Introduction

Our modern lifestyle, characterised by three large meals plus snacks daily and increasingly sedentary behaviour, stands in stark contrast to our ancestors’ eating patterns. This shift in dietary habits has contributed significantly to an unprecedented rise in lifestyle diseases over the past four decades. While it may be challenging to accept, we often play a role in our own health challenges through our dietary and lifestyle choices—though this isn’t entirely our fault. The impact of inherited and environmental toxicity on our bodies is rarely discussed in mainstream health education.

Contemporary health practices often focus on treating symptoms rather than addressing root causes, typically through prescription medications without emphasis on lifestyle modifications. This approach can leave individuals feeling powerless over their own health journey. There’s a growing need to understand the fundamental causes of disease and explore natural healing methods that reduce our dependence on pharmaceutical interventions, while acknowledging the vital role of medical care in emergencies.

The Scientific Basis for Fasting

According to a comprehensive review published in The New England Journal of Medicine, which examined over 1,500 peer-reviewed articles, intermittent fasting demonstrates remarkable benefits for health, ageing, and disease prevention. The research conclusively shows that intermittent fasting improves both cognitive and physical performance, enhances general health, and can slow or reverse various disease processes.

The review identified fasting as a legitimate treatment option for numerous conditions, including:

• Cardiovascular disease
• Cancer
• Alzheimer’s and dementia
• Obesity and diabetes
• Asthma
• Multiple sclerosis
• Arthritis
• Post-surgical recovery

Understanding Fasting

Fasting involves alternating between periods of abstaining from food and designated eating windows. This practice aligns with human evolution, as our bodies have developed to function effectively with intermittent food intake.

Physiological Benefits of Fasting

Research demonstrates that intermittent fasting:

• Reduces free-radical production
• Increases energy levels
• Lowers oxidative stress
• Promotes fat metabolism
• Resets gut microbiome
• Triggers autophagy (cellular cleaning)
• Improves glucose regulation
• Enhances stress resistance
• Resets dopamine receptors
• Stimulates stem cell production
• Suppresses inflammation

Inflammation and Disease

Inflammation serves as a root cause for numerous health conditions, including:

• Arthritis and musculoskeletal pain
• Cardiovascular disease
• Diabetes
• Hypertension
• Stroke
• Asthma
• Eczema
• Autoimmune conditions (e.g., Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus)
• Inflammatory bowel diseases
• Neurodegenerative conditions (Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s)

Fasting Protocols and Their Benefits

Different fasting durations trigger distinct biological responses, each offering unique benefits for mind-body health:

15-Hour Fast: Cell Regeneration

• Stabilises blood glucose levels
• Initiates ketosis (fat-burning)
• Enhances growth hormone production, stimulating cellular regeneration
• Increases natural testosterone production, improving energy levels

17-Hour Fast: Autophagy

• Activates cellular autophagy (self-cleaning)
• Particularly beneficial for pre-existing conditions
• Strengthens immune response against pathogens
• Enhances cellular repair mechanisms

24-Hour Fast: Gut Repair

• Regenerates intestinal stem cells
• Repairs gut mucosal lining
• Beneficial for:
  • Leaky gut syndrome
  • Post-antibiotic recovery
  • Recovery from long-term hormonal contraception use
  • Restoration of gut microbiome after processed food consumption

36-Hour Fast: Enhanced Fat Burning

• Deepens ketosis
• Particularly effective for weight loss
• Helpful for metabolic resistance

48-Hour Fast: Dopamine Reset

• Regenerates dopamine receptors
• Creates new neural pathways
• Beneficial for:
  • Mood regulation
  • Depression and anxiety management
  • Overall emotional wellbeing

72-Hour Fast: Immune System Reset

• Comprehensive immune system regeneration
• Significant stem cell production
• Particularly beneficial for:
  • Cancer recovery
  • Chronic injury healing
  • Musculoskeletal conditions

Extended Fasts (7-40 Days)

Extended fasts should only be undertaken with proper medical supervision and experience with shorter fasting protocols. These longer fasts can offer profound healing benefits and may help address chronic conditions. When you get into the longer fasts, this can radically transform your life. People have overcome, reversed and cured many common but chronic lifestyle diseases as well as come off medication completely. These longer fasts also open the door to a deeper state of meditation and strengthen your spiritual connection. Longer water fasts are incredible for those with a terminal illness or for those who have had experience in fasting for spiritual reasons and wish to dive deeper.

Bonus – Dry Fasting

Dry fasting eliminates food and water from your diet for a set period. It means you can’t have food or water or even come into contact with water for the duration of your dry fast. Dry fasting allows your immune system to have a complete reset. Without the stress of digestion, your immune system only has to focus on taking care of healing parts of your body that need it. Dry fasting is a more advanced fasting method that only people who have previous experience with water fasts should attempt. In order to carry out a dry fast, you must be fully hydrated at a cellular level before you start dry fasting so you don’t become dehydrated during the dry fast. If you feel ready to embark on dry fasting for deeper healing, I’d like to direct you to the work of Yannick at the Dry Fasting Club. He has been dry fasting for 15 years and has a plethora of information, science and insights about dry fasting. He also has a channel Dry Fasting Club on Odysee that you might like to check out.

