I know the title might raise a few eyebrows, but hear me out.
As you all know, the work that I do is centered around lowering inflammation in our bodies naturally because of my own struggles with auto-immune tendencies and inflammation . I'm constantly learning and finding new ways to help you as I help myself. This is why I feel compelled to share my latest discovery with you now. For me it is a personal life-long journey. As I've shared with most of you, my 20's were a very difficult time when I was diagnosed with several auto-immune conditions (lupus & MS) as well as TIA's (mini-strokes), and IBS/GERD to round things out. My journey to health took several years and drastic life changes but then I was pretty much symptom free for the past 20+ years. Then in the past few months, things started resurfacing.
Since last spring, I've been dealing with and struggling with a lot of stress in my life. Mine came from being a caregiver to an elderly parent with deteriorating health and in need of constant care. As the weeks turned into months and the level of care grew, I slept a lot less, ate haphazardly and tried to continue running my business and taking care of myself. In all honestly the taking care of myself was suffering the most. By July I could feel my body taking the toll. I felt it in my joints which were suddenly aching and feeling stiff, random pains throughout my body. The IBS that had been in remission for almost 30 years came back. My mood was atrocious, I just couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was constantly congested too. Of course, I wondered how many of these things were due to my age and being peri-menopausal. I wondered what I could do, if seeing an endocrinologist or psychotherapist could help. I even tried getting OTC supplements to help with anxiety and stress. They did take the edge off a little.
In the back of my mind I could hear an alarm bell ringing telling me that I needed to do something before things got worse. I am not opposed to medications and told myself and my therapist that if I couldn't get better on my own in a month I would ask for help. Discovering how fasting can affect health.
Around the same time, I started noticing that more and more of my clients were coming in with a cancer diagnosis and it really worried me. One day I was searching online to see if other people had noticed an increase in cancer at their practices. Instead, I found videos of people who had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and told there was no treatment and given only a few months to live and yet somehow they were telling their stories 6, 10 or more years later. (I encourage you to research for yourself, Google "cancer remission with fasting" look for videos) This caught my attention and as I watched, the common theme to their amazing recoveries was them making radical changes in their eating habits. Fasting, water fasting for extended periods of time and varying the length of time they fasted. When they did eat, they were very careful as to what they put in their bodies, opting for whole, real, learn food. In my short investigation that day I learned that after a period of time fasting, your body is able to kill off diseased cells as a way to conserve energy. This is what autophagy is and why fasting can help your body get rid of the disease.
With just that information, a few weeks later, after over-indulging at a BBQ house I made the rash decision to try a 3-4 day water fast. (I'm not recommending you do the same, just sharing what I did). To my surprise and good fortune, I found the this wasn't difficult to do. After the first 8-10 hours when the hunger pains hit, they passed after a short time and didn't come back. I stayed very hydrated and drank mineral water, herbal tea and black coffee. I didn't have any headaches and after 2 days I noticed that my joints and muscles no longer hurt, my stomach was calm, (Good-Bye IBS!) and I could breath much easier without the constant congestion. By the end of the second day I was also feeling calm, almost giddy and I didn't know why. By the third day, my thinking became super clear. Whereas before I struggled to concentrate, now I was able to come up with solutions to problems I couldn't tackle before. I was feeling a little cold all the time and slightly dizzy, so by day 4 I ended my fast and started drinking bone broth and then smoothies. I wondered why I was feeling so good during those 3-4 days, was it a fluke? Could it have been placebo effect? I didn't know, but I wanted to find out and so I began getting books by Dr. Fung and Dr. Pelz both of whom have written extensively about fasting, studies that were done over 100 years and how to adjust how you fast based on your hormones. The key take aways for me were that when your glucose levels are depleted, your body switches to using stored fat as a fuel source. In doing so, a bunch of interesting things start to happen. You don't feel hungry anymore, your mind gets clear and focused, your mood improves and best of all your body can now clean house and get rid of any damaged or dangerous cells so they don't replicate. After 3 days, your entire gut biome repairs itself! I was super excited to be learning this and so grateful that I felt so much better so quickly. Then I got Covid. Immediately I started fasting again. During my recovery I dove head first into learning more about fasting and infections. I learned that a virus feeds off the glucose in your blood, it helps it to replicate, so by fasting you slow down it's ability to spread so fast. Some studies show that long term fasting isn't good for viruses, it is better for bacterial infections, so I decided to only fast for 24-36 hours, eat a a meal and fast for another 24-36 hours. I found that while I fasted, I hardly felt any symptoms but after I ate, the congestion, pain and exhaustion got worse. So I became aware that when I ate, I had to eat clean real food, lots of cruciferous raw veggies and fermented foods. If I did that then the symptoms barely bothered. me. By the 4th day I was fine. I was however isolating myself for 10 days just so I didn't get anyone at home sick. In a way that isolation was also healing because it forced me to rest and I really needed that. As a side note, another interesting thing I noticed while fasting is how it makes your body acutely aware of what is toxic and what is healthy. When we're eating all the time, this awareness isnt't there. For example, before I started fasting I would eat prepared frozen foods without thinking twice or feeling bad about it. While fasting, I suddenly tasted the chemicals in it and my body rejected it. The same thing happened with household cleaners I was using that I thought were fine. While fasting I had a negative reaction to these chemicals and knew I had to switch to something natural. I encourage you to be curious, keep an open mind and do your own research. Fasting isn't advised for children, women who are pregnant, breast-feeding or anyone who is malnourished or struggling with eating disorders. Fasting will also affect how your medications work, so please consult your doctors and nutritionists.
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