Therapeutic fasting

The difference in the methods of fasting by type of fasting :

• complete starvation - abstinence from eating with unlimited water. More often called "water" starvation. It is considered advisable to achieve a " ketoacidotic crisis ", which in most patients with complete ("wet") starvation is observed on the 5-7th day;
• absolute fasting - abstinence from the intake of both food and water. Also called “dry” fasting. Usually, short, 1-2-day fasting of this kind is used, because longer dry fasting leads to dehydration . Loss of water, causing a decrease in body weight by 10-20%, is life-threatening; deprivation of water of an initially healthy person leads to death after 7-10 days, and in a hot dry atmosphere - after 3-5 days ^[4] . Distinguish:
  • partial “dry” therapeutic fasting - baths , souls , douches are prescribed, supposedly allowing better “to slag ” the skin;
  • complete “dry” therapeutic fasting - complete lack of contact with water;
• combined fasting - the simultaneous use of "dry" and "water" options. During the first 1-3 days (according to individual tolerance), patients are encouraged to refrain from eating food and water; starting from 2-4 days, water intake is resumed. This sequence allows you to achieve a more rapid onset of "ketoacidotic crisis", which reduces the treatment time for patients.

According to the timing of "water" food abstinence are divided into:

• small - 1-2 days;
• medium - from 3 to 7 days;
• long - from 8 to 40 days.

The following methods are available for a combination of the duration of the unloading and recovery periods :

• fractional therapeutic fasting. This technique usually involves three repetitions, following one after one cycles (fractions) of treatment with hunger. The average duration of the unloading period (therapeutic fasting) in this case is 14 days, restorative nutrition - 34 days. The duration of the interval between individual cycles of RDT (unloading and dietary therapy), including the period of restorative nutrition, is 62 days. The total duration of treatment is six months;
• step-by-step therapeutic fasting provides for the duration of the unloading period until the first manifestations of acidotic crisis (usually on the 5-7th day of fasting). This is followed by a recovery period equal in duration to half the unloading period (1st stage), after which fasting is again prescribed to the initial manifestations of an acidotic crisis, and then again restorative nutrition equal to half the unloading period (2nd stage), and t D. Only 3-4 steps.

During therapeutic fasting, various additional methods of “treatment” can be used (mainly naturopathic): homeopathy , hirudotherapy , balneotherapy, acupuncture, the method of voluntary breath-holding, hypoxia , etc.

Diseases in which starvation must be carried out under the supervision of a specialist / doctor:

• severe body mass deficiency ( body mass index less than 18.5-20). With a body mass index of less than 15 - starvation is unacceptable! ;
• malignant tumors ;
• active tuberculosis of the lungs and other organs;
• bronchiectatic disease ;
• circulatory system diseases;
• type I diabetes mellitus ;
• thyrotoxicosis ;
• cardiac arrhythmia or conduction of any origin;
• condition after a major focal myocardial infarction ;
• heart failure II B - III degree;
• chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis ;
• renal failure of any origin;
• thrombophlebitis .

Even limiting the caloric value of food ( unloading and dietary therapy ) should be carried out in specialized departments of the hospital, in medical institutions of the sanatorium type, and only in rare cases is it possible to conduct a course of treatment on an outpatient basis . However, the question of its use should be decided by a doctor with the appropriate qualifications. In the “Popular Medical Encyclopedia” edited by Academician B.V. Petrovsky , it is noted that treatment with hunger should be especially wary ^[5] , and the article “Therapeutic nutrition” of the same encyclopedia contains the following information about self-treatment with hunger:

It is possible to sharply reduce the amount of food taken only in stationary conditions in exceptional cases and in certain medical institutions under the supervision of specialist doctors with experience in such treatment. This method cannot be recommended for widespread use for therapeutic purposes, and even more so in the form of self-medication. Complete fasting, especially multi-day fasting, is extremely dangerous. Cases of death of people using this method are described. The causes of death were manifestations of secretive diabetes mellitus, sudden cardiac arrest, the inability of the body to switch to assimilation of food after starvation. In addition, the method can cause serious damage to health and cause significant, sometimes irreversible disorders in the liver, brain, etc. Fasting tolerance is individual, not every organism can be subjected to this serious test. Self-medication with hunger should be considered as one of the most harmful types of perversion of nutrition, which has nothing to do with therapeutic nutrition.

