Horizon (1964–…): Season 49, Episode 3 - Eat, Fast and Live Longer - full transcript
Different kinds of calorie restriction diets that are supposed to increase life expectancy and decrease brain damage due to aging are analyzed.
I love life,
so I want to remain young, energetic,
enjoy it for as long as I can.
I'm medically trained.
I know all the standard
advice for staying healthy.
But in my case, it
doesn't seem to be working.
I've discovered that my body is
not the lean, long-lived machine
I would like it to be.
A third of your body is fat. Thank
you...for making that point so emphatically.
I wanted to see if science can offer
a different way to stop the rot,
slow the clock,
so I set off to find experts
who are trying to combat
the ravages of ageing.
We are rewriting human
physiology here. Ooh...yay!
If you can find something else that you can
do that it doesn't hurt you, that benefits you
and that causes these
changes, I'd like to know.
What I discovered was truly surprising.
It involves no pills, no
injections and no hidden cost.
It's all a question of what you eat.
Or rather, what you don't eat.
Last night, I dreamt I ate a sandwich
and then I felt fantastically guilty.
It's about fasting.
But fasting made easier.
If I were to go onto Joe's lifestyle...?
In a year, you are going to be cured.
The big thing is that this is the beginning
of something which I think could be huge.
If it takes off and if it heads off
in the direction I imagine it will,
then this...this could be
genuinely revolutionary.
KLAXON
There are plenty of people
who stay young and fit
well beyond retirement age.
They mainly do it the traditional way -
through lots and lots of exercise.
Today, I've come to the London Marathon.
Nearly 36,000 bodies
of all shapes and sizes
are tackling the 26-mile course.
Some are young,
many not so young.
There's an absolutely
fantastic atmosphere here.
Now, I have never run the marathon
and I have no plans to
ever run the marathon,
but there are plenty
of people running today
who are far older than me.
There are 7,000 people in their 50s
and, incredibly enough,
there are seven people who
are in their 80s or older.
I'm going to trying and
flag a few of them down
to ask how they do it.
Hello! How are you? Hello!
How old are you? 78.
And how old are you? 81.
What's the secret, then,
running? Magic wand!
Just eating well. Hard
work son, that's all!
Anyone who can run a marathon
in their 70s deserves my respect,
but I'm waiting for a man who
makes septuagenarians look youthful.
Fauja Singh is amazing.
He has been active all his life,
but he only took up
serious running in his 80s.
So what is it that keeps him
so remarkably fit and energetic?
Hi, there. Nice to see you.
How old is Fauja? 101.
Born on 1st April 1911.
Unfortunately he hasn't quite
mastered the English language yet.
Do you mind asking him how he's feeling?
THEY SPEAK IN PUNJABI
He goes, "It's not easy..." Yeah?
But the job's got to be done, cos he's not
finished yet. You're not going to give up, are you?
Although he's 101,
Fauja has never had surgery,
he shows no signs of heart disease...
and he takes no medication.
He believes that his long life
and his incredible health
is down to his diet.
So, any particular diet?
He has no particular diet.
It's a simple Punjabi farmer's
diet, so just fresh food,
but his secret is that he
has smaller portions. Right.
In poor countries,
people die of starvation.
In rich countries,
people die of over-eating.
So, how much does he
eat, compared to you or I?
He would eat what would be
considered half a portion,
almost a child's portion.
So a child portion is probably about half
the amount of calories you or I would eat?
By restricting his food
intake so dramatically,
Fauja has unknowingly been testing
a theory that has been around
nearly as long as he has.
A scientific theory which is only
now really coming into its own.
I've taken the Tube to the finish line.
I want to catch Fauja become, hopefully,
the world's oldest marathon runner.
And after seven hours and
49 minutes, he succeeds.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Can I congratulate you?
That is absolutely unbelievable
- he's 101 years old
and he has just covered 26 miles.
Now, I can't imagine
that, in 50 years' time,
I'm going to be running down The Mall,
but I want to be like him.
I want to be mentally active and physically
active, I want to stay younger for longer.
For decades, teams of
scientists around the world
have been intensely studying ageing.
Now, clearly, genes play a significant
part in how quickly and well we age,
but there's nothing much
you can do about your genes.
There is, however, something
you can do about what you eat.
And here in America, they are starting
to turn out some truly remarkable research
linking food with longevity.
It seems it's not just about WHAT
we eat, but how and when we eat it.
Our story begins in the dust
bowls of America during the 1930s.
There was a terrible
drought, food was scarce,
and the whole country was in the
grips of the Great Depression.
Now, you would imagine,
in such difficult times,
that life expectancy would
fall, but in fact it rose.
During the darkest years of
Great Depression - 1929 to 1933 -
life expectancy increased
by a remarkable six years.
Now, on the face of it,
that is really surprising,
and yet, clues as to why could also be
found from research done back in the 1930s.
Nutritionists at Cornell
University working with animals
discovered that if you severely restrict
the amount they eat, they live longer.
Much, much longer.
So the next obvious question
- if you do the same with humans,
will it have the same effects?
Well, it's been eight decades
since that observation,
and only now are scientists
really beginning to understand
the link between calorie
restriction and longevity in humans.
At long last, it seems, we
are starting to get answers.
Washington University is at
the heart of this new science.
We are rewriting human physiology here!
It's astonishing, you know,
how simple dietary
intervention can really change
how the human body works, basically.
'Professor Luigi Fontana has spent the
last ten years studying a group of people
'who severely calorie
restrict every single day.
'And he is astonished
by what he's found.'
These people, they look
like a different species.
That's quite a big
statement, isn't it? Yes!
We are finding that they are going to
live longer than their parents and brothers
on the typical American
diet, or Western diets.
'Luigi is clearly impressed,
'so I wanted to meet one of this
new species of human for myself.'
A lovely, lovely house. Were the
directions good? Very good, thank you.
Joe Cordell is a CRonie -
a calorie restrictor
on optimal nutrition.
And that means a lot of fruit and veg.
I went ahead and kind
of put everything out
because I thought you might want to have some
breakfast. That would be delicious, thank you.
When I imagine a calorie restrictor,
I imagine someone who lives basically on a
couple of carrots, or something like that.
I didn't think you'd
go in for breakfast.
'Joe kicks off his day
with a mountain of fruit,
'some of which he then throws away.'
Then what I like to do is add some apple
to it, but when you're in my position,
I want to get as much nutritional
value as I can for the calorie,
and virtually all the
nutritional value is in the peel.
So you're going to slip the peel
in and throw away the rest of it?
You're going to do the
reverse of what most people do.
It's great, because literally 95%
of the nutritional value here...
Is in the skin? Yeah. The
rest is sugar and calories.
This is generally what I'll have
each morning The whole thing?
Yeah. That's a big bowl.
Do you ever think, "What if I'm
wrong? What if it's all wrong?
"I've done this for 10, 20 years, and
then a new bit of science comes out
"which says it's actually all nonsense."
I tell you, my brother, who
weighs 100 lb more than I do,
he's about my age. He's all
the time making the joke to me
that he's going to end up out-living me
and, in his opinion, I will
have suffered for nothing.
But the point is, I enjoy doing it.
Living a healthy lifestyle is fun.
'There are an estimated
100,000 CRonies worldwide -
'people living on a diet
which is rich in nutrients
'but low in calories.
'Joe looks fit, but
not impressively young.
'Perhaps Luigi has been exaggerating.'
What I'd love to do is take
you off and do a number of tests
and see just how we compare.
OK, I'm game. So, is this a challenge?
This is a challenge indeed, a
challenge I suspect I may well lose!
For a decade, Joe's been
eating 1,900 calories a day.
I've averaged around 2,300,
quite a few of them donuts and burgers.
How much do you think you weigh?
Probably about 180. Ooh, more than 180!
Breathe in!
I should be around 134, 135, 136.
We just have to move it down one notch.
134. Oh, right on.
We're both in our 50s,
and I really don't think
we look like different
generations, let alone species.
So how different are we?
I just need for you to
relax. Sit still, no talking.
Some of the simplest ways of assessing
ageing don't need specialist equipment.
Oh, this is good.
Balance is controlled by your inner ear.
'As you age, ear structures deteriorate
'and your balance gets worse.
One more. 'You can test it
by standing on your weaker leg
'with your eyes closed.'
How long did I make? 6.59
seconds. Not very good.
'Not good at all.
'The average 55-year-old
should manage 8 seconds.'
You're down to...
Yeah, you're doing well
for the average 20-year-old.
Over 30 seconds is what
most 20-year-olds can manage,
but it's one of those skills
that drops off dramatically.
I think you've proved a
point. Stop. You can stop, yes.
'Another good test is reaction
time, which drops off with age.'
Not good. Eight.
'This one only needs a ruler.
'At our age, you should be able to
catch it around the five-inch mark.'
Very good. That was 4. You're
doing pretty well, I must admit.
Luigi's methods are
rather more scientific.
We did a range of other medical tests,
including blood tests.
Now he's about to give us our results.
Feels like being in the
headmaster's office, doesn't it?
Waiting for the results.
Will you get an A-star?
Will I get a B-minus?
