Ancient wisdom appreciates that when we are really sick, we should not eat. People lose their appetite to give their body the energy and the focus to deal with the illness and do the repair work that will be needed after successfully destroying the enemy within.
Fasting therapy has had as many proponents as detractors over the millennia. It has formed part of spiritual practices in virtually every culture, and has been part of healing modalities all over the world.
As with any medical intervention, there are times when fasting is highly beneficial, and there are times when it can be harmful.
Anything that can heal can also harm
At Hoogland, we have refined our medically-supervised water-fasting protocol over the last half century to help ensure it remains beneficial.
Most — reasonably healthy — people can safely fast for 3 days or so at home, but if you are tackling a more serious health concern, or using fasting to overcome a lifestyle disease which needs to be monitored, fasting under supervision is best.
Many diseases or disorders are sub-acute with vague symptoms such as fatigue, digestive discomfort, trouble focusing, headaches or just a general feeling of being unwell.
In many cases, these symptoms are resolved after a period of fasting.
How Does Fasting Support the Body?
The majority of your body’s immune system is focused on your digestive tract at all times. 70% of your body’s immune tissue sits around your intestines to make sure pathogens or toxins don’t enter. A period of fasting allows this incredible resource to put effort into the rest of your body.
A very large percentage of your body’s stem cells and growth hormones are invested into doing repair work to your mucous membrane after digestion. All of this will be available to fix the rest of your body if you don’t eat for a while.
Additionally, putting your cells under nutritional stress forces them into recycling, and through a process called ‘autophagy’ each cell in your body becomes younger, cleaner and more efficient.
There are so many benefits to periods of fasting that entire books have been written about it and still don’t cover it all.
Fast Time
The longest ever fast was a Scottish man, Angus Barbieri, who fasted for 382 days from June 14th, 1965 to June 30th, 1966.
He started off weighing 207kg and by the end of his fast was down to 80kg.
Fasting of various lengths, from 12 hours at a time to a total of 40 days, has many benefits.
Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting is any period of fasting long enough to have some physiological benefit and short enough that it does not require a specific refeeding protocol.
It usually ranges from 12–48 hours, and there are several different protocols based on each person’s unique circumstances, response, and goals.
Intermittent Fasting
Types of intermittent fasting include
During intermittent fasting, black, bitter tea or coffee can be included, as the bit of caffeine can actually improve how well the mucin-degrading microbes like Akkermansia muciniphila clean up your gut lining. However, water is still best.
Extended Therapeutic Water-Fasting
Fasting periods of three days or longer should ideally be under medical supervision, with a well-monitored, guided refeeding plan to break the fast.
A fast longer than three days is a wonderful whole-body reset, and the overall health improvements can last months or even years.
Some of the benefits of this long period of fasting include:
Research is really just a whole lot of anecdotes stitched together
As with every medical intervention, fasting as a healing modality will work for some people, but not for everyone. It will work for some conditions, but not for everything. It will work some of the time, but not all the time.
There are still so many questions, and much of what we hear on social media is based on opinion and anecdotes rather than fact.
Large-scale studies on fasting have simply not been done, and even then, there will always be individual differences.
Some unanswered questions on fasting include:
Should I Fast?
Intermittent fasting in some form is relatively easy for most people; still, always pay attention to how your body and your mind respond, and rather do not adopt fasting if you have, or have had, an eating disorder.
If you want to tackle a longer fast, the best approach will always be to get help from experienced professionals. They can guide you, support you and conduct the appropriate tests for a safe and beneficial extended fast.
They can even give some sound tips on how to make intermittent fasting work for you.
For this, Hoogland should be on the top of your list. Give us a call, or send us an email as soon as you are ready.
Note: “Juice fasting” is not fasting. Removing fibre from your fruit and veggies strips wonderful, healthy nutrients. Fruit juices can cause blood sugar imbalances and contribute to fatty liver. Veggie juices can be harmful to your digestive tract and kidneys.
Read more about this in next month’s newsletter.