Fasting & Stem Cells, a Hypothesis
Introduction
The benefits of fasting are not a hypothetical or even theoretical notion, but a fact that predates modern science and even the Greek Philosophy that science is built upon. Although the act of fasting is traditionally associated with ancient religious practices or preparations for surgery, the health benefits stemming from it are undeniable and it is making a resurgence throughout the medical and health community as a result of this. As such and while much of our health and diet is incredibly subjective and personal journey in itself, it is become more evident that when we eat is on equal footing to what we eat.
By simply not eating and resorting only to water, our own bodies can accomplish all matter of things that make efforts of doctors on the forefront of regenerative medicine look rather primitive; no offense intended. Much like hot and cold therapy for various ailments, it is readily verifiable that partaking in the polar extremes of healthy eating and controlled fasting within our own diet can work wonders on our own health. Because of this, fasting is making the aforementioned resurgence throughout various health communities and the notion of when we eat as being just as important as what we eat is becoming more popular every day. Further, people are even turning to fasting as a means of addressing all matter of physical and mental ailments that modern medicine cannot achieve alone.
From micro-fasting or time-restricted eating where people will only eat between a small window during the day to water fasting for weeks at a time, people are seeing a wide range of benefits that cranks like “Dr. Oz” or any other snake oil salesman could only dream of. While one’s reasoning for fasting as well as the advantages that they experience from it may vary, this is because there is a broad spectrum of benefits ranging from increased strength, endurance, and shorter recovery times to anti-aging, addiction, depression, gastrointestinal issues, autoimmune disorders such as arthritis, Crohns, and diabetes, as well as cancer and chemo symptoms; and this is just the short list albeit a wide one.
But how does all of this work? What mechanisms make this possible within us? How can food be our medicine while the absence of food appears to be medicinal just the same? Despite the feathers in the cap of fasting, to this day there is still not a functional explanation as to why fasting itself can have such a profound and wide-ranging effect on us that even the best diet alone could not achieve. However, given that it was recently discovered that our own adipose tissue, fat if you will, is a rich source of multipotent mesenchymal stem cells, and that this same rich source of stem cells happens to be our primary fuel source when we’re in a fasted state, it is my hypothesis that our own stem-cells give us an explanation for benefits of fasting while highlighting that our body has its own natural ability to treat itself with stem cells residing within it.
In section one, we will dive into a brief history of fasting and the medicinal benefits of human fat which are being pursued to this very day; corpse medicine ugh. In section two, we will address the hypothesis of stem cells rationalizing the benefits of fasting. In section three, we will explore how to prove or disprove this hypothesis and will call it a wrap in section 4.
Much like animal breeders, farmers, or engineers prior to the advent of genetics, chemistry, biology, botany, and thermodynamics, we as human beings occasionally figure out how to take advantage of aspects of nature long before we can actually explain them. Although we have made up significant ground in these fields, some aspects of nature, including our own, perplex us to this day although we cannot deny their advantages. One such perplexion is the medicinal and therapeutic value of human fat by virtue of fasting, but also by vice by harvesting it from corpses and others for its medicinal purposes.
Although many do not make the correlation, the benefits that we see from fasting are a result of our body resorting to its fat cells for fuel as opposed to food in our diet; this is not the mysterious aspect of fasting. While our elders throughout various religions didn’t call it out specifically, the benefits resulting from fasting weren’t a result of starvation itself, but a result of their fat being used as their primary source of fuel instead. Further and between the 16th and the 19th century though, it was even discovered that the fat from another human, often executed criminals, had medicinal properties as well. As such, the question shouldn’t be why fasting itself is good for us and instead more of a question of what exactly is in our fat that makes it so advantageous for us regardless of whether we’re in a fasted state or using it medicinally.
Making matters more interesting, it was recently discovered at MIT that fasting happens to boost the regenerative capacity of some stem cell treatments. Although, I am forced to wonder how fasting would compare to fasting + stem cell treatments and stem cell treatments without fasting just to see where it falls in line. On top of this, it was also recently discovered at USC that fasting prior to chemo can improve the survival of mice dosed with human levels of radiation and has gone on to be proven to be true among humans. This isn’t some woo-woo mystic or some ancient grave robber selling us on fat, these are highly respected doctors and researchers.
But how can this be? Necessity.
While many of our evolutionary adaptations seem to be focused on our ability to compete for food and breeding rights, it’s important to remember that the notion of refrigerator, cultivation, let alone three meals a day, are all relatively new concepts on the scale of human existence. As such and up until recently, our bodies, as well as our psyche had to learn how to deal with the scarcity of food, hence why we have the ability to create and store fat in the first place. Like a river to a rock over eons, we were streamlined over time by evolution to be maximally efficient just as they are rounded over the ages and the situations that we were streamlined for long bouts of not having access to food; starvation if you will. In other words, we evolve towards necessity and the fat that we store had to become highly advantageous for our purposes, which again brings us back to the question of what exactly is in our fat; autophagy won’t cut it by itself.