'Luigi's face tells me
'that what I'm about to
hear is not good news.'
Total body fat in Joseph is 11.5%.
This is typical of a super athlete.
11% body fat is very low
for a 54-,
55-year-old man.
Yours is 27.1% fat.
A third of your body is fat.
Thank you...for making
that point so emphatically!
'And he's still not done
talking about my fat.'
Abdominal fat is around 30%.
Abdominal fat is really the bad guy.
The higher the abdominal
fat, the higher the risk
of developing type 2 diabetes,
cardiovascular disease.
No doubt about it. It's also
a risk factor for cancer.
So, basically, your
cardiometabolic profile,
it's not good. For your age.
I think you should do
something to improve it.
What we can say is that Joseph
is not going to develop
cardiovascular disease.
It's impossible to develop stroke,
myocardial infarction or heart failure.
These three diseases are responsible
for 40% of the deaths now in US and UK.
No chance he'll die of that?
I mean, one in a million.
And if I were to go
onto Joe's lifestyle...?
In a year, you are going to be cured.
I now understand what Luigi means.
It is as if we are
two different species.
Joe's diet seems to be keeping
his organs in pristine condition.
My diet is undermining
my health, and fast.
Well, that was very sobering.
Luigi does not mince his words.
He talked a bit about abdominal fat.
In fact, he talked quite a
lot about my abdominal fat.
I've never thought of
myself as particularly fat.
But it was the sort of two
visions he held out to me.
One, where, if I continue
as I am at the moment,
I'm heading almost certainly for
heart disease and possibly worse.
The other is, if I embrace
the calorie restriction way,
he said I could be effectively
cured in less than a year.
My risk factors would move
from being almost certainly
a cardiac victim at some point
to one in a million.
When you put it as starkly as that,
it's given me a lot to think about.
Even though the evidence supporting
the benefits of calorie restriction
is getting stronger all the time,
I cannot in all honesty imagine
myself doing what Joe does.
Which creates something of a dilemma.
So, what I really want to do is try
to understand the ways in
which calorie restriction works,
then hopefully I can get
all the delicious benefits
without actually having to do it.
I'm in Los Angeles,
a city that is notoriously
addicted to youth.
In fact, many people here seem to think
that growing old and
wrinkled is optional.
I'm not going to see anyone as
superficial as a plastic surgeon.
I'm here to meet one of the
world's foremost experts on ageing.
Hi, there. Hey.
Professor Valter Longo studies the
complex mechanisms which control ageing.
He's honed in on a critical pathway
that links what we eat with how we age.
He's taking me to see two mice.
They are both the same
age, same species, same sex.
But there's one significant
difference between them.
The little one is going to
be living an awful lot longer
than the big one.
This little mouse right here
holds the world record for
longevity extension in a mammal.
Oh, right. That is remarkable.
So, how long would these
subspecies of mice last?
The big mouse here, about two years,
and the little mouse,
about a 40% longer lifespan.
Right. They're very
different, aren't they?
Whoa! He is trying to bite me.
HE LAUGHS
I could feel that one going through.
Should've had the double glove.
I learned the hard way!
The big mouse already has
a 50% chance of being dead.
OK, so he's doing well to be alive?
He's lucky to be alive, that's right.
The small one probably has
another year to go. Oh, right.
The little guy will live on to the
equivalent of what, 120 in human?
Exactly, yeah. Another 30
to 40 years in human years.
Can I pick it up? Go
ahead. By the tail. OK.
The little mouse I'm holding
is actually a man-made creation.
The reason he's so
small and so long lived
is because he's been
genetically engineered.
He has incredibly low
levels of a growth hormone
called Insulin-like Growth Factor 1.
And it seems IGF-1 is a key factor
linking calorie
restriction and longevity.
Clues to the link come
from this group of people
who live in a remote region of Ecuador.
They have a very rare
condition called Laron syndrome,
which affects less than
350 people worldwide.
That's you, is it? It makes you
look like a giant, doesn't it?
I'm the tall guy there.
The shortest one is just over
three-and-a-half feet tall.
Up to my belly button.
Is that right? Yeah.
'What interests researchers
like Valter is not their size,
'but the fact that they seem to be virtually
immune to two of the West's biggest killers.'
The big findings, of course,
were, they don't seem to get
either diabetes or cancer.
Do they do all the normal,
sensible things we all do,
like drink, smoke and all that?
Yes, they do the normal, and more,
so they a very unhealthy lifestyle.
Most of them are to some
extent at least overweight.
They seem to really not
watch anything they do.
They smoke or eat very
high calorie diets,
and then they look at me and they say,
"Oh, it doesn't matter. I'm immune."
But the incredible thing
is that there's no evidence
of a single one of them
ever dying of cancer,
yet their normal-height relatives
get cancer like everybody else.
People with Laron syndrome have
a mutation which makes them small,
but which also seems to protect
them against all these diseases.
It's incredible working with them.
It's a great group, and of course for
us is a group that in one mutation,
can tell us about diabetes, cancer,
cardiovascular diseases and ageing.
The Ecuadorian villagers
and the long-lived mice
have something in common.
Their bodies produce
exceptionally low levels
of the growth hormone IGF-1.
This discovery helped Valter piece
together role that IGF-1 plays
in the complicated business of ageing.
Our bodies are
normally in go-go mode -
cells constantly driven
to divide by IGF-1.
But when IGF-1 levels drop,
our cells shift into a
completely different mode.
The body slows production of new cells
and starts repairing
existing ones instead.
DNA damage is more likely to get fixed.
And that's why the mice AND
the villagers are protected
from age-related diseases.
But what's the link to
calorie restriction in humans?
Valter has lined up a very
simple, very Californian analogy.
It turns out there is
something in the food we eat
that affects how much
IGF-1 our bodies produce.
That something is protein.
When we eat a lot of protein, our
cells get locked in go-go mode.
So it's basically like slamming
your foot on the accelerator,
saying, "Go! Go! Go!"
Is that right? Exactly.
It's pushing the cell to burn fuel.
In go-go mode,
the body is more susceptible
to some cancers and diabetes,
because your cells are growing too fast
for damage to be efficiently repaired.
So it's like driving
your car all the time
and never taking it to the mechanic.
Right, so that's the key,
basically, is to somehow find a way
to switch your body from
going, "Broom, broom, broom,"
into a sort of repair mode, "Look
after me, make my DNA better." Exactly.
So, how do you reduce your IGF-1?
Well, studies on calorie restrictors
suggests that eating less helps,
but it's not enough.
As well as cutting calories, you
have to cut your protein intake.
Not entirely
- that would be a very bad idea.
It's about sticking to
recommended guidelines,
something most of us fail to do.
And you don't have to be
a CRonie to lower IGF-1.
There is another way
- fasting.
In fasting, there is a much more
dramatic and much quicker response,
and so, within 24 hours, you
decrease your glucose level
and you decrease your main
growth factor, which is IGF-1.
I do find it hard to believe
that just a few days of fasting
is going to be enough to jolt my
body into a more healthy state.
But I'm certainly intrigued,
and I want to find out more.
So I've had my IGF
measured back in London,
and they tell me that it's 28.
Is that good? Bad?
That's not very bad,
but that's high enough
that, based on a number of
studies, including our own,
it puts you in a higher risk category
for several different cancers,
including prostate cancer.
Valter believes I should start to
see some pretty impressive results
after just three days and
four nights of fasting.
But it's a daunting prospect.
I think fasting's quite tough,
isn't it? Have you done it yourself?
I've done it myself, yes,
I've fasted for four days several times
and to me it was very tough, yeah.
And still, if I look
ahead at doing fasting,
I see it as a tough four
days, I'm not looking forward.
Some people do, but I don't.
I'm Italian, so I look forward
to eating well, you know.
I'll bear that image in mind. Yeah.
The greedy Italian stopping eating
when I'm feeling weak about it.
There you go. Thank you.
Prolonged fasting can be dangerous
and Valter thinks it should only be
undertaken by people in good health
and preferably, under close supervision.
So he will be keeping an eye on me.
OK, I've decided I'm
going to try this fast,
which is going to be a
three-and-a-half-day fast
and all I'm going to have
is lots of water, black tea
and one 50-calorie
Cup-a-Soup a day.
Now... Oh, God, I have never done
anything quite like this before,
so I imagine it's going
to be really tough.
But I'm interested.
I'm also, I must admit,
quite concerned about some of
the rather bad news, health
news I've been getting recently,
so, um...it'll be a challenge,
but I'm sure I'll manage it.
Reasonably sure.
And so, my fast begins.
Right. It is now 10.30
at night and I am hungry.
It has been, oh, just about 25
hours since I last ate a meal
and the prospect of going to bed
while hungry is not a great one.
I think it's getting to me,
because last night I had a dream
and I dreamt I ate a sandwich and
then I felt fantastically guilty.
So vivid, I had a look round to see if there
were any crumbs in the bed, but there weren't.
I guess time to go to work.
Simple dietary intervention
can really change how
the human body works.
It puts you in a higher risk category.
Just as Valter warned me,
the first day was tough.
Not really because I was that hungry,
but simply because I had never
done anything like this before.
