5:2 diet and neuronal development

[Pleasefiveminutesforme]

I have recently started the 5:2 diet. After my scales claimed I lost 1kg on the first fast day I have decided not to look at them for a month as I figured that was just water and I would be disappointed to see it creep up. Anyway my question is - on the horizon programme i recently re-watched on i-player, Moseley talks about the fasting rat experiments and how they had been shown to have more neuronal development AND were less likely to develop alzheimers. Do we know what further research has been done on this? Do we know if there are any ongoing studies? I am really interested in this as my family tend to live long but there is a familial incidence of Alzheimer's and I am worried my mum has shown signs (she is 65).

After initial quicker losses, most folk settle down to losing about 1lb per week on 5:2 .
To achieve this, keep within TDEE on NFDs.
Measure waist and hips, because inches lost mean fat loss, which is important for health.

Dementia

Mark Mattson is a world-leading researcher into ageing and conditions like dementia.
He has published 700+ scientific papers and is one of the most cited scientists in the field.
He is the scientist who first suggested that IF (intermittent fasting such as 5:2) could reduce the risk of dementia and he has been investigating this since the 1990s.

His animal studies showed that IF can increase the resistance of neurons in the brain to dysfunction and degeneration in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease and stroke.

Human studies would be difficult to perform ethically and would take decades, so we are assessing a mixture of animal studies plus various health markers that can be measured in human studies.

Many of us maintaining weight on 5:2 still fast because we think this has health benefits, including reducing the risk of dementia.

Hi!

Glad you've joined the 5:2 crowd.

Avoiding Alzheimer's (and prostrate cancer!) is one of the reasons I practice Intermittent Fasting - nearly 3 years now.

There is a link in the OP of the main thread to Dr Mark Mattson, who conducts research in this area - and I recently came across he gave last year.

If it were my mum, I'd get her fasting right now, TBH.

ATB.

Thanks for your responses. Bizarrely my mum has done the 5:2 previously to lose weight but she has stopped as she hit target, I will chat to her about the other benefits and make sure she goes on to maintenance. She is very slender as our genes dictate although I am rather heavier than I should be right now as I am heaving around some baby weight I should have shed 2 years ago.

Thanks for the info on Mark Mattson- And for the TeD talk link, I went onto the TED talk website and couldn't find anything so delighted to see this is on YouTube. Will be watching later! Anyone know if there is any research being carried out in the UK at the mo? (also I am a teacher and I have a student investigating the link between food and dementia)

Many of us maintain with 1-2 FDs; we just eat back the calorie deficit on NFDs.

For maximum fasting benefits:

. On FDs, I suggest fasting on almost zero calories until supper - so nearly 24 hours - and then having the full 500 calories.
That has the additional advantage of giving one decemt meal on the FD

. On NFDs, do daily 16:8, i.e. eating within an 8-hr window and fasting the remaining 16 hours. This simply means skipping either breakfast or supper.

Research:

I think Michelle Harvey is continuing with her research into her 2-day diet - 2 consecutive FDs, then 5 NFDs. However, she is funded my breast cancer charities, so she wouldn't be specifically checking dementia risk factors.
I don't know of anyone else in the UK currently investigating IF.

Mrk Mattson really is the world expert in the IF / dementia area and is performing a lot of studies and writing a lot of papers.
I suggest you go through them - for convenience, some are listed as references by Mosely's updated book and Varady's DOD book.
I check up on his latest publications every few weeks myself.