ReviewNature metabolism2025
The cyclic metabolic switching theory of intermittent fasting.
Review in Nature metabolism, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed.
- Effect of 2 Weeks of Time-Restricted Eating on Innate Immunity and Systemic Inflammation in Patients With a History of Myocardial Infarction: A Randomized-Controlled Crossover Study.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2026Trial
- Host metabolism shapes the intestinal microbiota: a top-down paradigm of environmental selection pressure.Gut microbes · 2026Review
- Intermittent fasting in diabetic retinopathy: microbiome modulation, mechanisms, and clinical insights.Cardiovascular endocrinology & metabolism · 2026Review
- Demystifying Nutritional Consequences of Pharmacological Weight Loss and Performance Enhancement-A Critical Narrative Review.Current obesity reports · 2026Review
- Intermittent fasting protects against stress-induced depression and demyelination via the gut microbiota-brain axis.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Time-restricted feeding rejuvenates cerebrovascular function and preserves cognition during aging.Research square · 2026Article
- Sex-Specific Responses to Intermittent Fasting: A Narrative Review Across Physiological, Clinical, and Psychosocial Contexts.Nutrients · 2026Review
- Stress is inevitable; recovery is conditional: bioenergetic limits of resilience in aging and disease.Biogerontology · 2026Review
- Article
- Dietary restriction in aging and longevity.Nature aging · 2026Review
- Daily intermittent fasting is an effective multiscale treatment in preclinical models of absence epilepsy.Epilepsia · 2026Article
- Nutrition and longevity - diet in centenarians.Journal of translational medicine · 2026Review
- Nutritional timing and stress biology: intermittent fasting as a hormetic signal for adaptation.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
- Intermittent fasting and immune aging: implications for immunosenescence, inflammaging, neuroinflammation, and frailty.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
- Changes in the brain [NADFrontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Review
- Reactivity of Isolated Arteries After 5-Week-Lasting Period of Intermittent Fasting Followed by the Return to Ad Libitum Regimen in Healthy Rats Fed With Normal and High-Fat Diet.Physiological research · 2025Article
- Catabolic rewiring in cancer impacts dietary interventions.Communications biology · 2025Review
- Oxytocin, Vasopressin and Stress: A Hormetic Perspective.Current issues in molecular biology · 2025Review
- Intermittent Fasting and Hormonal Regulation: Pathways to Improved Metabolic Health.Food science & nutrition · 2025Review
- Intermittent fasting in osteoarthritis: from mechanistic insights to therapeutic potential.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Intermittent fasting (IF) and ketogenic diets (KDs) have recently attracted much attention in the scientific literature and in popular culture and follow a longer history of exercise and caloric restriction (CR) research. Whereas IF involves cyclic metabolic switching (CMS) between ketogenic and non-ketogenic states, KDs and CR may not. In this Perspective, I postulate that the beneficial effects of IF result from alternating between activation of adaptive cellular stress response pathways during the fasting period, followed by cell growth and plasticity pathways during the feeding period. Thereby, I establish the cyclic metabolic switching (CMS) theory of IF. The health benefits of IF may go beyond those seen with continuous CR or KDs without CMS owing to the unique interplay between the signalling functions of the ketone β-hydroxybutyrate, mitochondrial adaptations, reciprocal activation of autophagy and mTOR pathways, endocrine and paracrine signalling, gut microbiota, and circadian biology. The CMS theory may have important implications for future basic research, clinical trials, development of pharmacological interventions, and healthy lifestyle practices.
Indexed as
Identifiers
40087409What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.