It was fear of the unknown.
My nightfall, I'm beginning to
think this is a very bad idea...
..particularly when I
had dinner with the crew.
Or rather, when they had dinner.
So, yeah, here I am in a
nice old Korean restaurant
with the rest of the crew.
And they are currently digging in...
Enjoying it, guys?
Beautiful. Yes.
It's a good smell. I really,
really wouldn't mind a little bite.
I do feel very hungry.
Fortunately, my dinner is
waiting for me in my hotel room.
I had to leave, I couldn't
bear it any longer.
HE SIGHS My delicious miso soup here.
Give a bit of a stir with the hotel pen,
because there's no other cutlery around.
Mmm!
Health. 25 calories' worth.
And I'm looking forward to it.
Ah!
OK, final full day of fasting.
Delicious breakfast here, black tea.
I'm feeling a bit light-headed
but otherwise actually all right.
So, just 24 hours to go
and now I'm pretty confident
I'll be able to do it.
I've learnt that hunger
does not build and build,
but comes in waves that pass.
By now, I have depleted
my body's store of glucose
and will have switched to
burning fat for fuel instead.
And if Valter is right,
my liver should also have
stopped producing so much IGF-1,
putting my cells into repair mode.
Finally, it's 7am, day four,
I'm getting my blood test done.
So, after this, I can go and
have breakfast? Absolutely.
The first food for
three-and-a-half days,
the first food for 86 hours.
Well, who's counting(?)
I'm just hoping that this
is going to show some change,
particularly in my IGF, cos if I
have spent the last three-and-a-half
to four days not eating and the
results have been absolutely zero,
that would be very, very depressing.
The fast is over.
Mmm. Ah! That is very...
I can just sort of begin
to feel the empty spaces.
I wasn't actually terrible hungry
when I woke up this morning, but...
..when I start eating this, I
realise what it is I was missing.
Later that afternoon, I meet
up with Valter to find out
if it's all been worthwhile.
I broke my fast this morning, I
had some porridge and some bacon
and I feel better. Oh, good, good.
I'll feel even more terrific
if these results are any good.
Yeah, let's take a look at them.
So, your insulin-like growth factor
one, IGF-1, this is the normal value.
Wow. The bad news, you're almost
at the top of the normal range.
For American standards,
you're doing good.
But not good full-stop, but not
bad. I'm an average American, am I?
That's right, yeah.
And the good news is,
with your fasting diet, you
dropped to almost half. Wow.
That's big, isn't it?
Yeah. That's a big drop.
It's a very dramatic drop,
so you respond very well.
I have to say, it was fascinating.
Seeing that is very,
very... um, surprising.
'Surprising
- and a huge relief.
'Halving my IGF-1 should cut
my risk of certain cancers,
'like prostate cancer,
which my father had.
'My blood sugar has also
dropped to healthy levels,
'which I'm really pleased about.'
I challenge you in four days to
get more extreme metabolic changes
than these with anything you want.
I think this is quite
extreme enough! Yeah.
Yeah, but, you know, if you can
find something else that you can do,
that it doesn't hurt
you, that benefits you
and that causes these
changes, I'd like to know. OK.
But Valter says, unless I switch
to a lower protein,
more plant-based diet,
the effects won't last.
I'll also need to fast
once every couple of months,
to maintain the benefits.
Can I really see myself doing that?
You have to make a
decision now, in your case,
what do you want to do, you know?
And there is a lot of drugs
that you could be taking,
and is that what you want to do?
And if you do so, in a few
years, or in a number of years,
you're going to be the
typical 65-year-old in Europe
that takes eight drugs a
day, and so that's the option.
MICHAEL LAUGHS And that's your call.
Thank you, OK! That's
quite an interesting choice!
That is really, really impressive,
that in just
three-and-a-half days,
if this data is right, and
the animal data is right,
I have massively decreased my risk
of a whole range of
age-related diseases.
The big question in my
mind at the moment is,
can I do fasting once a month,
for however long it takes?
Or is there a better
way, a different way,
a more manageable way out there,
that can do much of what this does,
but perhaps with a little less pain?
What I've discovered
about myself is that
the biggest problem with
prolonged fasting is me.
VALTER: 'You have to
make a decision now.
'Fasting is tough.'
Despite knowing all the
wonderful benefits...
..I just can't bring myself to do it.
But the great thing about science
is there is always
someone doing further work,
building on what others have achieved,
which is why I'm here in Chicago.
Here, they are doing studies not
just on mice, but also on humans.
And they seem to have found a way
of making fasting a lot more palatable.
I'm here to meet Dr Krista Varady,
who has been researching
something that sounds easier.
Alternate day fasting.
Hello! Hello there! Hi!
Very nice to meet you. Nice to
meet you! My name's Krista Varady.
Hello! So what have you got here, then?
So this is some of the
components that we'd use
in an alternate day fasting diet.
It basically involves a day of
pretty heavy calorie restriction.
For women, about 400
to 500 calories a day,
and for men, about 500
to 600 calories a day,
and that's actually just as
one meal, around lunchtime.
We call that the fast day.
So the fast day isn't
about total abstinence.
It's about meals that look like this.
What's great about alternate day fasting
is what happens on the alternate days.
And then that's alternated with
something we call the feed day,
which is where you can eat whatever
you want. Absolutely whatever you want.
So here's the pattern
of alternate day fasting.
Fast day.
Feed day.
Fast day.
Feed day.
It certainly sounds easier
than either prolonged fasting
or the daily calorie
restriction I looked at earlier.
But is it as effective?
Well, Krista's currently doing
a trial with overweight subjects
which suggests it might be.
What we saw was that the
alternate day fasting group
actually lost a bit more weight,
so about 5lb more after
the 6-month period.
And they actually saw some pretty
nice decreases in LDL cholesterol,
as well as triglycerides.
So LDL cholesterol is
the bad cholesterol,
and triglycerides
- basically higher amounts of that
can lead to heart disease
and age-related disease.
We also see really nice
decreases in blood pressure
over the course of the trials.
So, again, another key
heart disease risk factor.
'In addition to so far
rather limited human trials,
'there's lots of good
evidence from animal studies
'that alternate day fasting,
ADF, is safe and effective.
'I'm convinced enough to try it.
'Yesterday I fasted.
'Today I feed.'
So hopefully, we will make
it back...easily enough.
Ooh, magical mystery tour!
I like that! Yeah, yeah!
MUSIC: 'Johnny B Goode' by Chuck Berry
BUZZER Hi, thanks for stopping.
May I take your order, please?
♪ Deep down in Louisiana
Close to New Orleans
♪ Way back up in the
woods among the evergreens
♪ There stood a log cabin
made of earth and wood
♪ Where lived a country
boy named Johnny B Goode. ♪
A very good choice!
I particularly like the green
stuff that's oozing out of it.
So, I must admit,
I am surprised to be here.
I kind of imagined you'd be
sticking on a sort of, um,
you know, a veggie diet
or something like that.
Or, yeah, a lot of salads
or something on the feed day?
No, actually as long as you stick
to the calorie goals on the fast day,
you can literally eat whatever
you like on the feed day.
'One of Krista's most recent
studies compared two groups on ADF,
'one eating high fat, the other low fat,
'on their feed days.'
I'm concerned about my blood glucose,
I'm concerned about my cholesterol,
I'm concerned about a
load of stuff. Yeah, yeah.
Are those not, sort of, made
worse by eating high fat?
That's actually what
we thought would happen.
And then, surprisingly,
we saw the same decreases
in LDL cholesterol,
so that's the bad cholesterol,
and in triglycerides,
and also in blood pressure.
So in terms of
cardiovascular disease risk,
it didn't matter if you were
eating a high-fat or low-fat diet.
Another big surprise was
that, after a day of fasting,
people rarely gorge
themselves on their feed days.
So when we ask someone to consume 25%
of their energy needs on the fast day,
I just thought that when I
started running these trials,
that people would eat 175% the next day.
But right from the
get-go, no matter what,
people just can't eat
that 175% the next day.
Most people eat around the 110%.
So just slightly over what
they usually eat, actually.
You appear to be slowing
down the ageing process,
or the diseases associated with it.
You're cutting the risks
of the diseases associated,
which is quite a profound
thing to do. Yeah, absolutely.
Krista's research is
still in the early stages.
But from what I've seen and experienced,
I am now starting to be won over
by the idea that a simple pattern
of feast and fast can be powerful.
It seems to have an impact which
goes beyond simply eating less.
And I think it could
work for someone like me.
My final stop is Baltimore.
I'm here because I need
a final bit of motivation.
There's one aspect of ageing I
find more terrifying than any other.
The effects of ageing on my brain.
I'm trying to catch up
with Professor Mark Mattson.
Mark is a leading expert
on the ageing brain.
His research suggests that fasting
may help delay the onset of diseases
like Alzheimer's,
dementia, and memory loss.
Very good! How you doing?
Hi there! Michael Mosley. Mark Mattson.
You work here?! Work here? No!
Nor do I work out
here! MICHAEL CHUCKLES.
OK, Michael. We need
to put some booties on!
