Washington D.C. [USA], Mar 15 : Every-other-day-fasting, which involves eating food only on alternate days, has been found to positively affect overall health by changing the metabolism of fatty acids in the liver, revealed a recent study.
According to the researchers, this intermittent fasting approach can also improve glucose tolerance and regulate diabetes.
Dr Mark Larance at the University of Sydney said that the information can now be used in future studies to determine optimum fasting periods to regulate protein response in the liver.
In experiments with mice, researchers led by Dr Larance identified how fasting on alternate days affected proteins in the liver, showing the unexpected impact on fatty acid metabolism and the surprising role played by a master regulator protein that controls many biological pathways in the liver and other organs.
"We know that fasting can be an effective intervention to treat disease and improve liver health. But we haven't known how fasting re-programs liver proteins, which perform a diverse array of essential metabolic functions," said Dr Larance.
"By studying the impact on proteins in the livers of mice, which are suitable human biological models, we now have a much better understanding of how this happens," said Larance.
The results of the research were published in the journal Cell Reports.