How does fasting affect the health of the arteries?
Does fasting help protect the brain from strokes?
What is healthy food to maintain brain health, and how do we maintain brain health during the feast?
These and other questions we asked Dr. Malik Zabin, a neurosurgeon and spine at the University Hospital of Wales, and a researcher in neurosciences and the field of stem cells and their role in stimulating memory after brain injuries.
He is a Fellow of the British College of Surgeons-London and a member of the British Neurosurgeons Society.
What is the relationship between the health of arteries and the brain?
In order for the brain to function properly, it needs at least 20% of the amount of blood that the heart pumps with each beat, despite its small size compared to the rest of the body’s organs.
The brain is perfused and supplied with blood through a distinct network of blood vessels.
Scientific research closely links - and leaves no room for doubt - between maintaining the health of blood vessels and delaying or preventing injuries to many neurological diseases, especially strokes, Alzheimer's disease and memory loss (Vascular Dementia).
Hence the importance of maintaining the health of the arteries to enable the brain to perform its functions properly and without these diseases.
How does fasting affect the health of the arteries?
Scientists have been interested in studying the effect of fasting on arterial health for many years, and this comes from the premise that many studies, especially recent ones, link what a person eats of food and the risk of some neurological diseases, especially strokes, early dementia or dementia with aging.
Research indicates that fasting, regulating food and eating in appropriate quantities maintains the metabolism process (metabolism) in the brain, improves the brain's response to the hormone insulin, and relieves some chronic brain infections, and all of these processes are linked in one way or another to strokes, dementia and aging diseases.
Does fasting help protect the brain from strokes?
According to the reports of the World Health Organization, strokes are considered one of the most important causes of death around the world, and strokes are divided into two main types:
Ischemic strokes (thromboembolism) are caused by the interruption of blood flow to a specific area of the brain.
Hemorrhagic strokes are acute hemorrhagic strokes caused by a ruptured cerebral blood vessel.
There are many influencing factors that increase the risk of both strokes, including advanced age, diabetes, high blood pressure, high levels of fats in the blood, and obesity.
Hence, many researches have been interested in studying the impact of fasting on these factors, as the results clearly indicate that fasting plays a role in alleviating the impact of these factors, as it helps control the level of sugar and reduce the level of fats in the blood, and works to reduce blood pressure and reduce infection. It also has a significant effect on reducing the level of fats in the blood and reducing weight.
All of these factors combined work to reduce the incidence of strokes, especially if we were able to continue intermittent fasting after Ramadan, while maintaining regular physical activity and eating a balanced diet outside the fasting period.
Does fasting play a role in protecting the brain from degenerative diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer's?
The relationship between a balanced diet and the incidence of aging diseases aroused the curiosity of researchers to study if there is a benefit to fasting in reducing the risk of infection with these diseases, especially those related to vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
Studies in this field can be summarized in 3 main axes:
Fasting and chronic encephalitis: Several studies indicate that fasting reduces oxidative stress, and reduces the production of many inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin 1 beta IL 1 .
Research indicates that a decrease in the levels of these cytokines stimulates memory in the brain, especially in the hippocampus.
Fasting stimulates the production of many neurotransmitters that play a pivotal role in brain activity, including: Serotonin, Noradrenaline and Dopamine, all of which are important as neurotransmitters, especially in the hippocampus, which confirms their importance in the development and sustainability of memory.
One of the most important recent discoveries is that fasting also stimulates stem cells in the hippocampus, where these cells regenerate damaged neurons, especially those related to oxidative stress reactions, and these cells play a key role in stimulating memory.
It is worth noting that Alzheimer's patients suffer from a severe deficiency in the production of neurons from stem cells, which negatively affects the memory of these patients.
Therefore, fasting is a simple and wonderful way to alleviate this disease by stimulating the production of such neurons.
What healthy food to maintain a healthy brain?
How do we maintain brain health during the feast?
As mentioned above, food plays a key role in determining the health of the cerebral vessels in the body, especially in the brain. Researchers, doctors and nutritionists have warned of the importance of a balanced diet for maintaining brain health.
In fact, there are some studies that have indicated that eating some healthy foods and avoiding others slows down the aging of the brain by about 7 and a half years, and thus leads to a reduced risk of aging diseases.
Nutritionists point out many healthy foods that contribute to delaying aging, especially:
Vegetables, especially green leafy vegetables such as lettuce and spinach.
Fruits of all kinds, especially blueberry and strawberry
Nuts of all kinds, especially almonds and cashews, with attention that they should not be salted or contain only a small percentage of salt.
Reducing red meat as much as possible and replacing it with legumes such as beans, lentils, etc.
Eat fish as much as possible, at least once a week.