Intermittent Fasting - A Path to Healthy Aging?

There’s a lot of noise on the internet these days about intermittent fasting (or IF, as the cool kids call it), which usually signals that it is another weight loss fad, soon to go the way of The Grapefruit Diet.  I’ve been skeptical about it too, but also intrigued, since proponents claim all kinds of health benefits - beyond fitting in to your skinny jeans. Some of it sounds too good to be true, so I dug a little deeper, and even tried it out myself to see if IF really delivers on all the promises.

So what is it, and why is it so great?  Basically, IF is an eating pattern in which you cycle between periods of eating and fasting, the length of each cycle differing depending upon the particular protocol you follow.  There are a few different ways to approach IF, with varying degrees of “difficulty.”  You could follow a daily cycle, as in the 16/8 protocol, in which you isolate all your eating to an 8 hour period – for instance, only eating between the hours of 10a and 6p; or you could follow a weekly cycle like the 5/2 protocol, where you eat normally for five days and severely limit caloric intake on two non-consecutive days.  Another protocol that seems to be generating a lot of interest is the Protein-Sparing Modified Fast (or PSMF), which is in essence just a very low calorie diet – under 800 calories a day – with the bulk of calories coming from protein. The variations are endless, but these three seem to have the most vocal supporters. 

What they all have in common is a promise to not just reduce body weight and percentage of body fat, but to lower blood glucose levels, decrease insulin resistance (a marker for diabetes), establish healthier cholesterol levels, and lower blood pressure – all states of disease that tend to pop up as we age and lose track of our health.  One   2012 study out of Laval University in Quebec, specifically looking at how IF affects body composition of post-menopausal women concludes that IF did all this within the first five weeks, pretty amazing results for just skipping dinner!

It turns out that when your body is in a fasting state, a series of molecular and cellular responses are set off:

·         Levels of Human Growth Hormone (HGH) increase as much as 5X.  This is the big one, because HGH is linked directly to the muscle loss and fat gain that so many of us experience as menopause (or just advanced age) sets in.  Most of the studies I found about HGH were about men only or a few with men and women both – none specifically about menopausal women - but the consensus is that boosting levels of HGH lead to increases in strength and decreases in fat mass for everyone. 

·         Cells enter into a state of repair and gene function alters to protect against disease and increase longevity.  Recent findings demonstrate that fasting may protect cells from carcinogens, slow existing cancer growths, and increase efficacy of certain cancer drugs; as well as regulating stress and insulin response, which leads to increased longevity.  

·         Inflammation in the brain is reduced, which has been linked to Alzheimer’s and other age-associated brain disorders.  This 2019 article examines the link.

·         Key markers of other types of inflammation are reduced, lowering risk for many chronic diseases.  Here is one especially interesting study on the link to risk for cardiovascular diseases.

This is enough for me to want to give it a try. 

I decided to go with the 16/8 protocol, as it seemed least disruptive to my lifestyle.  It’s funny though, as I got started you’d think that I was at risk of starving to death the way I worried about when my next meal was coming…. It took a couple weeks to get over that.  I didn’t do it every day, but 3-4 times a week; and it gets easier with practice.  Once I got over the initial “Help! I’m going to starve!” hump, I actually found myself LESS hungry each day, and as a result I did lose weight, and it didn’t feel like a huge effort.  I also felt very clear-headed and energized, but for some reason my ability to regulate my internal temperature was impaired on fasting cycle days – my hot flashes seemed much worse – this part was/is awful, I struggle with hot flashes.  I didn’t do a “before” blood panel specifically for comparison purposes, but looking at one that I did about 4 months before I started and one 3 months in, I can see that my glucose is down, though my total cholesterol is actually up. 

Here are the specifics:

·         Weight – decreased 7 lbs

·         Body Fat % - decreased 2%

·         Glucose – decreased 14.9 mg/dL

·         LDL – increased 4 mg/dL

·         HDL – increased 10 mg/dL

·         Total cholesterol – increased 13 mg/dL

 Obviously I still have some work to do to, especially around my cholesterol (I wonder what’s up with that?).  I will keep monitoring my numbers and see if I can make some headway.

Bottom line: if weight gain/metabolism are big concerns for you in your experience of menopause (or any stage of life), and if you are interested in a potential “fix” for some of the most common impediments to healthy aging, it might be worth trying.

I’d love to hear about your experience with intermittent fasting!