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The Miraculous Power of Fasting — How It Heals Your Body Inside And Out
Fasting, in some form or another, has become a massive topic of discussion in health circles today. It’s studied benefits are far and wide, including balancing insulin levels, increasing human growth hormone levels, initiating cellular repair, influencing positive changes in gene expression, and much more.
And even though fasting might seem like a new trend, in reality
it has been around for thousands of years.
Fasting for spiritual purposes is one of the most ancient and
widespread traditions in the world, and remains part of virtually
every major religion. Jesus Christ, Buddha and the prophet Muhammed
all shared a common belief in the healing power of fasting.
The Greek physician, Hippocrates, wrote, “to eat when you are sick,
is to feed your illness.” Another Greek historian and philosopher,
Plutarch, shared the same sentiment around fasting. He wrote,
“instead of using medicine, better fast today”.
The ancient Greeks believed that medical treatment could be
observed from nature, and one of the greatest observations of nature
is when animals become sick. They cease eating and retreat away from
the world, giving their body vital rest and time to rejuvenate
itself.
Dr. Arnold Ehret, a nineteenth century German health educator, also
believed in the miraculous powers of fasting. In his book, Rational
Fasting, he called fasting “nature’s operating table”, and believed
that when left alone, our body’s intelligence would heal itself.
Today it seems that the fasting phenomenon has found a renaissance
among health advocates, with a legion of men and women promoting its
noted cognitive, physiological, and spiritual superpowers.
Recently I tried a juice fast combined with periods of dry
fasting for myself, and I can say that there is a reason why this
practice has maintained prevalence over the last few Millenia.
The different types of fasting
Fasting can be done for many reasons (religious, spiritual,
physical, etc.), for different periods of time and in different
ways.
Some fasts can be done for long periods of time, such as when trying
to heal a terminal illness, in which a person might fast for months
on end under a specific protocol (Master Fast system). Other fasts
might last 3-10 days, and then there are those who practice fasting
daily or intermittently for anywhere from 12-24 hours.
There are various types of fasts as well. There are fasts that involve eating only raw fruits and vegetables, juice fasts, water fasts, dry fasts, and more.
Juice fasting is just one of many different types of
fasting. Water fasting and dry fasting are two other popular
methods.
Each type and length of fast is used
strategically based on what your personal goals are, but in general
the mechanism works the same: Fasting gives the body rest from
extensive digestive and metabolic issues, taking its life force
energy and using it to clean out acids and toxins while allowing
itself to heal.
The Standard American Diet is bogging us down
The Standard American Diet (SAD), which includes high amounts of
cooked meats, dairy, grains, and processed foods, overburdens and
weakens our digestive and eliminative systems.
The Standard American Diet (SAD) is wrecking havoc on our systems.
When we consider the fact that no other animal cooks its food, we can see how our deviation from nature has caused a diseased and exhausted population. This heavy diet of cooked fats, starches, and meats are void of naturally occurring enzymes, which forces our digestive system to produce more endogenous enzymes and taxes our organs. But before these foods can be broken down and eliminated fully, they instead putrefy in our gut and continually release toxic byproducts into the blood.
Cooked meat, fat, and grains are void of enzymes needed to break down the food in the body. Therefore, the body cannot properly digest cooked food, which ends up putrefying in our gut.
When we compare digestion of cooked foods to
raw foods, there is a major difference. Due to the high enzyme
levels in raw fruits and vegetables, our digestive system is able to
break them down quicker and utilize nearly all parts of the food,
minus the fibres which act as a broom to our digestive tract.
 |
| Raw fruits and vegetables are rich in enzymes and nutrients. Our digestive system easily breaks down these foods, utilizes their nutrients and eliminates them fully. |
Most never give their body a break from
digestion longer than nine hours, and in turn the body is constantly
using energy to digest rather than to eliminate and thereby heal.
Fasting allows the pancreas, stomach, liver, intestines, and kidneys
to have a much-needed rest, which provides more energy for the
immune, glandular and lymphatic systems. At this point our body will
move into a natural state of purification and elimination.
The power of dry fasting
One way to boost the rejuvenating impact of fasting is by
incorporating periods of dry fasting. Dry fasting is simply
abstaining from food and water.
When I first heard of the idea of dry fasting my mind would not
accept the fact that abstaining from water could be a beneficial
practice. We’ve been told from a young age that water is more
imperative than anything else, to be sure that we are getting our
“eight glasses daily.” I was one of those people who chugged nearly
four litres a day to stay ‘hydrated’. However, I learned that
drinking water, especially the water that is most commonly available
to us today, isn’t hydrating at all.
Most of the exogenous water we drink today does a poor job of
hydrating our cells. Dry fasting allows our body to draw its water
from metabolic water within our weakened and sick cells.
