Intermittent Fasting Could Have a Downside For Those Wishing to Grow Their Hair : ScienceAlert

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Fasting, or abstaining from food, is an ancient human tradition. It is often associated with cultural or religious practices, but from people around the world They also fast in hopes of better health.

Many employ the so-called Intermittent fastinga broad term for various ways of alternating between fasting and non-fasting periods. Research suggests it's safe for most people, and it can be given. Health benefitsBut there are important caveats.

Experts warn that intermittent fasting can be dangerous for some people, and while it has been linked to benefits such as weight loss and reduced inflammation, more research is needed to test many of the popular claims and dispel any unwanted suspicions.

New research, for example, links intermittent fasting to slower hair regeneration in mice. A similar effect can occur in humans depending on the micro Clinical trial The authors were also conducted.

This news should not overshadow the potential benefits of intermittent fasting, says senior author Bing Zhang Stem cell in biology from Westlake University in Zhejiang, China. But it's a reminder of how much we still don't know, and that any health benefits can come with surprising side effects.

"We don't want to discourage people from practicing intermittent fasting because it is associated with many beneficial effects. It's just important to be aware that it may have some unintended consequences," Zhang said. He says..

Previous research suggests that intermittent fasting can increase some people's resistance to stress Stem cellsZhang and his colleagues explain, including those related to Blood, IntestinesAnd Muscle tissue. But it's not clear how the practice affects additional tissues, such as skin or hair.

The researchers thought that fasting might help regeneration in those tissues, so they decided to investigate. After placing the shaved mice into one of the fasting groups or an unrestricted food control group, they monitored each group's hair regrowth.

Some mice went on a time-restricted feeding schedule, with 8 hours of food access and 16 hours of fasting each day. Others have found alternate day eating, alternating between eating days and fasting days every 24 hours.

Eating a mouse
(DaPuglet/Flickr)

Not only did both fasting regimens fall short of expectations, but to the researchers' surprise, hair regeneration was slower in the fasted mice.

The mice in the control group regained most of their hair within 30 days, while both groups of fasted mice had partial regrowth after 96 days, the study found.

why? Digging deeper, the researchers found that hair-follicle stem cells (HFSCs) could not regulate the balance of free radicals and antioxidants introduced by switching between glucose and fat.

HFSCs naturally switch between active and dormant phases, and new hair can only grow if the stem cells return to activity.

In the control group, HFSCs returned to activity 20 days after the mice were shaved, the study found, and remained active until the hair grew back.

In fasted mice, however, HFSCs experienced apoptosis – programmed cell death – without food for long periods of time.

The researchers attributed this to an increase in free fatty acids around the hair follicles, which led to the accumulation of reactive oxygen species in the cells.

In vitro assays showed similar results in human HFSCs, which also underwent apoptosis in response to high concentrations of free fatty acids.

"During fasting, adipose tissue begins to release free fatty acids, and these fatty acids enter the newly formed HFSCs, but these stem cells do not have the proper machinery to use them," Zhang said. He says..

The outer layer of skin cells, however, appears to be unaffected by fasting. This may be due to their high antioxidant capacity, as HFSCs showed less susceptibility to fasting-induced apoptosis when researchers genetically enhanced their antioxidant capacity and administered the antioxidant in their environment. Vitamin E.

In the clinical trial, Zhang and his colleagues recruited 49 healthy young adults to see how cutting affected their hair growth.

People Assigned to a time-limited diet (fasted 18 hours daily) hair grew more slowly than in the control group, but this is a preliminary finding from a small experiment. Longer studies with larger samples are needed before we know how fasting affects human hair growth.

"The human population is very different, so the results may be different for different people. Mice also have a much higher metabolic rate compared to humans, so fasting and metabolic changes have a more severe effect on mouse HFSCs." He says..

"We see a mild effect in humans - there are still apoptotic stem cells, but many HFSCs survive," he said. increases. "So there is still hair growth, just a little slower than usual."

The researchers plan to continue this work by studying how other tissues respond to fasting and learning more about the mechanics.

"We also want to know how fasting affects skin wound healing," he said. He says."And identify metabolites that support the survival of HFSCs and promote hair growth during fasting."

The study was published in Cell.


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