Dysfunctional and senescent cells secrete inflammatory factors that damage other cells, and fasting helps eliminate these cells.

“So intermittent fasting, for example, one of the benefits of intermittent fasting is that your autophagy occurs. Your body is clearing out all these damaged cells. So that would, in theory, if you've got damaged cells . . . so, the problem is with damaged cells, if they don't die, they become senescent. When they're senescent, they sit around and they secrete pro-inflammatory cytokines. So then they damage nearby cells because the inflammatory cytokines.”

“Which is really, really, really good because those dysfunctional cells, as you call them, they're often senescent, which means they're not dead, they're not alive, they're sitting around and what are they doing? They're secreting inflammatory... Yeah, they're damaging cells in your body. So, if you can do something to get rid of that crap, you better do it. And fasting, intermittent fasting, has been shown to do it.”