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New study from USC that fasting can regenerate damaged immune system!

Jonathan Edwards

"Gibberish"
Messages
5,256
Of course I can't read the actual paper due to the paywall, but that doesn't seem like what they're talking about. It looks like they're saying aging or chemotherapy leads to a bias of those types of cells (myeloids) and fasting then refeeding triggers hematopoietic regeneration of lymphoid line cells which would improve immunity. Perhaps the mention of autoimmune disease in the article was a bit sensationalist, but again I can't read the whole paper.

The news release itself is pretty hard to decipher. I agree that the abstract on the journal site seems to indicate that at least in mice fasting shifts production to 'balanced' rather than myeloid - which I guess might mean B cell production catching up with neutrophils. But I find it hard to see much relevance except to heavy duty chemotherapy in humans. I would have thought that any fall off in lymphocyte based immunity in old age was due to die off of T cell clones, since these are mostly generated up to the age of about 20. Stimulating bone marrow stem cells would not change that as far as I can see. There seem to be an awful lot of different experiments packed into one paper and presented in a rather unclear way with rather vague diagrams.
 

ahmo

Senior Member
Messages
4,805
Location
Northcoast NSW, Australia
I've just completed a 3 day water fast. I thought I wouldn't undertake this, once I'd gotten such excellent results adding FMN form of B2 to my life. Then I thought it might possibly reset something relating to my recently creeping weight gain. This is the close of my second day post-fast. I really didn't enjoy the process, I became progressively enervated. I wasn't really hungry, just unhappy and fed-up.

Something in this process has finally knocked out my ongoing high peroxynitrite production. I'm finally not only not taking the extra antioxidant supps, which the FMN made unnecessary, but now I no longer need the extra carrots and omega-6 fats that had been so helpful in relieving my symptoms. And my endurance today has been uncommonly good. :balanced::balloons:
 

Little Bluestem

All Good Things Must Come to an End
Messages
4,930
I became interested in fasting years ago, long before I knew I had ME, and read up on the subject. I learned that people with hypoglycemia, such as myself, should fast only under a doctor's care. So no fasting for me.

I learned that one should start with a one-day fast, then extend future fasts based on the reaction to the previous. I also learned that the pre-fast and post-fast are as important as the fast. @Revel might benefit from a proper post-fast.