What are the Benefits of Fasting?
Thousands of people have restored their health through therapeutic fasting. For some it is a last effort to health after many years of discomfort and distress. The good news is that the majority of people who undergo a supervised fast experience true healing as well as physical, psychological and mental rejuvenation.
Fasting – A Healing Experience
The bodies of animals and humans have evolved a mechanism that allows survival without feeding. This fasting period has benefits for a certain period of time and negative effects if the fast is prolonged to starvation past the resistance of the body. A wounded animal will instinctively roll in a ball and abstain from food while healing. During the fast the body’s repair and healing mechanisms are enhanced. At our center we have observed skin and conjunctive tissue diseases heal rapidly during the course of a 21 or 30 day fast. Dr. Baylac has witnessed various forms of gastrointestinal disorders and autoimmune illnesses disappear and the body restored to its normal function.
The benefits of fasting:
- Improvement of the digestive system: regular bowel movements and better digestion, restitution of the sense of hunger and satiety, shrinking of the stomach and reduced need for food
- Increased acuity of the senses: enhanced taste, smell and vision
- Healthier blood: When viewed on the microscope, clumps of red blood cells are dissolved, damaged red blood cells are eliminated, and only normal shape healthy red blood cells are left
- Reduce blood pressure and blood glucose
- Loss of extra fat
- Mental clarity
- Higher level of energy
These benefits are due to the process of detoxification undertaken by the body while it is taking a break from digesting food. Our bodies become toxic as a result of living in a toxic world, overeating processed, chemically loaded foods. As the toxic load increases the organs of elimination cannot perform their function and we become sluggish, fatigued, depressed and sick. Detoxification is needed.
A Rebirth for Mind and Spirit
Healing a medical condition is not the only reason to fast. Fasting can also be an important tool to support a spiritual quest. Fasting is an ancient spiritual practice. The process of fasting withdraws the energy from the physical and emotional bodies facilitating the transition from doing to being. Fasting takes us to our truth, allows old wounds to heal, addictions to fade, and our ego to die to be reborn into our spirit.
Fasting Brings the Ultimate Rest
Fasting provides a framework in which change is effortless and comes from the deep self.
Fasting Allows for Powerful Detoxification of the Body
The body relies on food to produce energy to sustain life. It takes energy to walk, sit, talk, exercise and work. If we reduce our activity level it still takes energy to open our eyes, lie down, move the body and keep every cell of our body alive. When no food is consumed, the body breaks down its own tissues for energy. It breaks down mostly fat, but also some muscle tissue. While these tissues are broken down, the toxins that they store are released, therefore the health benefit of fasting. Read about >>detoxification
Side Effects of Fasting
- Loss of energy indicates that bed rest must be observed during a fast to minimize the breakdown of muscle mass
- The longer the fast the longer the recovery time
- Decreased blood pressure
- Must slow down to adjust to the decrease of energy
- Interiorization process.
- Decreased body temperature
- May bring up suppressed issues and emotions
- Very acidic urine pH from the breakdown of fat into ketones
- Dehydration
- Eventual loss of bowel movements after a few days
Who Should Fast?
Fasting is beneficial to everyone in this toxic world to the exception of pregnant women or lactating women, severe liver disease, AIDS, advanced cancer, renal insufficiency or been on birth control pills. Fasting will take care of a cold or an infection faster than any medication. Fasting is good to prevent illness and maintain good health. Fasting like calorie restriction increases longevity.
Medical Use of Fasting
Water fasting is useful for many gastro intestinal disorders, such as ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, irritable bowel, or any condition presenting with diarrhea or constipation, GERD, pancreatitis, or H. pylori infection. Water fasting is also recommended for people who are seeking spiritual growth.
Water fasting provides the ultimate rest and repair of the gastrointestinal tract, the immune system and the brain and resets these systems.
The water fast is preceded by an elimination diet and juices. Read how to prepare for a prolonged fast. It is followed by a food reintroduction diet with raw foods. The food reintroduction phase consists of eating one food at the time with mindfulness. It is a good time to test food allergy and intolerance reactions. We use the The Coca Pulse Test for this purpose in our programs. (Find more resources on Food Allergies on our resources page).
