Fasting - to lower white blood cell count

Curious if anyone has tried fasting. This study seems to point to fasting as a way to lower white blood cell count. " Human clinical trials were conducted using patients who were receiving chemotherapy. For long periods of time, patients did not eat, which significantly lowered their white blood cell counts. In mice, fasting cycles “flipped a regenerative switch, changing the signalling pathways for hematopoietic stem cells, which are responsible for the generation of blood and immune systems.”

This means that fasting kills off old and damaged immune cells, and when the body rebounds it uses stem cells to create brand new, completely healthy cells.

“We could not predict that prolonged fasting would have such a remarkable effect in promoting stem cell-based regeneration of the heatopoietic system. . . . When you starve, the system tries to save energy, and one of the things it can do to save energy is to recycle a lot of the immune cells that are not needed, especially those that may be damaged. What we started noticing in both our human work and animal work is that the white blood cell count goes down with prolonged fasting. Then when you re-feed, the blood cells come back. ” – Valter

collective-evolution.com/20...

Comments?

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  • I would be taking this with a pinch of salt!

    Trials done on people receiving chemo hmmm!

    Maybe that had an affect on the white cells do you think?

    Fasting kills off white cells hmmm!

    Maybe lack of nourishment brings the immune system down ? Of course it would !

    I think this is a dangerous piece of crank research where statistics and damned statistics are manipulated to prove what is required.

    Correct diet is a must when suffering from cancer or receiving chemo don't believe everything you read!

  • FDA Orders Dr. Joseph Mercola to Stop Illegal Claims

    quackwatch.org/11Ind/mercol...

    ~chris

  • Yup, I tried this personally and WBC were dropped significantly.

  • I have fasted on and off for the last 1 1/2, it has made a difference, without question, I read studies back as far as the 1950's/60's Dr.s in those days had very good success with implementing fasts....having said that I understand completely why it has not gone "mainstream" in spite of some success, its not for the faint of heart! I believe that USC is in the process of raising money for another study. The point of the initial study was that the fasting left cancer cells much more vulnerable, thus rendering the chemo more effective. I can tell you that the impact that it has had in my case has been significant, on both my WBC and the Abs Lymph numbers. I think that I would actually research the science/studies before labelling as "crank research", Dr. Longo at USC is into some ground breaking research, needs to be commended, any possible advantage in cancer has to be studied.

  • Hi,

    You may find this story from USC interesting. news.usc.edu/63669/fasting-... The story is from 2014. it has a link to the Journal Cell on the topic as well.

    I also would be interested in comments from others after reading the story.

    Best,

    Steve

  • Excellent source! I appreciate the referral to some scientific evidence - as opposed to conjecture. I found fasting to be pretty helpful years ago - but I really haven't done it for years - so I think based on this evidence - it actually might be worth a try. “We could not predict that prolonged fasting would have such a remarkable effect in promoting stem cell-based regeneration of the hematopoietic system,” said corresponding author Valter Longo, Edna M. Jones Professor of Gerontology and the Biological Sciences at the USC Davis School of Gerontology and director of the USC Longevity Institute. Longo has a joint appointment at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

    “When you starve, the system tries to save energy, and one of the things it can do to save energy is to recycle a lot of the immune cells that are not needed, especially those that may be damaged,” Longo said. “What we started noticing in both our human work and animal work is that the white blood cell count goes down with prolonged fasting. Then when you re-feed, the blood cells come back. So we started thinking, well, where does it come from?”

  • In CLL references to 'WBC' are fairly meaningless... the cells that matter are the B leukocytes... and blood counts are simply a reflection of the actual disease in the nodes and spleen...

    A study looking at fasting and only B cells might be of greater value...

    I had a fairly pronounced regression in blood absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) due to changes in diet and exercise, so I feel it is certainly possible to reduce the inflamatory response, effecting the immune system and lower B cell counts, atleast temporarily...

    Fascinating area of research, but for CLL it needs more specific studies...

    WBCs

    emedicine.medscape.com/arti...

    ~chris

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