Are there any articles/papers you can point me towards that look at the role fasting has in alertness/focus or depression?
This one’s older (2013) and a very small sample size: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12603-013-0344-9.
This one’s about calorie restriction, not fasting: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4790398/.
I think it’s probably a hard thing to complete research on without significant funding, and your normal funding groups aren’t probably super supportive of fasting. Good luck finding information!
I don’t see how this is a thing. Fasting never helped me with depression. I’ve fasted for months, 12-14 hours a day. For one year I practically ate one meal per day.
Rule number 1 when curing a depression is to never skip a meal, followed by keeping proper sleep schedules, exercising and, if necessary, medication.
I’ve never met a psychologist or a psychiatrist who advocates for fasting, and there are plenty articles against the practice, if you care to find them. It’s very, very far from consensual.
As far as alertness, glucose is the main energy source for the brain. In a pinch, it can use other energy sources but during fasting glucose sparing occurs to reserve that E source for the brain. So by that logic, during long fasting periods a person would have a decrease in alertness/brain activity. I apologize, I don’t have any academic research articles, just the knowledge from my college physiology class.
If I remember it right, Dr Eric Berg tells there’s a connection between fasting and gut health and we know that gut health affect anxiety and other mental issues. Sorry I don’t have any links or studies on hand but just sharing what i know.
Edit:here are some i found in the net
https://www.inverse.com/mind-body/fasting-gut-health-science