In the summer of 1970, after I graduated from college, I traveled to Switzerland to learn more about my uncle, a most unusual Swiss medical doctor. Uncle Ernst used fasting and dietary changes as part of his protocol for successfully treating patients with supposedly “incurable” diseases like cancer and autoimmune disease.

When Uncle Ernst met me at the train station, he told me that if I really wanted to learn about what he did, then I would need to fast in order to experience first hand this powerful healing modality.

I protested and said that I didn’t need to fast because I wasn’t sick. Uncle Ernst replied, “You are toxic and need to clean yourself out.”

I felt taken aback that he used the term “toxic” to describe me. I thought that term applied to environmental catastrophes. I pictured a big oil spill in the ocean.

I reluctantly agreed to follow a fifteen-day water fast under his supervision. The fasting regimen included daily enemas, an unusual bathroom ritual I had never experienced before. 

The first three days were like torture. I felt horrible, flu-like, weak and scared, convinced that I had made a grave mistake in coming to visit my eccentric uncle.

In my ignorance about fasting, I wondered if I was going to die. I wrote in my diary, “I’m only 21 years old—too young to die. Mummy and Daddy will be terribly upset.”

I had intense fantasies of escaping into town and getting something to eat and then hopping on a train to the airport with a direct flight home.

In retrospect, I recognize that I was experiencing a massive detoxification reaction.

On the fourth day, something astounding happened. I woke up feeling a sense of ecstasy. My mind was clear and I felt waves of energy running through my body.

As the day progressed I had a profound spiritual experience in which I had the sensation of being one with everything in the universe. The entire universe was part of me and I was part of every aspect of the universe, including the sky, the sun, the trees, and all of the patients in Uncle Ernst’s clinic. In fact, I was certain that I knew what those people were thinking and feeling, I knew their past and their future.

Everything appeared to be absolutely perfect just as it was—with all its imperfections. I felt overcome with love and compassion for all living beings.

My spiritual psychosis resulted in a kind of bliss that I didn’t know existed. I cried tears of utter joy.

Gurus and spiritual sages and people on mind-altering drugs have reported some of these same experiences. My experience came not from spiritual enlightenment or mind-altering drugs. It came from starvation.

Fortunately, I had enough wits about me to record the experience in my diary. I knew that what was happening to me was so far outside of normal day-to-day reality that if I didn’t write it down, it would be hard to believe as the years passed and the memories grew dim that I really had had this experience.

Gradually the altered state of consciousness began to fade, but what remained was a feeling of peace and profound gratitude, along with an astonishing clarity of mind. I felt like I was completely cleaned out and healthier in mind and body than I had ever been in my life.

Surprisingly, on the last day of the water fast I had enough energy to go ice skating with Uncle Ernst.

In retrospect, I have a better understanding of what happened on the fast. Once I was cleaned out from the two weeks without food and from the enemas, I was free of the harmful biological effects of the foods that I was allergic to—and had been all my life and didn’t know it—and free of unhealthy foods, like sugar and processed foods that I binged on in college. Being free of those foods allowed my body to heal and feel a level of wellbeing that I had never experienced before.

The fasting experience changed my life and created within me an ardent thirst for the sense of wellbeing that comes through healthy living.

In case you would like to read more about the life-changing experience I had fasting with my uncle, here is a link to the first in a three-part series about that out-of-the-ordinary experience:

https://www.musingsmemoirandmedicine.com/2017/04/uncle-ernst-part-i/

History of fasting

Fasting refers to a restriction or absence of food for a defined period of time.  There are different types of fasting, including water fasts, juice fasts, and dry fasts that preclude all food and water. Fasting can be intermittent with food avoidance for 12 or more hours every day, or fasting can be prolonged and last several days or weeks.

Fasting is an ancient healing tradition practiced by almost every religion and culture throughout the world. Fasting has been used not only for health reasons, but also to achieve visions and spiritual purification and for penance. Fasting is sometimes used as a political tool for protesting government policies.

In the last few decades, growing attention has been placed on fasting as a tool for addressing specific medical conditions, as well as for improving overall health.

Health Benefits of fasting

The list of chronic conditions that are known to benefit from fasting is very long. The list includes cancer, autoimmune disease, chronic inflammatory conditions, seizures, heart disease, high blood pressure, type II diabetes, obesity, and degenerative diseases of the brain such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and MS. 

How does fasting produce these benefits?

Digesting and metabolizing food produces free radicals and also requires a significant amount of energy. In a fasting state, the energy is freed up for waste removal and repair of damaged cells, allowing optimal cellular renewal and function.

