Fasting for three days can regenerate entire immune system, study finds

Has anybody ever heard about the guy who hasn't eaten anything for 70 years?...




Here's a thread I made a while back on not needing food to live... www.abovetopsecret.com...

originally posted by: Masterjaden
a reply to: Indigent

The body will only eat fat reserves when fasting up to three days. This will actually give you more energy than you are used to and there is no danger of hurting yourself. The danger of fasting comes from a long delay in getting protein because your body will take protein from every part of your body including your heart.

I doubt this is a myth. After depleting glycogen stores and fat stores, what's left to fuel the body except breaking down remaining tissue, including muscle tissue?

Also I would re-write the headline of this research to

Fasting for three days can significantly deplete immune system

because that's exactly what the article says fasting does. Why would anybody who doesn't have a damaged immune system already (like a chemotherapy patient) want to intentionally damage their immune system?

According to the article, generation of new white cells doesn't begin until you start eating again. Based on the comments in this thread it doesn't appear that people seem to realize this plus the fact that the researchers stated more research was needed.

originally posted by: athenatree
I have been fasting on and off since I was a teenager. The longest fast that I have completed is just at 49-50 days, I did drink juice on this fast so it was not strictly water...
What happens is food is stored in your digestive tract for up to 48hrs, after that time the body realises that it's not getting any glucose to feed the brain and goes into a survival mode called ketosis.

If you're drinking juice I wouldn't call it fasting, and the juice also prevents glycogen depletion so it prevents ketosis.

originally posted by: athenatree
There are lots of myths about fasting

Yes there are and some people even believe them. This has to be the biggest whopper myth of all though:

originally posted by: Nurelic
Has anybody ever heard about the guy who hasn't eaten anything for 70 years?...

I can't believe some people are cognitively impaired enough to believe such ridiculous stories, but apparently some people are. There is already a thread on this which you can add to if you want to discuss this topic, but here is the beginning of my reply about this from that thread where someone tried to verify the story and he was not allowed to verify it:

originally posted by: Arbitrageur
reply to post by tgidkp

 

The doctor involved in the "testing" is in on the hoax...

a reply to: Arbitrageur

Honestly mate in all due respect you are not experienced in the process and are trying to debunk it using your limited knowledge. I'll trust a guy who has ran a fasting centre for the last 8 years and the science behind it is starting to catch up.

Here's a video which explains what happens during the process of fasting. Yes muscle loss does happen but the body uses what is the most efficient method at fueling. I'll let this video explain and i can tell you fasting does work as long as it's a proper fast and that you prepare and monitor your progress. It changed my life in a huge way, it made me feel human again for the 1st time in 15 years.

a reply to: mclarenmp4
I don't see where the video disagrees with anything I said, in fact he confirms that muscle tissue can be affected during fasting. While he tries to downplay the importance of this, he doesn't address the heart muscle which it's fair to say is one of your most important muscles, and in fact he says nothing about ever evaluating the degradation of heart muscle tissue.

My hypothesis is that if you take people who have done a lot of long term fasting, and put them on some serious heart stress tests, their hearts wouldn't fare as well as people who haven't done a lot of long term fasting.

If you think the owner of a fasting clinic is going to conduct such research and then publicize the results which would be damaging to his clinic, I think you are misguided, and putting a little too much trust in someone with an obviously biased perspective who nonetheless admits the effect on muscle tissue exists. It's probably worse for skinny people like him with low fat stores.

a reply to: Arbitrageur

If you go through his collection of videos he interviews patients who have come to his clinic for various symptoms like chronic IBS being cured using this process. I'm sorry but I did a hell of a lot of research into this subject before attempting it myself. I'm not stupid enough that I would risk damaging myself just on a theory. You talk about the heart tissue but the body knows exactly what it needs to keep surviving, the last muscle tissue it will take will be heart tissue.

a reply to: Arbitrageur

It know it seems to defy logic but the science is there to support it and if you go search on youtube for water fasting, there are a lot of incredible videos and the transformations in everyone is amazing.
I'm not religious in a conventional sense but in the bible Jesus did it for 40 days and 40 nights and I would recommend it to everyone as long as they have done good research. Because you have to do it properly or you risk doing more damaged to your body but that's usually because people end their fast by refeeding too quickly, you have to work your way upto solids slowly but for every 2 weeks you fast take a week of slow refeeding.

a reply to: Nurelic

He only looks old.

