The Health Benefits of Fasting

What are the Health Benefits of Fasting?

Jordan Palmer
BIOL 100 Summer 2018
June 18, 2018

Fasting has been known for the numerous spiritual benefits that can be felt in your body, soul, and mind. Fasting has long been apart of many cultures around the world for centuries. However, in recent times we've become a society that focuses on faster production, efficient use of time and resources only to cram on more. This has led to many neglecting the effort and time to focus on our body’s and what they need. In this paper I will research the health benefits that are associated with fasting and how it can help us live a healthy life.

Once the glycogen your body has stored in the liver is used up, your body begins to move into ketosis, which is when your body produces ketone (Buhner 2003). Ketosis is “the metabolic state whereby the body shifts to ketone bodies as the primary fuel substrate, particularly for the heart, brain and skeletal muscles (Fukao et al 2004)“. This traditionally was the way your body adapted to periods of starvation. As we think of this as a historical thing here in the first world, it's important to remember many people still go through this not by choice in poor third world countries. This is also relevant for our society, especially my generation as recently you can see the trend or fad of the Keto diet taking over social medias and blogs. While this does happen naturally I believe the benefits received during ketosis from fasting are different when it’s forced into this mode because of dieting. Fasting is something done intermittently and even though it’s beneficial to much of any good thing can become bad. When done appropriately this can be extremely beneficial for your body to change routine and undergo this. According to a write up on a clinical trial that was done on 174 subjects with hypertension, two of the main benefits are lowering blood pressure and normalizing cardiovascular function (Buhner 2003). During this trial subjects were given a diet regime of strictly fruits and vegetables for two to three days and then followed up with a 10 - 11 day water only fast (Buhner 2003). According to the results, 100% of the participants on hypertension medication prior to the fast no longer needed it after and 90% saw levels of around 140/90 post fast (Buhner 2003). While I do not know the legitimacy of the trail conducted the results are staggering. Other notable effects, though im unaware of the source of trials or studies listed were; cardiovascular disease, congestive heart failure, obesity, epilepsy, coronary artery disease, and strokes (Buhner 2003, Mattson et al 2005). From a mental health perspective fasting can also have many benefits that would be great for everyone in society. Fasting can alleviate symptoms of depression, can also boost alertness being known to have similar effects on the body as regular exercise (Mattson et al 2005). It is recommended for people with anorexia, bulimia, nursing mothers, or people with severe anemia (Buhner 2003). While these were some results of studies done on humans, many more have been done on rodents, that while not directly correlated to humans can possibly hint at other potential benefits or negative impacts.

While there are findings of many benefits, I have noticed there hasn't been to many studies from trusted western institutions and should be studied more in a trusted setting for better data on the effects. While I personally don’t rely on solely western medicine to look for healing for my body mind and soul, many do. These people would greatly benefit from this form of healing but must overcome the trust issue. We live in a world where people look to take something to fix something first, rather than looking to eliminate a potential cause.

Works Cited
Mattson, M, and R Wan. “Beneficial Effects of Intermittent Fasting and Caloric Restriction on the Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Systems.” The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, vol. 16, no. 3, 2005, pp. 129–137., doi:10.1016/j.jnutbio.2004.12.007.
Carlson, Anton J., and Frederick Hoelzel. “Apparent Prolongation of the Life Span of Rats by Intermittent Fasting.” The Journal of Nutrition, vol. 31, no. 3, Jan. 1946, pp. 363–375., doi:10.1093/jn/31.3.363.
Fukao, T., Lopaschuk, G.D. & Mitchell, G.A. (2004). Pathways & control of ketone body metabolism: On the fringe of lipid biochemistry. Prostaglandins Leukot Essent Fatty Acids. Vol. 70(3):243-251.
Mike Kuhn. “What Is Ketosis?” Rebel Health Tribe, 28 Nov. 2017, rebelhealthtribe.com/ketosis/.
“The Health Benefits of Water Fasting by Stephen Harrod Buhner.” Stephen Harrod Buhner, www.gaianstudies.org/articles4.htm.

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