Fasting Discovered - Josh

Humans need food. But humans also need to not eat food. How profound...
Previously, I thought diet (that is food quality, quantity, ratios, supplements, etc.) was the most significant health factor and exercise the second most significant, barring extremes like: heavy smoking or alcohol use, home mold, toxic work environment (e.g. coal mine), physical damage (e.g. traumatic brain injury), or acute stress (e.g. death of family in car accident or other PTSD-inducing events).
This is not the case, fasting is supreme, at least for many modern ills, including my own. Fasting has unexpected benefits, lower than expected detriments, works rapidly, and costs nothing. Here is a summary of benefits and costs. These are summarized well in a book I just finished called The Complete Guide to Fasting. Fasting comes in several categories, corresponding to different time periods, which themselves correspond to different physiological states. These categories are, in brief: 5 hours after a meal, body releasing glycogen (hungry feeling); 12 to 48 hours body transitions to using fat storage and reduces protein burning (most unpleasant time/cold, hungry, irritable, etc.); 2 to 5 days body stabilizes on fat burning, body repair, and; beyond 5 days (fairly easy while feeling great). Max extended fast duration is 2 days per pound of extra fat (for 200 lb man targeting 10% body fat and at 13%, 10 days would probably do it).
Benefits

• Metabolic flexibility (ability to go from fed to fasting with minimal disruption)
• Increase insulin sensitivity (helps with obesity, metabolic syndrome, type-2 diabetes)
• Increased autophagy/cellular repair (helps with cancer, Alzheimers, memory, etc.)
• Decreased inflammation (helps with arthritis, rashes, allergies, etc.)
• Empties gut (helps with food intolerance, bloating/gas, lighter and trimmer temporarily),
• Fewer meals (time savings, flexibility, cost savings)
• Improved perception of body needs/signals
• Development of self-control and delayed gratification
• Stabilized dopamine, reducing addictive behavior
• Increased baseline serotonin
• Increased macronutrient ratio options (either low carb or high carb work for most)
• Eliminates belly region fat and internal organ fat better than exercise fat-loss
• INCREASED longevity
• INCREASED energy levels and metabolism (BMR) from increased norepinephrine, though over 10 days, BMR does decrease
• INCREASED lean body mass (from growth hormone increases)
• INCREASED physical endurance (for activities demanding more than glucose/glycogen)

Costs

• Little or no hunger after 56 hours (ghrelin levels decrease/stabilize)
• No loss of lean body mass, until very low body fat reached
• Not cold, weak, cognitively impaired, lethargic, or many other assumed effects

Risk

• Fat stores toxins, fat burning releases toxins - in this interview with Dr. Mercola, Dr. Ruscio is told that an 18 hr fast, 600 calorie meal, and then 24 hour fast had many of the same benefits without fat release risk. This can be done twice per week. See the "Episode wrap up" section near the end of the text for details.
• Pregnant women, children, and nursing women should not fast.
• Anyone taking medications needs to talk with their doctor; fasting can kill with some drugs.

The key to successful fasting is working into it (start with 12 or 18 hour fasts for several weeks while eating a lower carb diet), drinking warm salty liquids for the first two days, and taking vitamins and minerals on longer fasts. Liver support before, during, and after are essential for longer fasts, especially if historically, bad food or other toxins (like mold) have been experienced. Some medications or genetic disorders make fasting dangerous, especially for people taking insulin or , without oversight. Fasting, like anything, can be taken too far and become detrimental with BMR increasing after 10 days, for instance. But in the 5 to 14 day range, unsupervised fasting can allow the body to cure itself of many conditions, like chronic inflammation. After the condition resolves, maintenance can be simple, like three 18 hour fasts per week, or one 5 day fast every three months, or the regiment Dr. Mercola described in the above linked interview.