6 Surprising benefits of Intermittent fasting
Intermittent fasting can bring a plethora of positive changes into your life. Here are 6 that you might not have known about!
Intermittent fasting can help repair your cells
When we fast, we remove food from our system for extenden periods of time.
This time without food is gold for your body, as it allows your cells to kick-start a whole range of processes that remove waste from your system, and promotes growth of new, healthy cells.
This is known as Autophagy, and it has shown to be correlated with a heightened resistance to diseases such as Cancer and many others.
Intermittent fasting can Prevent Alzheimers
Alzheimers is a very common neurodegenerative disease that lead to over 100.000 deaths every year in the US.
Studies in Rats have shown, that an intermittent fasting diet can reduce the likelihood of developing Alzheimers and the rats who did develop the disease had it milder than those on a traditional diet.
There is no cure for Alzheimers, so prevention is the best you can do, and intermittent fasting seems to work in animals, although it is still untested in humans.
Intermittent fasting can help you live longer
It has been shown that Intermittent fasting can reduce blood pressure and by extension, lead to a longer life.
The way this works scientists believe, is that fasting using for example the 16-8 or the 5-2 diet, switches the energy the body uses. The switch they discovered, is from glucose based energy to ketone based energy. This was linked to increased disease resistance, longevity and decreased prevalence of diseases.
Intermittent fasting is good for your heart
Your heart will thank you for starting and intermittent fasting diet. It helps on sleep apnea, which is linked to increased chances of heart disease. This may be because intermittent fasting has been shown to change the way your body metabolizes.
This means that sugar and cholesterol that build up as fat in your body get handler better while fasting. This is important, because high obesity is one of the greatest risk factors for heart disease.
Intermittent fasting can boost mental clarity
Ever feel clogged down, or “brain-fogged”? Intermittent fasting may be the solution you need. Fasting can reduce stresses on your brain, such as high blood sugar and oxidative stress. However, it can also help by boosting the growth of new nerve cells, which is the all important tissue your brain is built up of.
It may even help with depression, as it can boost the production of a brain hormone, that is known as brain-derived neurotrophic factor.
Intermittent fasting can lower your risk for type-2 Diabetes
To regulate its sugar levels, your body depends on what is called insulin. Diabetics become increasingly immune to this important hormone. Luckily, intermittent fasting has been shown to reduce the bodys level of cholesterol, and boost its resistance to insulin immunity. In this way, your body helps in two ways to prevent you from developing this disease.