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Cycles of a diet that mimics fasting appear to reduce signs of Alzheimer's in mice genetically engineered to develop the illness. The researchers found that mice that had undergone several cycles of the fasting-mimicking diet showed less Alzheimer's pathology. The researchers found lower levels of two major hallmarks of the disease: amyloid beta—the primary driver of plaque buildup in the brain—and hyperphosphorylated tau protein. They also found that brain inflammation lessened and better performance on cognitive tests compared to the mice that were fed a standard diet. The fasting-mimicking diet (FMD) is high in unsaturated fats and low in overall...

Intermittent fasting changes the gut bacteria activity of mice and increases their ability to recover from nerve damage. The researchers observed how fasting led to the gut bacteria increasing production of a metabolite known as 3-Indolepropionic acid (IPA), which is required for regenerating nerve fibers called axons—thread-like structures at ends of nerve cells that send out electro-chemical signals to other cells in the body. The team state that the bacteria that produces IPA, Clostridium sporogenesis, is found naturally in the guts of humans as well as mice and IPA is present in human's bloodstreams too. "There is currently no treatment...

New year, same topics: nutrition, healthy eating and slowing the downhill roll of aging. Eat this, not that — never that — and try this one weird thing to look younger, right? Advice spans the spectrum from dubious to scientifically supported, but there is an approach that sidesteps it all: eat less. Either in a specific time frame or in general, limiting calories safely is called caloric restriction, food restriction or fasting. It’s not a new idea, but fasting as a health practice hasn’t taken off, and Eduardo Chini, M.D., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic researcher, knows why. “One of the...

It sounds like a form of torture. Consuming nothing but at least a liter of water a day for 25 to 30 days. But behind the Iron Curtain in the 1950s, psychiatrist Dr Yuri Nikolayev was treating patients at a Moscow sanatorium with a radical form of fasting that was hailed by American orthomolecular psychiatrist Dr Allan Cott as an “unparalleled achievement” in restoring schizophrenics to full function.1 What first surprised Nikolayev was that his mentally ill patients suffering depression, phobias and obsessive syndromes also showed improvements in physical conditions such as hypertension, arthritis, asthma and eczema. Smokers quit their...

PHIL MICKELSON has looked remarkably trim in recent times - a far cry from his former self. The 51-year-old rolled back the years to win the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island last summer and capture his sixth major. 'Lefty' cut a rather portly figure in the mid-2000s - as he has personally acknowledged - but has cleaned up his diet with remarkable results. After piling on a few too many pounds, the American has put considerable effort into streamlining his physique in recent years. A diagnosis for psoriatic arthritis in 2010 is partly credited with alerting Mickelson of his need...

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have outlined what they call the "longevity diet," based on a century of data, that emphasizes certain foods and periodic fasting, they said, in an article published Thursday. The review of data from hundreds of studies -- involving both people and animals -- showed diets high in legumes, or green vegetables, as well as whole grains, nuts and olive oil can add years to a person's life expectancy, the researchers said in an article published Thursday by the journal Cell. Those who include other vegetables and some fish and dark chocolate, while avoiding red...

A diet involving short-term, severe calorie restriction was safe, feasible, and resulted in a decrease of blood glucose and growth factor concentration, reduction in peripheral blood immunosuppressive cells, and enhanced intratumor T-cell infiltration in cancer patients receiving standard-of-care therapy, according to a trial. Preclinical research has demonstrated that severe calorie restriction in the form of cyclic fasting or fasting-mimicking diet (FMD) has potent anticancer effects when combined with standard pharmacological treatments. The researchers administered an FMD regimen to the study participants that consisted of a five-day, low-carbohydrate, low-protein, plant-derived diet, which provided up to 600 Kcal on day 1 and...

Valsartan, an angiotensin II receptor blocker drug, delayed disease progression and improved cardiac structure and function in patients with early-stage hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, according to a recent trial. "This is the first time we have identified a treatment that may actually impact the underlying disease process, as opposed to just treating symptoms. In addition, if we can delay disease progression, this may ultimately mean that we can significantly impact the risk of sudden cardiac death in this population," said Philip Thrush, MD. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is characterized by an abnormal thickening of the heart muscle. The disease results from mutations in the...

In an interview with GQ, Ice-T said intermittent fasting and resistance band workouts helps him stay fit at 64. The veteran rapper and actor, who plays Sergeant Tutuola on "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit," has been in the public eye for decades and told GQ how he's maintained his health and physique over the years. Ice-T said he doesn't follow a strict diet and still eats candy, cookies, sugary cereal, and takeout from Mexican and Chinese restaurants, but he credits intermittent fasting and resistance band workouts for helping him become 'the best version' of himself.

An investigational cancer drug that starves tumors of their energy supply also shows evidence of improving whole body metabolism, leading to improved weight control, according to a new study. The drug is being investigated for potential use as a treatment for a number of cancers, including sarcoma, breast and pancreatic cancers. The drug breaks down the amino acid arginine in the blood, which deprives cancer cells of a key source of fuel. The researchers became interested in studying the drug after finding that genes responsible for breaking down arginine are dialed up tremendously when the body is in a fasting...

