Neuroscientist Claims:
Fasting Works Miracles
On Your Brain/Body But
Big Pharma Won’t Tell You.
(M. Javed Naseem)
‘If people fast, the
food industry loses money.
What about the
pharmaceutical industries?
What if people
do some intermittent fasting,
exercise periodically
and are very healthy,
is the
pharmaceutical industry going to
make any money
on healthy people?’
---
Dr. Mark Mattson, PhD
‘Fasting shifts
stem cells from a dormant
state to a
state of self-renewal. It triggers
stem cell based
regeneration of an organ
or system.’ –
Study
In some narrations of Ahadith, it is said that the Prophet
(s.a.w.) used to fast twice a week (every Monday and Thursday); while in others
it is said that he used to fast three days (13th, 14th
and 15th) of every month. In any case, it proves the point I want to
emphasize – fasting. This kind of fasting is called ‘intermittent fasting’
(i.e., not continuous).
‘Fasting twice
a week could significantly
lower the risk
of developing both
Parkinson’s and
Alzheimer’s disease.’
--
Neuroscientists
What Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) recommended 14 centuries ago,
is being discovered and researched by modern world today. Modern medical
science has come up with the proof that fasting, especially intermittent
fasting, works miracles on your body, especially the brains. But the
money-making Big Pharma is not interested in supporting and researching such a
study. They would lose most of their clients. They want people to stay sick and
suffer from all kinds of illnesses so that they could make money by selling
drugs in the name of treatment. This is a trillion-dollar business.
When health becomes a business, the only consideration is to
boost the profits. If people are healthy, doctors and Big Pharma would not make
big money. Simple!
“Intermittent
fasting enhances the ability
of nerve cells
to repair DNA.” – Study
Following are excerpts from an article by Arjun Walia,
published December 11, 2015, by Collective Evolution:
Neuroscientist Shows
What Fasting Does To
Your Brain &
Why Big Pharma Won’t
Study It
Below is a TEDx talk given by Mark Mattson, the current
Chief of the Laboratory of Neuroscience at the National Institute on Aging. He
is also a professor of Neuroscience at The Johns Hopkins University, and one of
the foremost researchers in the area of cellular and molecular mechanisms
underlying multiple neuro-degenerative disorders, like Parkinson’s and
Alzheimer’s disease.
I chose to include ‘Big Pharma’ in the title because that’s
exactly what it is. There have been countless examples of the manipulation of
published research at the hands of pharmaceutical companies in recent years.
This is why Harvard Professor of Medicine
Arnold Symour Relman told the world that the medical profession has been
bought by the pharmaceutical industry.
It’s why Dr. Richard Horton, Editor in Chief
of The Lancet, recently stated that much of the scientific literature
published today is simply untrue.
It’s why Dr. Marcia Angell, former Editor in
Chief of The New England Journal of Medicine, said that the
“pharmaceutical industry likes to depict itself as a research-based industry,
as the source of innovative drugs. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
And it’s why John Ioannidis, an epidemiologist
at the Stanford University School of Medicine, published an article titled “Why
Most Published Research Findings Are False” which subsequently
became the most widely accessed article in the history of the Public
Library of Science (PLoS).
I also chose to mention ‘Big Pharma’ because of Dr.
Mattson’s comments towards the end of the video:
“Why is it that the normal diet is three meals a day plus
snacks? It isn’t that it’s the healthiest eating pattern, now that’s my opinion
but I think there is a lot of evidence to support that. There are a lot of
pressures to have that eating pattern, there’s a lot of money involved. The
food industry — are they going to make money from skipping breakfast like I did
today? No, they’re going to lose money. If people fast, the
food industry loses money. What about the pharmaceutical industries?
What if people do some intermittent fasting, exercise periodically
and are very healthy, is the pharmaceutical industry going to make any money on
healthy people?”
Mark and his team have published several papers that
discuss how fasting twice a week could significantly lower the risk of
developing both Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.
“Dietary changes have long been known to have an effect on
the brain. Children who suffer from epileptic seizures have fewer of them when
placed on caloric restriction or fasts. It is believed that fasting helps
kick-start protective measures that help counteract the overexcited signals
that epileptic brains often exhibit. (Some children with epilepsy have also
benefited from a specific high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet.) Normal brains, when
overfed, can experience another kind of uncontrolled excitation, impairing the
brain’s function, Mattson and another researcher reported in January in the
journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience.”
Fasting does good things for the brain, and this is evident
by all of the beneficial neuro-chemical changes that happen in the brain when
we fast. It also improves cognitive function, increases neuro-trophic factors, increases
stress resistance, and reduces inflammation.
Fasting is a challenge to your brain, and your brain
responds to that challenge by adapting stress response pathways which help your
brain cope with stress and risk for disease. The same changes that occur in the
brain during fasting mimic the changes that occur with regular exercise. They
both increase the production of protein in the brain (neuro-trophic factors),
which in turn promotes the growth of neurons, the connection between neurons,
and the strength of synapses.
“Challenges to your brain, whether it’s intermittent fasting
[or] vigorous exercise . . . is cognitive challenges. When this
happens neuro-circuits are activated, levels of neuro-trophic factors
increase, that promotes the growth of neurons [and] the formation
and strengthening of synapses. . . .”
Fasting can also stimulate the production of new nerve cells
from stem cells in the hippocampus. He also mentions ketones (an energy source
for neurons), and how fasting stimulates the production of ketones and that it
may also increase the number of mitochondria in neurons. Fasting also increases
the number of mitochondria in nerve cells; this comes as a result of the
neurons adapting to the stress of fasting (by producing more mitochondria).
By increasing the number of mitochondria in the
neurons, the ability for nerons to form and maintain the connections between
each other also increases, thereby improving learning and memory ability.
“Intermittent fasting enhances the ability
of nerve cells to repair DNA.”
He also goes into the evolutionary aspect of this theory –
how our ancestors adapted and were built for going long periods of time without
food.
A study published in the June 5 issue of Cell Stem
Cell by researchers from the University
of Southern California showed
that cycles of prolonged fasting protect against immune system damage and,
moreover, induce immune system regeneration. They concluded that fasting shifts
stem cells from a dormant state to a state of self-renewal. It triggers stem
cell based regeneration of an organ or system.
Editor’s (M. Javed Naseem) Note:
I have been fasting regularly at least twice a week (Mondays
and Thursdays) for more than 10 years now. I walk 5-6km
at least 4-5 times a week. I am 70+ years and feel great. I have not seen a
doctor in decades (except for some dental work and an operation of Hernia, or a
normal eye-test every two years). I don’t take medication. I drink a lot of
herbal, ginger, green, black and other Tea. I use dates, olive oil with a small
piece of whole-wheat bread, an apple, an orange, a banana and milk in my
breakfast (of course Tea too .. lol). I mostly avoid red meat and use a lot of
fish and turkey meat; no more chicken. For more than 20 years now, I have been
eating only twice a day – the breakfast and the main meal at sunset (Maghrib).
I have no physical/health problems! Alhamdo-lillah! (Thank God!). Now good luck
to you! God bless!
**********
