For hundreds of years, some people figured out that fasting can be helpful not only spiritually but also for your physical health. Various studies confirm the enormous benefits of fasting nowadays.
SciTechDaily speaks about a new study on mice that grants a lot of hope for humans. Researchers from Imperial College London have now discovered that fasting can lead to the production of the 3-Indolepropionic acid (IPA) metabolite getting increased by the gut bacteria. IPA is needed for regenerating nerve fibers called axons. While fasting works on mice, it might work on humans as well one day. Clostridium sporogenesis is the name of the bacteria that produce IPA, and it can be found in both humans and the little rodents.
No treatment for nerve damage is currently available except for surgery
Only half of the mice who took part in the experiment went through intermittent fasting, which means that they ate as much as they wanted on some days and did not eat at all on other days. The rest of the rodents were free to eat as much as they wanted without any fasting.
Simone Di Giovanni from Imperial’s Department of Brain Sciences, the author behind the new study, explained as SciTechDaily quotes:
There is currently no treatment for people with nerve damage beyond surgical reconstruction, which is only effective in a small percentage of cases, prompting us to investigate whether changes in lifestyle could aid recovery,
Intermittent fasting has previously been linked by other studies to wound repair and the growth of new neurons – but our study is the first to explain exactly how fasting might help heal nerves.
Nerve damage, which is also known as peripheral neuropathy, will, in most cases, affect nerves in the person’s arms, feet, and hands.
The new research was published in Nature.
