Shorter Fasts Can Give You Longer Life

There’s lots of evidence that fasting for short periods (no longer than 24 hours) is good for you. If you fast regularly you have less chance of a heart attack, stroke or cancer. What’s going on here is that fasting gives your body a rest. A rest so that it can do one of its most important jobs: DNA repair and keeping cells young and resistant to disease. Will, the latest evidence says fasting can do even more favors than that. For women with breast cancer, fasting overnight (for 13 hours) can lower the risk of their cancer returning by a whopping third. It comes down to blood sugar control. A US study shows women who went without food for shorter periods than 13 hours, usually because they ate into the evening, increased the risk of their cancer returning by 36% and they were 21% more likely to die from the disease. Taking only short breaks form food was linked to poor sleep and higher blood sugar levels. The connection is that high blood sugar and bad sleep have both been linked to an increased risk of breast cancer. And eating late at night, so a shorter overnight fast causes poor blood sugar control. This means that not eating overnight could be a simple way of lessening the risk of cancer coming back. Experiments on mice found prolonged fasting during sleep can protect them against high blood sugar, inflammation and weight gain – all associated with poor cancer outcomes. The researchers suggested avoiding a late dinner or early breakfast could help stop other cancers returning too. Prolonging the overnight fasting interval may be simple, non-pharmacological strategy for reducing a person’s risk of breast cancer recurrence and even other cancers.