Adult humans often undertake acute fasts for cosmetic, religious or medical reasons. For example, an estimated 14% of US adults have reported using fasting as a means to control body weight and this approach has long been advocated as an intermittent treatment for gross refractory obesity. There are unique historical data sets on extreme forms of food restriction that give insight into the… Read More

OBJECTIVE: The discovery of leptin, a hormone primarily involved in adaptation to fasting, led to an increased interest in appetite regulation and appetite-modulating hormones. Here, we present unique data from a case of extreme starvation and refeeding, showing changes in plasma concentrations of appetite-modulating and metabolic hormones as well as biochemical changes, and draw attention to… Read More

OBJECTIVE: We wanted to establish and understand how the fractional losses of fat, fat-free tissues, and selected nutrients compare with that of body mass during a 44-d voluntary starvation (water only) and measurements of nutrient status. METHODS: We used anthropometry, sequential measurements of urinary substances during the fast, and blood analytes at the end of the fast. RESULTS: At the… Read More

It is currently believed that intramyocellular triglyceride (IMTG) accumulation and insulin resistance are a consequence of dietary fat ingestion and/or the elevated circulating lipid levels associated with chronic fat surplus. The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of short-term starvation versus low-carbohydrate (CHO)/high-fat diet on IMTG accumulation and the… Read More

Although a salted diet appears to be a sine qua non for the development of essential hypertension, low-salt diets often have a modest or even negligible impact on the blood pressure of hypertensives; this suggests that salt, perhaps often acting in concert with other aspects of a modern, rich diet, may set in place certain metabolic vicious cycles that sustain… Read More

The purpose of this study was to determine changes in intramyocellular lipid (IMCL) content in the vastus lateralis of nondiabetic, physically fit males over 72 h of fasting. Six men, mean age 35 yr (range 23-55 yr), body mass index 23.7 kg/m2 (21.2-27.4 kg/m2), undertook a water-only fast for 84 h. Vastus lateralis IMCL content was determined using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy after… Read More

BACKGROUND: Hypertension-related diseases are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in industrially developed societies. Surprisingly, 68% of all mortality attributed to high blood pressure (BP) occurs with systolic BP between 120 and 140 mm Hg and diastolic BP below 90 mm Hg. Dietary and lifestyle modifications are effective in the treatment of borderline hypertension. One such… Read More