I’ve recently attended a fasting summit workshop (virtually), and learned quite a bit more about fasting that my Indian culture and background always hinted at.
Fasting has been happening since the beginning of man – the cavemen and women were cycling through periods of feasting and famine. All religions of the world have some time period where food is restricted or one is asked to limit it for a given time duration. This is not a new subject. What is new is that this act of food restriction seems to provide real benefits with autoimmune conditions provided that some conditions structure the practice:
- Rheumatoid Arthritis: Fasting followed by a vegetarian diet helps with symptoms, decreases intestinal permeability, & produces significant long term benefits.
- MS: A weekly diet that mimics fasting (FMD) may not only provide benefits in symptom reduction, but may also begin to reverse the damage of the disease (shown in experimental mouse models of MS). Continued fasting cycles are required to maintain all clinical benefits.
- Lupus, MS, Psoriasis, RA, UC: Significantly reduces levels of leptin which usually is pro-inflammatory in these specifically cited and more autoimmune conditions.
Some of the other findings show that fasting:
- Provides a reprieve from normal intensive demands of digestive process.
- Reduces inflammation
- Helps with oxidative stress
- Reprogram energy metabolism
- Increases parasympathetic nervous system function
- Improves brain-gut axis
- Improves intestinal motility
- Improves blood flow
- Improves gastric secretions
- Reduces heart rate
- Reduces blood pressure
- Improves overall immunity
- Suppress autoimmune pathogenesis with REGULAR FASTING CYCLES.
- Promotes autophagy of dead or damaged cells, which may help avoid neurodegenerative disease.
- Enhances executive brain function and cognition
- Improves ketone production
- Improves insulin sensitivity
- Promote metabolic correction
- Synchronizes circadian rhythm biology, improving sleep, which helps with detoxification in autoimmunity
- Reprogram body weight regulation
- Encourage a healthier composition of microbiota populations, positively impacting energy and immunity
So is fasting a go for everyone? No, there are some categories of folks that fasting a not an option for, including:
- People on certain medication (meds for diabetes, seizures, and steroids)
- People with diabetes type I
- Pregnant or nursing women
- Infants and young children
- People with eating disorders
- Anyone severely underweight
- Women who experience symptoms of hormonal imbalance after starting intermittent fasting: irregular periods, moodiness, irritability; lower calorie consumption can disrupt hormones, which are required for ovulation and a healthy pregnancy
- Extreme athletes
- Women on their menstrual cycle
If your doctor thinks it could be a good options for you to try intermittent fasting, seek out a health coach to help you on this journey, because there are some tweaks to enhance the benefits from fasting!