Should I Fast?

If you have any of the following symptoms, this means the cells are deprived and they will start to degenerate over time. You would definitely benefit from fasting!

• Acne/spots
• Arthritis/joint pain
• Asthma
• Anxiety
• Alzheimers
• Cancer
• Chronic illness
• Cold/flu
• Depression
• Digestive issues
• Eczema/dry skin
• Fever
• Frequent headaches/migraines
• Heart issues
• Endometriosis/Fibroids/PSOC
• High blood pressure
• Overweight/underweight 
• Varicose veins

Should I fast if I’m underweight?

Many people think that if you’re underweight, you should eat more food and not fast when this isn’t always the case. If you are underweight, you don’t need to eat more food, you need a better capacity to digest and assimilate your food. Food and nutrition are not the same thing. You’re not nourished to the amount of food you’ve ingested, but in proportion to how much you digest and assimilate your food.

If you’re underweight, you need a properly functioning detoxified system to be able to digest and absorb the food you eat. When this happens, you will be able to start gaining weight. As fasting results in increasing the nutrition absorption power of an individual, it enables underweight people to gain weight where everything else may fail. It’s natural to lose weight during a fast, but you will regain it and be able to retain it after the fast is broken.

The period of rest to the digestive system provided by the fast, results in better digestion, better nutrient absorption and more economical use of food. After a fast, your tissues are more receptive to food elements and readily assimilate and utilise vitamins and minerals, even in individuals who failed to do so before.

If you’re underweight, you can still fast. But if you’re severely underweight, to the point of being skin and bones, then I wouldn’t recommend fasting as you do need body fat/muscle to safely fast.

Who Shouldn’t Fast?

If you’re trying to get pregnant, you are pregnant or you’re breastfeeding

• Focus on eating foods that will improve your microbiome such as fruits and vegetables
• A breastfeeding mother should not fast for more than 17 hours as your baby takes your nutrients so you want to restore them through healthy whole foods

People suffering from adrenal fatigue or you’re over fatigued

• You can fast, but it’s best to be slow and methodical when it comes to fasting
• Lower stress levels by meditating, exercising and practising gratitude
• Get into bed before 10pm and get enough sleep
• Stop eating processed sugar
• Start to remove heavy metals from your system. Read my article Detoxing Heavy Metals’ for more information
• Slowly work your way up to 13 hours of fasting and watch your energy levels. Only start to increase your fasting window when you feel you have enough energy to do so

If you’ve been fasting too much

• If you start experiencing hair loss, weight gain or chronic pain, stop fasting for a couple of weeks and don’t exceed 13 hours of fasting
• After a couple of weeks, begin your fasting routine again and you should see the results you want again

If you’ve experienced an eating disorder

Fasting could trigger an old eating disorder so it’s important to listen to your body, and be mindful of what allows you to feel well both physically and emotionally. If limiting your eating window doesn’t support this, it’s not the right path for you

Is fasting for women different from men?

Female hormonal cycles require specific considerations for fasting:

For Menstruating Women:

• Days 1-10: Any fasting duration is suitable
• Days 11-15: Limit fasts to 15 hours to manage detox symptoms
• Days 16-19: Any fasting duration is suitable
• Days 20-menstruation: Maximum 13-hour fasts to support progesterone production

For Post-Menopausal Women

• Greater flexibility with fasting durations
• Maintain one day weekly with 13-hour maximum fast
• Focus on hormone-supporting foods (citrus, tropical fruits, squash, flax seeds, sesame seeds)

What Water is Best?

Standard bottled and tap water have either been stripped of its nutrients or treated with 300–600x the amount of chlorine any living being can effectively process. Or it has no silica which every single cell in the body needs. Not all water is equal! According to Dr. Dhiren Gala’s book “World Best Medicine: Water”, it’s best to drink reverse osmosis, distilled with added minerals, or install a water filter to keep hydrated. It’s recommended to drink at least 3L of water a day when on a water fast. When I water fast, I drink 250ml of water every half an hour which tends to take me up to about 6L of water a day.

Differences Between Water Fasting and Juicing

Both water fasting and juicing gives your digestion a break which is a good thing. You can’t go wrong when you give your digestion a break from eating three meals + snacks a day. 

Juicing usually doesn’t allow you to get your blood sugar levels down enough to get into ketosis so you may not lose excess weight if this is one of your goals. However, juicing brings a lot of micro and macro nutrients into your system which is great, and fruit juicing is detoxing as it can pull acidic waste out of your system. Water fasting over 17 hours will turn on all those healing switches highlighted above, it’s great for cellular healing, for getting into autophagy (cellular healing), and for getting into ketosis (fat burning).

