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If you are experiencing any of these situations, then try considering intermittent fasting.
Since becoming popular in recent years, intermittent fasting is a dietary approach that lots of individuals have been using in their healthy lifestyle. During the time of the hunter-gatherer society, people have used this method for centuries as a way of survival. Studies have been shown that people used it for medicinal purposes throughout history as a medicinal remedy. Ancient Rome, Greek and Chinese civilizations used intermittent fasting in their daily lives. Fasting has even been used for spiritual reasons in certain religions, like Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity as individuals use it as a way to reflect on themselves and be closer to their deities.
Fasting is where a person does not consume food or beverages at least for twelve hours during the day. When a person starts fasting, they will notice that their metabolism and their hormones will change in their bodies. There is upcoming research that intermittent fasting can promote amazing health benefits to the body. The health benefits that intermittent fasting provides are weight loss, protective effects in the brain, decreased inflammation and improving blood glucose and insulin levels in the body.
There are other methods of fasting that involves fasting from food for several days or weeks. With these different methods, they involve a shorter period that is between 16 to 24 hours. Several types of intermittent fasting are determined by the feeding window duration (when to eat the food) and the fasting window (when to avoid the food). Here are some of the other methods of fasting, which includes:
Intermittent fasting is the result of changes in the body as the hormone patterns and energy metabolism are being affected. Once a person finishes consuming food, the contents are being broken down and transforming into nutrients, so it can be absorbed into the digestive tract. What happens is that the carbohydrates are broken down and turn into glucose and absorb into the bloodstream, distributing it into the body’s tissue as the essential source of energy. The insulin hormone then helps regulate the blood glucose levels by signaling cells to take the sugars from the blood and turning into fuel for the body to function properly.
With intermittent fasting, a person is done with a meal and their glucose levels are depleted from the body. For the energy to meet its requirements the body has to break down the glycogen that is found in the liver and skeletal muscles causing gluconeogenesis. Gluconeogenesis is when the liver produces glucose sugars from non-carbohydrate sources in the body. Then once the insulin levels are low after 18 hours of fasting, a process called lipolysis begins. What lipolysis does is that the body begins to break down the fat components into free fatty acids. When there is a low quantity of glucose for the body to consume for energy, the body itself with start using fatty acids and ketones for energy. Ketosis is a metabolic state where liver cells start to help fatty acids breakdown and converting them into ketone acetoacetate and beta-hydro butyrate.
The muscle cells and neuron cells use these ketones to generate ATP (adenosine triphosphate) which is the main carrier for energy. Research has stated that the usage and availability of fatty acids combined with ketones as an energy replacement for glucose are beneficial for vital body tissues. This includes the heart, the liver, the pancreas, and the brain.
The four metabolic states are induced by fasting are referred to as the fast-fed cycle, and they are:
The physiological effect of intermittent fasting can also be achieved by following a ketogenic diet, which is very high fat and low carbohydrate diet. This diet’s purpose is to shift the body’s metabolic state into ketosis.
There are tons of research that have demonstrated how intermittent fasting has a wide variety of health benefits, including:
Studies have been shown that several proposed mechanisms are responsible for these health effects of intermittent fasting and have proven to be beneficial to a person’s lifestyle.
Intermittent fasting has been practiced for centuries and has gain popularity in recent years. It involves abstaining from consuming foods for at least 12 consecutive hours by turning the fat cells into energy for the body to function. The health benefits that intermittent fasting provides is beneficial for an individual who is trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Some products help provide support to the gastrointestinal system as well as making sure that sugar metabolism is at a healthy level for the body to function.
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic, musculoskeletal, and nervous health issues or functional medicine articles, topics, and discussions. We use functional health protocols to treat injuries or disorders of the musculoskeletal system. Our office has made a reasonable attempt to provide supportive citations and has identified the relevant research study or studies supporting our posts. We also make copies of supporting research studies available to the board and or the public upon request. To further discuss the subject matter above, please feel free to ask Dr. Alex Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900.
Dhillon, Kiranjit K. “Biochemistry, Ketogenesis.†StatPearls [Internet]., U.S. National Library of Medicine, 21 Apr. 2019, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493179/#article-36345.
Hue, Louis, and Heinrich Taegtmeyer. “The Randle Cycle Revisited: a New Head for an Old Hat.†American Journal of Physiology. Endocrinology and Metabolism, American Physiological Society, Sept. 2009, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2739696/.
Stockman, Mary-Catherine, et al. “Intermittent Fasting: Is the Wait Worth the Weight?†Current Obesity Reports, U.S. National Library of Medicine, June 2018, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5959807/.
Zubrzycki, A, et al. “The Role of Low-Calorie Diets and Intermittent Fasting in the Treatment of Obesity and Type-2 Diabetes.†Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology: an Official Journal of the Polish Physiological Society, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Oct. 2018, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30683819.
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The information herein on "Understanding Intermittent Fasting" is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional or licensed physician and is not medical advice. We encourage you to make healthcare decisions based on your research and partnership with a qualified healthcare professional.
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