Fasting is Our Biological Reset Button: Let Your Body Be the Doctor

Fasting saved my life, and I want to share the benefits of it with the reader.

It’s important to recognize that we all fast to some extent; even going to sleep every night is, in effect, a form of dry fasting. Dry fasting means to be without food and water for an extended period.

Optimizing our sleep/fasting period involves eating well, exercising, practicing good breathwork, engaging in meditative practices, and more. All of these factors contribute to making our sleep and fasting periods more effective and beneficial for our overall health.

Bi-monthly fasting mimicry (FMD) cycles started at middle age extended longevity, lowered visceral fat, reduced cancer incidence and skin lesions, rejuvenated the immune system, and retarded bone mineral density loss. In old mice, FMD cycles promoted hippocampal neurogenesis, lowered IGF-1 levels and PKA activity, elevated NeuroD1, and improved cognitive performance^[1].

Know any magic pharmaceutical pills that can even touch any of the above mentioned benefits without negative side-effects?

Fasting is a natural healing modality that both humanity and the entire animal kingdom have utilized for as far back as we can see in history.

Ask yourself – let’s forget about the fact that Jesus did a dry fast for 40 days in the desert – what often happens when we or other animals get sick? Today, humans often disregard signals such as loss of taste, smell, or gastrointestinal discomfort by resorting to pills, various vitamin C products, or consuming food and drink. In contrast, animals instinctively rest and refrain from eating when they experience similar issues.

This doesn’t mean that we recommend that the individual should fast when sick, as each person is going to be different, but there is enough evidence out there, both anecdotally and empirically, saying that fasting is an effective modality to not only increase cell resistance to pathogenesis and toxicity, but has the ability to reproduce an entirely new immune system^[2].

Water Fasting and Dry Fasting

Dry and or scratchy throat when sick? Water fasting isn’t a bad alternative either, but because water is bio-unavailable^[3] and is a solvent^[4], we not only have to spend internal energy to digest it, but we have to deal with the windfall of issues associated with our minerals being stripped in the process; hence why many suggest electrolytes to be paired with their water fasting. People who eat diets that are more raw and have less salt, are less apt to need to water fast, and can enhance their cellular healing process with much more potent autophagy by dry fasting^[5].

Through anecdotal evidence compiled with some science as cited here, we at Polarity Health primarily see water fasting as more of a means of rapid toxin removal, where dry fasting for short (up to 24 hours) to extended periods (24+ hours) is intended for deep tissue and cellular detox.

Intermittent Fasting (IF)

Many people in the fitness and alternative health – even in conventional medicine – communities recognize the power of an intermittent fasting routine. So much so that we aren’t going to cite any science because it’s all over the internet, and I want a break from Ctrl + C & V; it’s a huge fad. The majority of the benefits seen in extended fasts have shown to affect us in smaller amounts when engaging in an intermittent fast.

Here are some examples of intermittent fasting routines that we recommend:

16/8: Fasting for 16 hours out of the day with an 8 hour eating window, e.g eating at 1PM during lunch at work, and not eating anywhere beyond 9PM in that day. This is one of the most common routines in the IF world that we recommend for beginners.

20/4: Fasting for 20 hours out of the day with a 4 hour eating window, e.g eating at 2PM during lunch at work, and not eating beyond 6PM in that day. We highly recommend this method for the experienced faster who is foundationally set in the way that they’re eating. Applying this to a new diet, or when in a frequent state of changing diet, or without any particular diet can make this challenging due to gut microbe homeostasis and the ability to assimilate food nutrition for optimal digestion.

OMAD: The above mentioned routines are often times a 2MAD where the individual would eat two meals within that eating window, though not always. One meal a day (OMAD) is basically a 24 hour fast where the person fasting would only eat at the one time during the day and to not at any other point besides to drink liquids where necessary. This can also be done as a dry fast for experienced fasters.

137 Protocol: This protocol was invented by Asa Santiago (the guy writing this article) for business professionals to incorporate sporadic high potency autophagy generating dry fasts into a daily work routine while in each month resetting the innate immune system. The individual must wait 7 hours before eating or drinking after waking, and to eat and drink within a 3-4 hour window from that time (everyone will have to adjust this to meet their needs, as digestion per person varies). Going dry is imperative for the 7 hour period, because the body is likely to catabolize fat stores when operating this way to remove toxic fats.

This portion of the protocol is optional, but engaging in a 3-day dry fast, or 5-7 day water fast per month, is highly recommended for cellular immune health and a litany of other crucial processes as mentioned in this article. Keep in mind that when fasting for 3 days with water, taking minerals like potassium, sodium, and magnesium in water prior or during is going to be very helpful, if not necessary. With the dry fasting option, this is only recommended for experienced dry fasters who also have some level of experience with ketosis and a solid understanding of ‘metabolic water’ through catabolism.

Metabolic Water

In short, humans can potentially, based on limited scientific evidence and masses of anecdotes, generate what is called ‘metabolic water‘ through the catabolism of our fat stores. This would be an imperative process when the body breaks down our fat stores when going through something as intense as a dry fast. Unfortunately, human studies are sparse, but through many anecdotal observations and the linked animal research, experienced dry fasters have lauded the power of their free-flowing oddly hydrating saliva that has allowed them to hit extended dry fasting periods of up to 20 days.

Autophagy, NAD, and HGH

These guys are the bread and butter of fasting that all fasters MUST know about.

