Adipose Stem Cells and Fasting
“Fasting is the greatest remedy, the physician within”-Paracelsus
While they probably would have had their differences, one thing that Plato, Jesus, Mohammed, and Gandhi would have agreed on is the beneficial nature of fasting. Although fasting is viewed by many as little more than a religious practice or something that we have to do before surgery, it is becoming evident within science as well as the health community that when we eat is just as important as what we eat. While a “healthy diet and exercise” is the most effective form of preventative medicine at our disposal to date, it seems as if abstaining from food, fasting if you will, can be medicinal under some circumstance . Because of these findings and experiences, fasting is making a resurgence and it is quite common in modern day to see and meet people that are dabbling with micro-fasting with a great deal of success.
However, we are also seeing a rise in popularity in water fasting where some people take this a step further and only drink water for weeks at a time. This is not because they’re religious wonks though, but instead because fasting is a completely natural, empirically verifiable, and has been one of our best means of combatting various diseases of civilization for thousands of years; hence it’s staying power and prominence throughout religion. This includes but is not limited to autoimmune disorders, cancer and chemo symptoms, depression, addiction, and obesity, many of which stem from poor diet and health, but also anti-aging along with improvements to strength, endurance, and muscle building for those that are fasting strategically. How can this be?
Before anything else, it’s important to acknowledge that we didn’t evolve around refrigerators or having an abundant supply of food. The notion of a refrigerator full of food or even having a place where we can have it prepared for us is relatively new from the perspective of our physical evolution. In fact, the complexity of our existence plus our ability to store energy for days that we have to go without sustenance is indicative of the scarcity of food created by competition, not abundance. If we had an abundant supply of food for instance, then we simply would not have been necessary to evolve into the complex beings that we are today, let alone have the ability to store fat and go without food for 20+ days without much of an issue provided that there is still access to water. Simply put, we can tell by our ability to store and burn fat that our rate of food intake evolved in a manner that enables us to take advantage of fluctuations in the availability of food. We’re designed to burn fat, specifically our own, it’s an advantage.
As stated before, there are other ancillary benefits from fasting; far beyond that of weight loss. For example, mice and humans that fast prior to chemotherapy treatments exhibit significantly better results while it appears that fasting has an adverse effect on cancer cells. Those dealing with autoimmune and GI disorders see all matter of benefits from fasting. People dealing with type 2 diabetes have also experienced a complete reversal after fasting, but to be fair, result similar results have been seen with low-calorie ketogenic diets. Also and although it only seems to offer a temporary reprieve, people dealing with various forms of arthritis also experience relief during and after fasting, but others have also garnered similar results by switching to vegan based diets. Fasting has even been shown to help with depression and other mental health disorders. Most, if not all of these aforementioned benefits are just some of the major albeit woefully understudied benefits of fasting which is why it is emerging as more popular means of treating many of these conditions and the list just keeps getting larger.
But while the benefits of fasting are becoming foolish to deny, this begs the question of how it is possible for us to accomplish any of this. While fat loss is a logical consequence of fasting, how can starving ourselves foster so many benefits to our physical and mental health that we could not dream of with even the best diet? How can going without food, the focal point of health, benefit us so immensely? How can fasting aid us in manners that regenerative medicine could only dream of accomplishing with a pill? Is it possible that all of the religions practicing this for thousands of years may have gotten something right? Breathe dude…
Without diving too far into the physiology of fasting (there is plenty of literature about this for those that are curious), when we’re in a fasted state, our bodies simply resort to our adipose tissue, fat cells if you will, for fuel instead of the fuel we would derive from our diet otherwise. We don’t just waste away from fasting or die from starvation while having ample supplies of fat and muscle and I have yet to hear of an obese person starving to death. Even someone that isn’t obese can expect to live an average of 40 days without food. Obviously using fat as a fuel source can cause us to burn fat rapidly and consequently cause us to lose weight, but the loss of weight alone cannot consolidate the aforementioned benefits of fasting, so what else is going on with our fat?
For now, it’s anyone’s game. But strictly hypothetically, we may be wise to remember that many of these aforementioned diseases of civilization also happen to be rather popular focuses in the field of regenerative medicine. While many in the health community are opting to treat these aforementioned ailments with fasting and have been for thousands of years, regenerative medicine is approaching many of these same problems a different way with experimental stem-cell treatments. Some researchers are even going as far as harvesting fetuses and adipose tissue left over from liposuction procedures in the pursuit of a source of non-invasive stem cells in order to compete with the stem cells obtained from our bone marrow.
Wait a minute though. Backup. Liposuction? Adipose Tissue? Stem Cells?
Curiously enough, it is not even argued in science that our own adipose tissue, fat cells if you’re into that whole brevity thing, are a rich source multipotent Mesenchymal Stem Cells; aka the good shit. While correlation ≠ causation, when looking for a source of some mysterious agent operating within our fat cells to consolidate the advantages that we see from fasting, it would be foolish to ignore the fact that stem cell treatments from adipose tissue and fasting have an eerily similar effect on us. However, when considering that our own fat cells are often the very source of these artificial stem cell treatments on top of all of this, it would be an act of pure buffoonery not to consider the possibility of our body having the capacity to treat itself with stem cells.
If this is found to have merit, one might think that this would be quite embarrassing for the field of regenerative medicine. But given that they are in the business of harvesting dead fetuses and liposuction nectar, I’m not entirely sure if they have the emotions requisite of embarrassment; similar to that of a politician or a stud moose in heat. Then again, it is painfully difficult for me to believe that this field is ignorant to fasting given their level of education, especially when considering how much money they stand to make from treatment as opposed to prevention, let alone telling people to starve themselves.
If true, then such a realization is most definitely a feather in the cap of the notion of respecting our elders. Rather than adding any religious connotation to this though, we should consider fasting as an aspect of human history as opposed to validation/refutation of religion given that this practice spans many religions throughout history, many without inference. At the same time though, ignorance nor death is good enough of a reason to strip someone of their dignity and write them off in entirety and if our elders have left such gems hiding in plain sight for us, we may be remiss if we didn’t keep our minds opens and at least consider what wisdom they have to offer us; stay sharp though.
Thankfully, not all scientists, doctors, and researchers are in it for the money and some are beginning to catch on. Hypothetically and in order to prove this either way, we would simply have to find a way to measure the amount of stem cells actively in our system when we’re fueling ourselves with a traditional diet then compare these levels to when we’re in a fasted state, similar to how we measure the density of ketone bodies our urine. If we were to find that a fasted state necessitated higher levels mesenchymal stem cells than is the case with a traditional diet consistently in a group of test subjects, then such a hypothesis could be moved to a theory as it would have empirical support or fall flat on its face if this is not the case.
Although it’s easy to see how fasting could just be a practice lost to the ages, there are atually more people doing it now than ever before. Modern validation for fasting as well as the independent notion of the benefits of fasting being facilitated by stem cells is becoming stronger day by day and it is only a matter of time before this is confirmed or refuted by someone much more capable than myself. Regardless of the underlying mechanisms behind fasting though, be it stem cells, <insert woo-woo here>, or anything in between, it’s difficult to deny the benefits of fasting in the information age or its role within our culture given the influence it has had on prominent figures throughout history.
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