We're heading down into the basement
of the National Institute on Ageing.
OK? Yeah.
Hidden away down here,
there's a special mouse
he's keen to show me.
This mouse is exploring a maze.
It's a memory test, designed
to see how well he remembers
where he has found food before.
So the food is actually in
there, is it? The food's in here.
The mice they study are destined
to develop Alzheimer's disease.
Normally, they succumb within
a relatively short time,
but when these mice are put on a diet
of feast days and fast days,
what Mark calls "intermittent
energy restriction",
the results are incredible.
..So that the animals on
intermittent energy restriction,
they'll live much longer with normal,
at least, as best we can test,
normal learning and memory,
before they start having problems.
Significantly longer?
Yeah, highly significantly.
We found in one study,
six months to a year.
That's the equivalent in a
human of the difference between
developing signs of Alzheimer's
at say, the age of 50,
and the age of 80? Something
like that? Is that right? Yeah.
'On the other hand, when the
mice eat a fast-food diet,
'they go downhill much earlier.'
We give them... Lots of sugary
drinks? A high-fat diet, exactly.
And we put fructose in
their drinking water,
and that has a dramatic effect.
The animals will have an earlier onset
of the learning and memory problems.
How much sooner?
Um, three to four months sooner. Wow.
So that is the equivalent of
them developing Alzheimer's
in their 30s or maybe early 40s? Right.
So far, they've only
done studies in mice,
but they're about to
carry out human trials.
How good if the evidence
that if someone like me
were to start on intermittent fasting,
it would cut my risk of
brain disease, broadly?
I think, from the human standpoint,
if we go on a scale from
poor to good to very good
to excellent to outstanding,
it's in the very good
to excellent range.
That's the way I would categorise it.
So, what's going on?
Well, when they examined the
brains of the fasting mice,
they found something extraordinary.
These green objects
are newborn brain cells.
These three here are brand new?
Sporadic bouts of hunger actually
trigger new neurons to grow.
Why should a brain start to generate
new nerve cells when
you stop feeding it?
If you think about this in
evolutionary terms, it makes sense
if you're hungry, you'd better
increase your cognitive ability.
That will give you a survival advantage,
if you can remember where the
location of the food is and so on.
It seems that fasting stresses your grey matter
the way that exercise stresses your muscles.
So hunger really does make
you sharper? Yes. We think so.
Mark's research is starting to
point towards a simple conclusion.
Alternate day fasting has
better effects on the brain
than does a lower amount of
daily calorie restriction.
It's true of mice, but he needs to do
proper human trials to prove it's true in us.
I've come to the end of my search to
find out how to eat, fast and live longer.
The official advice is, eat
at least 2,000 calories a day,
and if you really want to fast,
even on an intermittent basis,
see your doctor first, because
there are people it could harm,
such as pregnant women or those
who are already underweight.
I'm going to be cautious, and have decided
to go with a pattern that Mark recommended.
Not alternate day fasting, but
a less extreme five/two diet -
five days' normal eating, followed
by two days' fasting, each week.
It's my last day in the States, and
it has been absolutely eye opening.
I had no idea at all that there
was so much research going on
into fasting, calorie restriction in all
its forms, and sort of anti-ageing research.
I've decided now that I am definitely
going to try the five/two diet,
that's five days' normal eating,
then two days of 600 calories a day.
I really, really hope
it makes a difference,
because I'm conscious now that
I am really at the foothills
of what could be quite
a steep advance into age,
and if there is something that could
slow that ageing process down and give me
more years of healthy living,
then I would really embrace that.
I'm heading home to the UK.
I've decided to give myself five
weeks to get used to my new diet,
and see if I get results.
This is going to be
one of my fasting days,
and I've decided I'm going to
eat breakfast as my main meal.
Mark Mattson told me he
doesn't think it matters
when you eat your
calories on a fast day.
I've tried other things, but
it is really quite discouraging
going into work when
you're feeling hungry.
There's another reason I'm
determined to try this regime.
When I arrived home, I
had another IGF-1 test.
Annoyingly, my levels
were higher than ever.
Turns out the hard-won effects of the
four-day fast only lasted a short while.
And she's kind of running
with it at the moment, I think.
'So I hope this is
something I can stick to.'
Good. It's done. It's
actually twenty to two,
and I don't feel remotely
hungry, but it is lunchtime,
so if nothing else, I think I'm
going to go and prowl around.
MUSIC: "Harder, Better,
Faster, Stronger" by Daft Punk
I found that fasting when
I'm busy at work was doable,
but the next big test is my holiday.
I'm walking with some friends.
We are doing a walk across
the Trans-Pennine Way.
Had breakfast this morning
about two hours ago,
and I'm planning on eating
next breakfast tomorrow.
So far I am feeling quite good.
It's now about seven o'clock.
Haven't eaten for about 12 hours.
The others are behind
me in the pub eating,
so I decided to come
outside for a bit, because...
I'm not as strong-minded
as I thought I was.
My stomach is begin to rumble
a bit, but it's all right.
'It's been five weeks since
I started the five/two diet.'
Heel! Heel!
Not very good dog!
'I managed to fit in two 600
calorie fast days each week,
'though they tended to
be a bit scattered around.
'But has it been enough
to make a difference?'
So, today's results day.
I have lost, I know, some weight,
I'll find out in a moment just
how much, but I'm mainly interested
in the bloods, because five or six
weeks ago they were pretty terrible.
I have high blood glucose,
high cholesterol, high IGF.
And I'm really, really
keen to see them improve,
because frankly, if they haven't
improved, then I am in trouble,
and I do want to stay young and
healthy for my family, for myself.
So, I'm quite anxious, because
this matters an awful lot to me.
Just to remind you, this is what I
looked like at the start of this film.
And this is me today.
I've had to add a few
new holes to my belt,
so I know that something
has changed, but by how much?
Right, the moment of truth, in which I
discovered just how much weight I have lost.
These are a special type of scales which
are going to measure my weight accurately,
but also, apparently, my body fat.
Hey! That is fantastic!
That is 173.8lb, which means
I have lost well over a stone.
My body fat when we
did it before was 27%,
and now it's below 20.
That is really, really pleasing.
I feel good, and my
family say I look slimmer.
It really hasn't been that difficult,
and I'm delighted that I'm no
longer in the overweight category.
But what I really want to know
is what's changed inside my body.
Professor Luigi Fontana is about
to call with my final results.
Hi, Michael! Hi, Luigi, how are you?
I'm fine, and you? I'm very good.
So, we've got your results.
Just by fasting two days a
week, you made a great impact
on your cardiometabolic health,
and so I'm very proud of you.
'But what's happened to my IGF-1?
Is my body still in go-go mode?'
IGF-1 is the major
risk factor for cancer.
Breast cancer, prostate
cancer, colon cancer.
Both the three-and-a-half
day fasting
and the five weeks' intermittent
fasting dropped your IGF-1 by 50%.
'Which is enough to reduce
my risk of certain cancers.
'But what about my blood sugar,
which was borderline diabetic?'
Your glucose dropped
to 90. Right. Fantastic.
So your glucose became normal again.
'My final result is cholesterol.'
So, you had a reduction
in total cholesterol,
and in an increase in
the good cholesterol.
This shows how little
it takes, you know,
to improve without drugs,
without taking medication.
'It wasn't THAT little an effort,
'but I have cut my risk of developing
diseases which could shorten my life.'
Thank you. So, I should live
happily ever after, should I?
I don't know if you're
going to live happier,
but you have a lower risk
of developing diseases.
Thank you very much, Luigi,
really, thank you. You're welcome.
I'm very, very pleased.
Very pleased indeed.
That was far better
than I was expecting.
'I wanted my wife Claire, who
is a GP, to share my results.'
So, this is my IGF, which is
kind of my cancer/ageing risk.
This one's come down to half
on the two-day fasting. Yes.
All of them have shown the improvement
that you, kind of, hoped for.
Yes.
That basically means you're not going to
have to take tablets at all, at the moment.
No. If you stick to it.
Well, you're looking good on it.
Thank you. No, I'm really pleased.
I have to say that's really,
amazingly good news. Mmm.
The results have been
absolutely fantastic for me,
but that doesn't mean that intermittent
fasting will work for everyone.
It's really important that
they do more trials on humans,
to find out if, in the long
term, it is safe and effective.
But having experienced intermittent
fasting, I plan to go on doing it.
It seems to have undone
some of the damage
that I have done to
my body down the years.
It is very poignant looking
at the photographs of myself
and members of my family
growing up and growing older,
but it doesn't make me want
to hold back the hands of time.
I sort of think that we do
grow old, we should grow old,
and there's very little
we can do about it.
But fasting is somehow different. Fasting
is not about trying to live to 140,
it's about staying healthy
for as long as you can,
and with the sort of time
bomb we're facing as a nation,
with obesity going
up, diabetes going up,
we desperately need something
which can make a difference.
Fasting is the first
thing I've come across
that I genuinely believe that
if people were to take it up,
it could radically transform
the nation's health.
So, I hope that we continue to see
massive research going into this territory.
Doing this fasting has been
one of the most interesting...
no, I would say THE most
interesting sort of journey, film,
whatever you want to call
it, that I have been on.
