Throughout history and evolution, all species, including humans, have vacillated between periods of food availability and food deprivation. As a result, we have the ability to adapt to long periods of food restriction and fasting.
Water only fasting, which is the consumption of nothing but water for an extended period of time, promotes health recovery from a wide range of health problems. Here are five major benefits of water only fasting.
(1) A KETOGENIC DIET: THE SAFE WAY:
During water only fasting, when your blood sugar levels drop due to the lack of food intake, the energy needs of your body are first met by sugar reserves that are depleted within the first 24 hours of fasting. When sugar reserves are depleted, the body creates new forms of sugar(energy) from muscle mass and body fat .
However, there is no need for you to worry about the loss of body protein. While you will typically lose 1-2 pounds per day during a fast, there are only a few ounces of protein lost in the first 2 days of fasting, and only 1/2 – 1 ounce of protein loss per day throughout extended periods of fasting.
By day 3 of a water fast, your body shifts primarily into fat metabolism, which increases steadily in the subsequent days of fasting. As fat is used for energy production, ketones are generated by the metabolism of fat. This ketogenic state maintains the integrity of the brain and all body cells. In this way, water only fasting is a safe and controlled ketogenic diet, as your body eats its own fat reserves. It is much safer and different from the low carb, high fat, high animal protein ketogenic diets in vogue today, which promote dangerous metabolic acidosis that can damage blood vessels and vital organs.
(2) DETOXIFICATION: HOW TO DETOXIFY NATURALLY WITH WATER FASTING
Many of the toxic chemicals that are produced by normal metabolism and environmental exposure are stored in fat cells, away from normal blood circulation, to protect the cells and organs of the body. When fat is metabolized for energy during water only fasting, toxins stored in fat cells will also be released and sent to organs of elimination for removal. This movement of waste, and subsequent removal by your body, is the process of detoxification.
Keep in mind that fasting must be done under resting conditions to conserve energy for healing. As a result, fasting is an energy conserving and harboring process. Therefore, the energy that would be used for normal growth, and the procuring and digestion of food, is available for maintenance, repair and detoxification.
In addition, your body in its wisdom, will always direct its blood supply to satisfy the needs at hand. Since you do not need blood supply going to organs of digestion during a water only fast, the body’s blood supply is increased to skin and lungs (which are , surprisingly, your largest organs for detoxification), kidneys etc. to promote increased elimination and detoxification.
(3) THE IMMUNE SYSTEM: HOW TO REBOOT IT
The migration of white blood cells to areas of injury and cell damage is a major part of a healthy functioning immune system. Like all cells in the body, white blood cells have a limited life span and will age and become less functional over time. After 4 days of water only fasting there is a stem cell activation and production of new functional white blood cells which enhances and reboots your immune system.
(4) INFLAMMATION: REDUCE IT WITH A WATER FAST
When you overeat animal proteins, processed fats and refined sugars, and maintain a lifestyle that fosters chronic stress and sleep deficiency, you can promote chronic inflammation. This condition of inflammation is the foundation of the pandemic diseases (heart disease, diabetes, cancer and stroke) that cause the most disability and death.
Just three to seven days of water only fasting can dramatically reduce inflammation and pain in your body, decreasing the production of C-Reactive Protein (CRP) and other chemical messengers (cytokines) that are released by the liver and immune system when your body is inflamed. As a result, water only fasting often promotes dramatic improvement in autoimmune inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases of inflammation.
(5) AUTOPHAGY: TUMOR REDUCTION
Autophagy, or self-digestion, is the process by which your body destroys and discards dead and dying cells that have completed their natural lifespan and have to be metabolized and replaced. What is unique to water only fasting is that, when energy is made available by the profound rest of the fasting process, autophagy will be promoted and enhanced. This increase in autophagy is one of the most profound and significant effects of water only fasting.
Keep in mind that your body, in its wisdom, knows what belongs in it and what does not. And during a 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. So in the fasting state, your body will 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, uterine fibroids and breast cancers and ovarian cysts.
Enjoy a Medically Supervised WATER ONLY FAST AT Balance for Life
The Balance for Life Retreat in Deerfield Beach, Florida (BalanceForLifeFlorida.com) is one of the few programs in the world that does medically supervised water-only fasting and the only one located directly on the ocean.
Dr. Frank Sabatino
Balance for Life Florida
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