Fasting doctors
Meet some of the leading advocates of fasting as one of the impotant "tools" for health and wellness. Image Credit: X | Facebook | Wikipedia | Government of Japan | USC | NBT | NIA

Here’s a list of doctors and health experts who advocate or teach fasting as a therapeutic practice for health and wellness.

Many of them are authors who promote various forms of fasting, such as intermittent fasting, extended fasting, or time-restricted eating, often for benefits like improved metabolism, weight loss, cellular repair, and longevity.

Studies on the benefits of fasting as a health and wellness "tool" have shown significant positive outcomes in areas such as metabolic health, cellular repair and anti-inflammation therapy.

Here, we present the leading lights in this growing body of scientific research:

Dr. Jason Fung
#1. Dr. Jason Fung – Nephrologist and one of the most prominent figures advocating fasting for reversing type 2 diabetes and obesity. He has said a mouthful on fasting, having authored the “The Complete Guide to Fasting”, “The Obesity Code”, and “The Cancer Code”. Image Credit: X

He said: “Ultimately, treating the root causes of overeating—whether emotional, habitual, or related to the time and frequency of meals—is crucial for sustainable weight loss. Time-restricted eating can help by limiting the opportunities to overeat, which can make calorie control easier to maintain. The hormonal effects, particularly of insulin, must also be addressed.

"By lowering insulin levels, fasting allows the body to access stored energy (fat), which helps meet the body's energy needs without requiring additional calorie intake. The combination of both hormone management and calorie control offers the best chance for success in achieving weight loss and improved metabolic health.”


Dr. Yoshinori Ohsumi
#2. Dr. Yoshinori Ohsumi – Nobel Prize-winning scientist who discovered the mechanisms of “autophagy”, a process triggered during fasting that promotes cellular repair. Dr. Ohsumi, a cell biologist specialising in autophagy, is a professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology’s Institute of Innovative Research. He is recognised for his discoveries concerning the mechanisms of autophagy (the process that cells use to destroy and recycle cellular components), a fundamental process for the breakdown and recycling of cell components.

By identifying the machinery for autophagy in yeast, Dr Ohsumi made available the research tools required to investigate autophagy in humans. His discovery now helps scientists know that autophagy controls important physiological functions where cellular components need to be degraded and recycled.

Autophagy can rapidly provide fuel for energy and building blocks for renewal of cellular components – and is therefore essential for the cellular response to starvation and other types of stress. Cells also use autophagy to eliminate damaged proteins and organelles, a quality control mechanism that is critical for counteracting the negative consequences of aging.


Dr. Satchin Panda
#3. Dr. Satchin Panda – A researcher, and professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, is known for his work on time-restricted eating and circadian rhythms, showing how aligning eating windows with the body’s natural clock can improve health. A founding executive member of the Center for Circadian Biology at the University of California, San Diego, he is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on circadian rhythms and has been publishing revolutionary research with a current focus on the benefits of time-restricted eating. He is also the author of The Circadian Code, a guide for optimising health and reversing disease by living in alignment with the body’s internal clock. Image Credit: NBT

He said: “The reason why we have a Circadian rhythm is to have daily rhythms in food-seeking behaviour and eating and also go through a period of time when we should be fasting. And then on the other hand, all the metabolic regulators also have to follow that rule."

"Almost all metabolic regulators, everything that we can think of connected to metabolising macronutrients, protein, carbs, and fat, they should also have a Circadian rhythm or diurnal cycle to align or misalign.”


#4. Dr Samir Rahmani
#4. Dr Samir Rahmani – Dr Rahmani is a bariatric and laparoscopic surgery consultant practicing in the UK and the UAE. He is a UK-trained surgeon and a triathlete who also practises 72-hour (3-day) fasts. He has performed metabolic and bariatric surgery on more than 4,500 patients.

He said: “Fasting improves your glucose tolerance. By fasting, you create an anti-inflammatory status. Our body is a balance of pro- and anti-inflammatory states. Any change in this equation will lead to more inflammation — or less inflammation.”


#5. Dr. Valter Longo
#5. Dr. Valter Longo – Biogerontologist and author of “The Longevity Diet” is known for research on fasting-mimicking diets (FMD) and their role in longevity and disease prevention.

He said: “Eating for 12 hours and then fasting for 12 hours is likely safe for most people. That pattern of eating is very common among people who have record lifespans. It seems to match both science and tradition.”


