The Fasting Lifestyle
Fasting has been a part of human life since we have existed. While this may have initially developed as a survival mechanism for times of food scarcity, current research has shown fasting to be a powerful tool to fight the diseases of modern excess. Things like cancer, diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. Basically everything that happens to us when we eat poorly and don’t exercise enough.
The most important benefits of fasting include:
- Healing a broken metabolism and burning body fat
- A poor ability to burn body fat is likely the number one contributing factor to chronic disease and all-cause mortality. When your body becomes poor at regulating energy, a lot of things go wrong.
- Fasting is the quickest way to restore your body’s ability to burn fat and begin reversing this risk.
- Quickly restoring insulin sensitivity
- When the metabolism goes awry, insulin resistance is almost always a factor. When you overfill your body with sugar, it begins to not let any more in.
- This makes your brain think that you’re starving even though you are more than well-fed. Then you get stuck in the cycle of eating yet never feeling truly satiated or energized. Fasting is the fastest way to deplete the excess sugar and restore insulin sensitivity.
- Reducing Inflammation
- Chronic inflammatory conditions such as autoimmunity, skin disorders, digestive issues, and even depression are rampant. These conditions often develop from the gut.
- If you don’t have a healthy gut, chances are you are moving you body towards one of the listed conditions. Fasting allows the digestive system to heal and reset itself by allowing it to rest.
- Keeping cells young by promoting autophagy and upregulating stem cell production
- Sometimes cells get old and they hang around for too long. This prevents the development of new healthy cells.
- Fasting helps take care of this by quickly targeting the old cells and stimulating stem cells to rejuivenate damaged tissue. The result is rapid healing!
- Promoting youthful hormone balance by keeping insulin levels in check
- Insulin is an anti-youth hormone. You simply cannot have elevated insulin and growth hormone at the same time. In fact, the lower your insulin is, the higher your growth hormone tends to be! Fasting lowers insulin quite effectively and consequently this does a lot of amazing things for the hormones that keep you young and feeling energized.
- Reducing the risk of every chronic disease related to the metabolism
- Metabolic diseases are the biggest killer of humans worldwide. Things like heart disease, cancer, dementia, diabetes, and depression can all be related back to having a disrupted metabolism. Fasting may be the most effective and affordable answer for this problem.
- Improving your relationship with food so that it no longer takes control of your day
- Most of us grew up eating 3 meals a day plus snacks. That’s a lot of the time during the day to be consumed by the planning, preparation, and consumption of food! Additionally, many people fall back on food as a drug to cope with boredom. Fasting relieves you of this stimulus and allows you to evaluate your relationship with food.
- Improving mental health and focus
- Chronic inflammation and poor blood sugar control are both implicated in a wide variety of mental ailments from depression to dementia. Fasting improves blood sugar control while promoting the formation of ketones. Many people find that running on ketones as a primary fuel source provides a sense of calm and mental clarity that they have not experienced with any other health strategy.
- Boosting energy levels through mitochondrial biogenesis
- By promoting ketosis and stimulating the growth of new mitochondria, fasting is kind of like its own form of exercise. Doing it regularly keeps your mitochondria healthy and ensures you have plenty of energy for your daily tasks.
- Healing the digestive system
- Digestive issues are a big red flag that can create chronic inflammation. Ultimately, chronic digestive issues can lead to many things that you don’t want. Fasting is a great way to give your digestion a break and quickly heal the gut lining.
- Providing clarity in matters of intuition, spiritual guidance, and decision making
- We have so many distractions affecting us on a daily basis. This interferes with our ability to focus and gain clarity on things that are important to us. This is likely why so many cultures and religions have partaken in fasting for thousands of years to deepen their connections with the source of their inspiration. Fasting clears the mind and provides a unique edge of focus that allows us to gain clarity in important decisions.
Creating a Fasting Schedule That Fits Your Needs
Week 1 & Week 2: Eliminate sugar with a daily 12-14 hour fast
Week 3: Crescendo or cycle fasting with ketogenic refeeds
Week 4: Daily 16-18 hour fast with ketogenic refeeds
Week 5: Add a 24-hour fat fast, once per week
Week 6: Add a 24-hour water fast, once or twice per week
Keith W. Vrbicky, MD
1410 N 13th St
Norfolk NE 68701
Phone: (402) 379-2322
Fax: (402) 379-0888
E-mail: kvrbicky@mwhp.com