"Nature Communications": Diet + Fasting or a more effective strategy for weight loss and blood pressure reduction

According to a report recently published by The Lancet on the burden of disease in 204 countries and regions around the world, thanks to the improvement of medical standards, the global average healthy life expectancy has increased steadily.

However, the greatest risk to health comes from the alarming increase in the number of patients with metabolic diseases.

Since 2010, the risk of metabolic diseases has increased by 1.
5% per year.

Overall, overweight, hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and hypercholesterolemia accounted for nearly 20% of the total global health loss, nearly doubled from 20 years ago.
At the same time, metabolic syndrome is also the death of a large number of people worldwide.
The main reason.

Therefore, the method of treating or avoiding such diseases is also to start with weight loss.

Many studies have shown that in addition to exercise, some healthy dieting strategies, such as the Mediterranean diet, intermittent fasting, etc.
, can help reduce weight, reduce inflammation and improve metabolic health.

However, how do these dietary intervention strategies affect the intestinal flora, immune system, and host physiology after fasting? In the latest study published in Nature Communications on March 31, Beijing time, an international research team led by the School of Medicine of the University of Berlin in Germany passed the multi-omics study combining gut microbiome analysis and deep immunophenotyping research for the first time.
The method revealed the impact of lifestyle changes combined with fasting therapy on patients with metabolic syndrome, indicating that fasting affects the host and its microbiome everywhere.

The study emphasizes that switching to a healthy diet after fasting can be a promising non-pharmacological intervention for patients with hypertension and metabolic syndrome.

As we all know, Western diet (high sugar, high fat and high calories) can induce metabolic inflammation and accelerate the development of metabolic syndrome.

The gut microbiome is a fragile ecosystem that plays a key role in health and disease.

It is known that some inflammation, cardiovascular and metabolic disorders (such as obesity, hypertension, etc.
) are characterized by intestinal microbial disorders.

A healthy gut microbiome is a relatively stable ecosystem, but antibiotics, intestinal infections, and major changes in diet or lifestyle (such as changing from an unhealthy diet to a healthy diet) may cause this ecosystem to occur temporarily or permanently The change.

In recent years, fasting strategies that have taken the world by storm have achieved remarkable results in terms of weight loss and health improvement.

Fasting affects the health and physiology of the host under severe calorie restriction, and it also affects the intestinal microbiome.

In this study, Dr.
Andreas Michalsen, senior consultant at the Department of Naturopathic Medicine at the University of Berlin School of Medicine, and Professor Gustav J.
Dobos, head of the Department of Naturopathic and Integrative Medicine at the University of Duisburg, Germany, recruited 71 people with metabolic syndrome and contractions.
Volunteers with elevated pressure were randomly divided into two groups.

Both groups of patients followed the DASH diet for 3 months.

DASH diet, the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet, is exactly the same as its literal meaning-"Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension".

The DASH diet includes a lot of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts and legumes, fish and lean meats.

One group did not consume any solid foods at all for five days before starting the DASH diet.

Based on the immunophenotype, the researchers observed how the immune cells of the volunteers changed when they changed their diet.

They found that the innate immune system remains stable during a rapid immune response, while the adaptive immune system shuts down.

During this process, the number of pro-inflammatory T cells (CD3, CD4) and B cells (CD19) decreases, while the abundance of regulatory T cells increases.

Although DASH is good, it is better to combine with "fasting".
Then, the researchers tested the effect of fasting on the gut microbiome through stool samples. Intestinal bacteria are closely related to the immune system.
Some bacteria metabolize dietary fiber into anti-inflammatory short-chain fatty acids that are beneficial to the immune system.

The researchers found that during the fasting period, the composition of the gut bacterial ecosystem changed dramatically.

Bacteria that are good for health and can lower blood pressure have multiplied.

Even after resuming eating, some of these changes still exist.

The corresponding author of the study, Dr.
Dominik Müller, laboratory director of the Experimental and Clinical Research Center of the University of Berlin School of Medicine, said: “In volunteers who started a healthy diet and fasted for five days, their body mass index (BMI), blood pressure and blood pressure The demand for drugs is still low.

Even after three months of fasting, blood pressure will remain low for a long time.

” Subsequently, the team worked with researchers from the Helmholtz Center for Infectious Diseases Research in Germany and McGill University in Canada.
Together, these results were statistically evaluated using artificial intelligence to ensure that this positive effect was actually attributed to fasting and not to the medication the volunteers were taking.

They used previous research methods to examine the effects of antihypertensive drugs on the microbiome and isolate the effects of the drugs.

They found that whether an individual can produce a good effect on dietary changes depends entirely on their immune response and gut microbiome.

If a high-fiber, low-fat diet is not effective, it may be because the individual’s gut microbiome does not have enough bacteria to metabolize fiber into protective fatty acids.

The co-corresponding author of the study, Dr.
Sofia Forslund, head of the host microbiome of the Cardiovascular Disease Laboratory of the Experimental and Clinical Research Center, explained: “Those who have metabolic problems will feel that it is not worth the effort because they have no effect, so they recover.
It’s an old habit.

Therefore, it’s a good idea to combine dieting and fasting.

Fasting can promote the growth of protective microbes in the intestines.

The health of patients will improve significantly and quickly, and they can reduce their medications or even stop medications more often.

This will motivate them to adhere to a healthy lifestyle for a long time.

"The link to the paper: nature.
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