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Health

Fasting may boost brainpower by giving neurons more energy

By Clare Wilson

11 December 2017

A walnut on a spoon

Fasting diets may make you smarter

Gergely Kishonthy / Alamy Stock Photo

Could regular fasting make you smarter? People following regimes like the popular 5:2 diet usually do so for weight loss, but some who try it say it makes them mentally sharper too.

If this is true, experiments in mice may have explained why. In these animals, fasting has been found to cause changes in the brain that likely give neurons more energy, and enable them to grow more connections.

of the National Institute on Aging in Bethesda, Maryland and his team looked at 40 mice,…

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