Patent application by USC: Fasting condition as dietary treatment of diabetes
Two important considerations:<p>1. This link is to the as-filed application. The recited claims are not what ultimately issued. Linking to the application rather than the granted patent is dubious. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;patents&#x2F;US9386790" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;patents&#x2F;US9386790</a><p>2. A patent practitioner will utilize method claims in order to apply something known in the art, such as general fasting, in a new and novel manner. This does NOT cover plain-ole fasting. You can fast without violating this patent. What you cannot do without a license to the patent is perform the method in its entirety.<p>The independent claim recites:<p><pre><code>  1. A method of treating a symptom of diabetes, the method comprising:

    identifying a subject exhibiting symptoms caused by pancreatic beta cell destruction,
    the subject having a normal caloric intake; and

    administering multiple cycles of a diet protocol to the subject wherein a fasting
    mimicking diet is provided for a first time period and a re-feeding diet is provided
    for a second time period, the fasting mimicking diet providing less than about
    50% of the normal caloric intake of the subject with both protein restriction and
    sugar restriction and the re-feeding diet providing 60-100 percent of the normal
    caloric intake of the subject, depending on a need to lose weight wherein the first
    time period is from 2 days to 6 days and the second time period is from 7 days to 85 days.
</code></pre>
The take-aways form the claim language are:<p>A. This is a method of treating a symptom of diabetes. In order to infringe, you must be treating diabetes by performing the method.<p>B. You must actively identify a subject exhibiting symptoms caused by pancreatic beta cell destruction, and the subject must have a normal caloric intake. If you are an individual who is fasting to treat your diabetes, you don&#x27;t infringe by performing this method. You did not identify a subject exhibiting symptoms caused by pancreatic beta cell destruction. You are merely fasting.<p>C. You  must administer multiple cycles of this fasting and refeeding, within the exact caloric-intake ranges required by the claim, and within the exact time frame required by the claim.<p>TL;DR: It&#x27;s toothless for all except treatment centers which diagnose and identify this &quot;subject exhibiting symptoms caused by pancreatic beta cell destruction&quot; which could potentially prescribe this very specific dietary regime to &quot;treat a symptom of diabetes.&quot;