Can fasting be curative?

Historically, refusal to eat was often associated with religion - for Muslims it is Ramadan, in Judaism there is Yom Kippur, and many are familiar with Christian fasting. Fasting was prescribed by doctors in ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt. True, antiquity does not say anything about effectiveness - and in our time, fasting can be attributed, if not to alternative medicine, then at most to auxiliary methods of therapy.

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Therapies, including refusal to eat, last ten to twenty days on average, and in some centers, up to a month. During this time, patients are under the strict supervision of doctors. In centers of medical fasting, you must first undergo a medical examination - first of all, in order to identify possible contraindications, for example, kidney problems, diabetes mellitus, weight deficiency, and malignant tumors. Fasting is completely contraindicated for people with such problems: the risk to health and life is too high.

With hidden, not yet diagnosed diseases, for example, during the initial stages of diabetes mellitus or heart failure, fasting can be fatal, so a thorough examination is really necessary. It must be understood that there is currently no convincing evidence that fasting 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 carried out, by and large, have come up with a profitable business - after all, there are still many who want to find a panacea, and it is safer to do it under the supervision of a doctor.

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 conserve energy until something else is eaten: all activity decreases, including pressure and heart rate. Carbohydrate stores run out in about one to two days, and the body enters the next stage of hunger - it can last for several weeks. During this time, fat is used as an energy source. Adipose tissue is broken down to fatty acids, and when they break down, in turn, ketone bodies are formed - poisonous chemical compounds, one of which is, for example, acetone.

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An excess of ketone bodies in the blood leads to an increase in its acidity, but if the body is working 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, a hormone that regulates blood glucose levels , participates in the development of the stress response and reduces the activity of inflammatory processes , increases . Also, during hunger, levels of another anti-inflammatory protein, ghrelin, increase. This is why inflammatory conditions such as infections and asthma can be relieved.

Many supporters of therapeutic fasting believe that during the course the body gets rid of the mythical " toxins " that pollute the body. Slag is a pseudoscientific term that alternative medicine advocates use to define harmful substances. In fact, the liver, intestines and kidneys are engaged in "detox" in the body - they remove both foreign compounds and toxic products of the breakdown of alcohol or the vital activity of bacteria, and fasting does not affect this process. However, research shows that short-term fasting can be beneficial - it leads to improved insulin sensitivity. This means better blood glucose control and utilization; in addition, the researchers noted a decrease in blood pressure.

A separate story is "curative" fasting for the purpose of losing weight. It's easy to guess that avoiding food, especially for a few days or a couple of weeks, will inevitably lead to weight loss. Nevertheless, when fasting is over, the body will remain in the “energy conservation mode” for some time - that is, store excess food, including in the form of fat, while trying to spend less.

Therefore, in a hospital setting, 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 return to your usual lifestyle and diet, the kilograms will return. A balanced diet and an active lifestyle will have a better effect on health - and, in addition to normalizing weight, will provide the body with the necessary substances.

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On the Internet, references to the so-called intermittent fasting, a less radical version of the one described above, are increasingly emerging. Usually it means giving up 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 still recommended to get a small amount of calories during this time) ...

It is assumed that such a short-term refusal to eat serves as a "shake-up" for the body, helps to improve the regulation of glucose levels or to trigger an anti-inflammatory process. True, in Silicon Valley, intermittent fasting has already been taken to a new level: refusal to eat lasts three, four and even seven days, and its goal is to increase productivity and "refresh" the brain.

Fasting is accompanied by unpleasant sensations: abdominal discomfort, irritability and anxiety, a feeling of fatigue, not to mention the obvious feeling of hunger. If abused, this practice can lead to vitamin and mineral deficiencies, which in turn can be detrimental to health.

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When the body starts using fat stores as its primary resource and enters a state of ketoacidosis, the smell of acetone arises - and this stage can also be accompanied by dizziness, nausea, or vomiting. Prolonged refusal to eat weakens the immune system - and this can be overlooked for a while if the anti-inflammatory effect of fasting is triggered.

Under the supervision of specialists, if you carefully follow their recommendations, a fasting course will not do any harm - but it is important to understand that there will not be much benefit from it either. Fasting is not a panacea - it can only alleviate some of the symptoms without solving the underlying problem; trying to lose weight with it is also dubious. The main thing to remember: a course of fasting at home is self-medication, dangerous to health, and sometimes to life.

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