Can exercise and fasting work together to extend your healthspan? In this DLD Sports session, Victor Wilhelmi, managing director of Buchinger Wilhelmi, and sports scientist Borja Martínez Téllez of the University of Almería describe the science linking fasting, exercise, and gut health to healthy aging.
Inactivity, rather than genetics or infection, poses the greatest modern health risk, Wilhelmi argues, citing a study of 800,000 people in which the least active half showed doubled type 2 diabetes and tripled cardiovascular events. “The biggest enemy we have today is not the genome, it’s not a virus”, he says. “It’s actually the office chair.”
Martínez Téllez presents results from a study showing that ten days of fasting preserves muscle function while reducing volume as stored glucose and fat are consumed by mitochondria, Wilhelmi reports. And just five days of fasting enhances metabolic flexibility, shifting the body’s threshold to burn fat more efficiently during physical activity.
Watch the video to explore this topic in detail.
