Intermittent fasting may improve the regenerative capacity of intestinal stem cells, but it has also been found to increase the risk of colon cancer, like two sides of a coin.
Intermittent fasting, which involves eating only during a limited period of time and fasting the rest of the time, has become one of the most popular diet methods in recent years. In addition to weight loss, research has supported the intermittent fasting craze by showing that it has health benefits such as improving blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and insulin sensitivity. On the other hand, there have been conflicting research results recently showing that it can be detrimental to health, such as increasing the risk of death from cardiovascular disease.
While research on the effects of intermittent fasting on metabolism is still lacking, a research team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States conducted an experiment on mice to find out how intermittent fasting affects intestinal stem cell regeneration.
Intestinal stem cells are among the most active cells in the body, dividing rapidly to replace the lining of the intestine every five to ten days. Cell renewal is beneficial to the intestine. The problem is that this rapid division makes intestinal stem cells one of the largest sources of precancerous cells that can develop into cancer in the future.
The research team observed three groups of mice. The first group fasted for 24 hours and then continued to starve. The second group fasted for 24 hours and then had unlimited access to food for the next 24 hours. The third control group was fed ad libitum throughout the experiment.
A study published in the journal Nature found that cells from mice that ate food after fasting for 24 hours multiplied the fastest.
In an interview with medical news outlet Medical News Today, the research team explained, “Intestinal stem cells are cells that play a role in replenishing the intestinal epithelium during normal physiology and after injury. As we found in the radiation model used in this paper, refeeding (after fasting) is very beneficial for intestinal tissue regeneration, especially in damaged tissue, by enhancing the regenerative capacity of these cells.”
In another experiment, the researchers activated a gene that can cause cancer, increasing the risk of developing tumors in mice. When the experiment was repeated in three groups, the mice that ate after fasting had a much higher risk of developing precancerous polyps in their intestines than those that ate normally or only fasted. In addition, cancer-related mutations that occurred during refeeding were more likely to develop into precancerous polyps than those that occurred during fasting.
“Fasting followed by feeding leads to a surge in stem cell-driven regeneration, and if these regenerated stem cells are exposed to genetic mutations, they may be at increased risk of developing cancer,” Professor Eamon Laird of Atlantic Technological University Sligo in Ireland, who was not involved in the study, told Medical News Today. “Sudden exposure to a resource-rich environment could lead to a sudden and widespread regeneration that could leave cells very vulnerable.”
The study authors cautioned that while these results were in mice, eating mutagenic foods, such as charred pieces of meat, immediately after fasting could increase the risk of developing cancerous lesions.
“These studies were all done in mice, using very well-defined cancer mutations. It’s going to be a lot more complicated in humans,” Dr. Omer Yilmaz, an associate professor of biology at MIT and the study’s senior author, told the UK’s Daily Mail. “But it leads to the idea that while fasting is very healthy, if you’re exposed to something that can cause mutations during the process of refeeding—a well-cooked steak, for example—then you could actually increase your chances of developing lesions that could develop into cancer.”
Representative foods that have a risk of causing cancer include ultra-processed foods, processed meats, fried foods, overcooked foods, foods and drinks with high sugar content, and alcohol.
For reference, here are the dietary guidelines recommended by major health organizations:
– Consume 5 servings of fruits and vegetables daily.
– Meals should be based on starchy carbohydrates (ideally whole grains) such as rice, potatoes, and pasta.
– Consume 30g of fiber (dietary fiber) per day.
– Consume low-fat/low-sugar dairy products or substitutes (soy milk, etc.).
– Eat protein foods such as beans, fish, and eggs, but eat fish twice a week (one of them is oily fish).
-Drink 6 to 8 glasses of water a day.
-Adults should consume less than 6g of salt per day, women should consume less than 20g of saturated fat, and men should consume less than 30g.
Reporter Park Hae-sik, Donga.com [email protected]
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2024-08-23 09:32:13