Research finds intermittent fasting works well for overall health

A new research has found that intermittent fasting works well for overall health as it changes the metabolism of the liver. Researchers said that it can help regulate diabetes.

It was found that every-other-day-fasting -- where no food was consumed on alternate days -- changed the metabolism of fatty acids in the liver, knowledge that could be applied to improvements in glucose tolerance and the regulation of diabetes.

Dr Mark Larance at the University of Sydney said that the information can now be used in future studies to determine optimum fasting periods to regulate protein response in the liver.

In experiments with mice, researchers led by Dr Larance identified how fasting on alternate days affected proteins in the liver, showing the unexpected impact on fatty acid metabolism and the surprising role played by a master regulator protein that controls many biological pathways in the liver and other organs.

"We know that fasting can be an effective intervention to treat disease and improve liver health. But we haven't known how fasting re-programmes liver proteins, which perform a diverse array of essential metabolic functions," said Dr Larance.

"By studying the impact on proteins in the livers of mice, which are suitable human biological models, we now have a much better understanding of how this happens," said Larance.

The results of the research were published in the journal Cell Reports.