- “Popular Medical Encyclopedia”, Tashkent, 1993

• The first category nutritionist and author of more than a hundred works on dietetics Rudolf Ilyich Vorobyov in his book “Nutrition: Myths and Reality” indicates that therapeutic fasting and RDT are phenomena of the same order, which are extremes ^[6] :

And even more so, for many days fasting is not indifferent to the body, even if we call it therapeutic or fasting-diet therapy (RDT). It is possible that with a number of diseases this method helps some patients; they use, say, insulin shock for schizophrenia or cancer, but in exceptional cases, for strict medical reasons and taking into account contraindications. However, insulin shock is not a mass treatment of diseases. The fasting method as a therapeutic agent became widely known thanks to its propaganda by people who are well able to spread their ideas.

- R.I. Vorobyov “Nutrition: Myths and Reality”, Moscow, 1997

• “I generally use it (therapeutic fasting) in exceptional cases, since it causes undesirable stresses, a feeling of constant discomfort, and even painful phenomena ^[7] .”
• With a number of diseases and pathological conditions, a complete refusal of food leads to significant harm to health and can even lead to death . So, for example, in diabetes mellitus with a complete refusal of food within 24-48 hours, the patient may fall into a hypoglycemic coma, which is a life-threatening condition and can lead to death.
• According to modern studies on metabolism, fasting for 1-2 days does not affect the structure of the intestinal epithelium. Further fasting leads to a significant decrease in the activity of digestive enzymes and the development of atrophic changes in the mucous membrane of the small intestine. ^[eight]
• Starvation and malnutrition can suppress immune function and increase susceptibility to a variety of pathogenic agents. ^[9]
• Malnutrition can cause various diseases, such as diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). ^[ten]

The cleansing with the help of RDT and nutritionist R. Minvaleev R. S. in his book Weight Correction are subjected to thorough criticism. The theory and practice of healthy eating, ironically calling starvation "health cretinism." He emphasizes that most of the myths about starvation are caused by elementary ignorance, and suggests checking his claims by looking through any physiology textbook.

• With a prolonged absence of glucose into the blood, the body begins to produce it itself from the resources accumulated in the body. According to the RDT theory, during fasting, the body covers its vital needs due to the breakdown of fat, in which glycerin containing glucose is formed. However, Minvaleev points out that glycerol accounts for only a small fraction of the breakdown products of fat. The body synthesizes the main part of glucose from amino acids that are part of proteins and intended for the building needs of the body. That is, starving people burn not so much fat as muscle mass and connective tissue, which is fraught with a number of serious and difficult consequences. In addition, if you fast for longer than a day, nerve cells, for which glucose is the main fuel, die irrevocably.
• Ketoacidosis, which the starving people take as the beginning of the cleansing process, is in fact solely the result of a starvation shock. In other words, all that “dirt” that supposedly is removed from the body during fasting then forms. Minvaleev especially ironically responds to the allegations that hungry supposedly leaves the gallbladder stones. Since this contradicts the laws of physiology, Minvaleev set up an experiment (he insisted on a mixture of bile, gastric juice, lemon juice and olive oil), which showed that “stones” of soft consistency form in the gall bladder during hunger. Why? Because in order for decay products to be completely excreted from the gallbladder, fat must enter the body, which is not observed with RDT and other low-fat diets.
• Losing weight with the help of RTT should remember that in place of the left mass (1/3 of which are muscles) it is much easier to come in adipose tissue. This is due to the fact that the body is trying to stock up on subcutaneous fat in case of subsequent hunger. In addition, the depletion of muscle and connective tissue deprives fatty tissue of a kind of “corset”, and it begins to grow randomly, in clusters, as a result of which cellulite is formed.

• Herbert Shelton Fasting for Health. -M .: FAIR PRESS, 2000 .-- 312 p.
• Nikolaev Yu.S. , Nilov E.I. Fasting for health. - M .: Soviet Russia, 1973. - 192 p.
• Sharafetdinov Kh. Kh. Fasting Healing // Big Russian Encyclopedia . - 2007.- T. 7 . - S. 352-353 .