DOG WHIMPERS
And I've never said that before.
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
so I want to remain young, energetic,
enjoy it for as long as I can.
I'm medically trained.
I know all the standard
advice for staying healthy.
But in my case, it
doesn't seem to be working.
I've discovered that my body is
not the lean, long-lived machine
I would like it to be.
A third of your body is fat. Thank
you...for making that point so emphatically.
I wanted to see if science can offer
a different way to stop the rot,
slow the clock,
so I set off to find experts
who are trying to combat
the ravages of ageing.
We are rewriting human
physiology here. Ooh...yay!
If you can find something else that you can
do that it doesn't hurt you, that benefits you
and that causes these
changes, I'd like to know.
What I discovered was truly surprising.
It involves no pills, no
injections and no hidden cost.
It's all a question of what you eat.
Or rather, what you don't eat.
Last night, I dreamt I ate a sandwich
and then I felt fantastically guilty.
It's about fasting.
But fasting made easier.
If I were to go onto Joe's lifestyle...?
In a year, you are going to be cured.
The big thing is that this is the beginning
of something which I think could be huge.
If it takes off and if it heads off
in the direction I imagine it will,
then this...this could be
genuinely revolutionary.
KLAXON
There are plenty of people
who stay young and fit
well beyond retirement age.
They mainly do it the traditional way -
through lots and lots of exercise.
Today, I've come to the London Marathon.
Nearly 36,000 bodies
of all shapes and sizes
are tackling the 26-mile course.
Some are young,
many not so young.
There's an absolutely
fantastic atmosphere here.
Now, I have never run the marathon
and I have no plans to
ever run the marathon,
but there are plenty
of people running today
who are far older than me.
There are 7,000 people in their 50s
and, incredibly enough,
there are seven people who
are in their 80s or older.
I'm going to trying and
flag a few of them down
to ask how they do it.
Hello! How are you? Hello!
How old are you? 78.
And how old are you? 81.
What's the secret, then,
running? Magic wand!
Just eating well. Hard
work son, that's all!
Anyone who can run a marathon
in their 70s deserves my respect,
but I'm waiting for a man who
makes septuagenarians look youthful.
Fauja Singh is amazing.
He has been active all his life,
but he only took up
serious running in his 80s.
So what is it that keeps him
so remarkably fit and energetic?
Hi, there. Nice to see you.
How old is Fauja? 101.
Born on 1st April 1911.
Unfortunately he hasn't quite
mastered the English language yet.
Do you mind asking him how he's feeling?
THEY SPEAK IN PUNJABI
He goes, "It's not easy..." Yeah?
But the job's got to be done, cos he's not
finished yet. You're not going to give up, are you?
Although he's 101,
Fauja has never had surgery,
he shows no signs of heart disease...
and he takes no medication.
He believes that his long life
and his incredible health
is down to his diet.
So, any particular diet?
He has no particular diet.
It's a simple Punjabi farmer's
diet, so just fresh food,
but his secret is that he
has smaller portions. Right.
In poor countries,
people die of starvation.
In rich countries,
people die of over-eating.
So, how much does he
eat, compared to you or I?
He would eat what would be
considered half a portion,
almost a child's portion.
So a child portion is probably about half
the amount of calories you or I would eat?
By restricting his food
intake so dramatically,
Fauja has unknowingly been testing
a theory that has been around
nearly as long as he has.
A scientific theory which is only
now really coming into its own.
I've taken the Tube to the finish line.
I want to catch Fauja become, hopefully,
the world's oldest marathon runner.
And after seven hours and
49 minutes, he succeeds.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Can I congratulate you?
That is absolutely unbelievable
- he's 101 years old
and he has just covered 26 miles.
Now, I can't imagine
that, in 50 years' time,
I'm going to be running down The Mall,
but I want to be like him.
I want to be mentally active and physically
active, I want to stay younger for longer.
For decades, teams of
scientists around the world
have been intensely studying ageing.
Now, clearly, genes play a significant
part in how quickly and well we age,
but there's nothing much
you can do about your genes.
There is, however, something
you can do about what you eat.
And here in America, they are starting
to turn out some truly remarkable research
linking food with longevity.
It seems it's not just about WHAT
we eat, but how and when we eat it.
Our story begins in the dust
bowls of America during the 1930s.
There was a terrible
drought, food was scarce,
and the whole country was in the
grips of the Great Depression.
Now, you would imagine,
in such difficult times,
that life expectancy would
fall, but in fact it rose.
During the darkest years of
Great Depression - 1929 to 1933 -
life expectancy increased
by a remarkable six years.
Now, on the face of it,
that is really surprising,
and yet, clues as to why could also be
found from research done back in the 1930s.
Nutritionists at Cornell
University working with animals
discovered that if you severely restrict
the amount they eat, they live longer.
Much, much longer.
So the next obvious question
- if you do the same with humans,
will it have the same effects?
Well, it's been eight decades
since that observation,
and only now are scientists
really beginning to understand
the link between calorie
restriction and longevity in humans.
At long last, it seems, we
are starting to get answers.
Washington University is at
the heart of this new science.
We are rewriting human physiology here!
It's astonishing, you know,
how simple dietary
intervention can really change
how the human body works, basically.
'Professor Luigi Fontana has spent the
last ten years studying a group of people
'who severely calorie
restrict every single day.
'And he is astonished
by what he's found.'
These people, they look
like a different species.
That's quite a big
statement, isn't it? Yes!
We are finding that they are going to
live longer than their parents and brothers
on the typical American
diet, or Western diets.
'Luigi is clearly impressed,
'so I wanted to meet one of this
new species of human for myself.'
A lovely, lovely house. Were the
directions good? Very good, thank you.
Joe Cordell is a CRonie -
a calorie restrictor
on optimal nutrition.
And that means a lot of fruit and veg.
I went ahead and kind
of put everything out
because I thought you might want to have some
breakfast. That would be delicious, thank you.
When I imagine a calorie restrictor,
I imagine someone who lives basically on a
couple of carrots, or something like that.
I didn't think you'd
go in for breakfast.
'Joe kicks off his day
with a mountain of fruit,
'some of which he then throws away.'
Then what I like to do is add some apple
to it, but when you're in my position,
I want to get as much nutritional
value as I can for the calorie,
and virtually all the
nutritional value is in the peel.
So you're going to slip the peel
in and throw away the rest of it?
You're going to do the
reverse of what most people do.
It's great, because literally 95%
of the nutritional value here...
Is in the skin? Yeah. The
rest is sugar and calories.
This is generally what I'll have
each morning The whole thing?
Yeah. That's a big bowl.
Do you ever think, "What if I'm
wrong? What if it's all wrong?
"I've done this for 10, 20 years, and
then a new bit of science comes out
"which says it's actually all nonsense."
I tell you, my brother, who
weighs 100 lb more than I do,
he's about my age. He's all
the time making the joke to me
that he's going to end up out-living me
and, in his opinion, I will
have suffered for nothing.
But the point is, I enjoy doing it.
Living a healthy lifestyle is fun.
'There are an estimated
100,000 CRonies worldwide -
'people living on a diet
which is rich in nutrients
'but low in calories.
'Joe looks fit, but
not impressively young.
'Perhaps Luigi has been exaggerating.'
What I'd love to do is take
you off and do a number of tests
and see just how we compare.
OK, I'm game. So, is this a challenge?
This is a challenge indeed, a
challenge I suspect I may well lose!
For a decade, Joe's been
eating 1,900 calories a day.
I've averaged around 2,300,
quite a few of them donuts and burgers.
How much do you think you weigh?
Probably about 180. Ooh, more than 180!
Breathe in!
I should be around 134, 135, 136.
We just have to move it down one notch.
134. Oh, right on.
We're both in our 50s,
and I really don't think
we look like different
generations, let alone species.
So how different are we?
I just need for you to
relax. Sit still, no talking.
Some of the simplest ways of assessing
ageing don't need specialist equipment.
Oh, this is good.
Balance is controlled by your inner ear.
'As you age, ear structures deteriorate
'and your balance gets worse.
One more. 'You can test it
by standing on your weaker leg
'with your eyes closed.'
How long did I make? 6.59
seconds. Not very good.
'Not good at all.
'The average 55-year-old
should manage 8 seconds.'
You're down to...
Yeah, you're doing well
for the average 20-year-old.
Over 30 seconds is what
most 20-year-olds can manage,
but it's one of those skills
that drops off dramatically.
I think you've proved a
point. Stop. You can stop, yes.
'Another good test is reaction
time, which drops off with age.'
Not good. Eight.
'This one only needs a ruler.
'At our age, you should be able to
catch it around the five-inch mark.'
Very good. That was 4. You're
doing pretty well, I must admit.
Luigi's methods are
rather more scientific.
We did a range of other medical tests,
including blood tests.
Now he's about to give us our results.
Feels like being in the
headmaster's office, doesn't it?
Waiting for the results.
Will you get an A-star?
Will I get a B-minus?
'Luigi's face tells me
'that what I'm about to
hear is not good news.'
Total body fat in Joseph is 11.5%.
