Fasting and Semi-Fasting
I sort of inadvertently discovered that fasting or semi-fasting helps my condition when I was homeless and somewhat often just didn't have access to adequate amounts of food late in the month. I use the term semi-fasting to mean cutting calories substantially -- by about 80 percent -- without actually going without food entirely.
When I was in extremely poor health, fasting -- going without food at all -- was more than I could reasonably manage, so I always tried to eat something every day, even if it wasn't much. I've done some looking around and cutting calories by about 80 percent apparently has a similar effect on the body as fasting in terms of convincing the body you are "starving" and causing metabolic changes.
There doesn't seem to be a lot of hard science on how and why fasting helps but there seems to be substantial anecdotal evidence that many people with a variety of health issues find fasting beneficial. This has been true for me as well.
My oldest son's hypothesis is that it frees up immune cells to be sent to deal with other tasks. That makes perfect sense to me, so I have embraced that idea. About 75 to 80 percent of the immune cells in your body are found in the gut, so I think when you give your gut a break from eating, your body sends those cells elsewhere to deal with less urgent tasks and it helps your body deal with a backlog of issues.
When I was in extremely poor health, fasting -- going without food at all -- was more than I could reasonably manage, so I always tried to eat something every day, even if it wasn't much. I've done some looking around and cutting calories by about 80 percent apparently has a similar effect on the body as fasting in terms of convincing the body you are "starving" and causing metabolic changes.
There doesn't seem to be a lot of hard science on how and why fasting helps but there seems to be substantial anecdotal evidence that many people with a variety of health issues find fasting beneficial. This has been true for me as well.
My oldest son's hypothesis is that it frees up immune cells to be sent to deal with other tasks. That makes perfect sense to me, so I have embraced that idea. About 75 to 80 percent of the immune cells in your body are found in the gut, so I think when you give your gut a break from eating, your body sends those cells elsewhere to deal with less urgent tasks and it helps your body deal with a backlog of issues.
