Does fasting boost your immune system?

[Quagmire]

Spewing profanity definitely gives a lot of credibility to you and your fake science, buddy. Now I'm gonna take you seriously for sure

always happy to make new friends.

 

[stvdv]

I remember reading, quite recently, that if you drink aquarium cleaner you won't contract Covid19.
I don't believe everything I read on the internet.
Tom

But I do use my discrimination and brains, and I read what science has discovered. So fasting is scientifically proven to work in certain cases.

 

[Quagmire]

If fasting boosts your immune system, then why do so many starving people succumb to infectious illnesses that are easily shaken off by the people with a healthy diet?
Tom

Fasting and starving aren't the same thing. Starving is when you go so long without nourishment that the body starts eating itself.

And by the time someone is starving, they almost certainly have a long history of malnutrition.

 

[amorphous_constellation]

Intermittent Fasting Exacerbates the Acute Immune and Behavioral Sickness Response to the Viral Mimic Poly(I:C) in Mice

I don't seem to have the patience anymore to read things like that , maybe someday it will come back. The stress of life might tend to do that

I listened to this thing with joe rogan the other day with michael osterholm , at one point I think he said something about how the spanish flu killed 18-25 year olds, and I wonder why that was.. think he said something their immune system being too good in relation that specific virus, which seems odd.. Is this one different than that? it would be nice to converse with someone educated on that

 

[Quagmire]

A cpl links:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FjAMegQIBBAB&usg=AOvVaw1ML-2rQtWAxkI7y1EnwPR7

Nutrition and fasting mimicking diets in the prevention and treatment of autoimmune diseases and immunosenescence

 

[exchemist]

Its a well documented study by researchers at USC. Read the ****ing link before you start vomiting un-informed guesses

Bull****.

I read it. It seems to be a reprint of an article in the Daily Bozograph. Do you have a link to the paper?

I don't want to dismiss it, but I note the article itself says that other scientists in the field have expressed some scepticism about drawing too many conclusions from it. So I think one ought to be cautious.

 

[Quagmire]

I read it. It seems to be a reprint of an article in the Daily Bozograph. Do you have a link to the paper?

I don't want to dismiss it, but I note the article itself says that other scientists in the field have expressed some scepticism about drawing too many conclusions from it. So I think one ought to be cautious.

Hers something about the study from the universitie's website:

Fasting triggers stem cell regeneration of damaged, old immune system

*Edit: I'm assuming it's the same study based on the timeframe and topic.

 

[Quagmire]

Not to be redundant . . .

Fasting for 72 hours can reset your entire immune system (The Source) - USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology

 

[exchemist]

Hers something about the study from the universitie's website:

Fasting triggers stem cell regeneration of damaged, old immune system

*Edit: I'm assuming it's the same study based on the timeframe and topic.

Thanks, that's very interesting. The way I understand it, when you do the fasting the immune system is weakened. It is when the fasting comes to an end and you start eating again that the regeneration takes place.

So there could be benefits to this, but one would would need to be careful about when and where to do the fasting, since one is more susceptible to infection during the fasting phase.

 

[Rational Agnostic]

Here is a group of studies showing the opposite:

Research reveals not all fasting diets are created equal

From the article:

"While short-term fasting (less than 24 hours) did not compromise an animal’s ability to heal a wound or fight off infection, longer fasts did indeed begin to cause problems. When starved for 48 hours before skin injury or infection, significant immune response impairments were noticed."

"Juvenile mice displayed significant immune system impairments after repeated 36-hour fasting stretches. In these young mice fasting seemed to have a detrimental effect on their immune system, exacerbating metabolic dysfunction and promoting allergic responses."

 

[exchemist]

Here is a group of studies showing the opposite:

Research reveals not all fasting diets are created equal

From the article:

"While short-term fasting (less than 24 hours) did not compromise an animal’s ability to heal a wound or fight off infection, longer fasts did indeed begin to cause problems. When starved for 48 hours before skin injury or infection, significant immune response impairments were noticed."

"Juvenile mice displayed significant immune system impairments after repeated 36-hour fasting stretches. In these young mice fasting seemed to have a detrimental effect on their immune system, exacerbating metabolic dysfunction and promoting allergic responses."

This is not in conflict, actually. See post 29.

 

[Quagmire]

Still looking for the actual paper, but in the meantime, reference to the study has shown up in quite a few places.

Can A 3-Day Fast Reset Your Immune System?

 

[Unveiled Artist]

Fasting and starving aren't the same thing. Starving is when you go so long without nourishment that the body starts eating itself.

And by the time someone is starving, they almost certainly have a long history of malnutrition.

What's the difference?

Both you're going without food. Just the morals and intent are different. Fasting for religious reasons and just not taking food just because has the same results.

 

[Quagmire]

What's the difference?

Duration.

 

[exchemist]

What's the difference?

Both you're going without food. Just the morals and intent are different. Fasting for religious reasons and just not taking food just because has the same results.

Biologically, i.e. metabolically, they are different, or so I understand. When you fast, your body can run on its batteries for a bit. Starving is when the batteries are used up and the body resorts to consuming other important parts of itself to survive.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

Duration.

How so? Both starve the body regardless the duration.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

Biologically, i.e. metabolically, they are different, or so I understand. When you fast, your body can run on its batteries for a bit. Starving is when the batteries are used up and the body resorts to consuming other important parts of itself to survive.

Hm. That would mean if someone fasted for a long time, it would turn into starvation?

More of using it as a verb -starving the body rather a noun, when the body has already depleted food and is then starved.

 

[Quagmire]

How so? Both starve the body regardless the duration.

No, they don't.

At any given time a person's body has a reserve of fat and glucose, enough to live on for days.

Starving takes effect once the bodies energy stores are depleted and the body starts breaking down its own tissue to feed itself.

More precisely: the body starts breaking down muscle tissue in order to feed the vital organs.

 

[exchemist]

Hm. That would mean if someone fasted for a long time, it would turn into starvation?

More of using it as a verb -starving the body rather a noun, when the body has already depleted food and is then starved.

Yes that's right. As @Quagmire says, you have fat and also glycogen (mainly in the liver I think) which are long-term and medium-term batteries (I think it's that way round but I could be wrong). Our ancestors did not get 3 square meals a day, so these batteries were presumably pretty crucial when we first evolved.

In fact, one could make a speculative case for saying it is modern life that is unnatural, as it does not put these battery systems through their paces enough. But the research does seem to show the immune system is depressed by fasting, so it may not aways be a good idea to do it. Now, for instance, would be a really crap time to start!

(When my doctor brother heard I had got Covid-19 last week, his advice was to make sure I ate a full English breakfast, to keep my immune system up - and to stay off the booze, as that depresses it. I didn't quite manage the full English but I made sure I kept eating healthily)

 

[columbus]

you have fat and also glycogen (mainly in the liver I think) which are long-term and medium-term batteries (I think it's that way round but I could be wrong). Our ancestors did not get 3 square meals a day, so these batteries were presumably pretty crucial when we first evolved.

So tell me how running down those "batteries" boosts your immune system.
That's a couple of OP's, now.

Depriving your body of nutrients, by not eating, will improve your immunological response to pathogens.

I believe that about as much as I think drinking bleach will improve your resistance to Covid19.

It said so on the internet, so it must be true.
Right?
You can't say things that aren't true on RF.
Right?


Oh wait....
Tom