Fasting the microbiome to treat diabetes.
A 24-hour fast restructured the gut microbiome in diabetic mice which beneficially impacted the shape and number of colon cells, decreased markers of gut permeability, changed bile acid secretion, and prevented the development of retinopathy.
Interestingly, the same type of microbiome restructuring was not observed for control mice without diabetes that were fasted, indicating that the diabetic microenvironment may play a role in the specific microbiome restructuring observed in this study.
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Another thing to keep in mind is that mice have a much faster metabolism than humans with mice losing ~20% of their body weight after a 48-hour fast. This means that a 24-hour fast in mice may translate to a more prolonged fast (ie. longer than 24 hours) in humans.