Slightly off-topic: Intermittent Fasting
 

I've been hearing a lot about Calorie restriction to extend life and help with various diseases, especially autoimmune disease as I'm battling one myself. But I didn't think I could do it. Just don't have that sort of willpower. But I might be able to do Intermittent Fasting (IF) and I keep reading more and more about it.

Here's an interesting article from Dr. Eades blog.

I think I'm going to try this, see if it helps with my AS.

More than just interesting
 

Because of this gluten problem and being in Europe out and about, we can not find food and often find ourselves not eating until dinner. I hate breakfast. He does not talk about hydrating the body with water. I am doing better. Believe it or not, I never am sick. It has been 6 years since the last case of anti biotics.


We have a saying "the least you eat the healthier you are".

We do a soup broth/juice fast when we get glutened.

The first fast we ever did started us on our gf journey. It was 4 days and on the fourth day, I felt super-human!

I don't have the wear-with-all to do it very often (especially now since I'm nursing and almost always ravenous) but I do want to do another one soon because I have come to believe that it gives the body a break and gives it a really good cleanout (like cleaning out your oil/filter in your vehicle :D ).

My son (6 years old) does two day fasts (broth/juice) frequently (about once every 2/3 months or so) because he gets contaminated very easily. Nothing gets his system back on track as quickly and efficiently as one of these fasts (and we've tried many things over the last 4 years).

I just started IF with yesterday being my first fasting day. It wasn't difficult at all. We'll see how tomorrow goes. :) My hope is to improve my health and reduce my autoimmune disease symptoms and perhaps even lose a bit of weight! I could stand to lose another 10-20 pounds.

I must diagree with you about it being "slightly off-topic." Fasting does help sometimes when it comes to food allergies or sensitivities. So not off topic at all.

I have severe nutritional deficiencies and sometimes I will have a minor health problem. I have had ulcers in the past from too much stress. When I don't feel well I usually don't feel much like eating. So, sometimes I know that the body may benefit from easing up on digestion by fasting. Feed a cold and starve a fever.

I find that sometimes when I fast for maybe a day or two it does seem to bring everything back to the same level like KimS indicated. In my case though I can have problems with the nutritional supplements I take. So just stopping the supplements for a day or two can basically allow me to start fresh again.

The only medical reason I have seen to do a fast for more than a couple of days is to start the rotation diet. There seems to be a real benefit in this situation where you are getting basically everything (all foods) out of your system.

I have read that if you do need to fast for more than a couple of days glutamine, an amino acid, can provide energy to your brain. This amino acid is also great mixed in water to soothe the GI tract. So glutamine might be good for people with GI problems, like leaky gut, or those who do a fast sometimes. But glutamine would prevent the problems some can feel when their brain is starved of sugar basically.

Dr. Eades recommends glutamine too, especially for gut issues. I keep forgetting to take it.

The thing that got me interested in fasting is that lots of autoimmune arthritis people I talk to get relief from their symptoms with fasting (and a no-starch diet).

There's a good article on Sciencenews.org about this.

Day 3 of trying out IF. I hear it takes 2 weeks of this before the good effects kick in. I wonder if it'll be tough going without food on a Saturday? I really loaded up last night and I'm still feeling pretty stuffed today.

Hi everyone
 

My experiance with fasting was not that great. I went on a juice fast, that was suppose to detox your body. Well it did, and I felt just awful, like I had the flue. I think the third day my boss made me go home because I looked awful. Anyways I did learn something from it. Your suppose to ease into a fast and ease out of a fast. Lots of people think you just stop eatting, and then on day whatever, they gorge themselves because there starving. Apparently this is not very good for the body. I think its a great thing to do, eatting is way overrated:D Patricia:)

Not for me: hope it works for you
 

I have done various fasts in the past, but I will never fast again after having two bad experiences with the last two fasts. I hope it works for you Nancy, but I think if you start out in a very depleted state, a fast can be harmful. I think you really need to be taking it easy during the fast and for at least two to three weeks afterwards.

The last two fasts I did were for 3 to 4 days. The last fast was a juice fast and I eased into it and out of it and did not work during the fast. The previous fast before that, I didn't take it easy so much. Anyways, two weeks after both of these fasts, I ended up with severe back muscle spasms and it literally took me about 6 months to get better. There were a couple of years between the fasts. I think fasting is a very personal thing. It works for some people and not for others, like me. Since I have been working with an acupuncturist, it makes sense to me that fasting would not be good for me because of my particular bodily deficiences.

There are ways to detox the body without fasting, using herbs and a clean diet. I personally think the SCD intro diet is pretty good if you need to give your digestive system a break, but don't want to deny your body of nutrients and calories (I didn't eat the dairy or honey). I did this twice over the summer, and it cleared my diarrhea up temporarily. Or, I think just cutting out sugar, alcohol, stimulants, preservatives, and only eating home cooked meals with whole organic foods is a good way to clean your body out.

Claire

They're very short fasts. Just 24 hours and you're asleep for 8 of them. Not that difficult really. The health benefits sound great. In fact, I noticed on my swim today my stamina had improved enormously. Read the article if you haven't, it really is thought provoking.

I'd think of this more as "Ramadan Lite" than anything else.