Autophagy

The little known – and yet absolutely crucial – cellular process known as autophagy is spurred when fasting, whether dry or with water. It is speculated that dry fasting is twice to three times more effective at generating autophagy at the cellular level than that of water fasting due to the fact that it often takes up to 2 hours to fully digest and assimilate. We spend nearly 80% of our bodily energy on digestion and 20% towards healing and repair throughout the day when digesting. What autophagy does is expel cell water of our toxic cells to extend our lives. Examples of what gets removed:

• Toxic proteins that can cause neurodegenerative disease^[6].
• Pathogens within the cell^[7].
• Xenobiotics^[8].

NAD

Life would not exist without nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide.

“Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD(+)) is a central metabolic coenzyme/cosubstrate involved in cellular energy metabolism and energy production. It can readily be reduced by two electron equivalents and forms the NADH form, which is the minority species to NAD(+) under most physiologic conditions. NAD(+) plays an important role in not only oxidation-reduction reactions in cells but also as a signaling molecule.”

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25308486/

It has been shown that NAD/NAD+ and the conversion to NADH directly extends lifespan^[9]. The reader may have guessed that this crucial component to cellular health is actually increased by fasting^[10].

HGH

Human growth hormone does exactly what it sounds like; it increases growth in people of all ages, rather than what is often generally offered to adolescents during growth stages. It is often used among athletes to improve physical performance because of how it affects physical strength^[11].

While a 3-day water fast can cause HGH to go up by 300%, and 7 days by 1,250% with dry fasting speculated to achieve greater results, the individual’s nutrition has shown to factor in significantly^[12].

Known Benefits of Fasting

We’ve mentioned a lot of benefits already, but compiling them all here in an easy to read format may better help the reader to see clearly just how imperative fasting is for our physiological – sometimes spiritual – health:

• Autophagy – cleans and rejuvenates the cells.
• HGH – all that was lost can be regained.
• Enhances both the circadian and ultradian cycles^[12].
• Faster wound healing.
• Shown to stop bacterial infections in mice^[13].
• Live longer.
• Reduce oxidative stress^[14].
• Stalls bone mineral density loss.
• Improves cognition.
• Many anecdotes of a greater attachment to their spiritual selves.

I’m Sold, Just Starve Me

Hold on, there is more context to understand first.

Fasting should be seen as a muscle when in the context of working out. When we let muscles go without exercise for long periods of time, we can then become sore when utilizing them again. Fasting is very similar in that when someone fasts for a long period for the month of, say, May, and then goes on to not fast again until September for an even longer period of fasting than normal, this can end up getting gimped results and or harm the individual. While the science is limited, we’ve seen this occur in various examples here at Gut Goals. We highly recommend that when engaging in fasting, that the individual stay consistent, if not just to fast intermittently.

Where to Start

Begin with some of the IF protocols as mentioned above, and then experiment with utilizing an OMAD routine by eating one meal a day to master being able to go without food for an entire 24 hours. Breaking into extended fasting by hitting 36 hours is the next step, and so forth. Baby steps are important here, and an eventual consideration of applying this method without water is recommended if the individual is eating well.

Why Diet Matters

Being in ketosis prior to any fasting, especially without water, makes the process FAR more fluid and much less stressful on the body. This means that consuming a diet that maintains ketosis for the individual can exponentially enhance a fasting routine because the body doesn’t have to spend extra time burning through glycogen stores. Being fat-adapted is also key here, so to stall hypoglycemic reactions that often occur when stopping carbs and general withdrawals from sugar as a whole. We all know that sugar is a literal drug.

Detach From Food Addiction

The constant need to fill ‘holes/voids’ where we are not feeling alive by eating food is a dangerous prospect to achieving solid health on both a physiological and emotional level. Reinforcing the bodily recruitment of neurotransmitter hormones that we naturally provide ourselves by having a full and life-filled day can help to significantly reduce the need to fill these holes/voids. Here are the four neurotransmitters we often interface with each day:

1. Dopamine: This guy is pretty commonly talked about because of our frequent use of technology today. Dopamine is the reward center of the neurotransmitters, and is far more substantial in benefit when we accomplish things we are actually proud of. An example can be making the bed, keeping the living space organized, completing a workday almost flawlessly, getting a promotion, etc.
   
2. Endorphins: Killing it at the gym, hiking a trail, slaying a dragon, yeah, that’s endorphins. The rush of physical exertion is actually imperative to our health in being able to feel alive. It’s as simple as that, get out and move.
   
3. Oxytocin: This neurotransmitter is a little known crucial component to living a happy and full life, while also supporting the ability to procreate. Oxytocin is produced through connection and interaction on an emotional level.
   
   Get out and LIVE! Go say hi to somebody, shake someone’s hand, give a hug, and generally just share the love to get the best form of oxytocin possible.
   
4. Serotonin: Serotonin is a vastly complex hormone necessary for mental health, and is critical in the gut-brain axis model. Unfortunately, many suffer from some level of gut dysbiosis, and so the 90% of our serotonin that is produced in the gut can be gimped by this problem. So while some people may be better than others when attempting to meditate and get into a ‘zen’ state of mind, those who are dysbiotic may have a much more difficult time. This subject requires its own article, but generally serotonin is considered the hormone of peace and calm. Meditation and breathwork have shown to really help to produce this, besides having a strong microbial community.

Conclusion

Fasting is hard, but baby steps are key to success here. Further understanding the facts behind fasting, and developing a concrete confidence of managing it by having gone through and finished a fast is imperative. Fasting is always at one’s own pace and is highly unique to each individual. Fasting should also be paired with a mineral balanced diet (that we can help with at Polarity Health), and ideally while on a ketogenic diet of some kind (not plant-based due to nutritional problems).

The sciences behind fasting only go so far, with the majority of it stemming from Russian doctors that utilize it for treating numerous diseases like multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, Celiac, etc. The primary physician’s name is Dr. Filonov.

Disclaimers

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