In what ways can intermittent fasting affect the aging process? Can stress be beneficial to your body?
In his book Jellyfish Age Backwards, Nicklas Brendborg suggests several lifestyle changes that can impact the aging process. One change he discusses is intermittent fasting.
Here’s a look at intermittent fasting and aging.
The Effects of Intermittent Fasting
Brendborg writes that severe calorie restriction is an unrealistic approach for most people—they’d find that any benefits to their health and lifespan aren’t worth the discomfort of constant hunger. However, intermittent fasting (IF) may offer similar benefits while being much more sustainable for the average person. But how are intermittent fasting and aging connected?
IF is a dietary strategy that limits when you eat, rather than how much you eat. For example, common methods include setting an eight-hour window each day during which you’re allowed to eat (say, between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm), and alternate-day fasting: eating normally one day, then eating little or nothing the next day, and repeating that pattern indefinitely.
According to Brendborg, recent research has suggested that the life-extending benefits of calorie restriction may actually be due to longer periods of fasting between meals, rather than eating fewer calories overall. In other words, autophagy and other maintenance processes trigger after you go for a long enough time without eating, even if you still eat the same amount of food overall.
(Shortform note: Research supports Brendborg’s argument: Intermittent fasting has health benefits that are comparable to the benefits of calorie restriction. However, contrary to Brendborg’s idea that the time between meals is the key point, many researchers believe that IF is effective because it’s basically a simplified version of calorie restriction. By limiting when you eat to specific time windows, you naturally consume less overall, creating a calorie deficit. If that’s the case, then IF’s main advantage is simplicity—you can get the same results without needing to count calories and carefully track everything you eat. As a result, many people find intermittent fasting more sustainable than traditional kinds of dieting.)
Healthy Stressors
The second lifestyle strategies Brendborg shares have to do with healthy, positive forms of stress—mild hardships that strengthen the body instead of weakening it. In biology this is called hormesis: a phenomenon wherein small amounts of a stressor can be beneficial, while larger amounts of that same stressor are harmful or even fatal.
To give an example, many medicines follow this pattern. Taking the recommended dose of, say, a cough medicine will produce the intended effects (clearing up congestion and relieving your cough), but taking too much could make you seriously sick.
(Shortform note: The study of exactly how and why hormesis works is still ongoing, but some researchers believe that it happens—at least in part—because the body responds to stress and injury by producing more of certain types of proteins. Some of these proteins work to repair damaged cells, while others protect cells from further damage. As a result, after recovering from whatever stress caused that response, you become more resilient and better able to heal yourself in the future.)
