Fasting has been practiced around the world for centuries. Whether it be a forced activity because of a lack of available food or done voluntarily as a practice of religious reasons, fasting for many was common in everyday life. In recent history food availability has increased to the point where most of us never have had to skip a meal. Therefore, the regular practice of fasting has become so rare that many of us have never tried it. Fasting may seem daunting and a challenge, but can provide long-term benefits and help your body remove toxins. Is fasting healthy for us? Can fasting be dangerous? We hope to answer these questions in this newsletter for you.
Fasting Improves Insulin Sensitivity
Recent research finds fasting may improve insulin sensitivity, reverse diabetes, and supports your weight management efforts when combined with exercise. Fasting can significantly impact how the body makes and uses proteins that are critical to decreasing insulin resistance and maintaining a healthy body weight. Therefore, the timing of and duration between meals could be important factors to consider for people struggling with blood sugar and obesity-related conditions.
Fasting May Promote Pancreatic Beta-Cell Growth
Research scientist James DiNicolantonio, PharmD., has discussed the results of several studies that have found repeated episodes of fasting may induce cell growth of pancreatic beta cells and improve blood sugar control in animal studies. These observations were of greatest interest to individuals suffering from Type 1 diabetes, as they often experience near complete inflammatory destruction of the islet beta
cells. However, the same occurs in the later stages of severe Type 2 diabetes.
DiNicolantonio believes these findings may be replicated clinically, opening the path to reversing Type 2 diabetes in those with “enough discipline and commitment to adopt a lifestyle that would have prevented diabetes in the first place”. As a first step, he recommends you first practice a diabetes preventive lifestyle, eating a diet primarily of whole foods, complemented with regular exercise. This will help improve your insulin sensitivity and may prove sufficient for those with a recent diagnosis of diabetes to reverse their condition over time.
In those who fail to respond, he recommends an intermittent fasting protocol. Making the transition back to a health protective diet from fasting, supplemental measures may be implemented to shield the beta cells from toxicity so they retain functional capacity. Reducing islet oxidative stress may be accomplished using spirulina, NAC and/or berberine. The goal is to achieve normal blood sugar control without drugs and maintain compliance with a diabetic preventive diet and lifestyle.
Skipping Breakfast Before a Workout May Help
Another recent study evaluating the effectiveness of omitting a meal before an early workout was published in the Journal of Nutrition. The researchers wanted to see if skipping breakfast before working out would affect the relationship to food for the remainder of the day.
While exercise plays an important role in weight management and overall health, past studies have demonstrated people who begin a new exercise program often compensate for energy burned during exercise by eating more later in the day, or by moving less.
The researchers found those who fasted and then exercised had a negative 400 calorie intake during the day as compared to those who ate and rested or who ate breakfast before exercising. Javier Gonzalez, Ph.D., from the University of Bath, oversaw the study and suggested working out on an empty stomach probably will not trigger overeating, but instead may lead to a calorie deficit.
Fasting Burns More Fat
When you eat throughout the day, your body becomes adapted to burning sugar and carbohydrates as a primary fuel, down-regulating enzymes involved in the use and burning of stored fat. This increases your insulin resistance and your risk of gaining weight. It’s important to realize that in order to lose body fat, your body must be able to burn fat.
Two powerful ways of shifting to a fat burning metabolism is fasting and eating a cyclical ketogenic diet. In addition to promoting insulin and leptin sensitivity, fasting also normalizes ghrelin levels, known as the hunger hormone.
Fasting Raises Human Growth Hormone
Human growth hormone (HGH) production is also affected by fasting, rising as much as 1,300% in women and 2,000% in men. HGH plays a role in fitness, longevity and muscle growth, and boosts fat loss. HGH naturally decreases as we age leading to many of the factors associated with aging.
Fasting Reduces Inflammation
Fasting also helps suppress inflammation and reduce oxidative damage, improve immune function, and reduce your risk of heart disease. One of the side effects of rising ketone levels produced during fasting is an improvement in cognitive function and a reduction in neurological diseases, such as dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
Fasting Reduces Cravings
Additionally, fasting helps reduce your cravings for sugar as your body adapts to burning fat, thus boosting your weight loss efforts even further. According to research presented at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting, intermittent fasting will also drastically reduce a woman’s risk of breast cancer.
How To Start Fasting- Begin with these steps
- Avoid eating at least three hours before bed
Eating too close to bedtime can have negative health repercussions. Adding to the problem, the late-night meal tends to be the largest meal of the day for most Americans, and often consists of heavily processed foods. Under the best of circumstances, your stomach takes several hours to empty after you eat. As you age or if you experience acid reflux, the process takes even longer.
You may have acid reflux even if you don’t experience heartburn but have symptoms like hoarseness, chronic throat clearing and even asthma. Eating late at night also throws off your body’s internal clock causing you to be tired in the morning. - Gradually increase your fasting times in the morning.
Gradually easing into longer fasts will naturally minimize most side effects associated with fasting, as will transitioning over to a high-fat, low-carb diet, to help your body to adjust to using fat as a primary fuel. - Increase your salt intake.
The so-called “keto flu” is often related to sodium deficiency, so it’s recommended to take a high-quality unprocessed salt each day. You can try to pour salt in your hand and lick it throughout the day when fasting, as you obviously can’t put it on food. This will also help reduce the likelihood of intractable muscle cramps at night. - Use bone broth.
An alternative to eating salt straight, or putting it in water, is to add it to a bit of bone broth. Another important mineral is magnesium. It’s particularly important if you are diabetic, as magnesium deficiency is very common among Type 2 diabetics. This is another possible culprit if you’re getting muscle cramps. Bone broth can also be an acceptable cheat if you feel like your fasting regime was too ambitious. - Eliminate toxins quickly.
It is also important to understand that when you’re fasting, you’re going to automatically liberate toxins from your fat stores. Using an infrared sauna and taking binders like chlorella, modified citrus pectin, cilantro or even activated charcoal can help eliminate these liberated toxins from your body and prevent their reabsorption.
Is Fasting Dangerous?
Although it’s highly beneficial for most, fasting is not for everyone. You should not do any type of extended fasting if you are underweight, pregnant, breastfeeding or have an eating disorder. Likewise, if you are in a strenuous exercise training interval be cautious that your fasting is not reducing your overall caloric intake too much. Athletes commonly underestimate how many calories they really need. Make sure to track your body fat percentage, sleep cycles, and inflammation signals to determine if you are overtraining and/or under eating.
Do you have more questions?
Our office is dedicated to helping improve the health and lives of those in our community. If you have more questions on this topic or anything else related to your health, please contact us. Our goal is to help you to become healthier than you have ever been.
Daryl C. Rich, D.C., C.S.C.S.
