Fasting 2.0

Fasting has long been hailed as the secret weapon to halt aging. But can you guess the biggest hurdle to conducting large scale clinical trials on the matter? That’s right: compliance. Luckily a phase 2 study reported early this year in Science Translational Medicine shows promising results with “fasting-mimicking,” which calls for caloric restriction only 5 days out of the month. And according to this month’s JAMA feature, the benefits appear to go beyond the obvious ones that come with losing a few extra pounds. One way fasting may trip up Father Time (and malignant cell transformation for that matter) is through post-fasting stem cell activation, which works to rejuvenate cells turned-off during fasting. So enjoy your coffee and donuts a little extra this morning because we just gave another reason to break-fast.