Jane E. Brody, the Personal Health columnist for the NY Times recently posted an article in The Times on intermittent fasting, "The Benefits of Intermittent Fasting." The original title was "Intermittent Fasting, Its Benefits and Risks," and she does make an effort to discuss risks.
Apparently, Brody was prompted to write the article by inquiries she received from people about intermittent fasting after they read the December 26 article in the New England Journal of Medicine. We discussed the article on January 18. She confesses that she was initially skeptical of fasting, and so she interviewed Mark P. Mattson, a neuroscientist at the National Institute on Aging and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Mattson is a strong proponent of intermittent fasting, and we discussed his perspective in our post of January 10. The interview and the NEJM article appear to have persuaded her to take it seriously.
The NEJM article has certainly stirred a lot of interest!
Brody discusses something that has concerned me, and that is appropriateness for those at risk for eating disorders. She was interested in this, because she struggled with eating disorders when she was younger. (She acknowledges the risk, but doesn't have a prescription for these people fasting other than to say they should probably avoid it.)
Like the NEJM article, Brody came down on a daily fast of 16 or more hours, rather than eating normally for five days and fasting two whole days (the 5:2 plan). I've seen other doctors who say a 16 to 20 hour daily fast is best, depending on what condition you are trying to deal with, and plans like 5:2 are not a good idea. Dr. Eric Berg breaks down what type of fasting is appropriate for which condition you want to address. I was disappointed to hear him conclude that a full 20 hour fast is appropriate for Alzheimer's disease. (Maybe I missed it, but I'm not sure how he found that out.)
After a bumpy start, I have settled into an 18 hour daily fast, occasionally going the full 20 hours. As I mentioned before, I finish eating at 7 in the evening, and I don't eat again until 1 p.m. the next day. This has not been terribly difficult, because I consume relatively few carbohydrates when I do eat, and I'm just not hungry when I get up in the morning. The relatively low carbohydrate MIND diet prevents insulin spikes that encourage hunger.
I mentioned in our post of February 10 that I got new relief from arthritis pain in my neck when I started intermittent fasting, but I don't know if this is an actual connection or a coincidence. Other arthritis pains seem to be lower but have not gone away.
But what about cognition? Even subjectively, I can't say after this short time that there has been any improvement. My cognition will be tested again at Harborview this summer for the first time since 2018. I believe that, after four years of gradual improvement, I've had some erosion of cognition, beginning in April 2019. It hasn't been dramatic, and only I have been able to notice it -- or perhaps, out of anxiety, imagine it. So we'll see what happens this summer.
In my book, "Beating the Dementia Monster," I describe what has occurred since 2015 when I first knew I had memory problems. (You can find it on Amazon.com.) I have experienced remarkable improvement, and I’m certain that I can share valuable information with many others. In this second edition I continue my story to 2020 and provide greater understanding of how Alzheimer's advances and why what I did worked.
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