Fasting and Experimental Animals, Detrimental or Positive?

While fasting has been practiced for centuries, its beneficial effects were unknown until recently. This review tries to analyze the current literature of how fasting and intermittent fasting (IF) could affect clinical pathological parameters like red blood cell count, hemoglobin, hematocrit and etc. Animal experiments have elucidated fasting and IF could exert positive effects on learning, mood and brain, plus metabolic functions such lowering plasma glucose and insulin level and improvement in lipid metabolism (reduced visceral fat tissue and increased plasma adiponectin level), and an increased resistance to stress. Thus, more clinical studies are necessary to test the effectiveness of fasting and IF in preventing different diseases.