This is typical of a super athlete.
11% body fat is very low
for a 54-,
55-year-old man.
Yours is 27.1% fat.
A third of your body is fat.
Thank you...for making
that point so emphatically!
'And he's still not done
talking about my fat.'
Abdominal fat is around 30%.
Abdominal fat is really the bad guy.
The higher the abdominal
fat, the higher the risk
of developing type 2 diabetes,
cardiovascular disease.
No doubt about it. It's also
a risk factor for cancer.
So, basically, your
cardiometabolic profile,
it's not good. For your age.
I think you should do
something to improve it.
What we can say is that Joseph
is not going to develop
cardiovascular disease.
It's impossible to develop stroke,
myocardial infarction or heart failure.
These three diseases are responsible
for 40% of the deaths now in US and UK.
No chance he'll die of that?
I mean, one in a million.
And if I were to go
onto Joe's lifestyle...?
In a year, you are going to be cured.
I now understand what Luigi means.
It is as if we are
two different species.
Joe's diet seems to be keeping
his organs in pristine condition.
My diet is undermining
my health, and fast.
Well, that was very sobering.
Luigi does not mince his words.
He talked a bit about abdominal fat.
In fact, he talked quite a
lot about my abdominal fat.
I've never thought of
myself as particularly fat.
But it was the sort of two
visions he held out to me.
One, where, if I continue
as I am at the moment,
I'm heading almost certainly for
heart disease and possibly worse.
The other is, if I embrace
the calorie restriction way,
he said I could be effectively
cured in less than a year.
My risk factors would move
from being almost certainly
a cardiac victim at some point
to one in a million.
When you put it as starkly as that,
it's given me a lot to think about.
Even though the evidence supporting
the benefits of calorie restriction
is getting stronger all the time,
I cannot in all honesty imagine
myself doing what Joe does.
Which creates something of a dilemma.
So, what I really want to do is try
to understand the ways in
which calorie restriction works,
then hopefully I can get
all the delicious benefits
without actually having to do it.
I'm in Los Angeles,
a city that is notoriously
addicted to youth.
In fact, many people here seem to think
that growing old and
wrinkled is optional.
I'm not going to see anyone as
superficial as a plastic surgeon.
I'm here to meet one of the
world's foremost experts on ageing.
Hi, there. Hey.
Professor Valter Longo studies the
complex mechanisms which control ageing.
He's honed in on a critical pathway
that links what we eat with how we age.
He's taking me to see two mice.
They are both the same
age, same species, same sex.
But there's one significant
difference between them.
The little one is going to
be living an awful lot longer
than the big one.
This little mouse right here
holds the world record for
longevity extension in a mammal.
Oh, right. That is remarkable.
So, how long would these
subspecies of mice last?
The big mouse here, about two years,
and the little mouse,
about a 40% longer lifespan.
Right. They're very
different, aren't they?
Whoa! He is trying to bite me.
HE LAUGHS
I could feel that one going through.
Should've had the double glove.
I learned the hard way!
The big mouse already has
a 50% chance of being dead.
OK, so he's doing well to be alive?
He's lucky to be alive, that's right.
The small one probably has
another year to go. Oh, right.
The little guy will live on to the
equivalent of what, 120 in human?
Exactly, yeah. Another 30
to 40 years in human years.
Can I pick it up? Go
ahead. By the tail. OK.
The little mouse I'm holding
is actually a man-made creation.
The reason he's so
small and so long lived
is because he's been
genetically engineered.
He has incredibly low
levels of a growth hormone
called Insulin-like Growth Factor 1.
And it seems IGF-1 is a key factor
linking calorie
restriction and longevity.
Clues to the link come
from this group of people
who live in a remote region of Ecuador.
They have a very rare
condition called Laron syndrome,
which affects less than
350 people worldwide.
That's you, is it? It makes you
look like a giant, doesn't it?
I'm the tall guy there.
The shortest one is just over
three-and-a-half feet tall.
Up to my belly button.
Is that right? Yeah.
'What interests researchers
like Valter is not their size,
'but the fact that they seem to be virtually
immune to two of the West's biggest killers.'
The big findings, of course,
were, they don't seem to get
either diabetes or cancer.
Do they do all the normal,
sensible things we all do,
like drink, smoke and all that?
Yes, they do the normal, and more,
so they a very unhealthy lifestyle.
Most of them are to some
extent at least overweight.
They seem to really not
watch anything they do.
They smoke or eat very
high calorie diets,
and then they look at me and they say,
"Oh, it doesn't matter. I'm immune."
But the incredible thing
is that there's no evidence
of a single one of them
ever dying of cancer,
yet their normal-height relatives
get cancer like everybody else.
People with Laron syndrome have
a mutation which makes them small,
but which also seems to protect
them against all these diseases.
It's incredible working with them.
It's a great group, and of course for
us is a group that in one mutation,
can tell us about diabetes, cancer,
cardiovascular diseases and ageing.
The Ecuadorian villagers
and the long-lived mice
have something in common.
Their bodies produce
exceptionally low levels
of the growth hormone IGF-1.
This discovery helped Valter piece
together role that IGF-1 plays
in the complicated business of ageing.
Our bodies are
normally in go-go mode -
cells constantly driven
to divide by IGF-1.
But when IGF-1 levels drop,
our cells shift into a
completely different mode.
The body slows production of new cells
and starts repairing
existing ones instead.
DNA damage is more likely to get fixed.
And that's why the mice AND
the villagers are protected
from age-related diseases.
But what's the link to
calorie restriction in humans?
Valter has lined up a very
simple, very Californian analogy.
It turns out there is
something in the food we eat
that affects how much
IGF-1 our bodies produce.
That something is protein.
When we eat a lot of protein, our
cells get locked in go-go mode.
So it's basically like slamming
your foot on the accelerator,
saying, "Go! Go! Go!"
Is that right? Exactly.
It's pushing the cell to burn fuel.
In go-go mode,
the body is more susceptible
to some cancers and diabetes,
because your cells are growing too fast
for damage to be efficiently repaired.
So it's like driving
your car all the time
and never taking it to the mechanic.
Right, so that's the key,
basically, is to somehow find a way
to switch your body from
going, "Broom, broom, broom,"
into a sort of repair mode, "Look
after me, make my DNA better." Exactly.
So, how do you reduce your IGF-1?
Well, studies on calorie restrictors
suggests that eating less helps,
but it's not enough.
As well as cutting calories, you
have to cut your protein intake.
Not entirely
- that would be a very bad idea.
It's about sticking to
recommended guidelines,
something most of us fail to do.
And you don't have to be
a CRonie to lower IGF-1.
There is another way
- fasting.
In fasting, there is a much more
dramatic and much quicker response,
and so, within 24 hours, you
decrease your glucose level
and you decrease your main
growth factor, which is IGF-1.
I do find it hard to believe
that just a few days of fasting
is going to be enough to jolt my
body into a more healthy state.
But I'm certainly intrigued,
and I want to find out more.
So I've had my IGF
measured back in London,
and they tell me that it's 28.
Is that good? Bad?
That's not very bad,
but that's high enough
that, based on a number of
studies, including our own,
it puts you in a higher risk category
for several different cancers,
including prostate cancer.
Valter believes I should start to
see some pretty impressive results
after just three days and
four nights of fasting.
But it's a daunting prospect.
I think fasting's quite tough,
isn't it? Have you done it yourself?
I've done it myself, yes,
I've fasted for four days several times
and to me it was very tough, yeah.
And still, if I look
ahead at doing fasting,
I see it as a tough four
days, I'm not looking forward.
Some people do, but I don't.
I'm Italian, so I look forward
to eating well, you know.
I'll bear that image in mind. Yeah.
The greedy Italian stopping eating
when I'm feeling weak about it.
There you go. Thank you.
Prolonged fasting can be dangerous
and Valter thinks it should only be
undertaken by people in good health
and preferably, under close supervision.
So he will be keeping an eye on me.
OK, I've decided I'm
going to try this fast,
which is going to be a
three-and-a-half-day fast
and all I'm going to have
is lots of water, black tea
and one 50-calorie
Cup-a-Soup a day.
Now... Oh, God, I have never done
anything quite like this before,
so I imagine it's going
to be really tough.
But I'm interested.
I'm also, I must admit,
quite concerned about some of
the rather bad news, health
news I've been getting recently,
so, um...it'll be a challenge,
but I'm sure I'll manage it.
Reasonably sure.
And so, my fast begins.
Right. It is now 10.30
at night and I am hungry.
It has been, oh, just about 25
hours since I last ate a meal
and the prospect of going to bed
while hungry is not a great one.
I think it's getting to me,
because last night I had a dream
and I dreamt I ate a sandwich and
then I felt fantastically guilty.
So vivid, I had a look round to see if there
were any crumbs in the bed, but there weren't.
I guess time to go to work.
Simple dietary intervention
can really change how
the human body works.
It puts you in a higher risk category.
Just as Valter warned me,
the first day was tough.
Not really because I was that hungry,
but simply because I had never
done anything like this before.
It was fear of the unknown.
My nightfall, I'm beginning to
think this is a very bad idea...
