Fasting and Eating for Health (26 page)

Asthma also predictably responds to fasting, and it does so in resistant cases in which even medication cannot adequately control symptoms. Asthma has an inflammatory and possibly an autoimmune component and could even be compared to the diseases mentioned in Chapter 7.

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Many diseases of an "allergic" nature represent an oversensitivity of the immune system. It is always prudent to remove known allergens in the sensitive individual. However, when does anyone consider why this individual is so hypersensitive or allergic? Improving one's health can enable allergies to resolve. It's exciting to see someone eating and enjoying a food that they hadn't been able to eat in years because of food allergies. This happens routinely on the fast; allergies simply go away as the person's health improves.

The hyper-reactivity of the asthmatic's airways may be caused by sensitivity to allergens, and may also be brought on by infections, irritants, exercise, or even emotions. Yet in every case there is an underlying abnormality—an irritability of the airway that leads to inflammation, spasm, and narrowing of the air passages. This excessive irritability decreases and even resolves when the body is allowed to detoxify through fasting.

It is also well established that some medications used to treat asthma, while giving short-term relief, actually worsen the condition in the long run and increase the risk of asthma-related death.1,2 The discontinuance of these medications can improve asthma control. Only through aggressive nutritional management can the individual's overall health improve enough so that less asthma medication is utilized.

The more severe the asthma and the greater the dependency on medication, the longer it takes to achieve a recovery when we apply natural methods.

Establishing a complete recovery for the severely asthmatic patient can be relatively difficult compared to many other diseases, but perseverance pays off.

I have found that a long fast, or sometimes two fasts with impeccable dietary habits in between, is usually essential for the resolution when the patient has been dependent on multiple medications for many years.

The beneficial effects of fasting in asthmatics have been well documented in the Russian medical literature.3,4 One recent study concluded that fasting is the only nonmedical way to improve asthma control. After observing the results obtained from many years of collecting case histories and reviewing other studies, Russian physicians concluded that fasting should be considered the treatment of choice in patients with complicated, serious bronchial asthma.5

They reported that fasting not only decreased the allergic inflammatory process, but also increased resistance and immunity to bacterial infections.

Their clinical trials illustrated that more than 75 percent of patients had greatly improved conditions or never had symptoms of asthma again after fasting.

Fasting and natural diet should be the treatment of choice for all asthmatics.

A rare exception to this would be asthma symptoms caused by a toxic exposure, such as occupational asthma, where all that is needed for recovery is identifying and removing the offending substance. We should not wait until any disease becomes so severe that it is difficult to remedy when a safe and more effective method of restoring normal function, like fasting, can be utilized.

One must recognize that, as with all diseases, many years of drugging takes 135

its toll: the longer the patient waits to utilize this effective natural approach, the more difficult it will be and the longer it will take to bring about a recovery.

Of course there are limitations to what one fast can do. Occasionally, when the fast is trying to address many years of self-abuse, the patient either is not willing to fast long enough to achieve a complete recovery or will require another fast to allow the process of healing to continue. The earlier that corrective therapy is employed, the greater the chance of a lasting recovery.

Fasting and natural diet, though essentially unknown as a therapy, should be the first treatment when someone discovers that he or she has a medical problem. It should not be applied only to the most advanced cases, as is present practice.

Beth was a severe asthmatic and had a history of recurrent hospitalizations before she came under my care. At first we avoided further hospitalization only by keeping her on high doses of inhaled steroids, as well as other medication.

Frequently, we had to add oral steroids in addition to the inhaled steroids when her condition took a turn for the worse. She was never in good control of her asthma even with high doses of medication and always endured wheezing and poor air flow. She awoke nightly to use her breathing machines.

Although she followed a careful diet, we saw no improvement. We talked about fasting, but she was not able to set a definite date to begin a fast because of her work responsibilities and her fear of undertaking a prolonged fast. I encouraged her to speak with some patients who were fasting and to observe firsthand how comfortable they were, and to speak to other patients who had undertaken long fasts to ask about their experiences. She took my advice, and after seeing patients fasting in comfort and talking with them about their experiences, she decided to fast. But it took her an additional two years of suffering with her severe asthma before she finally was able to get the time off from work and to gather the courage to begin.

Slowly, through the first week of the fast, as Beth's breathing improved, we tapered her medication. Within four days of beginning the fast she developed a red, itchy rash all over her arms and legs. This represented the elimination of retained toxins that her body had never effectively been able to remove while she was eating and taking medication, especially because she was habitually on steroids. I assured her that this type of rash is extremely common in patients who have been on steroids in the past, because these medications suppress the body's self-cleansing and detoxification mechanisms, permitting the retention of tissue waste products.

Taking an oatmeal bath a few times daily helped relieve her itching. The rash began to clear, her breathing improved, and by the eighth day of the fast we were able to safely stop all medications. Beth continued her fast for 21 days and for the first time in years was on no medication or inhalers. I was unsure whether or not she still had a touch of asthma left; her peak flow measurements (a measure of expiratory air flow measured by a handheld device that the patient breathes into as forcefully as possible) were still slightly 136

below normal, and I suspected that, in such a severe case, she should undertake another fast six months after the first one to make sure her body had adequately normalized and healed.

Beth checked in with me at a followup visit a month later and informed me she still had a touch of asthmatic symptoms, though not requiring regular medication or steroids as in the past. Five months later she reported that this was the best year of her life, that she was exercising, sleeping well, and could finally live a normal life. With the encouraging results obtained so far, Beth is enthusiastic about getting completely well and excited about her positive experience with fasting. She is already planning her second fast. Often, patients like Beth, who once had a fear of the fast, become enthusiastic about the powerful healing properties of fasting and encourage others with similar problems to utilize this conservative, natural approach.

