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16.04.2023

Combining caloric restriction and part-time fasting aligned to circadian rhythm extends lifespan by 35 percent

Limiting your calorie intake can extend your lifespan. That effect becomes even greater in combination with intermittent fasting. And if you also take your day-night rhythm into account when designing your intermittent fasting protocol, you could just get very, very old.

Study
Researchers at the University of Texas published an animal study in Science in 2022 in which they fed 6 groups of male C57BL/6J mice in different ways for life.

A first group [AL] was allowed to eat as much and whenever they wanted. This was the control group. The mice in the other 5 groups received 70 percent of the food consumed by the mice in the AL group. The mice in these 5 groups were thus exposed to caloric restriction.

The feeding pattern of the mice in the CR spread group was simple. The animals received a little feed every hour and thus ate throughout the day. The mice in the other 4 groups only received food for a fixed period of time. These animals were thus not only exposed to caloric restriction, but also to intermittent fasting.

The researchers experimented with 4 different intermittent fasting schedules.

Two groups of mice ate for 12 hours every day. One group was fed during the day [CR-day-12h], the other at night [CR-night-12h].

Two other groups ate for 2 hours every day. One group was fed during the day [CR-day-2h], the other at night [CR-night-2h].

Results
The mice in the CR spread group that ate 30 percent less than mice normally eat lived 10 percent more than normal. If the researchers combined caloric restriction with part-time fasting, the life-prolonging effect doubled. The mice lived 20 percent longer.

Whether the mice were allowed to eat for 2 or 12 hours a day didn't really matter. One factor was whether the part-time fasting window was open at night or during the day. If the mice ate at night, they lived no less than 35 percent longer than normal. [Figure]

The researchers used genomics technology. In doing so, you map out all changes in genetic activity. This results in stimulating and complex figures with fresh colors, which usually explain little. They are, however, extremely suitable for raking in money for follow-up research while you have no idea which mechanism of action you are dealing with exactly.

The authors also do not know exactly how the form of part-time fasting they have tested extends life. They mumble something about inflammatory genes and, of course, then call for more research.

Extrapolation
If you are going to translate these results to humans, you have to take into account that mice are nocturnal animals and humans are not. In humans, the part-time fasting window should be open during the day.

Another relevant difference between humans and mice is that the metabolism of mice is considerably higher than that of humans. A 12-hour intermittent fasting window may therefore be life-prolonging in mice, but may be too long for humans to be effective.

Source:
Science. 2022 Jun 10;376(6598):1192-202.

More:
Eating time restriction makes you healthier 17.12.2019
After twenty years of type-2 diabetes, patients no longer need insulin thanks to intermittent fasting 16.10.2018
Early evening meal protects against cancer 24.07.2018

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