Both water and juice fasting have their place. As juice is highly astringent, it can be helpful to move old waste from your colon. But for overall deep healing and weight loss, a fast is your best option. However, starting out with juicing is a great introduction into fasting. It allows you to play with what it feels like to only drink liquids and gives you an influx of nutrients. 

Getting Started

Before you begin fasting, it’s best to increase your water intake, eat more fruits and vegetables, and remove processed foods such as grains, wheat, pasta and junk food. Fruits and vegetables are high in water and will help to hydrate your cells which will make fasting that much easier. If you’re not hydrated enough during a fast, you may experience headaches and other symtoms which may make you think fasting is not good for you. I suggest spending a few months incorporating more high water content food into your diet before you begin to fast as this will set you up for success. 

When you feel ready to fast, work out how many hours you usually and comfortably go without food, and then aim to reach one of the 6 fasting windows that exceed that. If you usually go 13 hours without food, aim to go 15 hours without food and stick to this until you can easily fast for this long.  It’s up to you to choose if you will replace for your first meal of the day with a juice or water. To make life easier for you, perhaps begin with a fruit or green juice to give you enough energy for the morning and once you’ve gotten used to not eating, replace it with water. Then, become accustomed to water fasting for that length of time until you find it easy. 

You can then move up to the next fasting window until this is easy for you keep up. Keep increasing your fasting window until you can comfortably do a 72-hour water fast. Your body gets used to a certain way of life so it’s best to vary your fasting windows rather than sticking to a set routine.

How Will I Feel During Fasting?

This is entirely dependent on each individual and the level of toxicity within your cells. When we first start fasting, we can experience detoxification symptoms such as headaches, aches and pains. As you become more accustomed to fasting, these symptoms should lessen and you’ll find fasting easier and enjoyable.

Challenges may come up during the fast ranging from physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. Please know that this is completely normal and in fact a great opportunity for you to face whatever you may have been ignoring. Please ensure you feel equipped to deal with them ignoring what may present itself. Fasting can be difficult to start off with. Nut as you dive deeper and you start to experience the benefits of the practice, it becomes easy, fun and profound when you enter into longer fasts.

Breaking Your Fast

Breaking a fast is quite possibly more important than the fast itself! As your digestive system has been turned off during a fast, you need to wake it up slowly. If you try to eat too much, or foods super high in protein or fat too soon, you could overload your digestive system. This will feel extremely uncomfortable and could undo a lot of the great healing you did during your fast. In rare cases, it can cause refeeding syndrome. A complication that result from fluid and electrolyte shifts as a result of aggressive nutritional rehabilitation.

The longer you have fasted for, the longer it will take your digestive system to wake up. For however many days you have fast for, you would focus on intentional refeeding for half the amount of days of the fast. If you have fasted for 21 days, 10 days of refeeding is recommended. The safest order for your digestive system would be to introduce a slow and steady intake of carbs (low GI fruits), then fibre, then fats. Depending on the length of your fast, you may not eat all of these types of food on the same day.

Eat mindfully 

Try to be really present with your first meal and appreciate the realness of what is there for you at this moment. Don’t over indulge, just allow the food to sit inside for a good hour. Feel every aspect of the nature of where you are and that level of gratitude will serve you in life. Each time you fast, your food awareness will heighten and you may become more sensitive to certain foods. You will start to truly feel which foods harm you and which foods heal you.

Consuming the following foods too soon after a fast could make you feel unwell, so please be mindful of this if you choose to eat these again: meat, dairy, salt, processed sugar, oils, onions, garlic, chillies, grains, nuts, too much heavy cooked food, caffeine and alcohol. 

Intuitive eating

One of the best things about fasting is that after some time, you really start to know when you’re truly hungry rather than bored or eating out of habit. Fasting then turns into intuitive eating, which means that you make peace with all types of food. Unlike traditional diets that restrict or ban certain foods, intuitive eating requires you to stop looking at food as good or bad. Instead, you listen to your body and eat what feels right for you.

You might think this means you just eat whatever you want, anytime you want. That’s not the case. Intuitive eating means tapping into your body’s natural ability to tell you when you’re hungry or satisfied. When you eat intuitively, you also let go of the idea that you need to lose or gain weight so you can look a certain way. The idea is to help you focus on foods that work best for your overall physical and mental health.

Conclusion

Intermittent fasting represents a powerful tool for health optimisation and disease prevention when implemented appropriately. While the practice offers numerous benefits, it’s essential to approach it with proper knowledge and preparation, respecting individual circumstances and medical conditions.

Note: This article is for informational purposes only and should not replace professional medical advice. Consult with healthcare providers before starting any fasting protocol, particularly for extended fasts or if you have underlying health conditions.