Abstaining from food could trigger white blood cell regeneration. White blood cells help the body fight off infection.
It’s often used as a quick weight loss method – but fasting could also help the body to fight off disease.
Refraining from food for as little as two days can regenerate the immune system, helping the body to fight infection, according to a new study.
These findings could have major implications for the elderly and people suffering from damaged immune systems, such as cancer patients. Long periods of not eating significantly lowered white blood cell counts.
Each cycle of fasting then “flipped a regenerative switch” that triggered stem cell-based regeneration of new white blood cells, thereby renewing the body’s defence system.
It gives the OK for stem cells to go ahead and begin proliferating and rebuild the entire system and the body gets rid of the parts of the system that might be damaged or old, the inefficient parts, during the fasting.
If you start with a system heavily damaged by chemotherapy or aging, fasting cycles can generate, a new immune system.
Fasting reduces levels of the enzyme PKA, an effect which is known to increase longevity in simple organisms, as well as levels of the hormone IGF-1, which has been linked to ageing, tumour progression and cancer risk.
“Fasting for a 72-hour period prior to
chemotherapy protected patients against toxicity.”
While chemotherapy saves lives, it causes significant collateral damage to the immune system.
Fasting may mitigate some of the harmful effects of chemotherapy.
Researchers are now carrying out further studies to investigate the link between diet and stem cell regeneration. It could not be predicted that prolonged fasting would have such a remarkable effect in promoting stem cell-based regeneration of the hematopoietic system.