..particularly when I
had dinner with the crew.
Or rather, when they had dinner.
So, yeah, here I am in a
nice old Korean restaurant
with the rest of the crew.
And they are currently digging in...
Enjoying it, guys?
Beautiful. Yes.
It's a good smell. I really,
really wouldn't mind a little bite.
I do feel very hungry.
Fortunately, my dinner is
waiting for me in my hotel room.
I had to leave, I couldn't
bear it any longer.
HE SIGHS My delicious miso soup here.
Give a bit of a stir with the hotel pen,
because there's no other cutlery around.
Mmm!
Health. 25 calories' worth.
And I'm looking forward to it.
Ah!
OK, final full day of fasting.
Delicious breakfast here, black tea.
I'm feeling a bit light-headed
but otherwise actually all right.
So, just 24 hours to go
and now I'm pretty confident
I'll be able to do it.
I've learnt that hunger
does not build and build,
but comes in waves that pass.
By now, I have depleted
my body's store of glucose
and will have switched to
burning fat for fuel instead.
And if Valter is right,
my liver should also have
stopped producing so much IGF-1,
putting my cells into repair mode.
Finally, it's 7am, day four,
I'm getting my blood test done.
So, after this, I can go and
have breakfast? Absolutely.
The first food for
three-and-a-half days,
the first food for 86 hours.
Well, who's counting(?)
I'm just hoping that this
is going to show some change,
particularly in my IGF, cos if I
have spent the last three-and-a-half
to four days not eating and the
results have been absolutely zero,
that would be very, very depressing.
The fast is over.
Mmm. Ah! That is very...
I can just sort of begin
to feel the empty spaces.
I wasn't actually terrible hungry
when I woke up this morning, but...
..when I start eating this, I
realise what it is I was missing.
Later that afternoon, I meet
up with Valter to find out
if it's all been worthwhile.
I broke my fast this morning, I
had some porridge and some bacon
and I feel better. Oh, good, good.
I'll feel even more terrific
if these results are any good.
Yeah, let's take a look at them.
So, your insulin-like growth factor
one, IGF-1, this is the normal value.
Wow. The bad news, you're almost
at the top of the normal range.
For American standards,
you're doing good.
But not good full-stop, but not
bad. I'm an average American, am I?
That's right, yeah.
And the good news is,
with your fasting diet, you
dropped to almost half. Wow.
That's big, isn't it?
Yeah. That's a big drop.
It's a very dramatic drop,
so you respond very well.
I have to say, it was fascinating.
Seeing that is very,
very... um, surprising.
'Surprising
- and a huge relief.
'Halving my IGF-1 should cut
my risk of certain cancers,
'like prostate cancer,
which my father had.
'My blood sugar has also
dropped to healthy levels,
'which I'm really pleased about.'
I challenge you in four days to
get more extreme metabolic changes
than these with anything you want.
I think this is quite
extreme enough! Yeah.
Yeah, but, you know, if you can
find something else that you can do,
that it doesn't hurt
you, that benefits you
and that causes these
changes, I'd like to know. OK.
But Valter says, unless I switch
to a lower protein,
more plant-based diet,
the effects won't last.
I'll also need to fast
once every couple of months,
to maintain the benefits.
Can I really see myself doing that?
You have to make a
decision now, in your case,
what do you want to do, you know?
And there is a lot of drugs
that you could be taking,
and is that what you want to do?
And if you do so, in a few
years, or in a number of years,
you're going to be the
typical 65-year-old in Europe
that takes eight drugs a
day, and so that's the option.
MICHAEL LAUGHS And that's your call.
Thank you, OK! That's
quite an interesting choice!
That is really, really impressive,
that in just
three-and-a-half days,
if this data is right, and
the animal data is right,
I have massively decreased my risk
of a whole range of
age-related diseases.
The big question in my
mind at the moment is,
can I do fasting once a month,
for however long it takes?
Or is there a better
way, a different way,
a more manageable way out there,
that can do much of what this does,
but perhaps with a little less pain?
What I've discovered
about myself is that
the biggest problem with
prolonged fasting is me.
VALTER: 'You have to
make a decision now.
'Fasting is tough.'
Despite knowing all the
wonderful benefits...
..I just can't bring myself to do it.
But the great thing about science
is there is always
someone doing further work,
building on what others have achieved,
which is why I'm here in Chicago.
Here, they are doing studies not
just on mice, but also on humans.
And they seem to have found a way
of making fasting a lot more palatable.
I'm here to meet Dr Krista Varady,
who has been researching
something that sounds easier.
Alternate day fasting.
Hello! Hello there! Hi!
Very nice to meet you. Nice to
meet you! My name's Krista Varady.
Hello! So what have you got here, then?
So this is some of the
components that we'd use
in an alternate day fasting diet.
It basically involves a day of
pretty heavy calorie restriction.
For women, about 400
to 500 calories a day,
and for men, about 500
to 600 calories a day,
and that's actually just as
one meal, around lunchtime.
We call that the fast day.
So the fast day isn't
about total abstinence.
It's about meals that look like this.
What's great about alternate day fasting
is what happens on the alternate days.
And then that's alternated with
something we call the feed day,
which is where you can eat whatever
you want. Absolutely whatever you want.
So here's the pattern
of alternate day fasting.
Fast day.
Feed day.
Fast day.
Feed day.
It certainly sounds easier
than either prolonged fasting
or the daily calorie
restriction I looked at earlier.
But is it as effective?
Well, Krista's currently doing
a trial with overweight subjects
which suggests it might be.
What we saw was that the
alternate day fasting group
actually lost a bit more weight,
so about 5lb more after
the 6-month period.
And they actually saw some pretty
nice decreases in LDL cholesterol,
as well as triglycerides.
So LDL cholesterol is
the bad cholesterol,
and triglycerides
- basically higher amounts of that
can lead to heart disease
and age-related disease.
We also see really nice
decreases in blood pressure
over the course of the trials.
So, again, another key
heart disease risk factor.
'In addition to so far
rather limited human trials,
'there's lots of good
evidence from animal studies
'that alternate day fasting,
ADF, is safe and effective.
'I'm convinced enough to try it.
'Yesterday I fasted.
'Today I feed.'
So hopefully, we will make
it back...easily enough.
Ooh, magical mystery tour!
I like that! Yeah, yeah!
MUSIC: 'Johnny B Goode' by Chuck Berry
BUZZER Hi, thanks for stopping.
May I take your order, please?
♪ Deep down in Louisiana
Close to New Orleans
♪ Way back up in the
woods among the evergreens
♪ There stood a log cabin
made of earth and wood
♪ Where lived a country
boy named Johnny B Goode. ♪
A very good choice!
I particularly like the green
stuff that's oozing out of it.
So, I must admit,
I am surprised to be here.
I kind of imagined you'd be
sticking on a sort of, um,
you know, a veggie diet
or something like that.
Or, yeah, a lot of salads
or something on the feed day?
No, actually as long as you stick
to the calorie goals on the fast day,
you can literally eat whatever
you like on the feed day.
'One of Krista's most recent
studies compared two groups on ADF,
'one eating high fat, the other low fat,
'on their feed days.'
I'm concerned about my blood glucose,
I'm concerned about my cholesterol,
I'm concerned about a
load of stuff. Yeah, yeah.
Are those not, sort of, made
worse by eating high fat?
That's actually what
we thought would happen.
And then, surprisingly,
we saw the same decreases
in LDL cholesterol,
so that's the bad cholesterol,
and in triglycerides,
and also in blood pressure.
So in terms of
cardiovascular disease risk,
it didn't matter if you were
eating a high-fat or low-fat diet.
Another big surprise was
that, after a day of fasting,
people rarely gorge
themselves on their feed days.
So when we ask someone to consume 25%
of their energy needs on the fast day,
I just thought that when I
started running these trials,
that people would eat 175% the next day.
But right from the
get-go, no matter what,
people just can't eat
that 175% the next day.
Most people eat around the 110%.
So just slightly over what
they usually eat, actually.
You appear to be slowing
down the ageing process,
or the diseases associated with it.
You're cutting the risks
of the diseases associated,
which is quite a profound
thing to do. Yeah, absolutely.
Krista's research is
still in the early stages.
But from what I've seen and experienced,
I am now starting to be won over
by the idea that a simple pattern
of feast and fast can be powerful.
It seems to have an impact which
goes beyond simply eating less.
And I think it could
work for someone like me.
My final stop is Baltimore.
I'm here because I need
a final bit of motivation.
There's one aspect of ageing I
find more terrifying than any other.
The effects of ageing on my brain.
I'm trying to catch up
with Professor Mark Mattson.
Mark is a leading expert
on the ageing brain.
His research suggests that fasting
may help delay the onset of diseases
like Alzheimer's,
dementia, and memory loss.
Very good! How you doing?
Hi there! Michael Mosley. Mark Mattson.
You work here?! Work here? No!
Nor do I work out
here! MICHAEL CHUCKLES.
OK, Michael. We need
to put some booties on!
We're heading down into the basement
of the National Institute on Ageing.
OK? Yeah.
Hidden away down here,
there's a special mouse
he's keen to show me.
