which took place being carefully recorded. For example, a report in the British Medical Journal in 18805 outlines the effects of a 40-day water fast on a Dr Tanner.
In the early twentieth century, therapeutic fasting – where patients were treated using the method – began to be reported in medical journals and in 1910 a report by Dr Guelpa appeared in the British Medical Journal6 on the benefits of fasting in diabetes (see below).
WHEN DOES FASTING STOP AND STARVATION START?
The difference between fasting and starvation was the subject of much early research, and it has continued to exercise minds in subsequent concerted and lengthy studies. The conclusions drawn are that, in instances of food deprivation, starvation cannot be said to begin until all the body’s fat stores have been used up, and significant protein breakdown has occurred.
Research shows that an average individual weighing 154 lb (11 stone/70 kg) has fat stores adequate for maintaining calorie requirements for between two and three months (calorie usage will vary with the basic metabolic rate of the individual and the amount of activity undertaken during a fast). When fat stores are used up there remains a store of protein which, as a rule, can maintain calorie levels for a few weeks longer before essential proteins from the vital organs start to be used. There are many signs which indicate when this threshold has been passed, when fasting which is beneficial has ended and when starvation which can kill has started.7, 8
WHAT DISEASES ARE HELPED BY FASTING?
The benefits of fasting in the treatment of diabetes were first revealed in research conducted by Dr G. Guelpa in 19106, and in 1915 Dr F. Allen showed that fasting could normalize the blood sugar levels of a diabetic, as well as improve associated gangrene.9 Since then studies into this particular therapeutic potential of fasting have continued.10
Various medical papers have been published describing clinical trials showing how patients with epilepsy can be helped by fasting. Controlled fasting was found to reduce the length, severity and number of seizures.11
The use of fasting in obesity has not unnaturally received a great deal of attention. In one famous case, reported in 197312, a man fasted for over a year and lost 276 lb (19.7 stone/125 kg). Despite the success of this particular case, and while there is always an obvious and sometimes dramatic weight loss in response to fasting – research shows that for every pound lost more than half is fat, just over a quarter is protein and the rest water and salt – this method alone is not recommended. There is general agreement that a fasting weight loss programme should include counselling and lifestyle modification if weight loss is to be maintained.
In one stringent study which lasted over seven years, involving over 120 obese patients who fasted for an average of two months, it was shown that after between two and three years half the patients had reverted to their previous weight, and after seven years and three months 90 per cent of the patients weighed what they did before the fast.13
A great deal of research has verified the value of fasting in the treatment of heart disease and high blood pressure. In the 1960s and 1970s a host of reports appeared in the medical press on how fasting had been shown to reduce the levels of undesirable fats in the bloodstream, to lower high blood pressure, to reduce cholesterol levels, to bring about improvements in cases of atheroma and to alleviate congestive heart failure.14, 15
The use of fasting as a treatment for acute pancreatitis was compared with the standard medical treatment for this condition (nasogastric suction and cimetidine) in a clinical study conducted in 1984 involving 88 patients. Results concluded that:
Fasting alone should be used initially as the simpler and more economical therapy. Neither nasogastric suction nor cimetidine offer any advantage over fasting alone in the treatment of mild to moderate acute pancreatitis, of whatever cause.16
Chemical toxicity has been successfully treated using fasting – for example, when toxic cooking oil containing the rice oil contaminant PCB was consumed, patients were reported to have relief from their symptoms, sometimes dramatically so, after between seven and 10 days of fasting.17
A most important caution relevant to the above case needs to be reiterated here, since it is pointed out that when fat is mobilized during a fast, fat soluble toxins (such as DDT) can reach very high, and potentially lethal, levels in the bloodstream. This highlights the advice given in the first chapter of this book, which is that in today’s world, and especially if toxic levels are high (previous exposure to chemicals, medical and other drugs, for example), repetitive short fasts are a safer way forward than lengthy fasts. If long fasts (anything over four days) are chosen then these must always be under clinical supervision, including monitoring for blood toxaemia.
Patients with those conditions known as auto-immune diseases, which include lupus, ankylosing spondylitis, rheumatoid arthritis, glomerulonephritis (kidney disease) amongst others, have shown marked benefits when fasting has been used in their treatment. In glomerulonephritis, for example, when fasting was used in the early stages the overall prognosis was improved. The researchers stated: ‘all patients with acute glomerulonephritis should fast.’18
Treatment by fasting of another auto-immune disease, rheumatoid arthritis, was shown in a recent Scandinavian study to be very effective indeed. This study is worth looking at in a little more detail than those mentioned above, since it brings out a number of the possible benefits which fasting has to offer.
A one-year study was undertaken in which patients with well established rheumatoid arthritis were either treated using standard medical methods or a month of periodic fasting followed by a dairy free vegetarian diet. Many tests were performed to measure the changes in the blood status and symptom pictures of the two groups, and the examining doctors were unaware of which group the patient they were evaluating belonged to.
After the fast period, foods were reintroduced very carefully, with one ‘new’ food being started every second day and a watch being kept on any reaction to it (stiffness, swelling, etc.). If any symptom did appear, the food was left out for another week then tried again, and if a second reaction occurred (within 48 hours of the food being eaten) it was left out completely for the rest of the one-year study.
This part of the study suggests the possibility that in autoimmune disease there may be undesirable absorption through the intestinal wall of food particles which then provoke the immune system into an over-reaction, leading to some or all of the symptoms. Certainly, the fast would deny the chance of this happening since no food is being taken.
On restarting eating, the careful monitoring of foods for reactions allows for the accurate identification of culprit foods so that they can be eliminated from the diet altogether.
This process explains why those doctors specializing in allergy, often called Clinical Ecologists, use fasting as their main method of clearing
