Research
Hormonal
Alternate day fasting for 3 weeks significantly increases skeletal muscle SIRT1 mRNA expression in nonobese humans, independent of sex.
Alternate day fasting increases SIRT1 gene expression in muscle, a marker associated with stress resistance and longevity in rodents. However, this study did not measure actual stress resistance or lifespan, so the practical health benefit remains uncertain.
ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
alternate day fasting significantly increased expression of SIRT1 (Figure 2C; p < 0.01), independently of sex.
Why this rating
Small sample size for biopsy (n=11), short duration, and reliance on mRNA rather than protein activity or functional stress tests.
Source
Glucose Tolerance and Skeletal Muscle Gene Expression in Response to Alternate Day Fasting
Leonie K. Heilbronn et al. · Obesity Research · 2005
DOI 10.1038/oby.2005.61
crossover · n=16Cited 174×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Alternate day fasting (36-hour fasts on alternating days for 3 weeks) impairs glucose tolerance in nonobese women while improving insulin sensitivity in nonobese men.Moderate
- Alternate day fasting does not significantly alter skeletal muscle genes involved in fatty acid transport/oxidation or mitochondrial biogenesis in nonobese humans.Moderate
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