Fasting Mimicking Diet Reduces Hepatic Fat, Insulin Resistance, and Biological Age
In this study, 100 adults were randomized to either their usual diet, or to a fasting-mimicking diet (FMD), for 3 months. Usual diet group participants were simply instructed to follow their regular diet. Fasting participants followed FMD for 5 days per month for 3 consecutive months, using a commercial FMD meal kit (Prolon). Mean age was 42.2 ± 12.5 for usual diet group subjects, and 43.3 ± 11.7 for FMD group subjects. Baseline BMI was comparable: 27.8 ± 5.1 in usual diet group subjects, and 26.6 ± 4.9 for FMD group subjects.
At the completion of the trial, FMD subjects reduced both total body fat and BMI (p= 0.002 and p= 0.0002). Fifteen subjects also volunteered to complete an MRI to measure abdominal fat distribution. For these volunteers who also had BMI >25, both subcutaneous and visceral fat were reduced from baseline (p =0.008 and p= 0.003). Five participants also had hepatic steatosis (baseline hepatic fat fraction, HFF, of >5%). For these subjects, HFF was reduced from 14.32 ± 5.8% at baseline, to 7.94 ± 4.22%, an almost 50% reduction (p = 0.02).
Regarding insulin resistance, HOMA-IR was reduced from 1.473 ± 0.85 to 1.209 ± 0.99 with FMD (p = 0.046), and HbA1c went from 5.8 ± 0.3 at baseline, to 5.43 ± 0.404 (p = 0.032).
To calculate “biological age”, a group of multi-system biomarkers was used (albumin, alkaline phosphatase, serum creatinine, C-reactive protein, Hba1c, systolic BP, and total cholesterol, using the biologic age equation from NHANES III). Median biological age in the FMD participants decreased by close to 2.5 years (p = 0.0007). Change in biologic age was found to be independent of weight loss.
Citation:
Brandhorst S, Levine ME, Wei M, Shelehchi M, Morgan TE, Nayak KS, Dorff T, Hong K, Crimmins EM, Cohen P, Longo VD. Fasting-mimicking diet causes hepatic and blood markers changes indicating reduced biological age and disease risk. Nat Commun. 2024 Feb 20;15(1):1309. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-45260-9. PMID: 38378685; PMCID: PMC10879164.
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