Home › Forums › General Discussion › FASTING: Incentives
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March 15, 2010 at 10:53 pm #303695DragonSlayerParticipant
SPRING CLEANING
My diet had gotten rather sloppy recently, and I began having the familiar pains of hip bursitis?enough to require using my hands to lift up my leg when getting into the car. Well, I did not want to go through this again, so I initiated a 9 day long fast, and now ready for another one. Apples are out of season and I missed doing the apple cleansing this past year, and I don?t like taking antibiotics continually and unless I am ULTRA-strict with diet (which includes almost totally avoiding restaurants, no cheese or ice cream, processed foods, some supplements, etc), I get certain symptoms cropping up on rare occasion. Usually, it is TMJ?and then iritis if I have strayed too far.
After day 5 on the fast, my bursitis diminished considerably, but took another couple of days to go away entirely, and I ended the fast with a course of antibiotics, just to put the final nail in the coffin of AS.
I always think back on my fasting experiences, and of course now wish I had never gone to the doctors, who then and even now know so very little about AS. But I especially think whether there are people who are yet sick enough to get well: Because fasting certainly requires INCENTIVE.
A couple of years ago, my friend, Alex, completed a 28 day fast. He went in for a biennial colonoscopy, and noticed how ?cleaned-out? he became after the magnesium citrate cocktails, so he just kept to a non-foods regimen. The only real reason for this fast was that he had been gaining weight, and while not that particular about his looks, he is rather too stingy to pay for another wardrobe (albeit he certainly can afford the minor expense). Of course he was aware of the many side benefits: Renewed vigor, plaque reduction, and many other things that might also reduce his future medical costs.
I was proud of Alex, but a bit jealous, as the most time I ever fasted was 20 days and, find it increasingly more difficult to do so, being married and even with an only moderate social agenda. Years ago Alex bought Garten?s book ??Civilized? Diseases and Their Circumvention,? and was duly impressed with Garten?s fasting experiences.
I did more research on fasting, in an effort to discover what could be incentive enough to encourage someone to do this. After my 20 day fast, I was nearly symptom-free, albeit still ignorant of proper diet against AS, so the pains did return, eventually. I have fasted many times since, to take down flares and eliminate ulcers and experiment with my blood pressure readings; they totally normalize at day four.
Perhaps a crippling level of this disease is not enough incentive for some people to fast, and I cannot deny that few doctors know enough about fasting to recommend such a discipline. What I DO know is that it eliminates nearly all inflammation, and is much easier to follow than any diet.
And I do not know whether fasting is healthy for everyone; certainly there are some few who might be harmed by such a measure. When I was visiting a Moroccan marketplace (Asilah) early in one Ramadan, an elderly spice seller fell dead from a heart attack. Apparently she had some other health problems and was under some emotional stress, also. Well Ramadan is not technically a fast, anyway; it is just an inconvenient turnabout of the daily routine, employed as a mnemonic device; she had probably only been without food for a very few hours.
The fact glossed over in the Paleodiets is that we evolved from creatures experiencing very frequent cycles of feast and famine. For some reason, we have ignored the famine part of the natural cycle under the false notion that it is unnecessary or even unhealthy.
The principal lesions in AS are most often located exactly at the transition from the small intestine to the bowel. Constant irritation from the presence and processes of digesting foods will result in a wear-out mechanism that never allows for proper healing. To draw a mechanical analogy, it is like the camshaft surface worn through its case hardening; it is no longer a useful bearing surface and then soon looses eccentricity. Fortunately, our own bearing surfaces (the mucosa) can regenerate, if we give them a chance to do so.
I know that, in my case, it is time for some Spring cleaning! For those interested in joining me, I can send you the chapter on fasting from Garten?s book; it is rather encouraging.
