Academia

Study: Three Day Fast May Reboot Immune System And Produce Other Benefits

300px-MahavratasThere is an interesting study out of the University of Southern California on fasting. The study is fascinating in what it found to be benefits from three-day fasts. The researchers found that such fasts could protect against immune system damage and actually induces immune system regeneration. I was so intrigued by the study, I decided to give it a try. I am on my third day of only water.

The researchers were surprised by their results and concluded that fasting not only force the body to eat stores of glucose, fat and ketones but devours white blood cells. Once you begin to eat again, new cells are produced — a type of reboot.

They also found that fasting reduced the enzyme PKA that is linked to aging and a hormone which increases cancer risk and tumor growth. This was particularly important for people undergoing chemotherapy who reported positive effects.

The study suggests that periodically doing a three-day fast each year could be highly beneficial.

As for me, I must admit that I am feeling the fast today as I complete my third day. I fasted many years ago and I was interested in just seeing if I could go the distance. It is an interesting collection of sensations and reactions as you pass through the three days. I am looking forward to dinner tonight, however.

Source: Medical News

75 thoughts on “Study: Three Day Fast May Reboot Immune System And Produce Other Benefits”

    1. And which toxins are eliminated from your body, Nick? Parmesan and dago red? Heh.

  3. I’m curious about “eliminating toxins” as part of a fast or an eating plan. That phrase pops up quite often. I ask the same question every time: Which toxins? So far no one claiming that toxins are eliminated can name even one of them. I’ll ask again here. Which toxins does fasting eliminate from the body?

  4. One hour to go and I am starved. I grilled a ribeye steak for my break the fast food. I have worked out each day but I have been dragging a bit today. A very interesting experience however over all.

  5. Now if we can only stay away from eating all those pesky GMO’s, pesticides, food coloring, transfats, etc. in or food chain.

  8. To tack on to David’s post, the short term benefit of fasting is that it resets our digestive system, especially as it relates to the signals its gets from our brain. All of us with children know that they equate food with boredom, and poke their head in the fridge whenever they find themselves without not much to do. In America, we eat because we can, not because we must, and our nervous system has learned to misread the signs of thirst, overeating and even digestive discomfort as hunger. Most “hunger” we feel is actually thirst, or craving, and craving is usually a sign of nutritional deficiency or emotional imbalance. Fasting re-establishes the strong electrical pulse between digestive system and brain, which helps the latter read the signals more accurately.

    In the long term, as David mentioned, the body becomes an incinerator, that collects the toxins, fats and bad phlegm stored in the body long term, and burns them first for fuel. That alone clears the lines, allows for better blood flow, increases the clarity of the electrical pulses throughout the body, which in turn increases the efficiency of every organ. To put it in computer terms, the hardrive is defragmented, which helps the computer (the body) to run faster and much more efficiently. The benefit of that is that all the “programs” run faster and smoother, and the spywares and malwares (viruses and nefaste bacteria) are quarantined and destroyed.
    Any one who eats an organic, sensitive diet, of pure and nutritional food and water may not need to fast, but in these times where land mass is one, winds mate with winds, water lays with water, pesticides here are pesticides there and our non-organic diet and over rich diet makes fasting a necessary health tool.

    I have been fasting for ramadan (30 days, sunset to sundown, no food or water) since my teenage years, and I never feel better than during that time. I still play basketball and soccer during that time, and engage int he same activities as usual, without any problem. Lighter in body, clearer in mind, I am back in control of my being externally and internally. In these crazy times, we are wont to reject the religious wisdom that guided this world forever, but there is a reason all religious traditions include fasting in their structure, and science has shown that people who fast often live a better, longer life.

  9. davidm:

    “Indeed, the metabolism does slow down, but it is the toxins built up in the body that are purged.”
    *******************
    There is no recognized scientific or medical authority to support the proposition that “toxins” (however defined) are eliminated through fasting. That’s what your liver, kidneys,and large intestine are for and your body does a good job of it.The value of fasting is giving your digestive system a break and rebooting your energy levels after you quit the fast. Fasting can also instill a sense of food discipline that is valuable to dieters. You cannot eliminate fat globules in your blood stream with a fast either. That’s the work of bile which is enhanced though not created in the fasting state.

    1. mespo wrote: “There is no recognized scientific or medical authority to support the proposition that “toxins” (however defined) are eliminated through fasting.”

