before starting the process of ‘challenge’ or testing, to see what provokes symptoms to return.
It is generally thought by Clinical Ecologists that five days is the length of time needed to completely clear the body of all traces of such foods, and the five-day fast is, therefore, a standard approach used by them.
That there are probably other benefits which derive from fasting, such as improved function of elimination and detoxification, is commonly ignored by this group of doctors. However, their unawareness or non-acceptance does not stop such additional fasting benefits from happening.
In the study involving the patients with rheumatoid arthritis, after one month of fasting and the gradual reintroduction of foods (but with no eggs, dairy foods, meat, fish, refined sugar, alcohol, tea and coffee for at least three months) remarkable benefits in the fasting/vegetarian group of patients were observed and reported. Joints were less stiff, swollen and painful and strength was increased, while blood tests showed lower sedimentation rates and reduction in markers which indicate rheumatoid activity. These benefits were still present after a year – in all the many signs and indications which were measured – when compared to those patients receiving standard medical attention.19
Were these benefits simply the result of the elimination of particular foods? Or is there overall a more efficient immune response after fasting? In an earlier study, which showed similar benefits of fasting in the treatment of auto-immune disease, D. R. Panush suggested that the answer to both questions is possibly yes:
Nutritional modification (fasting) might alter immune responsiveness and thereby effect manifestations of rheumatic diseases; or rheumatic disease may be a manifestation of food allergy or hypersensitivity.
Fasting might, in other words, improve the way the body works, or it might just remove from the scene the irritants to which the immune system is reacting … or both.20
Joel Fuhrman, MD, who strongly advocates fasting, has had success in treating a wide range of diseases, including autoimmune problems, using fasting. He reports that systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) responds well to this approach.
As soon as a person is diagnosed with lupus, they should immediately begin a medically supervised fast to initiate remission. Breaking the fast carefully under proper guidance is extremely important. Upon completion of the fast the following foods should be avoided for a prolonged period of time: 1. All animal foods, including dairy products and eggs; 2. All legumes except peas and lima beans; 3. Celery, corn, alfalfa sprouts, mushrooms, spinach and figs.
The reason for avoiding these plant foods is that they contain a variety of chemicals which have been shown to cause reactions which can aggravate lupus and other auto-immune diseases.21, 22, 23
OTHER CONDITIONS AND FASTING
Many other diseases and problems have been successfully treated using fasting as the main therapeutic tool. These include psoriasis, the often intractable skin condition. Scandinavian research showed that benefits could be obtained by fasting (eight out of 10 patients improved markedly after a 7–10 day fast) and a vegetarian diet, but that the condition returned if the diet reverted to the previous pattern.24
Auto-immune bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease have responded extremely well to fasting and modified fasting (where liquid containing vitamins, minerals and some glucose was taken, but no food at all). In one study 84 per cent of those patients with Crohn’s disease who were treated with fasting went into remission. Just as in the way rheumatoid arthritis was treated (see above), after the fast, foods (usually cooked for ease of digestion) were slowly reintroduced, and eliminated if there was any sign of diarrhoea or pain. Only 30 per cent of the patients with Crohn’s disease who went into remission on the fast had relapses, whereas 66 per cent of those who were treated with cortisone type medication had relapses. The most provocative foods for irritable bowel diseases of this type are dairy products, most notably cow’s milk, tea, coffee, chocolate, corn, wheat, rye, apples, oats and mushrooms.25
Among the many other conditions for which there is evidence of a useful role for fasting are eczema26, bronchial asthma27 and a variety of mental illness, including schizophrenia. Russia has been the country where mental illness has been most widely treated using fasting, most often by Professor Serge Nikoliav of the Moscow Psychiatric Institute. He has, with great success, treated over 6000 patients for chronic refractory schizophrenia by means of water fasts which run from 25 to 300 days (often accompanied by daily aerobic exercise).28,29
Fasting for health is natural, efficient and, given the caveats already mentioned, safe. There are few conditions which cannot benefit from it and, as the brief survey in this chapter indicates, there is ample clinical evidence of its success.
The reason for this is that it allows healing to occur, and does not impose a solution on the body which, through its well-known homoeostatic (self-regulating) mechanisms, has an innate ability to normalize itself if it is given the chance. Fasting gives it that chance.
Your mind–body is equipped to defend itself against, and cope with, invading micro-organisms, toxic materials, changes in temperature, unpleasant situations and a bewildering variety of stresses and strains of a mechanical, biochemical and emotional nature. For our entire lives we are in a state of adaptation, as the struggle to retain equilibrium continues.
Your body repairs itself given the chance – broken bones mend, cuts heal and the vast majority of infections are dealt with efficiently and without symptoms. Even when symptoms appear they are often only evidence of the body doing its self-repair and self-healing work. Fever, inflammation, diarrhoea, vomiting – are all evidence of the immune and other repair systems of the body performing their survival tasks.
Many emotions, such as anxiety and depression are only evidence of excessive degrees of perfectly normal emotions. It would be abnormal not to feel anxious in a situation of danger – however, an excessive amount of anxiety is not normal.
In just the same way, allergies are often evidence of an over-reaction on the part of the defence systems of the body to undesirable substances to which some reaction is perfectly normal.
Without fever, the body could not deal with invading microbes, viruses, parasites, etc. Without inflammatory processes, repair of damaged tissues could not take place. Without the ability to rapidly purge ourselves of the danger (vomiting, diarrhoea, etc.) poisons could rapidly kill us…and so on.
On a less dramatic scale we can see that a host of stress factors are making demands on our adaptation and repair processes all the time – both emotionally and biochemically – through the toxic exposure to which we are subject, the relative denatured quality of our food, the major emotional stresses of modern life – whether involving economics, family, relationships, employment or simply the hustle and rush of late twentieth century urban existence.
These multiple and complex adaptive demands can ultimately overwhelm
