A Newsletter for the Neighbors of the University of California, Berkeley |
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Fasting may reduce cancer risk An apple a day keeps the doctor away, but could eating an apple every other day be better? A new study by UC Berkeley researchers raises such a possibility. It shows that healthy mice given only 5 percent fewer calories than mice allowed to eat freely experienced a significant reduction in cell proliferation in several tissues, considered an indicator for cancer risk. The key was that the mice eating 5 percent fewer calories were fed intermittently, or three days a week. What is encouraging about the findings is that the reduction in cell proliferation from that intermittent feeding regimen was only slightly less than that of a more severe 33 percent reduction in calories. Until now, scientists have been certain only of a link between a more substantial calorie reduction and a reduction in the rate of cell proliferation. “Cell proliferation is the key to the modern epidemic of cancer,” said Marc Hellerstein, professor of human nutrition and principal investigator of the study. Cancer is essentially the uncontrolled division of cells, and its development typically requires the presence of multiple mutations. “Normally, a cell will try to fix any damage that has occurred to its DNA,” he said. “But if it divides before it has a chance to fix the damage, then that damage becomes memorialized as a mutation in the offspring cells. Slowing down the rate of cell proliferation essentially buys time for the cells to repair genetic damage.”Hellerstein noted that animals in the wild go through cycles of too much and too little food; major predators, such as lions, may go days without eating and then binge when they make a successful kill. “It may be normal to have periods where we are not eating,” said Hellerstein. “But in domestic life, there generally is continuous access to food.” |
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