WEB DESK: Fasting has a remarkable number of health benefits from cutting down excess weight; to improving immune system, it is also found to fight cancer as well.

According USC News, a study carried on by the University of Southern California (USC) on mice, revealed that a Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD) along with chemotherapy kills away the guard which protects cancer cells from the immune system.

“The mouse study on skin and breast cancers is the first study to show that a diet that mimics fasting may activate the immune system and expose the cancer cells to the immune system,” said Valter Longo, professor and director of the USC Longevity Institute at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology Longo.

“This could be a very inexpensive way to make a wide range of cancer cells more vulnerable to an attack by the immune cells while also making the cancer more sensitive to the chemotherapy,” added the study leader Longo.

The research further found that fasting-mimicking diet, when used with chemotherapy drugs, increase the levels of bone marrow cells which generate disease fighting cells, such as T cells, B cells and “natural killer” cells.

Now how does FMD works? The Washington Post reports, that it is not too difficult as on a monthly basis, the dieters can eat as they normally would for 25 days out of the month. Then for day one of the diet, they would eat 1,090 calories i.e. composed of 10 percent protein, 56pc fat and 34pc carbohydrates. Now, from days two through five, they would consume 725 calories i.e. made up of 9pc protein, 44pc fat, 47pc carbohydrates.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2016