Researchers just found a way to reverse diabetes and restore pancreatic functions in lab mice by putting them on a certain fasting diet.
The diet tricks the body into a fasting cycle for a mere few days a month, whilst particular foods are given for consumption, deems it sufficient to jump start key functions of the organ and reinstate insulin production.
Diabetes takes place when the pancreas is unable to make insulin (Type 1) or gets damaged by resistance to insulin (type 2), now according to the team from the University of Southern California the diet reverses symptoms of both the types of diabetes in mice.
Research head, Valter Longo said, "By pushing the mice into an extreme state and then bringing them back... the cells in the pancreas are triggered to use some kind of developmental reprogramming."
In this latest study, mice were made to go through an artificial fasting period for four days a week over several months, which jump stared pancreas to start generating beta cells that store and and release insulin all the while replacing damaged cells with working new ones.
The experiment was also carried out on pancreatic cell cultures from human donors and it was discovered that simulated fasting began producing more insulin and Ngn3 protein necessary for regular pancreatic function.
However, the diet requires carefully calculated levels of calories and types of foods to be effective.
"Scientifically, the findings are perhaps even more important because we've shown that you can use diet to reprogram cells without having to make any genetic alterations. The amazing thing is that this system has probably always been there. Now that we've discovered it, we can find ways to work with it and utilize it for benefits to human health," Longo concluded.
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