The research found that fasting fires up the stem cells into producing new white blood cells, which fight off infection. It would bring great benefit to the people suffering from a damaged immune system, such as cancer patients on chemotherapy and also the elderly people whose immune system becomes less effective throughout the years and they find it difficult to fight diseases.
It was found that fasting “flips a regenerative switch“ that has stem cells creating brand new white blood cells which essentially regenerate the immune system.
Valter Longo, corresponding author of the study and a professor at the USC Davis School of Gerontology, stated: “When you starve, the system tries to save energy, and one of the things it can do to save energy is to recycle a lot of the immune cells that are not needed, especially those that may be damaged.”
Longo added, “With a system heavily damaged by chemotherapy or aging, fasting cycles can generate, literally, a new immune system.”