The Painful Symptoms of Inflammation Can Stop Without
Drugs

Many recurrent and painful conditions besides asthma are the result of localized inflammation. The inflammatory process often causes painful symptoms that are not sufficiently understood by either physicians or lay persons. People are given drugs to cover up the pain of the inflammatory response, or are given anti-inflammatory medications to lessen it. But because the treatments do not remove the cause of the inflammation, they most often give only a temporary reprieve and a chronic condition results. After treatment with medications, it is not uncommon for individuals to experience gradual improvement of one inflammatory reaction, only to find that a new reaction has manifested itself elsewhere in the body.

Too frequently patients suffer from lifelong problems that are merely the response of irritated tissues to noxious stimuli. If the body had been given the chance to remove the noxious irritants, the troublesome chronic condition would never have resulted.

It is accurate to view inflammation as a corrective attempt by the body to restore normalcy to its cells and tissues. The inflammatory process is closely intertwined with the process of repair. Inflammation serves to destroy, dilute, or wall off the injurious agent. It is the reaction of living tissue to local injury. A series of events are set in motion by the body that attempt to heal and repair the damaged or threatened tissues. The inflammatory reaction calls the immune system into action, including entrapment of the irritants by specialized cells that attempt to ingest and neutralize the irritant. Fluid and blood cells accumulate in the area to dilute and destroy the injurious agent. If inflammation is not eventually resolved, and if the initiating causes are not eventually removed, further damage to the tissues may result.

Without inflammation, infections would go unchecked and wounds would never heal. Damage to our tissues and organs would ensue and cancer would be more likely to occur if the body did not diligently attempt to remove toxic substances from its tissues. It is common to think of bacteria or other microbes 137

as the cause of inflammation, but almost all other causes of cell injury also provoke inflammation.

Fasting is an effective way to treat inflammation because it allows the body to remove the noxious stimuli that caused the problem in the first place. Rather than suppress the inflammatory response with steroids in the form of pills or inhalants, as is done in asthmatics, these medications are tapered off just prior to or even during the fast; then the body is able to resolve the inflammatory process while fasting so that it can accomplish the remedial act of removing the noxious causes of the inflammation.

When we view the inflammation as the problem and not the result of the problem, we make an essential error in health care. The, result is that doctors wind up treating symptoms rather than causes, and the patient becomes forever cursed to a lifetime of disease and medical treatments.

Frequently the typical physician searches for an infectious agent that may be causing the painful symptoms and finds none. He then may become frustrated when he cannot find something to treat or kill with drugs, his only weapon. His only recourse is to give pain medication or anti-inflammatory drugs, not knowing what he is treating. This well-meaning physician is treating the inflammatory response, which is not the cause of the illness. He is trying to suppress the efforts of the body to remove poisonous waste. Remember, the inflammatory response itself is trying to protect you. The body does what it must in its attempt to protect your long-term health.

If, instead of taking drugs, a gentle diet of only fresh fruits and raw vegetables is consumed for a few days, and, if needed, a short fast is undertaken, the body would be able to complete the repair process, remove the retained waste or other toxin, and restore its tissues to normal.

Instead, the body is almost never allowed to complete its repair work. The individual never reflects on his or her stressful dietary and lifestyle practices, and the doctor does not consider these as possible culprits. This is why I see patients with a multitude of various inflammatory conditions that have never resolved. In fact, one could list hundreds of various ailments that are difficult to treat by modern medicine, but respond predictably to an approach that emphasizes and respects the power of the body to restore itself to normalcy by removing the impediments to healing.

Fasting to Lose Weight Without Changing Your Diet Is Pointless
Since about 70 percent of our population is overweight, why isn't an entire chapter of this book devoted to obesity? Many books about fasting focus predominately on weight loss. The answer is that while most of the patients whom I fast are indeed overweight, they usually have some underlying medical condition in addition to being overweight that brought them to the fast. They fast and they do lose weight, but most of them follow my dietary recommendations first, before the fast, often losing 50 pounds or More as a result of their new style of eating before the fast even begins. I usually have 138

my patients take off the "easy-to-lose" weight first, and then have them fast, to help them achieve a really-healthy and lean body.

If a person is unable or unwilling to make permanent changes in the diet and to follow a healthy eating plan before and after the fast, there really is no point in fasting. If people are concerned with losing weight, they must make permanent lifestyle and diet changes that they are willing to live with for the rest of their lives.

Diets don't work, because no matter how much weight you lose on a diet, when you go off it the weight will come back again. Likewise, if individuals fast and then go back to their former ways of eating, they will eventually regain all the weight and the benefits of the fast will be wasted. Therefore, I do not generally encourage my overweight patients to fast. It is more important for them to adopt a healthy diet and lifestyle to maintain their health and prevent disease. A slim, healthy body will then occur naturally as a consequence of their new habits, which include better food and, of course, regular exercise.

Later, after losing most of the excess weight, if someone wants to fast to drop the last 20 to 40 pounds that are so difficult to lose, I encourage it, because the person has already shown his or her ability to stay with a healthy diet, and I know the results of the fast will further encourage the person never to go back to the former way of eating. If the individual stays on a natural food, vegetarian diet after the fast, he or she will not regain weight. In fact, those who experience the rejuvenating effects of the fast look slimmer and feel younger and healthier than they have since they were kids.