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
Recent Comments