Our cells will not absorb exogenous water to
the point of proper cellular hydration. For the most part, drinking
copious amounts of water taxes our kidneys and prevents them from
doing their main job, which is filtering lymphatic waste. One of the
great ways to hydrate our cells is through dry fasting. Sound
strange? Keep reading.
In his roughly-translated book, Dry Medical Fasting: Myths and
Reality, Russian Dr. Sergei Ivanovich Filonov explains what happens
in the body when we dry fast.
During a dry fast, he says, the body switches its detoxification
pathways and becomes a cellular “incinerator.” A process of intense
body cleansing is initiated as the body rids itself of sick and old
cells, creating space in tissues for new stem cells to form.
Because the body is starved of water, our cells get clever. Stronger
cells cannibalize the body’s weaker cells through a process of
phagocytosis. As the stronger cells consume the weaker cells, they
absorb the cell’s metabolic water, which hydrates the body on a much
deeper level than exogenous water. Essentially, “dead” water is
replaced with “living” water.
With this new endogenous water activated within the body, blood and
lymph are purified through an internal filtration process, and the
tissues through which blood and lymph circulate are cleaned out.
The immune system also benefits greatly from dry fasting.
Inflammation is fed by water, so when the body is deprived of an
inflow of exogenous water, it uses endogenous water very
carefully—only for feeding healthy cells. Damaged cells, as well as
various bacteria, viruses and parasites suffer from a lack of water
and die. Irregularities like cysts and benign tumors also dissolve
as a result of autolysis.
Illustration of phagocytosis. During dry fasting our stronger cells will cannibalize the weaker cells and absorb their metabolic water.
Fat loss is another side-effect of dry
fasting, more so than any other type of fasting. During water
fasting, both fat and muscle tissue are lost in almost equal
proportions. Dry fasting burns mostly fat due to the transformation
of metabolic processes. Since 90% of fat cells are water, they
disintegrate 3 – 4 times faster than muscle cells during dry
fasting. As a result, weight loss and toning takes place.
It is through the elimination of weak and damaged cells that dry
fasting performs its miracles. Cells become stronger, and as a
result produce “healthy offspring” once they divide. This process
launches the mechanism of natural selection, wherein only the
strongest cells survive and thrive.
How to dry fast safely
In Dr. Arnold Ehret’s book, Rational Fasting,
he cautions that the average person should be careful before jumping
into a longer dry fast. This is because as the body begins to remove
toxins, it can begin to recirculate in the blood. This is often
known as “detox symptoms.” If a person is too toxic and obstructed,
and the rate of elimination cannot keep up with the amount of toxins
being loosened from the tissues, then they can get very ill.
For this reason, anyone who is chronically ill or anyone who has
consumed a SAD diet for many years should fast under the supervision
of a health care or detox professional.
A great way to ease into a fast is by cleaning up your diet
beforehand. This might look like eating a diet high in fruit and
vegetables the week prior, or even juice fasting for a day or two
before jumping into the dry fast. This preparation will make the
fasting and detoxing process less uncomfortable.
Juice fasting is a great way to ease into a longer period of dry
fasting. For the chronically ill or those who have been on the SAD
diet for many decades, it is best to seek the support of a health
care or detox professional.
As a safety precaution for those who are
heavily burdened by toxicity, Dr. Ehret recommends doing shorter
fasts more frequently. Consistent, daily dry fasting periods between
12-18 hours can be just as powerful as longer dry fasts. This might
look like finishing your dinner at 7PM, and then abstaining from
food and water until noon the following day, give or take an hour or
two. After doing these shorter fasts for awhile, then you can work
your way up to longer periods.
Lastly, Dr. Ehret stresses that breaking the fast is just as
important as the fast itself. The first meal after a fast should
have a laxative effect, meaning eating foods that pass through the
digestive tract quickly and which bring toxins and decaying food
matter with them. Watery and astringent fruits, such as grapes,
cherries, oranges, etc., are the ultimate “scrubbers” in this case,
while raw vegetables act like the “sweeper” of our GI tract. After
breaking the fast with raw fruits and vegetables, you can then move
into eating cooked vegetables.
Unlocking your vitality
Is fasting the ultimate way to unlock our
vitality? If the animal kingdom has something to teach us, then it
could very well be a tool with unlimited rejuvenating potential.
Our ancestors, as well as some of the great spiritual masters of our
time, understood that fasting was the key to purification and higher
states of consciousness, and today it seems we are rediscovering
this capability.
While some may argue that fasting in its various forms is just
another health “fad,” what cannot be denied is how the body feels
and looks after periods of fasting. The proof truly is in the
pudding, and as such, fasting stands as yet another testament that
there is no more powerful operating table then nature’s very own.
Written by: Jeffrey Roberts; Jan 10, 2018
Found at: http://themindunleashed.com/2018/01/fasting-completely-transforms-body-inside.html
This page last updated: 03/01/2018