Intermittent fasting could help protect the brain from age-related diseases like Alzheimer's

• Dementia is a term used to describe a range of symptoms linked to the decline in brain function with age.
• The World Health Organization predicts that the number of people with the condition will triple by 2050.
• In recent years, one of the most promising areas of research on age-related diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, has been the accumulation of harmful proteins in the brain.
• We therefore sought to find out if dietary interventions, particularly intermittent fasting, would counteract the accumulation of amyloid-ß in the brain and potentially safeguard against age-related brain cell death.
• This process can therefore reduce the risk of amyloid-ß build-up and associated brain cell death.

How it works

• Intermittent fasting is a dietary approach that involves regulating food intake by alternating periods of fasting and eating.
• This dietary regimen comprises periods of restricted food consumption, followed by periods of normal eating.
• There are different types of intermittent fasting.

What we did

• Mice cells are frequently used as a model for human cells in scientific research.
• We found that 24 to 48 hours of intermittent fasting by mice provided protection against cell death in specific regions of their brain.
• Even in the presence of a high amyloid-ß protein load in brain cells, intermittent fasting maintained autophagy activity.
• The findings of this study suggest that interventions such as intermittent fasting could potentially protect against the development of age-related diseases.