Fasting Procedures Incorporated In Our Fasting Programs
Fasting Procedures
- Water Fasting
- Green Juice Fasting
- Coconut Water Fasting
- Broth Fasting
Water Fasting
Water fasting consists of eliminating all solid and liquid foods to the exclusion of water. There are various types of water that can be used to detoxify the body while fasting. Our preferred water is Grander water. The Grander water system is added to a regular filtering system, either carbon filter or reverse osmosis. Revitalized Live Grander Water reproduces the taste and the energy of mountain spring water.
Green Juice Fasting
Green juice fasting is a way to keep the caloric intake low enough to put the body in ketosis (break down of body fats). This way the benefits of water fasting can still be present and the inconveniences are minimized. During a green juice fast the energy levels can be kept higher and longer to allow gentle activities such as walking and yoga.
The green juice provides amino acids, enzymes, minerals and vitamins that can be used by the liver to enhance its detoxification system.
The fluids of the body become less acidic.
The green juice provides a better hydration than water.
Fasting extracts old accumulated wastes. In an effort to survive in the absence of food the body looks for stored fat for energy. Stored with the fat are other acid toxins and dead cells which are acidic. The waste products generated during fasting are much more acidic than during normal time.
This means that there is a great risk of losing valuable body alkaline minerals. During the water fast we supply ample amount of alkaline water to offset the effects of the acidification process. On the other hand, the green juice fast alkalizes the body, and other detoxification procedures such as exercise, FIR sauna and dry skin brushing further supports the detoxification process.
Some level of digestive activity remains in the gastrointestinal tract. Consequently, rest is not absolute.
Coconut Water Fasting
We take advantage of the gift of the tropics and its abundance of coconuts to conduct fresh coconut water fasting. Coconut water extracted from the young coconut contains 95% water and sugars, amino acids, enzymes, fats, vitamins and minerals. It is particularly high in potassium and GABA. It is very similar in its composition to the human blood plasma. It was used intravenously during World War II for blood transfusion emergencies in the absence of blood. I have used it orally in cases of electrolyte imbalance in individuals with anorexia, pancreatitis and high blood pressure. Coconut water tastes sweeter than water and is very pleasant to drink during a fast.
Find More on Fasting
What others experienced
In the beginning of 2008, I did a twenty-one day fast and silent meditation retreat, plus six days of raw food. I devoted a total of one month to the process. It was the most challenging and most rewarding experience I have ever done. I went into deeply transformative spaces in body and psyche. The profound spiritual transformation is still fully present, reverberating through me as a continuous ecstatic undercurrent. In general, I feel reborn, renewed, fresh and bubbling, vibrantly alive and full of gratitude. During my stay I learned to feel deep gratitude for each moment of life. I learned a huge amount about nutrition, and about regeneration. I learned to expand my level of compassion and love towards myself and others.
It has been three months since I completed the fast and I am continuing a healthy eating regime, and basically have changed my entire relationship with food. I am more committed than ever to living in optimum health and well-being, and when I get a little slippery with myself, I think of Maya and happily get right back on track. She is a living example of self-responsibility and honoring of the body temple – an inspiring person and doctor. I strongly recommend her clinic for anyone with any kind of ailment; physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual. It’s a great gift only you can give to yourself.
P.S. approximately 70% of my long standing symptoms were gone by the end of the fast.
My forty-nine day detoxification & rejuvenation (thirty-one days on pure water; eighteen on restricted coconut water and pure water).
I won’t relate exactly what happened to me. Nothing that I expected to happen, happened; the things I least expected to happen, did. If you hear my stories, you might expect the same things to happen to you. I can tell you of my tongue’s coat changing and parting like the red sea, moles falling off, grey hairs vanishing, warts disappearing, knees and entire leg bones straightening, eyesight going wild then improving, a little toenail appearing for the first time in my life, but I can also tell you of a cyst in my nose remaining, a scar on my cheek unchanged. Who knows what your body will consider its priorities? (And who knows what miracles occurred in my kidneys, my spleen, my prostate, etc., etc.?) After all, the body has a lot of nooks and crannies, and it’s clever enough to repair them all, perfectly, in turn and in concert, in a conscious-numbingly fine-tuned web of coordinated steps and actions.)