Skipping breakfast can be bad for your immune system

Skipping breakfast may impair your immunity and make it harder for the body to fight off infection, according to a new study.

Fasting may also lead to an increased risk of heart disease, according to research.

Researchers say the study, conducted on mice, is one of the first to show that skipping meals triggers a response in the brain that negatively affects immune cells.

The results could lead to a better understanding of how chronic fasting can affect the body in the long run.

“There is a growing awareness that fasting is healthy, and indeed there is ample evidence supporting the benefits of fasting,” said lead author Filip Swirski, director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.

“Our study cautions as it suggests fasting also has unhealthy costs”

“This is a mechanistic study that addresses some of the basic biology relevant to fasting. Research shows that there is a communication between the nervous system and the immune system.”

Researchers sought to better understand how fasting, ranging from a few hours to a more severe 24-hour fast, affects the immune system.

They analyzed two groups of mice: one ate breakfast immediately after waking up and the other group ate no breakfast.

Blood samples were taken upon awakening, four hours later, and eight hours later.

In the fasting group, the scientists noticed a difference in the number of white blood cells called monocytes, which are made in the bone marrow and travel throughout the body, where they play many important roles, from fighting infection to heart disease and cancer. .

The researchers found that 90% of these cells had disappeared from the bloodstream of the fasting mice and that number decreased further after eight hours. Meanwhile, the monocytes in the fed group were unaffected.

In the fasted mice, the researchers discovered that the cells migrated back to the bone marrow for hibernation and that the production of new cells in the bone marrow decreased.

By remaining in the bone marrow, the cells survived longer and aged differently than the monocytes that remained in the blood.

According to the study, published in the journal Immunity, the researchers fasted the mice for up to 24 hours and then introduced them back to food.

The cells hidden in the bone marrow shot back into the bloodstream within hours, leading to increased inflammation.

Instead of protecting against infection, these altered monocytes acted more pro-inflammatory and made the body less resistant to infection, the scientists say.

“Because these cells are so important for other diseases such as heart disease or cancer, understanding how their function is controlled is critical,” said Dr. Swirski.

The scientists also found that certain regions in the brain controlled the response of monocytes during fasting.

According to the researchers, the results showed that fasting induces a stress response in the brain, which may make people feel “hangry” (hunger and anger).

This leads to widespread migration of these white blood cells from the blood to the bone marrow and then back to the bloodstream immediately after eating is resumed.

The researchers say more research is needed to understand their findings.