As we are all aware by now, the power of intermittent fasting benefits immense, and the same has been stated that was conducted by eminent researchers at the Imperial College London.
Intermittent fasting is known to help in nerve regeneration treatment by altering the gut bacteria that help in nerve regeneration by improving the healing capacity of damaged nerves.
Intermittent fasting helps the gut bacteria produce a metabolite known as 3-Indolepropionic acid (IPA). This component helps to regenerate new nerve fibers that are known as axons. Axons are simple thread-like formations situated at the end of each nerve cell. They transmit electrochemical signals to other nerve cells within the body.
Intermittent fasting benefits in restoring nerve damage were initially noticed among mice and are considered to hold the same results in case of any human trials.
It was found that fasting and nerve regeneration are closely interlinked. The team at the Imperial College also found that this bacteria, in particular, helps in the production of IPA and Clostridium sporogenesis. These two are naturally found in the guts and bloodstream of humans and mice.
Intermittent Fasting Nerve Repair
The longest nerve in the mice’s body, the sciatic nerve, was significantly compressed. This confirms intermittent fasting helps in nerve regeneration.
Moreover, it was noticed that almost half of the mice ate in huge quantities but continued to fast or not eat at all on alternative days.
Although these mice were free to eat as per their will, they chose not to. This diet plan continued for about ten days to 30 days before they were operated and they quickly recovered in 24 to 72 hours.
The fasting mice generated 50% longer axons compared to the others.
Intermittent Fasting Nerve Regeneration
The concept of intermittent fasting for nerve regeneration is still under much trial and error. However, this opens up a new world in the history of medical sciences. It could be beneficial for innumerable humans that are suffering from acute nerve diseases.
Research also found that nerve generation was increased to a greater extent by fasting. Once the entire procedure was over, the metabolism levels were a notch higher and included higher levels of IPA in the bloodstream of diet-contracted mice.
The mice began with an antibiotic course to wash away all traces of bacteria. This would help to comprehend if the fasting impacted the nerve damage repair. Hence these were supplied with genetically-permuted strains of Clostridium sporogenesis that may or may not have been able to produce IPA.
If IPA was not produced naturally and was missing in the serum, the entire regeneration process was impaired. Thus it can be stated that the IPA that these mice generated could naturally heal themselves.
The complete regeneration is accelerated, and the healing power improves when IPA is administered from outside.
Now the only objective of the researchers is to find out comprehensively the role of bacteria metabolite therapy.
More time is needed to understand if IPA in the human body increases due to intermittent fasting. Scientists and researchers are conducting studies regularly to understand the power of intermittent fasting benefits and the effectiveness of IPA in human treatment.