Intermittent Fasting Preserves the Insulin Making Cells in Diabetes

Posted on by Jesse Santiano, M.D.

Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting (IF) is a way of limiting the period of eating to certain times of the day. The fasting period may last from 12 to 22 hours. Sometimes longer. It is actually easy to do because sleeping time is included in the fasting.

Many have lost weight and reduced the number of medications for diabetes using IF. That’s because IF made their body process food more efficiently instead of making them sicker.  This article will talk about how IF can reduce the need for diabetes medications.

 

The Beta Cells of the  Pancreas

Insulin is the primary hormone that lowers blood sugar. Whenever we eat, insulin levels go up to store the food into the cells of our body. Insulin comes from specialized cells in the pancreas called beta cells.

Normal Life Cycle of the Beta Cells

The beta cells, like people, grow, regenerate, and when they are old and ineffective, they die. This natural death is called apoptosis. The cellular material from the dead cells are then recycled to make new beta cells. That self recycling is called autophagy.

Blausen_0699_PancreasAnatomy2

The Beta Cells in Diabetes Has Many Problems

  1. The beta cells are quite delicate. In the presence of excessive proteins, carbohydrates, or fat in the diet, the beta cells get injured and cannot make enough insulin.
  2. In diabetics, the sick beta cells do not undergo normal cell death but instead, hang around and do nothing.
  3. This leads to an inadequate number of cells to produce insulin after eating.
  4. What happens next is that the blood sugar stays high and does damage to the organs, which is later seen as diabetes complications.
  5. Since the blood sugar remains high, then more beta cells die, and less insulin is produced, and blood sugar stays high. Do you see the vicious cycle?

How Does Intermittent Fasting Help in Diabetes?

  1. During the fasting period, which, of course, means no food intake, the beta cells have time to recover.
  2. In the absence of food, the old beta cells die and are recycled to make brand spanking new beta cells. Ready to produce insulin for the next meal.
  3. On the next meal, with all the beta cells functional, enough insulin will be produced.
  4. The right amount of insulin will prevent high blood sugar.
  5. If ever there is too much food eaten, the beta cells can become injured. But, the succeeding fasting period will give the wounded beta cells a chance to recycle themselves to make new cells. The new cells will be ready to secrete insulin for the next meal.
  6. And that is how the vicious cycle is prevented.

In summary, intermittent fasting benefited diabetics by the following:

  1. Regular recycling of old beta cells
  2. Increasing the number of beta cells
  3. Extending the life of the beta cells
  4. Making the beta cells regenerate normally
  5. IF made the beta cells healthier and insulin productive
  6. Glucose levels returned rapidly to average values after eating
  7. IF stimulated proper insulin response before and after eating

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You May Like the following:

  1. How to Do Intermittent Fasting
  2. If you want to start intermittent fasting slowly – The Kaizen Way of Fasting 
  3. The eating period in IF can be early in the day till afternoon and is discussed here – Early Time-Restricted Feeding is Intermittent Fasting In Sync with the Circadian Rhythm
  4. This addresses a common misconception about IF – Will Fasting Make My Muscles Shrink?
  5. Is it wrong to miss breakfast? No, it is not. – Are You Skipping Breakfast?
  6. How can doing little make significant health changes? – The 80/20 Rule for Health
  7. 10 Unbelievably Easy Ways to Screw Up Intermittent Fasting!
  8. Autophagy is explained here – Autophagy – How to Recycle Yourself
  9. A Case Report of 3 Diabetic Patients that are Weaned Off Insulin
  10. 12 Ways to Have a No-Weight-Gain Holiday Season!

References:

Liu et al. Intermittent Fasting Preserve Beta-Cell Mass in Obesity-induced Diabetes via the Autophagy-Lysosome Pathway. Autophagy. 13. 00-00. 10.1080/15548627.2017.1368596.

Image Credit:

  • Pancreas By BruceBlaus. When using this image in external sources, it can be cited as:Blausen.com staff (2014). “Medical gallery of Blausen Medical 2014”. WikiJournal of Medicine 1 (2). DOI:10.15347/wjm/2014.010. ISSN 2002-4436. – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28909219

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