He is probably only 24.

I fast at least 16 hours everyday. On occasions, I fast 24 hours.

From personal experience, when I came down with a favor, even though I was hungry, I fasted for a day and a half. Fever was gone next day!

Great post, have done this many times.

You may get a headache after 15-20 hours but that is just your bodies addiction to sugar/caffeine... push through and after 3 days you will no longer be hungry and feel better than ever. Clears you head too.

Our societies addiction to protein and sugar every day is largely to blame for the cancer epidemic of our times. It is ok to have some protein and sugar, but the body needs a rest once in a while to switch into repair-mode.

Yogananda stated the same in the 1920's, and the science of fasting is many thousands of years older than that in India.
1 day a week and 3 days a month on pure fruit juice will do the trick.

a reply to: mclarenmp4
As long as you're drinking juice that should protect your heart from damage, but I don't call that fasting, I call it a juice diet.

2 days without food (including juice) probably won't hurt your heart, but much longer than that and I'd start to get concerned.

I'm also concerned that your defense to my concerns about muscle deterioration are to point me to a video where the guy admits that yes, muscles do deteriorate, but don't worry about it. If you wanted to impress people with your research you'd get it from less biased sources.

Now this research in the OP points out that the immune system also deteriorates during a fast...I'm not debunking the research, this is what the researchers themselves say...read it.

originally posted by: Andromedabound
1 day a week and 3 days a month on pure fruit juice will do the trick.

That's not fasting, that's an unbalanced diet of 100% fruit juice.

The topic of this thread is actual fasting, so if you're drinking juice, you haven't done what this study is talking about.

the science of fasting is many thousands of years older than that in India

Science hasn't been around that long.

a reply to: Andromedabound

pure fruit juice contains natural sugars which is a carbohydrate which feeds the body energy which isn't fasting.

The study included 10 people. They had a median age of 61, ranging from 44-78 years of age. They were all receiving chemotherapy. There was no control.

If anything, this is a hugely preliminary study. There is no good way to account for noise.

rationalityunleashed.net...
Not totally debunking here, but a set of merely 10 people, with no controls doesn't really qualify as any scientific study.

A LOT more people on AND off chemotherapy, of a much wider range of ages, and double blind would be needed for more accurate conclusions on this, in the least.

a reply to: Chamberf=6

People really like to talk bull crap, the study was made on mice

Doesn't your body got like a memory where when it gets in period where it doesn't get enough food it will store more fat and such for the next time that may happen.
So it's probaly not good for your body mass in the end...

originally posted by: Indigent
a reply to: Chamberf=6

People really like to talk bull crap, the study was made on mice

Yeah, I'm starting to get that feeling about the writer of the article. What study is the OP article about?

originally posted by: Indigent
a reply to: Chamberf=6

People really like to talk bull crap, the study was made on mice

Where does it say that in the first OP source (the Telegraph)? It even refers to people ...

Thus far the great majority have reported doing very well and only a few have reported some side effects including fainting and a temporary increase in liver markers

...unless mice can talk.

Yes the second refers to mice, but...

a reply to: Chamberf=6

you left out this part, preceding your quote.

“I have received emails from hundreds of cancer patients who have combined chemo with fasting, many with the assistance of the oncologists.

Did you read the paper?

a reply to: DenyObfuscation

The one linked in the op

originally posted by: Indigent
a reply to: Chamberf=6

you left out this part, preceding your quote.

“I have received emails from hundreds of cancer patients who have combined chemo with fasting, many with the assistance of the oncologists.

Did you read the paper?

I read the paper (if you mean the research) and the Telegraph source.

Emails from people do not qualify as a "study".

a reply to: Chamberf=6

Exactly you are mixing 2 things his comments and the paper, the paper got no email from people...

Also your blogger is a bin author, you know bin is trash around here right?

a reply to: Indigent
The study you criticized for being about mice is the same damned study you linked in the OP.