A healthy diet and regular exercise have been the number one recommendation for healing and managing diabetes. Now we can add to that one more task: fasting. Research is pointing to fasting as a way to help reduce insulin resistance and boost insulin production without medicine.
Truth or scam?
Fasting May Boost the Pancreas
Researchers recently explored the relationship between fasting and the pancreas. The pancreas uses special cells, called beta cells, to produce insulin. In a normally functioning body, the insulin helps convert glucose to energy.
In type 1 diabetes, the beta cells are destroyed by the immune system. As a result, the pancreas can no longer produce sufficient insulin. In type 2 diabetes, the body stop responding to insulin, becoming insulin resistant.
Researchers from the USC, MIT, and IFOM FIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology in Italy created a fasting program for mice with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. The mice received a four-day fast followed by 10 days of regular feeding. This schedule of fasting increased insulin production in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes as well as reduced insulin resistance.
Human Testing Still Needed
The results were promising and have certainly got a lot of people in the medical field considering the implications. We need to remember, though, that this study was conducted on mice in a very controlled environment.
If the research continues to show the same results, then it would add weight to Intermittent Fasting, another form of fasting that is often used to boost general health and metabolism.
It’s best to speak with your doctor before jumping into a self-directed fast!
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NHS Choices. URL Link. Accessed March 23, 2017.
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