the harmful consequences of advertising high-calorie foods (i.e., foods that exceed our daily needs) and the creation of conditionally reinforcing foods by combining ingredients with deliberately calibrated (high) concentrations of fat, sugar, and salt to maximize their reinforcing value.
For decades, rising healthcare costs have been a major burden on the U.S. economy. The whole problem can be summed up in this fact: pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and clinics benefit from patients, and more patients mean more money. And within this system, there is little incentive for people to actively seek preventive measures and reduce their risk of disease.
However, except for emergencies like the COVID-19 virus, pharmaceutical companies are generally not interested in developing and selling vaccines because vaccines only require one or a few doses, limiting profits. Instead, pharmaceutical companies rely on long-term medications that need to be taken daily, as these medications only alleviate symptoms and do not cure diseases.
Good health requires us to harness biological processes that have made us strong, smart, and resilient over millions of years of evolution. Intermittent fasting, exercise, and regular intellectual challenges are feasible methods that no drug can replace. Challenge your body and brain, and you will benefit for a lifetime.
All of these websites provide almost identical simple descriptions of the most common intermittent fasting regimens (5:2 and daily fasting for 16-18 hours). While these materials are relatively rich, more digging is required to find the original scientific research and even expert commentary articles on intermittent fasting.
I recommend a balanced diet that includes vegetables, legumes, fruits, nuts, whole grains (oatmeal and wheat), yogurt, and some meats (usually fish and chicken).
Intermittent fasting largely eliminates the compulsive thinking about how much to eat at each meal. Instead, you have one or two days per week with little or no calorie intake (usually less than 600 calories), or you restrict your eating window to 6-8 hours each day. These intermittent fasting dietary patterns can easily be incorporated into daily life.
In the first or second week, some of you may feel hungry and irritable during fasting, while others may experience mild headaches and notice a decrease in attention during fasting.
Adapting to intermittent fasting is similar in many ways to adapting to exercise after a period of inactivity. It takes time for your body to recover and adjust when your physique has changed. When you start an exercise plan, exercise may not be enjoyable. But once you get into the groove, you will feel great and even uncomfortable when you can't exercise.
When establishing an exercise plan, it is usually best to start with relatively easy exercises and gradually increase the duration and intensity of the exercises, as shown in the diagram below:

For example, suppose your goal is to gradually compress your eating window to 6 hours each day over a period of 3 months. In the first month, you can reduce your eating window to 10 hours, then 8 hours in the second month, and finally 6 hours in the third month. Alternatively, you may want to adopt the 5:2 intermittent fasting pattern. You can start by eating only 600 calories one day a week for a month. These are just suggestions, and you can decide how to achieve your goals based on your daily and weekly schedule.
Intermittent fasting induces complex and highly integrated changes in neurons, including enhanced mitochondrial function and stress resistance, enhanced removal and recycling of molecular garbage, production of neurotrophic factors, and changes in activity and synaptic connections between neurons that improve brain function and resilience.
I hope the information in this book encourages readers to consider how their lifestyle affects their brain and body - their performance and susceptibility to disease. For many generations to come, humans will continue to age and die from diseases. We can all do our part to alleviate the burden of chronic diseases by taking responsibility for our own health and helping others do the same.
Appendix: Common Caloric Values of Physical Objects