Fasting well done is a therapy of the first order

Rheumatoid arthritis, adult-onset diabetes, essential arterial hypertension, fatigue, asthma, rheumatism, allergies, chronic pain… there are few “diseases of civilization” that do not improve thanks to the benefits of fasting.

That is why there are clinics and hospitals that offer different types of fasting as a valid way both to restore health as to gain inner clarity.

The benefits of fasting in chronic diseases

Life expectancy increases in Western countries parallel to the incidence of numerous chronic diseaseswhich follow an ascending course, despite the appearance of new drugs.

The low real efficacy of many of these drugs or their side effects encourage the search for therapeutic alternatives to drug treatment by the patients. In fact, if we consider the pharmacological treatment of chronic diseases, it is clear that we are at a dead end in quite a few ways.

To overcome these and other ailments there is a very personal therapeutic option: ancient tradition of fasting, endorsed by religions, ignored by science for a long time and that generates distrust in a wide sector of the population.

Science is rediscovering the benefits of fasting

But for more than a century it has been tracked in countries such as Germany or the United States, where it is deepened by different study methods and where a growing number of people are adopting the practice of periodic fasting.

Researchers investigate what happens in our cells during caloric restriction fasting. And also: through what mechanisms can fasting cure? In what pathologies is it effective?

How is therapeutic fasting done?

The treatment seems of a biblical simplicity: drink only wateror at most a little juice, broth or infusion for a little over a week, although in practice a fast usually lasts between one and three weeks depending on who is doing it.

During the fasting with medical supervision or in a specialized clinic the intake of drugs for chronic diseases is progressively interrupted and the person’s vital signs are monitored daily.

The hardest thing is to start

Anyone who has experienced it knows that the hard thing is not to stop eating -because the feeling of hunger disappears after the first two days-, but the return to food. Then the habits that led to fasting seem ready to make up for lost ground at the first sign of weakness.

Overcome the discomfort of the first days

An additional problem would be the appearance of a crisis of acidosis towards the third daywhich can be experienced as a feeling of weakness, nausea, or headache.

These crises are due to the body mobilizes its fatty deposits to live off their reserves.

However, for doctors who are experts in fasting, a crisis of this type –which may or may not occur– usually marks a inflection point in the process.

The discomfort worsens, intense pain may even appear, such as migraine or joint pain if you suffer from gout or osteoarthritis. But that lasts no more than a day or a day and a half and indicates a profound transformation in the organism.

The body regulates itself

If our body were not capable of feed effectively from their own reserves, our species would already have disappeared from Earth. Permanent access to food is still a novelty for human beings, and unfortunately it is not yet for many of our fellow humans.

Of course, the body pushes us to eat daily – it is the most sustainable system! – but it is capable of preserve their physical and mental abilities until a new opportunity to obtain food arises.

Glucose stores are used up

In the absence of food, it is consumed circulating glucose firstand then glycogen stores of liver and muscles, which provide energy for 24 to 48 hours. Hormones such as glucagon, involved in glycogen metabolism, and cortisol, which exerts an anti-inflammatory effect, are involved in this process.

Both are responsible for the self-regulation of the organism and a good part of the effects of fasting: glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides and insulin decrease, breathing and heart rate slow down and blood pressure drops.

Fat reserves are consumed

The second phase of fasting is characterized by body fat intake, one of whose functions is precisely to store energy. Hypoglycemia sets in motion the mechanisms that activate this process.

One kilogram of fat supplies 9,000 kilocalories, which provides the body with energy for several days. In this phase, which can last two or three weeks -as long as there are fat reserves-, appetite disappears and serotonin level increasesa hormone that increases calmness and confidence.

Surprise the Mental clarity and mood stability that is experienced The reason is that, to ensure smooth brain function, it gets its energy from ketone bodies and not from glucose.

It is verified a pain reduction and an improvement in the sensitivity of cellular insulin receptors. Some proteins not essential for the body are also consumed.

The limit that should not be crossed: proteins

As the fast progresses, for the obtaining glucosethe main fuel for the body and the brain, we make use of body fat primarily and very secondarily of proteins, which by forming the body’s structures perform much more vital functions.

For this reason, in the third phase of fasting, when the body has already metabolized its fats and begins to consume its own proteins, the process should be interrupted in order to avoid starvation.

In that period yes you experience real tiredness and weakness, but it is an extreme that should never be reached. It would be the situation of people who can die of hunger due to war, poverty or climatic problems.

animals as an example

Examples abound in the animal world of animals fasting while face notable physical challenges. Migratory birds capable of crossing an ocean without stopping to beat their wings for whole days benefit from the fact that their weight and the subsequent effort decrease as the journey progresses.

He Emperor penguin He spends more than a hundred days fasting each year in the rigorous Antarctic winter, a process in which he loses half his weight and which has the same three phases described above for fasting in humans.

Dr. Ivon Le Maho, a researcher at the CNRS in Strasbourg, has studied the percentage of protein consumption in penguin metabolism during fasting: it accounts for only 4% of the energy intake, the remaining 96% coming from fat.

the end of the fast

The return to food should be smooth and gradual. Examples of recommended foods are: oatmeal or spelled porridge with fruit compote, raw or boiled vegetables, millet or brown rice, potatoes with their skins, legumes or eggs.

One has to focus on eating slowly. Very simple flavors can be extraordinary.

contraindications

fasting is only contraindicated in cases of poor nutrition or malnutritionanorexia, diseases with loss of reserves, such as active cancer and tuberculosis, kidney and liver failure (including chronic hepatitis), insulin-dependent diabetes and thrombophlebitis.

An aid to find physical and mental balance

Digesting food consumes energywhich in this case is saved, and implies a remarkable work of the immune system, in charge of identifying the useful elements and eliminating the pathogens.

This frees the body from tasks derived from the exchange with the outside world and allows you to focus your energies in rebalancing internally.

Loss of appetite caused by certain diseases therefore often has a curative purpose and should be respected within certain limits. As in the dream, our being is at rest and self-healing capacity is enhanced of the organism.

Deep cleaning

Whoever fasts evokes in a certain sense a person who thoroughly cleans his house, tidying up the pantry or storage room, settling between thatwhat is feasible to get rid of and what is necessary to value and preserve.

What is remarkable is that this physical process has its mental and even spiritual correlate. After fasting, people want to adopt a healthier life and are more clear about what they want to do and what not.

Take care and treat yourself well while fasting

Fasting is not just about not eating. you also have to help the body with resources such as intestinal lavages, compresses in the liver area, sauna, massage, acupuncture, and two to three hours of physical exercise each day.

Everything converges towards the same goal: help the organs of elimination. The kidney, the intestines, the liver, the lungs and the skin are allowed to eliminate whatever they have to eliminate.

From the fourth day, the negativity and many emotional imbalances vanish, as fasting is antidepressant,calming and anxiolytic. That is why María Buchinger, creator of the Buchinger Fasting Clinic in Marbella, used to say that fasting heals even character.

We can trust the organism itself

During fasting we discover that we can fully trust our body. There is a wisdom and resources in it that we would never have imagined.

Can live off your reserves and generate substances that keep morale high better than many external agents. The brain works and decides with noticeable lucidity, since survival could depend on that.

But since it is a voluntary abstention from food, not forced, we can reverse those amazing faculties of the organism for two often postponed processes: cleaning our body tissues and better understand who we are and what are our vital priorities.