Below are glimpses of what happens biochemically in a fasting state:

• When we eat, the glucose from carbohydrates is stored as glycogen in the liver. After 10-12 hours of not eating, the body runs out of the glycogen stores. At this point, the body releases into the bloodstream the fat stored in fat cells. The fat goes to the liver where it is converted into ketones. The ketones are used as fuel.

• While fasting, the body engages in a cleansing process called autophagy in which the body “eats itself,” recycling old cells to create new cells.

• The fasting state causes insulin to drop and human growth hormones to rise.

• Stem cells that repair damaged tissues are activated in a fasting state.

• Mitochondria, the organelles in every cell that produce energy, get rejuvenated while one is fasting.

• Fasting also boosts production of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a substance that stimulates the creation of new brain cells and strengthens existing neuronal connections. BDNF is important for learning and memory.

• Gene expression while fasting can result in beneficial changes to genes related to longevity.

The above notwithstanding, most of the regenerative and rejuvenating benefits of fasting occur while coming off the fast, during the re-feeding phase—not during the starvation phase. During re-feeding, cells and tissues are rebuilt into a healthy state. Eating healthy food in small quantities during re-feeding is of utmost importance, so as not to negate the benefits of the fasting phase.

Combining fasting with the ketogenic diet is a powerful approach to healing chronic conditions.

 What is prolonged fasting?

Humans can survive without any food for an average of 35 days. From the politically-motivated hunger strikes, we know that some of the strikers lived up to 60 days.

More than 24 hours of water only is what I consider a prolonged fast. In these toxic times we live in, I no longer recommend fasting more than 72 hours without supervision.

When fasting, the toxins stored in our fat cells are released into our blood stream and then passed through the liver and kidneys for excretion.  If too many toxins are released too quickly, the detoxification system can become overwhelmed, resulting in the sensation of being poisoned or sickened.

A good place to go for prolonged fasting under expert guidance is TrueNorth in Santa Rosa, California. People seek treatment at TrueNorth for various conditions, including cancer, diabetes, obesity, digestive disorders, high blood pressure, allergies, autoimmune disease, and degenerative diseases of the brain.

https://www.healthpromoting.com/learning-center/articles/world-class-health-care-truenorth

Fasting for 24-72 hours now and then does not pose any major dangers. My favorite form of fasting is “intermittent fasting” which I try to do every day.

What is intermittent fasting?

While prolonged water-only fasting can be extremely beneficial, it can be impractical to implement. Fortunately, intermittent fasting is a way to get many of the benefits of prolonged fasting, without disrupting one’s schedule.

This system involves cycling every day between periods of fasting 16 or more hours a day and then eating all the meals for the day within a 6-10 hour stretch of time. In this method of fasting, calorie restriction is not required.

When implementing the intermittent fasting method, begin by gradually increasing the length of time you are fasting. Try eating dinner earlier. There needs to be at least three hours between finishing dinner and going to bed. Sleep needs to be a time of repair and not of digestion.

If you finish dinner at 7 pm and you eat breakfast the next morning at 7 am, then you have fasted for 12 hours. Once you’re comfortable with that regimen, then try delaying breakfast until 8 am, then 9 am. The goal is to see if you can fast for 16-18 hours and eat within 6-8 hour period of time.

In my case, I try to maintain 16 hours of fasting every day. I finish dinner at around 6:30 pm. When I get up in the morning, I have a cup of coffee or tea with chai spices in it, sweetened with chicory root. My intake of calorie-containing food begins with a late breakfast or brunch at around 10:30-11:00 am.

Over time, I have become thoroughly adapted to this lifestyle, making implementation of the intermittent fasting regimen effortless.

Would fasting be good for you? 

If prolonged fasting looks too daunting, I suggest that you try intermittent fasting and see if you notice any benefits. Even if you regard yourself as healthy, you still might notice at least an increase in energy and clarity of mind over time.

You could begin implementing the intermittent fasting regimen by slowly increasing the amount of time that you spend without eating. If you make the changes gradually, your body will have time to adapt to each incremental increase in the time you spend in a fasting state.

Some people get positive results even if their diet is not perfect. But the best results by far are seen when intermittent fasting is combined with healthy foods during re-feeding.

The ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting go well together for treating chronic conditions. Both approaches allow your body to shift from burning glucose to burning fat. Both promote optimal functioning of the cells. You might find this approach to be life-changing.

Whether you try out this regimen or not, I wish you good health and wellbeing!

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