Everybody’s talking about intermittent fasting and for a good reason! There’s a laundry list of benefits related to fasting. While many of these benefits are centered around weight loss and heart health, fasting can also help improve your skin health. Today, we will be going over the benefits on skin of fasting and how you can utilize it to maximize your skin health.
Can Fasting Improve Skin?
Does fasting make you look younger? When people talk about fasting diets, they talk about the weight loss benefits. While it’s true that fasting can help you lose weight, you can also try fasting to look younger! A recent study conducted by the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University and Kyoto University may have discovered why does fasting help skin.
The researchers found that during a fast, 44 substances increase in the body. These substances are known as metabolites which are the molecules that grant organisms energy and allow them to grow. Some metabolites, like leucine, isoleucine, and ophthalmic acid, decrease as a person ages. Therefore, the increase of these metabolites during fasting could help reverse the negative side effects of aging.
Can Fasting Make You Look Younger?
We should note that research into the positive health benefits of fasting is still in its infancy. While early studies point towards fasting positively impacting our skin health, more research is needed. By reducing the adverse side effects of aging through cellular regeneration, skin fasting results tend to be positive.
What Are The 5 Stages Of Fasting?
Our body has a starvation program that kicks into overdrive when glucose isn’t around. This program has different stages. You will experience these five stages of autophagy fasting if you go 72 hours without eating. Let’s talk about the five different stages of fasting:
- 12-hours - At the 12-hour mark, your body enters ketosis. Since there’s no food to break down - mainly carbohydrates - your body will break down stored fat for energy
- 18-hours - Your body is beginning to produce significant ketones. These ketones can act as signaling molecules, which can reduce inflammation and repair damaged DNA
- 24-hours - 24-hour fast skin benefits include your body begins the autophagy process. During autophagy, your body replaces old and damaged cells and cellular material with newer, healthier cells
- 48-hours - At the 48-hour mark, your growth hormone level is up to five times as high as when you started the fast. This helps preserve lean muscle mass and reduce fat tissue
- 72-hours - 72-hour fast skin benefits include your body begins breaking down old immune cells and generating new ones
When going into a fast, it’s important to ensure you are adequately hydrated.
Is Fasting An Anti-Aging Secret?
Is fasting good for your skin? We have already briefly gone over autophagy. This is the body’s way of discarding old and damaged cells and replacing them with newer, healthier cells. Researchers believe one of the reasons why fasting helps with anti-aging is because it induces this process.
The older we get, the more and more important our cellular health becomes. Taking advantage of bodily functions like autophagy can help you ensure proper cellular health.
Does The Body Heal Faster When Fasting?
Beyond helping with weight loss, cellular health, and anti-aging, fasting can help the body recover from an injury. A recent study found that fasting - paired with refeeding - can help enhance endothelial angiogenesis through SMOC1 and SCG2 activation. This helps with wound healing.
Researchers emphasize the importance of refeeding when it comes to fasting for wound healing. Refeeding is the process of reintroducing food after a period of malnourishment or starvation. Breaking a fast with a healthy meal full of nutrients, minerals, and vitamins is just as important as the fasting process itself.
Does Fasting Reduce Wrinkles?
Some researchers believe there is a direct connection between fasting and wrinkles. More specifically, fasting can help reduce wrinkles, one of the most dreaded side-effects of aging. This is because fasting activates DNA-repair genes in the body that help reduce inflammation in the body. Fasting also leads to the production of somatropin, which helps minimize wrinkles and fine lines.
Here’s the thing though, while fasting may provide skin benefits, what you eat outside of your fasting windows is just as, if not more important. Fasting can help maximize the benefits of a healthy diet. Breaking a fast with a trip to the all-you-can-eat buffet will do nothing but reverse all the benefits of a fast.
There Are Great Supplements To Try
Pairing intermittent fasting with a healthy regiment of supplements can help maximize the benefits of fasting! Supplements like spermidine can help induce bodily functions like autophagy and ketosis, two functions also induced by fasting. You can learn more about the benefits of spermidine and our product by visiting our learn page.