Some famous (and infamous) fasts
Moses 40 days/40 days
INCENTIVE: Penance/guidance
Pythagoras 40 days
INCENTIVE: Mental clarity
Socrates 10 days (repeated)
INCENTIVE: Mental clarity
Jesus 40 days
INCENTIVE: Purification
St. Patrick 40 days
INCENTIVE: Lenten season
The Donner Party 55 days (several within group abstained from all sources of food)
INCENTIVE: Forced isolation; extreme environment
Dr. Henry S. Tanner 42 days
INCENTIVE: General health and publicity
William H. Hay, MD (and patients) many times >10 days
INCENTIVE: Restoration of health (Bright?s Disease and patients? appendicitis)
Professor Arnold Ehret 49 days (several times >40 days)
INCENTIVE: General health/publicity to educate physicians
Bernarr McFadden >40 days repeated
INCENTIVE: General health
Upton Sinclair 30 days (nonconsecutive)
INCENTIVE: General health
M. K. Gandhi many fasts >14 days/17 days
INCENTIVE: Indian independence/Indian unity
Dr. Otto Buchinger (>100 days juice fasting; many repeated >14 days)
INCENTIVE: Restoration of health (arthritis)
Dr. Max O. Garten 28 days (myriad more times >14 days)
INCENTIVE: Restoration of health (angina)
Old Christians Club Uruguayan Rugby team: 10 days before eating anyone*
INCENTIVE: Forced isolation in extreme environment
Dick Gregory 45 days (288# before many fasts; 97# after longest)
INCENTIVE: Vietnam conflict; later, 1000 days juices only
INCENTIVE: Michael Jackson?s plight and/or lymphoma
Bobby Sands (& 9 other protesters) 66 days (optic nerve destroyed day 61; death day 66)
INCENTIVE: N. Ireland?s independence/treatment of prisoners
David Blane 44 days
INCENTIVE: Money ($5M) and publicity
Alex 28 days
INCENTIVE: Weightloss
Me 9 days
INCENTIVE: Ankylosing Spondylitis pain
About David Blane, Jeremy Ward, professor of respiratory cell physiology at Kings College, London, is quoted as saying: ?I think he is a complete idiot. There are enough starving people in the world. For someone to starve themself as a publicity stunt – I don't think morally it is something which you should do for glamour or glory or money.?
*These entries are provided, not for any shock value, but to emphasize that our environment during the fast is very important, but so is some rudimentary knowledge about the capacity of the body to endure, even in extreme situations. Had they known more about fasting, perhaps they would not have felt the need to resort to the food source, although I do not claim they could have abstained and lived. Some time after their ordeal, a lady recognized one of the Rugby team members while riding on a bus, and thought he looked too healthy, with the speculation that his brief dietary folly gave him that special ?something.? It was probably the fast?more than the food?that provided that measure of rejuvenation.
March 16, 2010 at 12:25 am #343226Todd WIParticipantHi John,
Thanks for bringing this topic up. I've wondered about diet & fasting wrt to PSA. Years ago I tried Pagano's diet for about 6 months. It didn't seem to help much, other than dropping 35 pounds. Note that Pagano isn't a no starch diet, but gets closer than my normal diet.
An interesting fasting related book is “My Triumph Over Psoriasis”:
http://www.amazon.com/My-Triumph-over-Psorasis-Medication/dp/0967006201
Not alot of science referenced, but it's one man's journey using fasting and diet to control his health. An interesting read.
I'm dealing with a minor flare right now and decided I'd see if fasting would help. I started a 3 day fast this morning. I've fast before, 3 days should be no problem. I doubt I'll drop dead, but I'll let you know if I do 😀
Todd
March 16, 2010 at 5:48 am #343227lynnie_sydneyParticipantInterestingly, my AP Doc, when I first went to see her, related that alot of people with rheumatic conditions find that their pain and inflammation resolve if they are hospitalized and are put on a nil-by-mouth regime. She was making the point of how important diet is in treating these conditions. Lynnie
Be well! Lynnie
Palindromic RA 30 yrs (Chronic Lyme?)
Mino 2003-2008 100mg MWF - can no longer tolerate any tetracyclines
rotating abx protocol now. From Sep 2018 MWF - a.m. Augmentin Duo 440mg + 150mg Biaxsig (roxithromycin). p.m. Cefaclor (375mg) + Klacid 125mg + LDN 3mg + Annual Clindy IV's
Diet: no gluten, dairy, sulphites, low salicylates
Supps: 600mg N-AC BID, 1000mg Vit C, P5P 40mg, zinc picolinate 60mg, Lithium orotate 20mg, Magnesium Oil, Bio-identical hormones (DHEA + Prog + Estrog)March 21, 2010 at 8:07 pm #343228FkendallParticipantMy AP Dr also says fasting works, because it starves the pathogens. I have a friend who was suffering severely from lupus + high cholesterol, high BP etc etc, he underwent a 3 week water fast at True North in California and now has a clean bill of health.
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