Researchers at the University of Southern California have published a landmark study to show that by providing a short, special fasting simulating diet for mice that promote the reprogramming of pancreatic cells that could not produce insulin, which again produced insulin and reduced I Type and type 2 diabetes, and this study also yielded similar results in cultured pancreatic cells from patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus.
The study was published in the Feb. 23 issue of Cell magazine, who led the study, says Valter Longo, dean of the University of Southern California Institute of Gerontology. "Our study is to push mice into an extreme State, and then make it bounce, that is, let them hungry, and then fed, so that the pancreas cells can occur some kind of reprogramming, restart this part no longer work before the organ.
Fasting simulated diet
Type I and advanced type II diabetes, the pancreas lost insulin-producing beta cells, resulting in unstable blood glucose levels. The latest study shows that if you have four days a week for a fasting simulated diet, can significantly reverse diabetes, which can promote healthy insulin production, reduce insulin resistance, even in the late disease, but also to show more Stable blood sugar levels.
Advice on fasting diet has been a long time, after some rodents and human related studies have shown that regular diet can reduce body fat and reduce insulin levels, but also bring other health benefits. The most popular intermittent fasting method in foreign countries is 5: 2Diet, which advocates normal eating in a week for 5 days, and in the remaining 2 days, the calorie is limited to 500-600. Another well-known method is Professor Longo and others invented fasting mimicking diet (FMD), that is, for most of the month, as much as possible intake of food they want, and then For 5 consecutive days the calorie intake is limited to 700 to 1100 per day.
Professor Longo initially developed a fasting simulated diet that was used as a side effect in reducing stress and preventing patients receiving chemotherapy from producing toxic side effects. Researchers later discovered that diets could be a way of inducing the body to slow down the body and regenerate new cells to "reactivate" the body. The researchers also found that expression levels of three key genes were reduced in fasting simulations: IGF1, TOR and PKA were associated with stress and senescence.
The Longo study group also published a paper in Science Translational Medicine. The researchers completed a randomized clinical trial. 71 volunteers followed a fasting simulated diet within three months, while the control group did not change their eating habits. Overall, dieters reduced the average by 2.6 kg while the control group remained unchanged. Restricted calories can also lower blood pressure, body fat and waist circumference.
Longo et al. Noted that the IGF1 (human insulin-like growth factor 1) content was plummeting in the restricted calorie group, which was able to promote the metabolic failure index of rodent and other animals with the highest risk of aging-related disease Also decreased, such as blood sugar levels and total cholesterol. The study group considered that the method of fasting the simulated diet was safe and feasible and could reduce the risk of aging associated with aging.
Reversal of insulin resistance
The latest study is a continuation of the study, Longo and others in the analysis of this diet can help patients suffering from or susceptible to aging-related diseases, found that IGF1, TOR and PKA three gene expression decreased, can make cell reprogramming , To the embryonic state, which has the potential to produce many different cell types. "During the start of the re-feeding of mice, we found that these embryoid-like cells began to produce beta cells," Longo said.
Researchers used two different diabetic mouse models to study the effects of diet. One is to carry mice that cause gene mutations that are resistant to insulin resistance and insulin secretion, and the other is mice that are damaged by the use of chemical substances. Researchers have adjusted the two model mice for three cycles of diet.
"From the medical point of view, these findings are very important, because we have found that at least in the mouse model, you can use the diet to reverse the symptoms of diabetes," Longo said, "from the basic point of view, these findings are more important, Because studies have shown that diets can be used to reprogram cells without any genetic changes. "In addition to studying the diabetic model of mice, the researchers also found that when human islet cells (from healthy donors and type I diabetes) A simulated diet that stimulates insulin production.
Clinical research
Longo et al. Also found that fasting also increased the expression of Ngn3 protein and accelerated insulin production in cells from patients with type I diabetes. Previous studies on diets also showed that fasting could alleviate the symptoms of multiple sclerosis in neurodegenerative diseases, Promote the efficacy of chemotherapy in cancer patients, reduce visceral fat. So this study group is currently trying to carry out more clinical trials.
"These findings have prompted the FDA to conduct a larger scale experiment on fasting simulating diets for human diabetes in patients with fasting, hoping to help these patients produce normal levels of insulin while improving insulin function." Diabetes may be approved by the FDA for fasting Simulating a diet, treating a few days a month, regaining control of insulin production and blood sugar, "Longo said.
At the same time Longo also said that these findings also contribute to other related diseases, "We want to analyze the system one by one to see how much the impact of this process on different types of cells."
History of fasting therapy
In our country, "the Yellow Emperor" has been on the diet, hunger therapy records, "Dream of Red Mansions" in many circumstances also made a detailed description of fasting treatment. In modern society, fasting therapy began in the eighteenth century in Europe. In 1911, Dr. Otto Bussinger of Germany, who had been fasted for cholecystitis and arthritis, had a cure, and after that, he set up a hospital for fasting treatment in nine years. A therapy.
According to the length of fasting different, divided into intermittent fasting therapy and complete fasting therapy two. Intermittent fasting therapy in patients with fasting every few days, complete fasting with 1 week or longer for a course of treatment. For safety reasons, complete fasting must be hospitalized and carried out under the supervision of experienced medical staff. During hospitalization through the detection of blood, urine to detect a variety of indicators, but also in the early through the enema to solve the problem of constipation.
On the fasting of the "miracle" seems to have happened, including skin diseases, rheumatism, gastrointestinal diseases and other incurable diseases, some people claim that through the fasting has been improved. But these cases are scattered, but also the lack of experimental basis, into today only as a story to listen to, it is difficult to convince people really believe.
To the modern, although there are many for fasting therapy research and case reports, but it can treat what specific diseases, still not fully validated, naturally there is no universally recognized by the medical profession. It is now certain that it can only be used to treat simple obesity, hyperlipidemia, and some patients with obesity in type 2 diabetes.
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