Low sexual desire? This diet enhances the sexual desire of mice

Can skipping dinner bring your love life back on track?

A special form of intermittent fasting increases male mice’s sexual desire, raising questions about whether it triggers similar effects in humans, a new international study found.

“The lack of sexual desire is not necessarily considered problematic, but some people suffer,” said study author Dan Ehninger, PhD, a study author at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases study. “Fasting has the potential to be a useful addition to existing treatment options.”

Low sexual desire is more common than you think, affecting up to one in five men and more women at some point in life, the Cleveland Clinic says.

For some people, this can get into sexual desire disorders (HSDD). People affected by this situation experience serious distress in personal life that is caused by the ongoing lack of motivation or desire for no clear reason.

Experts say diagnosing and treating HSDD is challenging, mainly because the science behind sexual desire is still not fully understood. However, there are medications available and some people find treatment and lifestyle changes helpful.

How intermittent fasting enhances the mating game of mice

In this study, the researchers set out to explore the effects of fasting on the offspring of male mice, but they stumbled upon an unexpected twist: After long-term diet restriction, senior male mice reproduced at a very high rate at an astonishing rate.

“The real reason was the detective work,” Enninger said. “Ultimately, we realized: it was a behavioral problem. Fasted men have much more sexual contact than mice that can eat freely.”

Ehninger notes that this increase in mating behavior far exceeds compensation for age-related physiological restrictions in fasting older people, such as lower testosterone levels and reduced sperm quality.

In this study, male mice were on intermittent fasting regimens from just two months of age. In 24 hours they can eat everything they want, but for the next 24 hours it is strictly water.

The male diet lasted for 22 months. When they were finally introduced to women, it was obvious that they were ready.

Those who fasted for at least six months were more sexually active than the free-eating control group. Interestingly, young mice following a fasting diet for only six months also showed an increase in mating behavior.

However, a group that fasted for only a few weeks did not show the same spike in sexual desire.

“Intermittent fasting takes some time to increase sexual desire,” said Dr. Yu Zhou, a professor at Qingdao University, who collaborated on the study. “Based on our experiments, the minimum duration appears to be between six weeks and six months.”

Serotonin linkage

The researchers believe that the surge in sexual desire is traced back to serotonin, a neurotransmitter known to affect sexual behavior.

In humans, high levels of serotonin are often associated with decreased libido, while lower levels are usually associated with libido.

The production of serotonin depends largely on tryptophan, an essential amino acid that the body cannot produce on its own, which means we need to get it through our diet.

As a result, the mice’s fasting regimen resulted in tryptophan deficiency, which reduced serotonin levels and, in theory, promoted their sexual desire.

“Given this, I think human sexual desire may be affected by fasting – probably not only in men, but in women, because serotonin can also affect their sexual desire,” Ehninger said.

The researchers were unsure whether the decrease in serotonin levels was associated with a specific dietary regimen, followed by mice, or in other types of fasting.

Further research is needed to clarify the possible impact of this kind of effect in general calorie restriction, where food is continuously available but in smaller quantities, Eninger said.