Do you fast often? It may help reduce cancer risk, new study finds — here's what we know

According to the findings of a new study, fasting twice a week can help boost immunity to fight cancer cells in the body.

Fasting has many benefits and is a common practice. Be it weight loss, improved gut health, heart health, etc., fasting can help improve bodily functions. According to a new study, this practice can help the body fight cancer cells that have invaded it more effectively. A team of researchers has claimed that it can also reprogram the metabolism of natural killer cells, helping them survive the harsh environment in and around tumours and also improve their cancer-fighting abilities.

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Study finds fasting can kill cancer cells

Researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) in New York reported that fasting can help the body prevent cancer because it deprives cancer cells of the nutrients they need to grow. This study was done on mice.

“Tumors are very hungry. They take up essential nutrients, creating a hostile environment, often rich in lipids, which is detrimental to most immune cells. What we show here is that fasting reprograms these natural killer cells to better survive in this suppressive environment,” said immunologist and study co-author Joseph Sun.

Fasting and other dietary methods are increasingly being considered as a way to deprive cancer cells of the nutrients they need to grow and thus make cancer treatments more effective, according to a report in Science Daily.

White blood cells are primarily responsible for fighting pathogens and viruses. They are also called natural killers (NK), and rightly so.

5 key findings from the study

1. For the study, mice with cancer were fasted for 24 hours twice a week. But they were allowed to eat freely in between fasts.
2. Fasting reprograms these natural killer cells to survive better, the authors concluded.
3. According to Rebecca DelConte, lead author of the study, the rats during the experiment experienced a drop in glucose levels and an increase in free fatty acids, lipids secreted by fat cells that can serve as an alternative energy source in the absence of other nutrients.
4. During each fasting cycle, natural killer cells learn to use these fatty acids as an alternative fuel source to glucose.
5. The authors reported that this optimized their anti-cancer response, as the tumor microenvironment contains high concentrations of lipids, and they were now able to enter the tumor and survive better due to this metabolic training.

Despite the promising findings, more research is still needed to draw proper conclusions about making fasting a new strategy to kill cancer cells. Cancer is one of the major health concerns globally. Researchers, scientists around the world are constantly working to find better and effective ways to fight cancer.