Intermittent Fasting & Its Effect in The Body

Transcription

Hello, everybody. This is Dr. Aaron Seaton with The Chiropractic Place again. Today's video is about intermittent fasting, and the effect that it has on our body. First and foremost, one of the things that intermittent fasting does is provide a boost in our immune function. So, what is intermittent fasting?

Well, that's when we have a window where we eat and a window where we don't. Typically, the window that you have is... Some people do an 18/6, meaning 18 hours a day... They do not eat for 18 hours straight, and then they have a six-hour window where they will eat food. Preferably healthy stuff, but they have a six-hour window where they do that. The other one is a 16/8, that one's also pretty popular. People have 16 hours where they're not consuming anything, they can have water, stuff like that, but stuff that doesn't have calories, and then they have an eight-hour window where they are consuming food to get their calorie needs met.

Now, why are people doing this? People are doing this because we understand that having fasting built into our lives can be very healthy and very beneficial to our bodies. And one of the ways that happens is we get a boost in immune function when we have these long gaps in-between when we eat. It tells our body, "Hey, you don't have calories coming." So, the immune system says, "Okay. Well, we need to start getting rid of damaged cells or cells that don't need to be here anymore, because we're gonna start recycling those cells and using that for energy since we're not eating." And that is a cell recycling called autophagy, but it's just your immune system recycling damaged cells that... And using that for energy, so that your body can stay working.

The good news about that is when you remove damaged cells from your body, you decrease the inflammation, because a lot of the times damaged cells are causing inflammation. So, it forces your body to kind of deal with these ongoing things in a healthy way. So, your immune system goes in and starts clearing this stuff out, saying, "Hey, you're not working well, you're not working hard enough, you need to go. So, we're only keeping the healthiest cells in the body right now." And that keeps your function up really high. The other thing that people report... An improvement in their mental clarity, the functioning of their brain.

If you're constantly eating all the time, you don't have breaks between meals, you're constantly having a spike in your insulin levels, things like this. You're never giving your body a chance to settle down and allow focus to happen in the brain. So, this is another thing that we see with people who are intermittent fasting that gets reported really early, is that, "Hey, I've had a real improvement in my mental focus, my mental clarity. I seem to be thinking clearer." A very cool thing that people are reporting. The other thing that we've discussed a little bit, but a decrease in insulin spikes, which is bringing down people's blood sugar, because when you're always eating all of the time, you're constantly stimulating the release of insulin, constantly boosting up your blood sugar levels. And we know, over time, if we keep doing that and over time that can lead to things like diabetes. So, something for us to be on the look-out for.

Again, these popular ways of doing this. A 18-hour window where you are fasting, having water, stuff like that, but no food, and a six-hour window where you're actually consuming your calories and your food. And a 16/8 is the other one, where you're 16 hours of fasting, eight-hour window. This is the one I've just started doing myself. You can pick a window that works better for you. Some people wait until one o'clock before they start having their calories, and they like to eat from 1:00 to 7:00. Maybe 1:00 to 8:00, whatever it is. For me, I'm doing this one, but I start about 8:30 in the morning. I tend to be an early-riser, so I get my exercise done in the morning, and I start eating right around 8:30, and then I stop at 4:30. That just is what works for me.

What works for you may not work for me, and that's okay. So, figure out your schedule, when you would like to incorporate this, and give it a try if you want. But this is a really cool way to have a plan that really addresses some of the underlying function of our immune system, get our immune system functioning better. You will definitely shed pounds doing this. But I always tell people in those windows when you're eating best not to be drinking Pepsi and eating sugar. Let's eat healthy stuff, lean healthy meats, plenty of vegetables, salads. Let's get in some good calories. But you don't have to be crazy, psychotic about the diet, but it is good. The healthier you do on it, the more water you consume while you're doing this, the better you're going to do.

So, hopefully that answers some questions you have on intermittent fasting. I'm Dr. Aaron Seaton with The Chiropractic Place.

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