Intermittent Fasting – It’s Not Just for Weight Loss!
Each new year brings fresh proclamations about the best ways to lose weight and get healthier. There’s a lot of hype around extreme diets that have little research to support them, but an article published in December 2019 in The New England Journal of Medicinesuggests that one popular approach — intermittent fasting (IF) — may be worth considering.
“Research findings suggest that there are many changes that occur in the body and brain in response to IF that can improve health and protect against chronic diseases,” says study coauthor Mark Mattson, PhD, a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.
“[Benefits] include improved glucose regulation, reduced blood pressure and resting heart rate, reduced inflammation, and improved muscle health,” Dr. Mattson says.
In the article, researchers examined results from studies in animals and humans that focused on how IF may impact health markers such as metabolism and how IF may slow or reverse aging and disease.
Excerpted from Everyday Health