This mouse is exploring a maze.
It's a memory test, designed
to see how well he remembers
where he has found food before.
So the food is actually in
there, is it? The food's in here.
The mice they study are destined
to develop Alzheimer's disease.
Normally, they succumb within
a relatively short time,
but when these mice are put on a diet
of feast days and fast days,
what Mark calls "intermittent
energy restriction",
the results are incredible.
..So that the animals on
intermittent energy restriction,
they'll live much longer with normal,
at least, as best we can test,
normal learning and memory,
before they start having problems.
Significantly longer?
Yeah, highly significantly.
We found in one study,
six months to a year.
That's the equivalent in a
human of the difference between
developing signs of Alzheimer's
at say, the age of 50,
and the age of 80? Something
like that? Is that right? Yeah.
'On the other hand, when the
mice eat a fast-food diet,
'they go downhill much earlier.'
We give them... Lots of sugary
drinks? A high-fat diet, exactly.
And we put fructose in
their drinking water,
and that has a dramatic effect.
The animals will have an earlier onset
of the learning and memory problems.
How much sooner?
Um, three to four months sooner. Wow.
So that is the equivalent of
them developing Alzheimer's
in their 30s or maybe early 40s? Right.
So far, they've only
done studies in mice,
but they're about to
carry out human trials.
How good if the evidence
that if someone like me
were to start on intermittent fasting,
it would cut my risk of
brain disease, broadly?
I think, from the human standpoint,
if we go on a scale from
poor to good to very good
to excellent to outstanding,
it's in the very good
to excellent range.
That's the way I would categorise it.
So, what's going on?
Well, when they examined the
brains of the fasting mice,
they found something extraordinary.
These green objects
are newborn brain cells.
These three here are brand new?
Sporadic bouts of hunger actually
trigger new neurons to grow.
Why should a brain start to generate
new nerve cells when
you stop feeding it?
If you think about this in
evolutionary terms, it makes sense
if you're hungry, you'd better
increase your cognitive ability.
That will give you a survival advantage,
if you can remember where the
location of the food is and so on.
It seems that fasting stresses your grey matter
the way that exercise stresses your muscles.
So hunger really does make
you sharper? Yes. We think so.
Mark's research is starting to
point towards a simple conclusion.
Alternate day fasting has
better effects on the brain
than does a lower amount of
daily calorie restriction.
It's true of mice, but he needs to do
proper human trials to prove it's true in us.
I've come to the end of my search to
find out how to eat, fast and live longer.
The official advice is, eat
at least 2,000 calories a day,
and if you really want to fast,
even on an intermittent basis,
see your doctor first, because
there are people it could harm,
such as pregnant women or those
who are already underweight.
I'm going to be cautious, and have decided
to go with a pattern that Mark recommended.
Not alternate day fasting, but
a less extreme five/two diet -
five days' normal eating, followed
by two days' fasting, each week.
It's my last day in the States, and
it has been absolutely eye opening.
I had no idea at all that there
was so much research going on
into fasting, calorie restriction in all
its forms, and sort of anti-ageing research.
I've decided now that I am definitely
going to try the five/two diet,
that's five days' normal eating,
then two days of 600 calories a day.
I really, really hope
it makes a difference,
because I'm conscious now that
I am really at the foothills
of what could be quite
a steep advance into age,
and if there is something that could
slow that ageing process down and give me
more years of healthy living,
then I would really embrace that.
I'm heading home to the UK.
I've decided to give myself five
weeks to get used to my new diet,
and see if I get results.
This is going to be
one of my fasting days,
and I've decided I'm going to
eat breakfast as my main meal.
Mark Mattson told me he
doesn't think it matters
when you eat your
calories on a fast day.
I've tried other things, but
it is really quite discouraging
going into work when
you're feeling hungry.
There's another reason I'm
determined to try this regime.
When I arrived home, I
had another IGF-1 test.
Annoyingly, my levels
were higher than ever.
Turns out the hard-won effects of the
four-day fast only lasted a short while.
And she's kind of running
with it at the moment, I think.
'So I hope this is
something I can stick to.'
Good. It's done. It's
actually twenty to two,
and I don't feel remotely
hungry, but it is lunchtime,
so if nothing else, I think I'm
going to go and prowl around.
MUSIC: "Harder, Better,
Faster, Stronger" by Daft Punk
I found that fasting when
I'm busy at work was doable,
but the next big test is my holiday.
I'm walking with some friends.
We are doing a walk across
the Trans-Pennine Way.
Had breakfast this morning
about two hours ago,
and I'm planning on eating
next breakfast tomorrow.
So far I am feeling quite good.
It's now about seven o'clock.
Haven't eaten for about 12 hours.
The others are behind
me in the pub eating,
so I decided to come
outside for a bit, because...
I'm not as strong-minded
as I thought I was.
My stomach is begin to rumble
a bit, but it's all right.
'It's been five weeks since
I started the five/two diet.'
Heel! Heel!
Not very good dog!
'I managed to fit in two 600
calorie fast days each week,
'though they tended to
be a bit scattered around.
'But has it been enough
to make a difference?'
So, today's results day.
I have lost, I know, some weight,
I'll find out in a moment just
how much, but I'm mainly interested
in the bloods, because five or six
weeks ago they were pretty terrible.
I have high blood glucose,
high cholesterol, high IGF.
And I'm really, really
keen to see them improve,
because frankly, if they haven't
improved, then I am in trouble,
and I do want to stay young and
healthy for my family, for myself.
So, I'm quite anxious, because
this matters an awful lot to me.
Just to remind you, this is what I
looked like at the start of this film.
And this is me today.
I've had to add a few
new holes to my belt,
so I know that something
has changed, but by how much?
Right, the moment of truth, in which I
discovered just how much weight I have lost.
These are a special type of scales which
are going to measure my weight accurately,
but also, apparently, my body fat.
Hey! That is fantastic!
That is 173.8lb, which means
I have lost well over a stone.
My body fat when we
did it before was 27%,
and now it's below 20.
That is really, really pleasing.
I feel good, and my
family say I look slimmer.
It really hasn't been that difficult,
and I'm delighted that I'm no
longer in the overweight category.
But what I really want to know
is what's changed inside my body.
Professor Luigi Fontana is about
to call with my final results.
Hi, Michael! Hi, Luigi, how are you?
I'm fine, and you? I'm very good.
So, we've got your results.
Just by fasting two days a
week, you made a great impact
on your cardiometabolic health,
and so I'm very proud of you.
'But what's happened to my IGF-1?
Is my body still in go-go mode?'
IGF-1 is the major
risk factor for cancer.
Breast cancer, prostate
cancer, colon cancer.
Both the three-and-a-half
day fasting
and the five weeks' intermittent
fasting dropped your IGF-1 by 50%.
'Which is enough to reduce
my risk of certain cancers.
'But what about my blood sugar,
which was borderline diabetic?'
Your glucose dropped
to 90. Right. Fantastic.
So your glucose became normal again.
'My final result is cholesterol.'
So, you had a reduction
in total cholesterol,
and in an increase in
the good cholesterol.
This shows how little
it takes, you know,
to improve without drugs,
without taking medication.
'It wasn't THAT little an effort,
'but I have cut my risk of developing
diseases which could shorten my life.'
Thank you. So, I should live
happily ever after, should I?
I don't know if you're
going to live happier,
but you have a lower risk
of developing diseases.
Thank you very much, Luigi,
really, thank you. You're welcome.
I'm very, very pleased.
Very pleased indeed.
That was far better
than I was expecting.
'I wanted my wife Claire, who
is a GP, to share my results.'
So, this is my IGF, which is
kind of my cancer/ageing risk.
This one's come down to half
on the two-day fasting. Yes.
All of them have shown the improvement
that you, kind of, hoped for.
Yes.
That basically means you're not going to
have to take tablets at all, at the moment.
No. If you stick to it.
Well, you're looking good on it.
Thank you. No, I'm really pleased.
I have to say that's really,
amazingly good news. Mmm.
The results have been
absolutely fantastic for me,
but that doesn't mean that intermittent
fasting will work for everyone.
It's really important that
they do more trials on humans,
to find out if, in the long
term, it is safe and effective.
But having experienced intermittent
fasting, I plan to go on doing it.
It seems to have undone
some of the damage
that I have done to
my body down the years.
It is very poignant looking
at the photographs of myself
and members of my family
growing up and growing older,
but it doesn't make me want
to hold back the hands of time.
I sort of think that we do
grow old, we should grow old,
and there's very little
we can do about it.
But fasting is somehow different. Fasting
is not about trying to live to 140,
it's about staying healthy
for as long as you can,
and with the sort of time
bomb we're facing as a nation,
with obesity going
up, diabetes going up,
we desperately need something
which can make a difference.
Fasting is the first
thing I've come across
that I genuinely believe that
if people were to take it up,
it could radically transform
the nation's health.
So, I hope that we continue to see
massive research going into this territory.
Doing this fasting has been
one of the most interesting...
no, I would say THE most
interesting sort of journey, film,
whatever you want to call
it, that I have been on.
DOG WHIMPERS
And I've never said that before.
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