The Truth About Fasting: Separating Fact from Fiction

Episode 972 31 min

Overview

Fasting isn’t just about skipping meals—it's a powerful tool to improve your health when done right. In this episode of “The Doctor’s Farmacy,” I tackle the most common myths about fasting and dive into the science behind how it impacts your metabolism, hormones, and overall well-being. You’ll learn how to navigate different fasting methods, from intermittent fasting to time-restricted eating, and discover how they can help you burn fat, preserve muscle, and even boost longevity.

References:

Fasting Unmasks a Strong Inverse Association between Ghrelin and Cortisol in Serum: Studies in Obese and Normal-Weight Subjects (The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism)

Effect of Intermittent Fasting Diet on Glucose and Lipid Metabolism and Insulin Resistance in Patients with Impaired Glucose and Lipid Metabolism: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (International Journal of Endocrinology)

Intermittent fasting vs daily calorie restriction for type 2 diabetes prevention: a review of human findings (Translational Research)

Intermittent fasting: is there a role in the treatment of diabetes? A review of the literature and guide for primary care physicians (Clinical Diabetes and Endocrinology)

Gut microbiome remodeling and metabolomic profile improves in response to protein pacing with intermittent fasting versus continuous caloric restriction (Nature Communications)

8-hour time-restricted eating linked to a 91% higher risk of cardiovascular death (American Heart Association)

Fasting-mimicking diet and markers/risk factors for aging, diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease (Science Translational Medicine)

Impact of Time Restricted Feeding on Markers of Cardiometabolic Health and Oxidative Stress in Resistance-Trained Firefighters (The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research)

Effect of Intermittent Fasting on Reproductive Hormone Levels in Females and Males: A Review of Human Trials (Nutrients)

Sponsors

This episode is brought to you by MitoPure, Rupa University, Big Bold Health, and AG1. The Doctor’s Farmacy podcast works with a select group of sponsors to allow for ongoing production and allow it to be zero-cost to anyone who wishes to listen to and watch the podcast.

Resources Mentioned

Host & Guests

Transcript

Automatically generated. Please forgive any typos or errors in the following transcript. It was generated by a third party and has not been subsequently reviewed by our team.

Dr. Mark Hyman
Coming up on this episode of The Doctor's Farmacy. You gotta start your first meal protein. Protein will help you live longer, be healthier, and the key thing is when you break your fast and you eat protein, it turns on your body's capacity to stimulate the growth and the building up of new muscle, not if you have sugar for breakfast. Before we jump into today's episode, I'd like to note that while I wish I could help everyone via my personal practice, there's simply not enough time for me to do this at this scale. And that's why I've been busy building several passion projects to help you better understand, well, you.

If you're looking for data about your biology, check out function health..

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Ep. 972 - The Truth About Fasting: Separating Fact from Fiction