Easy fasting: Can fasting be curative?
Although now increasingly talk about the meaninglessness of strict diets and that the best food is varied and balanced, the idea of the benefits of full starvation is still alive, and that in Silicon Valley (hello "biohacking"), in Russia. It is promoted as a means of losing weight, a way to conduct a "detox" and get rid of "slags" and even as a cure for a variety of diseases, including cancer. We figure out where the “fashion” for starvation came from, whether it can be curative and can cause harm.
Who thought it up
Historically, the rejection of food has often been associated with religion - Muslims have Ramadan, in Judaism there is Yom Kippur, and many are familiar with the Christian fast. Fasting was prescribed by doctors in ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt. True, antiquity does not say anything about efficiency - but in our time fasting can be attributed, if not to alternative medicine, then at most to auxiliary methods of therapy. In the 20th century, scientists began to study the effects of hunger and discovered its possible benefits in hypertension, obesity, asthma, pancreatitis, and other conditions. In the Soviet Union, psychiatrist Yuri Nikolaev was the main distributor of therapeutic starvation ideas - he concluded that fasting leads to positive results in the treatment of schizophrenia.
Later, Nikolaev began using fasting to cure other ailments, such as obesity. In 1973, he published the book “Starvation for Health”, the circulation of which was instantly sold out, and in 1981 he opened the first department of unloading and dietary therapy at Moscow Hospital No. 68. Later, this therapy was used in sanatoriums, and several centers appeared people could take a course of therapeutic fasting.
How is fasting
Courses of therapy, including refusal of food, on average last ten to twenty days, and in some centers - up to a month. At this time, patients are under strict medical supervision. In Russian sanatoriums and medical starvation centers, you must first undergo a medical examination - first of all, in order to identify possible contraindications, such as kidney problems, diabetes mellitus, weight deficit, malignant tumors. People with such problems, starvation is completely contraindicated: the risk to health and life is too high.
With hidden, not yet diagnosed diseases, such as during the initial stages of diabetes or heart failure, fasting can be fatal, so a thorough examination is really necessary. It should be understood that now there is no convincing evidence that starvation can prevent the development of cancer or cure any disease - and no official therapeutic guidelines describe such a method of "treatment." Sanatoriums and centers where fasting is held, by and large, have come up with a profitable business for themselves - there are still a lot of people who want to find a panacea, and it’s safer under the supervision of a doctor.
What happens to the body during hunger
On the first day after the last meal, people feel a strong feeling of hunger. At this time, the body spends carbohydrate reserves and tries to save energy until something else is eaten: all activity decreases, including pressure and heart rate. Stocks of carbohydrates end in about one or two days, and the body enters the next stage of hunger - it can last for several weeks. At this time, fat is used as an energy source. Adipose tissue is decomposed to fatty acids, and during their decomposition, in turn, ketone bodies are formed - toxic chemical compounds, one of which is, for example, acetone.
An excess of ketone bodies in the blood leads to an increase in its acidity, but if the body works normally, then the blood pH is normalized - for this, acetone is constantly removed from the body through the skin and exhaled air, and a characteristic odor is felt. In addition, with increased breakdown of adipose tissue, the level of cortisol rises - a hormone that regulates blood glucose levels, participates in the development of a reaction to stress and reduces the activity of inflammatory processes. Also during hunger, the level of another anti-inflammatory protein, ghrelin, rises. That is why relief from inflammatory diseases can occur - for example, infections and asthma.
Consequences of fasting
Many supporters of medical fasting believe that during the course the body gets rid of the mythical "slags" that pollute the body. Slag is a pseudoscientific term by which supporters of alternative medicine define harmful substances. In fact, the liver, intestines and kidneys are engaged in detoxification in the body - they remove both foreign compounds and toxic products of alcohol breakdown or the activity of bacteria, and starvation does not affect this process. Nevertheless, studies show that short-term fasting can be beneficial - it leads to an improvement in insulin sensitivity. This means that improved control of blood glucose levels and its utilization; in addition, the researchers noted a decrease in blood pressure.
A separate story - "therapeutic" fasting for the purpose of losing weight. It is easy to guess that the failure of food, especially for a few days or a couple of weeks, will inevitably lead to weight loss. However, when fasting is over, the body will remain for some time in the "energy conservation mode" - that is, to store, including in the form of fat, excess food, while trying to spend less. Therefore, in a hospital, the amount and composition of food after a fasting course is strictly controlled. It is important to understand that if you go through a course of fasting and lose weight, but after that you will return to your normal lifestyle and diet - kilograms will return. A balanced diet and an active lifestyle will have a better effect on health - and, in addition to normalizing weight, they will provide the body with essential substances.
Why is everyone crazy about fasting?
On the Internet, references to the so-called interval starvation, or "fasting" (intermittent fasting), are increasingly emerging, a less radical version of the above. It usually means giving up on food for sixteen hours (for example, between lunch of one day and breakfast of the next), for a day (from breakfast to breakfast) or even for two days (in the latter case, it is recommended to get a small amount of calories during this time) . It is assumed that such a short refusal of food serves as a “jolt” for the body, helps to improve the regulation of glucose levels or trigger the anti-inflammatory process. True, in Silicon Valley, interval starvation has already taken a new level: the rejection of food lasts three, four or even seven days, and its goal is to increase productivity and “refresh” the brain.
This is part of the trend of biohacking, that is, attempts to change the biology of the body so as to live as long as possible and productively - in particular, biohackers claim that ketone bodies are the best fuel for the brain. True, experts have doubts about the feasibility of both biohacking in general, and fasting in particular - moreover, talk of fasting can mask the rejection of food associated with eating disorders. Michael Grothaus, who tried interval fasting, says that the nutritionist strongly advised him not to starve: in addition to drastically depriving the body of energy, this could also affect the hormonal background, and the psychological interaction with food. When he did go through several cycles of a two-day fast, he noted that productivity did not improve - it is possible that the preparations that they take, including those that are prohibited, help the biohackers to do this.
To risk or not
Fasting is accompanied by unpleasant sensations: discomfort in the stomach, irritability and anxiety, a feeling of tiredness, not to mention the obvious feeling of hunger. If you abuse this practice, it can lead to a deficiency of vitamins and minerals, which, in turn, will adversely affect health. When the body begins to use the reserves of fat as the main resource and enters the state of ketoacidosis, there is a smell of acetone - and this stage can also be accompanied by dizziness, nausea or vomiting. Prolonged refusal to eat weakens the immune system - and this can be ignored for a while if the anti-inflammatory effect of fasting works.
Under the supervision of specialists, if you carefully follow their recommendations, the course of starvation will not be harmful - but it is important to understand that it will not be of much use. Fasting is not a panacea - it can only relieve some of the symptoms without solving the main problem; trying to lose weight is also a dubious exercise. The main thing to remember: the course of fasting at home is self-medication, dangerous to health, and sometimes to life.
Photo:beckystarsmore - stock.adobe.com, Jekaterina - stock.adobe.com, Wilson. P - stock.adobe.com
