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Detox Retreat Florida & Detox Spa with Water Fasting | Balance for Life Florida

Detox Retreat Florida & Detox Spa with Water Fasting | Balance for Life Florida

Jan 4, 2019 | Water-only Fasting

On a daily basis we are all exposed to a wide variety of toxic environmental chemicals in the pesticides on our produce, in airborne pollution from the burning of fossil fuels for energy, in the cans and plastic bottles that contain the foods and beverages we eat and drink, and in an array of waste products produced by a variety of industries. In addition, there are a number of toxic by-products of normal metabolism produced by the body itself, like uric acid and blood urea nitrogen that can be measured by a routine blood test.

Many of these environmental toxins are derived from petroleum based oils and fossil fuels and can dissolve in oil or fat (fat soluble). When you are exposed to these chemicals, your body will attempt to detoxify and eliminate them as efficiently and quickly as possible. However, these internal waste products and outside toxins cannot usually be eliminated as quickly as they are created or encountered. So whatever you can’t immediately eliminate will be retained to some extent in the bloodstream or stored in fat cells, away from normal blood circulation, to protect the cells and organs of your body.

How Does Water-only Fasting Support Detoxification?

Since fat is the major source of energy in water-only fasting, when it is metabolized for energy during a fast, toxins stored in fat cells will be released and targeted to organs like skin, lungs, kidney and intestines for elimination. This release of toxic chemicals from your fat cells, and subsequent removal by your body, is the process of detoxification.

Keep in mind that your body is always directing its blood supply to satisfy the needs at hand. For example, perhaps you have had the experience of eating a big meal and trying to exercise too soon after eating. As a result, you may have experienced muscle cramps because your blood oxygen supply was focused on your digestive function and not as available for the oxygen demands of muscular activity.

Does Detoxification Cause any Symptoms During a Water Fast?

Since you do not need blood going to organs of digestion during a water only fast, the body’s blood supply is increased to skin and lungs (your largest organs for detoxification), kidneys etc. to significantly increase elimination and detoxification. The result of this activity can be a panorama of symptoms that happen during a water only fast including mucous discharge, fatigue, headache, joint pain, nausea, skin lesions, rashes etc. But it is important to embrace these actions and realize that they have been set in motion by the wisdom of the body during water-only fasting to promote your healing and recovery.

Furthermore, water-only fasting is a deep physiological resting process that should always be done under resting conditions to conserve and harbor energy for healing. As a result, the energy that would be used for normal growth, and the procuring and digestion of food, is available for maintenance, repair and detoxification. The increase in detoxification is a major and important factor for the promotion of optimal health and is one of the most powerful benefits of water-only fasting.

by Dr. Frank Sabatino

Autophagy in Water-only Fasting: Recycling, Repair, and Transformation

Autophagy in Water-only Fasting: Recycling, Repair, and Transformation

Jan 3, 2019 | Water-only Fasting

The process of water-only fasting inspires a unique survival challenge to the profound wisdom and intelligence of your body as it balances energy needs with food availability. In this tapestry of homeostasis and survival, your body takes advantage of a unique recycling system, via lysosomes, that exist in every one of the trillions of body cells.

The lysosome is a microscopic organ, an organelle, that has a highly acidic internal environment containing approximately 60 different digestive enzymes, and functions within the cell to complete a form of cellular clean up and digestion. Similar to our larger digestive system, the lysosome also has a protective membrane around it, a barrier that controls the release of its enzymes, confining and controlling their action to protect healthy cells from being completely destroyed.

Before we talk about how these processes are impacted by fasting we must first understand the function of the lysosome, including:

(1) Every day millions of cells are being born while millions of cells are being destroyed and eliminated in a process called apoptosis or programmed cell death. So when a cell has outlived its programmed lifespan, and is slated for death, the membrane of the lysosome breaks down, flooding the cell with enzymes that promote the destruction of the cell and the recycling of its parts.

(2) It is important to realize that our cells are capable of recycling their damaged parts, altered proteins and even microbes they have incorporated during the routine wear and tear of day to day function. This recycling process is referred to as autophagy, and describes how damaged parts of your cells can be sequestered and transported for breakdown in the lysosome, which then provides your body with the building blocks of proteins and fats from these damaged parts, to produce new cells and new growth.

What Happens to Cells During Water Only Fasting?

During water-only fasting there is a decrease in the hormone insulin, and other growth factors, that deprive the cells of nutrients, including glucose and amino acids. This activates a pathway of cellular messengers that enhance the process of autophagy diverting cells away from growth in the direction of maintenance and repair. So that as energy is is diverted away from the procurement of food, digestion and cellular growth during water-only fasting, it is more available for cell maintenance, elimination and repair.

This increase in autophagy is one of the most profound and significant effects of water-only fasting. And when the natural process of autophagy is enhanced during fasting, it allows the body to maintain and protect healthy, functional body cells while digesting, dissolving and utilizing worn out and damaged cells, including non-essential extraneous growths like tumors, cysts and stones, for its energy needs.

Water Only Fasting Allows Your Body to Focus on What It Needs

Keep in mind that your body, in its wisdom, knows what belongs in it and what does not. And during a water-only fast, it will eliminate what it needs least to support what it needs most. So for example, it needs vital organs like heart, brain, kidney, liver etc. but it does not need tumors, cysts, stones and growths.

I have seen women with breasts full of fibrocystic calcium deposits that look like shrapnel on a mammogram get completely clear in 7 days of water-only fasting. I have also seen women with uterine fibroids the size of grapefruits shrink remarkably in several weeks of fasting. So in the fasting state, your body will promote this cellular alchemy and break down tumors, cysts, cancers and stones, taking from these abnormal growths whatever it can, to feed the organs that are vital to life and health. As a result, water only fasting has been shown to improve cancers like lymphoma, and a variety of abnormal growths, tumors and cysts throughout the body.

by Dr. Frank Sabatino