Study Shows Intermittent Fasting May Prevent Alzheimer’s

Intermittent fasting may sound like another diet fad but researchers have conclusively found that this diet practice results in increased efficiency of autophagy. This, in turn, may potentially help protect the brain from age-related diseases like Alzheimer’s, which is an increasingly common problem in the world. Alzheimer’s refers to the most prevalent form of dementia which affects your memory, thinking and behaviour. According to the World Health Organisation, people with Alzheimer’s are likely to triple in number by 2050. Despite being a serious health problem, Alzheimer’s remains relatively an understudied medical condition.

The findings of the study highlight the correlation between autophagy and the death of brain cells with age. It also helps identify potential therapeutic benefits of interventions that target this function. Intermittent fasting is a diet approach that regulates food intake by changing the periods of fasting and eating. There are two different types of intermittent fasting. Time-restricted eating is when the food is consumed within a specific window of time every day. While alternate-day fasting is when an individual is consuming restricted amounts of food every other day.

So far, intermittent fasting has been studied in context to hypertension, diabetes, and other related conditions, but not as a strategy to reduce the risk of dementia.

As per the study, intermittent fasting can improve the process of autophagy. It is a process that breaks down and recycles injured or unrequired cellular components including organelles and toxic proteins. Sometimes autophagy doesn’t function properly which causes a build-up of harmful proteins or cellular components from body cells, which leads to several age-related diseases. The study discovered that by making the process of autophagy more efficient, one can maintain the removal of toxic proteins, even when ageing. Vascular dysfunction plays a pivotal role in Alzheimer’s disease pathology. On the other hand, intermittent fasting promotes vascular health.

The observations lead to a conclusion that intermittent fasting over a time period may “potentially reverse or delay the pathological process in Alzheimer’s disease.” These findings also serve as a basis for future research that examines the effect of different fasting regimens on brain health.