      That’s just a fancy way of saying that science is ignorant about it and has no official comment. It is a fact that science has not disproved the idea that fasting helps detoxify the body. Fasting has been known for over 5000 years to have beneficial physiological effects. Science just has trouble quantifying exactly how that works. They can document changes happen in the liver, kidneys, blood, and urine during a fast, but they don’t really understand it all.

      People who actually fast know a lot more about it. Just ask the guy in the link you provided previously who reported that he no longer had pain in his joints after his fast.

      Science has documented many things, such as fat soluble toxins that accumulate in the adipocytes of the body. Some studies have examined the fat tissues of cadavers in order to measure the specific toxins that accumulate in fat stored by the body. Science has documented how excess fat storage in the liver has a toxic effect, causing liver disease. Fasting is a known way to correct this disease by causing the body to break down the toxic fat and eliminate it.

    2. Mespo wrote: “You cannot eliminate fat globules in your blood stream with a fast either. That’s the work of bile which is enhanced though not created in the fasting state.”

      You are getting a little out of your depth here with this comment, Mark. Bile is secreted into the stomach. It emulsifies fats from food so it can be absorbed into the bloodstream. Anybody who has done even a few dissections knows this. 🙂 Also, fasting does cause your body to go into ketosis and break down fats everywhere in your body. It can help clear clogged arteries that cause heart disease. A prolonged fast also breaks down muscle. Fasting puts your entire body into a catabolic state.

  11. Will power test: Strawberry French Toast Roll Up…..Can you smell what’s cooking? Hang in there.

  13. The title of this post stood out as a sore thumb because it is not a legal issue, yet literally hundreds of food related legal issues have come and gone, without making appearances here, during the time I’ve been reading this blog. It’s the same silence against our despicable food supply that dominates mainstream media and popular culture. Every leading media personality is up in arms about our loss of freedoms, but not a single one of them says so much as boo about the psychopaths responsible for the destruction of not just our food supply but the health of children, women, and men everywhere. They place advertising revenue ahead of the health and welfare of every living person.

    Child mass murderers are less about mental illness, more about the empty calorie, hormone altering food supply that begins attacking the body from birth. For the same reason our war veterans are committing suicide, yet who has heard of any suicides of World War Two vets? I’m sure there were many, but not every other one. The difference is accounted for by the destruction of our food supply, beginning after WWII when farming practices dramatically changed.

    Take Hillary, for example, who reminds me of a few baby boomers I know, their health in the sewer after a lifetime of what Madison Avenue and adverts have been telling them to eat, their faces bespeaking degeneration of every organ in their bodies, all having the jowls of a Shar Pei, old-looking beyond their years, their diets dominated by excessive consumption of protein (fasting purges ketones, but cutting out protein overload prevents buildup), the toxicity of which leads to disease, many of them autoimmune, many others for which there is no cure, according to most medical professionals (cure is in diet; what do they know?), their temper and disposition pointing to gastrointestinal issues of every sort, perpetual inflammation in every nook and cranny of their bodies, their doctors having done them no favors, their health having gotten that way because they are disciples of the medical industry as much as disciples of the food and culture establishment. Who knows how many drugs they are taking or for what reason? Virtually every disease is reversible if only we remove the triggers that cause inflammation so that the body can begin healing itself. It’s a real simple message, not complicated, one that they have so far in their lifetimes missed out on because they have placed health in second place to worship on the altar of processed foods, restaurant visits, and junk diet. Oh, they all know GMO, glyphosate and trans fat, for example, are toxic, but this knowledge does nothing to sway them away from frankenfood and restaurants where these poisons continue to be used and served daily.

    I know people who have taken years off their faces just by cleaning up their diet (even Bill Clinton looks much better after having sworn off protein overload and Madison Avenue). Others have reversed heart disease, cancer, fibromyalgia, gout, migraines, ED/no desire, arthritis, depression, the list is long. A living organism is truly remarkable, definitely a miracle but, obviously, too many have subscribed to the harmful, corporate religion, denied from ever fully experiencing this remarkable gift.

    As for Hillary, herself, after a career of beholding to corporate intersts that have destroyed not just the health of our families and children, but our middle class and freedoms, too, her sins have come full circle, biting her not in the ass but in the face.

  14. If you don’t want to try fasting, just eating very little s also good. It saves money, saves time, saves energy, you feel great and look great. .

  15. Thanks, David. We’re going to Chicago this weekend to celebrate. I’ll cook a nice meal tonight. We don’t do cards or gifts. To each their own, but we don’t need trinkets.

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