"What if you could lose weight and reduce your risk of lifethreatening disease without any changes in what you eat  other than a fiveday special diet once every few months  Thats what happened for  adults who were placed on three cycles of a lowcalorie fastingmimicking diet. The phase II trial conducted by researchers at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology demonstrated a host of benefits from the regimen. The diet reduced cardiovascular risk factors including blood pressure signs of inflammation measured by Creactive protein levels as well as fasting glucose and reduced levels of IGF a hormone that affects metabolism. It also shrank waistlines and resulted in weight loss both in total body fat and trunk fat but not in muscle mass.  In effect the diet reduced the study participants risks for cancer diabetes heart disease and other agerelated diseases according to the findings published Feb.  in Science Translational Medicine.  This study provides evidence that people can experience significant health benefits through a periodic fastingmimicking diet that is designed to act on the aging process said Valter Longo director of the USC Longevity Institute and a professor of biological sciences for USC Davis and Dornsife. Prior studies have indicated a range of health benefits in mice but this is the first randomized clinical trial with enough participants to demonstrate that the diet is feasible effective and safe for humans. Larger FDA studies are necessary to confirm its effects on disease prevention and treatment he added.  One hundred people participated in the trial from April  to July . The participants ages  to  and all generally healthy were divided into two groups for the randomized trial.  Participants in the first group the control group were asked to continue their normal eating habits for three months. People in the second group were placed on a threemonth test of the fastingmimicking diet.  Those on the special diet were required to eat food products supplied by the nutrition company LNutra during the fasting periods of five days each month. The diet which was designed to mimic the results of a wateronly fast allowed for participants to consume between  and  calories per day. The meals for the fastmimicking diet contained precise proportions of proteins fats and carbohydrates. After three months participants in the control group were moved onto the special diet.  The researchers found that participants on the fastingmimicking diet lost an average of about  pounds. Their waistlines shrank by  to  inches. Their systolic blood pressure which was in the normal range when the study began dropped by . mmHG while their diastolic blood pressure dropped by . mmHg. Also their levels of IGF dropped to between . ngmL and . ngmL reaching a range associated with lower cancer risk. After the first group completed their three months on the fasting diet we moved over participants in the control group to see if they also would experience similar results Longo said. We saw similar outcomes which provides further evidence that a fastingmimicking diet has effects on many metabolic and disease markers. Our mouse studies using a similar fastingmimicking diet indicate that these beneficial effects are caused by multisystem regeneration and rejuvenation in the body at the cellular and organ levels. Our participants retained those effects even when they returned to their normal daily eating habits he added. The researchers also noted that participants considered at risk because they had risk factors such as high IGF cholesterol blood pressure or blood sugar levels made significant progress toward better health. For example baseline fasting glucose levels for participants with high blood sugar levels putting them at risk for diabetes dropped into the healthy range below  mgdl  but these levels didnt drop among participants who already had healthy levels at the beginning of the study. Cholesterol was reduced by  mgdl in those with high cholesterol levels and by about  mgdl in all participants. Fasting seems to be the most beneficial for patients who have the great risk factors for disease such as those who have high blood pressure or prediabetes or who are obese Longo said.  The researchers had invited participants in the study for one last set of tests three months later at the end of the diet. The research team found that the beneficial effects  from weight loss smaller waistlines and lower glucose blood pressure and IGF levels  were sustained.  The next step for researchers is a large FDA phase III clinical trial to test the FMD on patients diagnosed with agerelated diseases or at high risk for them. The researchers said further investigation will determine whether the benefits of the diet can continue for several months. The work was funded by the USC Edna M. Jones Chair in Gerontology fund as well as through a National Institutes of Health grant to coauthor Wendy Mack at the Keck School of Medicine of USC through the Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute. Study coauthors from USC Davis were Min Wei and Sebastian Brandhorst lead coauthors and Mahshid Shelehchi Hamed Mirzaei Chia Wei Cheng Julia Budniak Esra Guen Stefano Di Biase Pinchas Cohen and Todd Morgan. Others were Tanya Dorff of USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center Kurt Hong of the Keck School of Medicine Andreas Michalsen of Charit University Medical Center in Germany and Alessandro Laviano at IFOM the FIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology. Longo is the founder of LNutra whose food products were used in the study. His interest in LNutra has been disclosed and managed per USCs conflicts of interest policies to assure objectivity and a lack of bias in the conduct and reporting of his research. USC also has an ownership interest in LNutra and the potential to receive royalty payments from LNutra. USCs financial interest in the company has been disclosed and managed under USCs institutional conflict of interest policies."