Medical Minute: Nocturnal Fasting

It’s called nocturnal fasting, and it could do more than just help you lose weight.

Many diets focus on what you eat, but intermittent fasting focuses on when you eat. There are different ways of doing it. Maybe you eat for eight hours during the day, and then fast for the rest. Or, you might choose to eat only one meal a day, two days a week. The idea is that when your body is without food for hours, your sugar stores are used up, and your body starts burning fat. And now we’re learning nocturnal fasting may have more benefits than just weight loss.

Math teacher Desiree Valdez likes to help other people solve problems.

“Taking a subject most people hate and getting them to love, at least, like it a little bit more,” she said.

But the numbers were not adding up when it came to her own health last year.

“So during that particular time, blood pressure was rising, weight was rising,” she said.

No matter what she tried, nothing worked, so ...

“I committed to 16-hour fast, eight-hour eating,” Valdez said.

University of Miami’s hypertension specialist Maria Delgado recommended Desiree try nocturnal fasting to help naturally reset her body.

“You eat, eat, eat, eat, eat. And that includes eating before going to bed. So that alone is a big problem because it activates your pancreas. It increases your risk for diabetes, your cholesterol is not well metabolized,” Delgado explained.

Nocturnal fasting increases metabolism, prevents late-night blood sugar spikes, and reduces inflammation. One study found a fasting window of 14-plus hours actually changed genes linked to longevity, and intermittent fasting for 30 days reduces your risk of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and neuropsychiatric disorders.

“Nighttime is a time where cells rest, but it's also the time of cell regeneration. So, you get to clean your body during that time when you are not eating,” Delgado added.

As part of the fast, Desiree commits to only drinking water, green tea, and black coffee during the 16 hours of fasting. During the other eight, she eats whatever she wants. After six months, she was down almost 50 pounds and her blood pressure was normal.

“Whereas before I was just fit, a fit 50-year-old, a little chubby. But now I feel youthful,” she said.

Another upside to time-restricted eating: it may help people with Alzheimer’s disease. A study out of UC San Diego found that mice that were fed on a time-restricted schedule showed improvements in memory and sleep.