“After He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry” (Matthew 4:2). For a quite lengthy period prior to the three diabolical temptations directed at Jesus, He fasted. We don’t know exactly what He did during the forty-day period, but He likely spent most of the time communing with His heavenly Father. Even in His perfect humanity, Jesus needed solitary preparation time in medi-tation and prayer, as we all do in anticipating a major testing. Consider how Moses spent forty years in Midian in preparation for his leadership of Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land,...

Researchers say that they may have discovered the molecular-level cause of Alzheimer’s disease.Scientists at the University of California–Riverside said in recent findings that the key to understanding Alzheimer’s may have to do with “tau” proteins that likely cause neurofibrillary tangles—which are found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. Previously, researchers suggested that amyloid plaques, which are a buildup of amyloid peptides, may be the cause.Both amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles are critical indicators that doctors look for when trying to diagnose Alzheimer’s.“Roughly 20 percent of people have the plaques, but no signs of dementia,” said UCR chemistry professor Ryan Julian...

* Researchers at the University of California-Riverside published results of a study that analyzed donated brain samples.* They focused on the form of tau proteins, which can be either right-handed or left-handed.* Researchers discovered that those who had a “different handed” form of tau proteins along with brain plaque and tangles also had dementia. Scientists in California tried to study Alzheimer’s disease from a different perspective and the results may have led them to the cause of the disease. Researchers at the University of California- Riverside (UCR) recently published results from a study that looked at a protein called...

Research at Nottingham Trent University investigated the role of trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) a molecule which is present in people's diets and produced by the body during digestion of fish. As foods containing TMAO are ingested, the molecule is broken down by bacteria in the gut. The breakdown product is taken up into the bloodstream and converted back to TMAO, which interacts with organs throughout the body. Importantly, the brain's circulatory and vascular system is exposed to TMAO, which interacts directly with the 'blood-brain barrier." This barrier works to prevent potentially harmful toxins in the body from reaching the brain. As...

This shows lewy bodies. Brown spots are immunostaining using an antibody specifically recognizing an abnormal form of alpha-synuclein. Clumps of α-synuclein protein in nerve cells are hallmarks of many degenerative brain diseases, most notably Parkinson's disease. "No one has been able to determine if Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites, hallmark pathologies in Parkinson's disease can be degraded," says Virginia Lee, PhD, director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. "With the new neuron model system of Parkinson's disease pathologies our lab has developed recently, we demonstrated that these aberrant clumps in...

Scientists have shown that feeding a simple polyamine called spermidine to worms, fruit flies and yeast significantly prolongs their lifespan. In addition, adding spermidine to the diet of mice decreased molecular markers of ageing, and when human immune cells were cultured in a medium containing spermidine, they also lived for longer.Spermidine - a simple linear molecule found in large quantities in human sperm and grapefruit - is known to be necessary for cell growth and maturation, and as cells age their level of spermidine is know to fall. Now, Frank Madeo from the University of Graz in Austria and his colleagues have shown...

With more than 10% of the world's population obese and 40% overweight, obesity constitutes one of the most crucial health challenges. However, existing therapeutic options remain scarce and poorly efficient. Few years ago, scientists discovered that the absorptive surface and function of the gut change due to certain external stimuli, such as exposure to cold. Increasing the food amount elevates the intestinal absorptive surface and function. Mechanistically, this is due to the enhanced expression of PPARα, a regulating protein necessary for the overeating-induced increase in the capacity of the gut to absorb calories. Furthermore, if high amounts of food increase...

Prevailing theories posit plaques in the brain cause Alzheimer's disease. New UC Riverside research instead points to cells' slowing ability to clean themselves as the likely cause of unhealthy brain buildup. Along with signs of dementia, doctors make a definitive Alzheimer's diagnosis if they find a combination of two things in the brain: amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. The plaques are a buildup of amyloid peptides, and the tangles are mostly made of a protein called tau. "Roughly 20% of people have the plaques, but no signs of dementia," said UCR Chemistry Professor Ryan Julian. "This makes it seem as...

Weight loss surgery significantly lowers the risk of major adverse liver outcomes as well as major acute cardiovascular events (MACE) in patients with biopsy-proven nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), compared with similar patients who didn't have surgery, new research shows. "This is the first study in the medical field reporting a treatment modality that is associated with decreased risk of major adverse events in patients with biopsy-proven NASH," senior author Steven Nissen, MD. As the authors point out, obesity is the main pathophysiologic driver of NASH and weight loss — however achieved — is currently the primary treatment for NASH. "However, bariatric...

In a new USC study on the health effects of a low-calorie diet that mimics fasting in the body, researchers found regular five-day cycles of the diet in mice seemed to counteract the detrimental effects of their usual high-fat, high-calorie diet. The findings point to the potential of using a fasting-mimicking diet as "medicine," according to the researchers. A fasting-mimicking diet, or FMD, is a low-calorie diet that "tricks" the body into a fasting state. One group of mice ate a high-calorie, high-fat diet (with 60% of their calories from fat) and became unhealthy and overweight. A second group of...