Researchers from a team from the University of Southern California (United States) claim to have found the least force to force the body to regenerate: a 72-hour fast.
Reported by the English-language daily National Post, thestudy shows that the fact of fast for three full days would restore the entire immune system, even in the elderly or seriously ill.
While the practice of fasting is widely criticized by doctors, it actually forces the bone marrow to produce large quantities of white blood cells, the flagship cells of the immune system. Weakened by fasting, the body has no choice but to renew its defense system. “And the good news is that the body gets rid of damaged or old and ineffective parts of the immune system during fasting,” says Valter Longo, one of the study’s authors. For example, “if you are leaving a system severely damaged by chemotherapy or aging, fasting cycles can literally create a new immune system. “
“When you are hungry, the body tries to save energy,” says the researcher, “one of the things it can do for that is to recycle a large number of cells from the body. immune system that are not helpful, especially damaged ones. Fasting would therefore be particularly recommended (under medical supervision) in people with cancer treated with chemotherapy. Their immune cells damaged by this treatment could then be replaced by more functional cells.
In addition, fasting regularly would reduce the presence of an enzyme called PKA, linked to the hormone of aging, the appearance and growth of cancerous tumors, according to the research team. So, if “there is no evidence that fasting is dangerous,” “there is great evidence that it is beneficial », Concludes Valter Longo.
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