Soltalk October 2019 | Page 42

HealthTalk
Doctor’s notes
Dr Rik Heymans is a general practitioner in Nerja and writes
on developments in the world of medicine
For most of us human beings, a growling stomach works like a
magnet drawing us to our refrigerator. However, for more and
more researchers and followers of intermittent fasting (the
practice of voluntarily abstaining from food and nonwater
beverages), hunger is something not to vanquish but rather to
embrace. From the beginning of Christianity - and also in
other beliefs, fasting has been practised and prescribed: did
Jesus not fast for 40 days in the desert (hence the practise of 40
days’ Lent). It was felt that, by leaving distractions like food
and drinks behind, one could focus better on God. Nowadays,
fasting has been shown to be an effective nonpharmacologic
strategy for counteracting some of the most entrenched
modern ailments, from cardiovascular disease and cancer to
diabetes and diminishing cognition.
regimens. The most popular fasting regimen is undoubtedly
the 5:2 diet, in which participants restrict themselves to
approximately 500-600 calories two days a week but eat as
they normally would for the remaining five days. It comes
garnished with all-important celebrity endorsements (for
example, Jimmy Kimmel and Benedict Cumberbatch) and
coverage in glossy magazines you would find at any grocery
shop checkout lane.
Other common regimens include time-restricted feeding (eat a
standard amount of calories, but only within a limited time
frame), alternate-day fasting (eating nothing one day, then
whatever you like the next), and periodic fasting (abstaining
from food and energy-containing beverages for continuous
days, sometimes stretching out to three weeks). Because there
have been no large randomized controlled trials comparing
these different regimens, the medical science cannot yet
establish superiority for any.
In the early 1990s my own science colleagues viewed fasting as
irrelevant, and it was largely ignored by the medical
community. Now things are changing very rapidly, and fasting
is the most widely adopted diet in those under the age of 34 in
the United States.
Proponents of fasting as a dietary intervention will probably
have little difficulty communicating why there might be
benefits to burning up the glucose in your system, and the
myriad negative health effects it may cause when poorly
regulated. However, they may find more resistance in
overcoming the common belief that fasting slows down
metabolic rates, which raises the question: if your body is
compensating for lack of food in this manner, wouldn’t this
simply offset or limit any advantages to be gained? In fact, this
long-standing assumption began to change toward the end of
the 20th century, when research emerged indicating that
fasting for durations of a few days had the opposite effect of
increasing metabolism.
"Intermittent fasting" is an admittedly vague umbrella term but
one that is nonetheless useful for describing a wide variety of
The full spectrum of physiologic mechanisms contributing to
increased metabolism during early food restriction is complex,
involving such factors as circadian rhythm and a small increase
in the fat-burning hormone norepinephrine.
The epidemic of obesity, and especially childhood obesity,
occurred in the past 40 years with the obligatory eating pattern
of three meals a day plus snacks. Clearly, that is not necessarily
a healthy eating pattern. If people can avoid overeating by
skipping meals, once they adapt to that, it can only be a good
thing.
Research on the brain came up with an even more
surprising finding: it was discovered that as a benefit of
fasting an improvement in cognition and brain function
occurred. There are abundant animal data showing that
fasting-related ketogenic states lead to cellular and
molecular adaptions in the brain that confer such benefits as
resistance to stress, injury, and disease. And, people who
fasted had a lower incidence of all types of cancers. This is
clearly demonstrated by the fact that obese people have
higher rates of cancers.
© Dr RIK HEYMANS
c/ Angustias 24, Nerja
Tel: [phone]
40