Alicia Mackey Huber says clinical research points to 36 hours as the optimal fasting window for extending lifespan and healthspan. Alternate-day fasting, one full day eating then one full day fasting, produces significant health benefits with minimal side effects. After 36 to 48 hours of fasting, the body shows reduced inflammation, increased stress resistance, and enhanced metabolic function.
What is the magical number for a fast? When you look at the clinical research into it, the magical number really seems to be kind of this 36 hour mark. So that's typically what you would experience during alternate day fasting, which is where we see in the data you get the best lifespan extension and typically where you get the best healthspan extension as well. So it's basically one day of normal eating, one day of complete fasting, rinse and repeat throughout the entire organism's lifespan and that's where you'll see these really great impacts without a lot of deleterious and side effects if any at all from the fasting. Because I could see after 36 hours, after 48 hours there was this progression of improved cellular functionality. My cells became more anti inflammatory, more resistant to stress, better longevity, better metabolic functionality. And then that's kind of where I got hooked on and I was like, okay, I'm gonna do alternate day fasting. And I did that for two years.