Dr. Josephine Rojo-Tan
#6. Dr. Josephine Rojo-Tan – Filipina researcher, medical doctor and author who advocates fasting as a tool for improving health. She penned the book “Eat to Heal”, among others. Her approach integrates medical science with practical lifestyle strategies, focusing on how fasting can reverse conditions like obesity, diabetes, and other metabolic syndromes. She has become a prominent figure in the health and wellness community, particularly through her social media presence and online consultations, where she shares tips and success stories on fasting and low-carb nutrition as methods to manage weight, improve metabolic health, and combat chronic diseases. Image Credit: Facebook

She said: "There are many apps available for intermittent fasting tracking. You can also join fasting communities for support. Align your fasting with your Circadian rhythm. This is important because many people are hesitant about intermittent fasting due to their sleep-wake cycles and hormone regulation. Circadian fasting involves adjusting your fasting periods according to your body's natural rhythms.”


Dr. Robert Lustig
#7. Dr. Robert Lustig – American endocrinologist known for his work on sugar, obesity, and metabolic diseases. Dr. Lustig, UCSF Professor of Paediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, focuses more on dietary interventions than fasting, though his views on metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance align with those who promote fasting as a tool for improving metabolic health. He is a key advocate for reducing sugar intake and improving metabolic health, highlighting the damage caused by sugary foods in his book “The Bitter Truth About Sugar”.

He said: “Sugar is celebratory. Sugar is something that we used to enjoy. Now, it basically has coated our tongues. It’s turned into a diet staple, and it’s killing us…The American food industry produces 3,900 calories per person per day, with about 29 percent wastage, but we should rationally eat 1,800–2,000. Who eats the difference? We do! Throughout evolution, humans could eat only a fixed amount, but today that amount is limitless.”


Dr. Mark Mattson – Neuroscientist
#8. Dr. Mark Mattson – Neuroscientist who has studied the neurological benefits of intermittent fasting and its role in brain health, cognitive function, and the prevention of neurodegenerative diseases. “Intermittent fasting improves cognition, that is learning and memory, and protects nerve cells from dysfunction and degeneration,” said Dr Mattson, who wrote the book “The Intermittent Fasting Revolution”.

He said: "Fasting does good things for the brain. There’s evidence that if you restrict the time window that you eat each day to eight hours or less, that’s long enough to shift the energy metabolism (to burning fat). One thing that happens when you fast that does not happen when you eat three meals a day is that energy metabolism shifts so that you start burning fats and you produce what are called ketone bodies. Now it turns out, ketone bodies are very good for your brain."

"Fasting is a challenge to your brain and your brain responds to that challenge of not having food by activating adaptive stress response that ways in help your brain copy with stress and resist disease. Our hunter/gatherer ancestors would not have survived unless their brain was functioning at high level when they were hungry."


Dr. Peter Attia – Physician and author of “Outlive” focuses on longevity.
#9. Dr. Peter Attia – Physician and author of “Outlive” focuses on longevity. He has popularised the use of fasting as a tool for metabolic health and increasing lifespan through practices like time-restricted eating. Attia believes, however, that fasting is a “tool” that should only be used for the ideal candidate. That person is someone who either has a good deal of muscle to spare or someone who has over 35 per cent body fat and can handle losing a little muscle because they have so much fat to lose.

He said: “In the 1970s, the average American adult male weighed 173 pounds. Now the average American man tips the scale at nearly 200 pounds. Unfortunately, in today’s unhealthy society, ‘normal’ or ‘average’ is not the same as ‘optimal’."

"In July of 2009, a study published in Science found that rhesus monkeys that had been fed a reduced-calorie diet for more than two decades had lived markedly longer than those who were allowed to eat freely…My rule of thumb for any eating pattern is that you must eat enough to maintain lean mass (muscle) and long-term activity patterns.”


Rhonda Patrick fasting
#10. Dr. Rhonda Patrick – She is a renowned health expert with a PhD in biomedical science and is known for her extensive research on nutrition, aging and healthspan optimisation. She speaks extensively about the benefits of fasting, particularly its ability to induce autophagy and support brain health.

She said: “Everything in our body runs on a clock, including our metabolism…There’s also an argument for needing a rest period for your gut and digestion because energy is diverted there when you’re digesting food. That takes energy away from other things, like repair."

"Repairing processes usually happen when you’re in a fasted state. When you sleep, your brain shuts down for repair; if you didn’t sleep, your brain wouldn’t repair. The same goes for other organs; they need a rest period too. The longer the rest period, the better for having enough energy to do repair processes.”


[This is for information purposes only and is not intended as professional medical advice. Always consult with a healthcare professional regarding any health concerns or before making any decisions related to your diet and health.]