However, science may have found our answer to the riddle of what is in our fat in 2002 when it was discovered that our fat tissue was a rich source of multipotent mesenchymal stem cells that are ideal for various forms of treatment; many of which mirror the claims made about fat by doctors in the 1500’s. Curiously though, the act of fasting, the thing that our most important meal of the day is named after nor the pioneers in the study of fat were mentioned in their findings. To make matters worse, other researchers have suggested resorting back to cannibal/corpse medicine so to speak by suggesting that we harvest stem cells from fat left over from liposuction and dose others, which just seems extreme given our natural ability; but this hasn’t stopped clinics from opening up.
Regardless of who discovered what though, the existence of stem cells ideal for all matter of ailments in our fat tissue simply cannot be ignored when investigating the question of what resides in our fat cells that can have such a profound impact on our health and livelihood. Why on earth should we be stooping to such lows as liposuction juice and umbilical cord buffets for stem cells when we can all simply go without for a bit and achieve an even better result than we could with stem cells harvested through these questionable means in the first place? Not to imply that this is the case, but such approaches simply do not make sense unless the goal is to monetize a cure as opposed to informing people that they are their own cure and this philosophy is rather prominent throughout medicine at the moment; just ask most primary doctors about nutrition these days if you don’t believe me, they’ll defer to a dietician as they lack the time.
Logically speaking and strictly hypothetically, if the benefits from (A) Fasting = (B) Medicinal Fat, and the benefits from ©Adipose Stem Cell Treatments = (B) Medicinal Fat, then (A) Fasting = ©Adipose Stem Cell Treatments and we can easily confirm that there is overlap between all three at the very least. However, given MIT’s findings, we should not expect complete alignment as stem cells harvested from fat may only be able to be fully capitalized on when we are in a fasted or ketosis state. Regardless and again, strictly hypothetically, the benefits that we see from fasting can be correlated to stem cells from several angles, far beyond the realm of allegory, and the relationship between the two must be inferred in lieu of a better explanation. As such and hypothetically, albeit a strong one, stem cells residing in our adipose tissue, our primary fuel source while in a fasted state, are the reason that fasting benefits us in such a manner.
Given the fact that our fat is a rich source of mesenchymal stem cells and that we as humans have been using our own fat medicinally for hundreds if not thousands of years before even knowing what stem cells or cells were for that matter, it almost seems silly to have to hypothesize about their relationship, let alone prove the hypothesis of stem cells being at the root of fasting. However, even in this regard correlation does not equal causation and by itself, this hypothesis is anything between allegorical and non-sequitur until proven. As such, actual proof will have to be found in order to prove the existence of stem cells playing a functional role in fasting.
Pretending for a moment that we couldn’t, you know, just get a measure of the stem cells in the blood of test subjects before, during, and after being in a fasted state for a week, we should be able to repeat the studies done at MIT and USC, only modify them slightly. In the case of MIT showing that fasting boosting the regenerative effects of stem cell treatments, we should simply add a fasted control group to compare the result in between the groups that were treated with stem cells, those that fasted before treatment, and those that did not fast or receive stem cell treatment. In order to have standing, it would have to be shown that fasting overshadows the results seen in the group that received treatment without fasting while paralleling the results shown when compared to the results seen in the group that both fasted and received stem cell treatment.
With regard to Victor Longo’s study at USC, we should find that mice treated with adipose stem cells from humans, similar to the work done bay Dang LT and Bui AN, should fall in between the results shown in mice that fasted prior to chemotherapy and mice that did not fast or receive stem cell treatments prior to chemotherapy. If this is truly the case, then said hypothesis should be able to be moved to the realm of theory; obviously on top of actually *looking* at our blood for elevated levels of stem cells while in a fasted state.
“Fasting is the greatest remedy, the physician within”-Paracelsus
In summary, Paracelsus was not wrong for calling fasting the physician within. We simply cannot ignore the fact that our primary fuel source while in a fasted state happens to be rich in stem cells just as we wouldn’t ignore a hyperactive Geiger counter when trying to root out a cancer epidemic; it’s not a guarantee, but it’s a hell of a correlation none the less. Although it is not worthy of theory as of yet, a strong hypothesis can be made for the stem cells residing within our own fat cells being at the root of the benefits seen from fasting; at least in part. After all, how ironic would it be that our best means of combatting all matter of diseases of civilization happens to be fasting and simply abstain from the very things in our diet that are causing many of these diseases; go figure.
Further:
