Water Fasting: Science, Benefits, Dangers, Testimonies, and a Diary
By: Anna Szabo
Tags: Health, Weight Loss, Water Fasting, Fasting, Healthy Lifestyle

A practical guide to water fasting from a 37-year-old fasting enthusiast who lost 20 lb twice by fasting on water and healing herself.

Anna Szabo at 37 years old in Destin Florida in 2020 after Water Fasting

Introduction

The cover image on this post is a picture of me in 2020 at 37 years old visiting Henderson Beach State Park in Florida. To learn more about me and understand my emotional struggles with weight, food, and health in general, read “Getting to know Anna Szabo.” I lost 20 lb twice by fasting on water. Today, I practice prolonged fasting (24–120 hours) weekly.

I used to be very sick — from head to toe. This is not an exaggeration. I had fungus on my toes and toenails, vaginal yeast infections that resulted in twice-a-year hospitalizations for seven years, gastrointestinal problems that led me to multiple hospitalizations as well, ENT problems, such as ear infections, sinus infections, bronchitis up to five times a year, and a constantly running nose… The list goes on but I won’t bore you with it. I was on meds, drugged up with steroids, and my immune system was almost killed by all the drugs constantly prescribed to me.

Today, I’m healthy, pain-free, aches-free, very active, well-fit, don’t take any meds, don’t spend any time in hospitals or with doctors, can do any activities I want, hula-hoop, walk 10000 steps every day, kayak on the river outside my front door, travel anywhere my soul desires, and wake up with a big smile every morning thanking God for my wellbeing: physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional.

Because I experienced being sick, taking drugs, and spending months at a hospital several times each year, my health today is the top and most important priority on my list. Being healthy is so valuable to me, I am committed to doing whatever it takes to maintain my holistic wellbeing.

Why do I use the word “holistic?”

Well… I told you about my physical health problems already. Now, let’s discuss mental health. I am a two-times suicide survivor and at some point, I suffered severely from suicidal depression. Not wanting to live, being done, being sick, being tired, being at the end of strength — all of these are intimately familiar to me personally. I wrote an essay called What Depression Feels Like describing how miserably sick I was. Water fasting helped me get healthy and strong.

One of the things I decided to try back in 2018 was water fasting. To a layperson who eats three meals a day and snacks whenever, the idea of abstaining from food completely for several days sounds insane. I was that layperson, and yes, fasting on water sounded insane to me. But honestly, I felt the same way about doing the plant-based diet.

Once I learned the science supporting whole-foods plant-based eating style, I went full-on for a very vigorous plant-based diet weight-loss and never looked back!

Similarly, after studying and understanding the scientific support for water fasting and examining what the Bible says about it, I began fasting on water regularly, and my life improved in all of its aspects, so did my holistic wellbeing. Here’s a picture of me from a few days ago in Destin, FL. I am almost 40 years old in this iPhone-captured picture.

Anna Szabo at 37 visiting Destin beach after fasting on water only

Table of Content:

− Water Fasting Resources

− Water Fasting Results

− What Is Water Fasting?

− How Does Water Fasting Work?

− Is Water Fasting Safe?

− Who Can Benefit from Fasting on Water Only?

− Who Should Not Fast on Water?

− What Does The Science Say About Fasting on Water?

− What Is The History of Water Fasting?

− How Do You Fast on Water?

− How Long Can You Fast?

− How Much Water Should You Drink While Fasting?

− Can You Exercise While Fasting on Water Only?

− What Can You Expect on a Water Fast?

− What Are The Benefits of Fasting on Water?

− Can Water Fasting Clean Arteries?

− Can Water Fasting Cure Diseases?

− Are There Any Dangers or Risks To Water Fasting?

− Can Water Fasting Help Lose Weight?

− How Do You Prepare for Water Fasting?

− How Do You Properly Refeed After Water Fasting?

− What Are The Do’s and Don’t’s of Water Fasting?

− How Often Is It Safe To Fast on Water Only?

− Do Doctors Recommend Water Fasting?

− Conclusion

Water Fasting Resources

When I was getting started with water fasting, I did extensive research, watched documentaries, read scientific studies, listened to some thought-provoking interviews with medical doctors, and consumed TED talks on the topic. There were so many blanks in my mind, and so many questions had to be answered for me to be comfortable with fasting.

To help you on your health journey, I created a special and unique resource library, including vlogs, science, healing stories, etc. My goal is to encourage you and help you understand why fasting on water is so healing, as well as how exactly it affects your body, brain, mind, aging, illnesses, mood, skin, metabolism, sleep, energy, and lifespan.

The purpose of my Christian blog for women is to help alleviate suicide among women globally by sharing hope in Christ. Fasting helped my own suicidal depression recovery, which is why I’m so passionate about sharing my knowledge and experience with you.

Jesus expected us to fast after His crucifixion.

Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast. Matthew 9:15

To help you fast on water for the purposes of physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional benefits, I created many resources, such as vlogs, diaries, poems, and prayers, as well as the success stories of other people who experienced healing from fasting. Let me share the resources I creaated so you can benefit from them.

Water Fasting Vlog

My first several water fasting experiences were documented on video, and I published a video a day as I fasted. It was intense, but I wanted to help other people. So, I created a playlist of 15 water fasting vlog videos on YouTube and hope these will encourage and empower you.

Today, I don’t vlog about it anymore. Why?

In 2020, I learned that the Bible teaches to fast in secret. That’s why I don’t do vlogs but keep journals instead and share on my blog openly after I finish each water fast.

Here is my original water fasting vlog.

Water Fasting Diary

Learning how people experience fasting, how they conquer their flesh, how they battle their desires, how they handle their food temptations, and how they heal was very encouraging for me when I was getting started on water fasting. That’s why I share my journal here.

Yes, I have my full water fasting diary for you, published right here on this website, unedited! It documents my fasting experiences from 2020, this year. So, for 2018 you have my vlogs and for 2020 you have my diaries. What about 2019?

In 2019, I did not fast.

Below are all my completed water fasts.

Water Fasting Poems

I am a poet. When I have intense emotions, feelings, or thoughts, typically, I give birth to a poem (or ten). Abstaining from food stirred up all kinds of childhood memories for me, especially food abuse and the cruel things my mom would say about my body. I described those in the blog post called Things Narcissistic Mothers Say.

The battle within me was brutal this year when I started fasting again and stopped eating food. My emotions ran high, I actually genuinely suffered as I was working through my trauma in the absence of food. By the way, food was physically present in my home in the fridge but I did not eat it, so it was absent in my daily life.

As a result of all that insense inner work, a few new poems were born. These reflect my conversations with myself, my struggles, and my breakthroughs about so many aspects of living and eating.

May you be encouraged by these poems!

“A Poem About Water Fasting” Water fasting is a difficult journey to optimal health.

Health is a very unique, rare, and special type of wealth. It’s not something you can inherit from relatives or go buy.

You must earn health by sleeping, exercising, and eating to live - not to die. The obstacles to optimal health surround you everywhere:

Ice cream, burger, pizza, fries, chocolates, and soda are found anywhere. These are addictive drugs, which are stronger than cocaine.

They trick, addict, damage, and destroy your one and only precious brain.



These drugs are specifically designed by food scientists to get you hooked,

To get you overeat, crave crap, and to make your wellness overlooked. They are ought to make you fat, miserable, sick, and nearly dead.

They aim to give you diseases so that you’re permanently stuck on your bed. The only way to get unhooked from all the food crap is to do a water fast.

It helps restore your brain, your stomach, your arteries, and heals you best. Though fasting on water won’t make you feel good.

It will however mobilize and cleanse all kinds of crap and get your body to reboot.

That way fasting on water meets your health goals and even exceeds. After your water fast, eat healthy plants, whole grains, nuts, and seeds.That way fasting on water meets your health goals and even exceeds. Don’t put crappy food into your mouth, avoid getting crap-hooked.

Eat raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, as well as whole grains cooked. When you achieve optimal health and people try to get you off track,

When they offer you deep-fried chicken, cheesy mushed potatoes, and other crap... Learn to say "no thank you" and stay true to your values and health priority.

Exercise boundaries and refuse crappy food with determination and authority.

5/3/20 © Anna Szabo, JD, MBA

“Water Fasting vs Gluttony” Water fasting is a tough test for your discipline, fortitude, commitment, and spiritual maturity.

It rids your body of addictive food crap, chemicals, and fat. And it helps you achieve spiritual purity. Without food, day after day, you feel deprived, trapped, physically weak, and emotionally unstable.

Only God can help get you through. He gives you strength. God is of divine comforting able. Water fasting journey tests your thinking, wisdom, and your willingness to abide in Christ.

Jesus gave up His life to set you free. The least you can do is just a few meals to sacrifice. Sacrificing food, your temptations, salt and fat addictions, and mental focus isn’t easy at all.

That’s why to be able to fast on water only, you must every day wholeheartedly on God call. You must have strong reasons to fast on water only, not just weight loss, that goal is too vain.

You must set your eyes on the Lord and desire Him more than food, that’s how you can stay sane.

physically, mentally, and spiritually: you’ll no longer be weak and blind. During your water fast, you’ll be tested plenty: your faith, your body, your priorities, your will, your strength, your habits, and your mind. At the end of your water fast, you’ll be renewed physically, mentally, and spiritually: you’ll no longer be weak and blind. You’ll be able to see clearly that food is no longer your master, it can’t control you, you have one master, you belong to God.

You’ll understand what the Bible means in saying: put a knife to your throat if the sin of gluttony the best of you got. You’ll be able to honor God with your body, eat like Daniel did, and flee from the food addiction gluttony sin.

You’ll be able to focus on building mental, emotional, and spiritual strength, abide in Christ, and stay lean.

5/4/20 © Anna Szabo, JD, MBA

Water Fasting Unlocks Health and Wealth" Health is an asset like no other.

Money and success don’t matter if

Every day pains and aches you bother

And without drugs you cannot live.

It must be earned day after day

By sleeping, stretching,

And Health can’t be bought with any money.It must be earned day after dayBy sleeping, stretching, walking , running,And eating plants instead of prey. Health benefits from water fasting.

When you don’t eat for several days,

Your body uses time for resting

And activates God’s healing ways. The ways that help you detox deeply,

The ways that cure your DNA,

The ways that heal your gut completely

And keep diseases far away. By fasting, you reduce your waistline,

You also use your long-stored fat.

By this, you reach your healthy baseline,

Stop inflammation, and reset. You were designed by God for health.

Your body is God’s Spirit’s temple.

You must pursue health as your wealth,

And watch your body no more tremble.

You must

You must be fine to go without

To learn to lean on God at all times. You must eat right. You must workout.You must abstain from food sometimes You must be fine to go withoutTo learn to lean on God at all times. By fasting, you improve your wellness,

Refresh your spirit, and start fresh.

You also receive benefits endless

Designed by God to heal your flesh. When you have health, you’re truly rich.

When you’re near-dead and very sick,

No money can your life enrich.

So, build good habits and with them stick! Fast regularly on plain water,

Eat fruits, legumes, veggies, and nuts,

Do not support abuse and slaughter.

To live a healthy life takes guts! To stop yourself from early dying,

Reverse diseases and get healed,

You need to start more veggies buying,

About fresh fruit getting thrilled!

Sleep well, fast often, don’t eat meat!

And that’s the end of your health guide.

Now, it’s up to you to get healthy and fit!

Eat less, move more , get outside,Sleep well, fast often, don’t eat meat!And that’s the end of your health guide.Now, it’s up to you to get healthy and fit! 7/23/20 © Anna Szabo, JD, MBA

Water Fasting Prayers

Prayer is the best source of strength and courage. By praying, I surrender my flesh to God and step into His Spirit. I pray and lean on God every day. Without Him, I can’t do anything.

On my water fasting journey, I wrote several prayers. May these bless you in some way and encourage you on your path to optimal health. I hope you ask God to lead you and show you the way.

A prayer for relief from the food-related temptations. Dear God, I thank you so much for leading me on a path of natural healing, helping me discover and practice water fasting, as Jesus did, and allowing me to experience deep calmness and genuine joy in my communion with you, away from food. Father, rid me of the false beliefs imposed on me by my obese and sick family, don’t let me be conformed to the eating patterns of this Western world, which are enslaving people through food addictions making eating food their master, liberate me from any and all thinking habits that resulted in my binge-eating, gluttony, and animal consumption. I want to serve you, God, and you’re the only one I want to be obsessing about, you’re the only one I want to desire with passion, not food, not eating, not restaurants, not new recipes. But you! I pray for natural and instant healing from the binge-eating disorder as I’m standing on your 3573 promises, God, trusting that all things are possible through Christ. In His name I pray for continued peace in the area of eating. Amen.

A prayer for relief from the binge-eating disorder. Dear God, I am weak, and you are strong. I belong to you, and food is not my master. I can do all things through Christ, and the sin of gluttony has no power over me. Father, help me fight food temptations, which surround me everywhere I go. Heal me from my binge-eating disorder, God. Let me establish and maintain strong food boundaries and practice a simple “no thank you” without feeling awkward or guilty in social situations. Let me only choose the kind of food that brings into my body the nutritional assets needed for my optimal health. Let me only eat as much food as my body truly needs for its optimal health. Let me eat slowly and mindfully with gratitude and peace so that my body can intake, process, and benefit from the food I’m eating. I pray these things in the name of Jesus, my lord and savior who Himself fasted on water for 40 days in the wilderness to honor you, God. Amen.

A prayer for the healing of God’s people. Dear God, I thank you for your great work in me and through me. Thank you for introducing me to the ancient method of natural healing, which is water fasting. Thank you for healing me, Father. I want to use this knowledge to help others experience healing. Guide me on how to help people discover water fasting as a health-optimization tool. Lead me to those people who need this and can benefit from it. Bring those people to me, help them find me. I believe that you made each of us perfect in your own image, designed for health and longevity, and every one of us can experience deep healing if we give our bodies a little break from eating. I pray in the name of Jesus who fasted without food for 40 days. Amen.

A prayer for the woman reading this blog post. Dear God, may the woman reading this blog post be inspired by my water fast results and encouraged by knowing that with Christ all things are possible! Father God, bless the woman who is reading this content. Give her a passion for long-term health. Stir up on the inside her desire to live a healthy life. Help her see herself the way you see her: beautiful, healed, healthy, confident, and worthy! In Jesus’ name. Amen.

If you find my prayers helpful, donate.

Water Fasting Prayers by Anna Szabo in 2020 in Destin, FL

Water Fasting Documentaries

Documentaries matter. Not all of them are good but there are some valuable documentaries that are well-supported by both science and real-life examples of natural healing. My brain craves documentaries when I’m exploring a new topic. Is there a good water fasting documentary? Yes! Before I tell you how I discern, let me tell you about my educational backgroound and how my brain works.

I’ve spent 22 years in school and have graduated from four universities, three of them with high honors. So, my brain is science-oriented. I also have a Doctoral degree in Criminal Justice, so my brain is highly-investigative. That’s why I love documentaries, especially those with solid scientific research and clinical trial data.

Below is the only such documentary on the topic of water fasting, and I’ve rewatched it again and again to learn something new every time. As you know, I am originally from Russia. Though I’ve lived in America for 12 years now, I spent the first 25 years of my life in Kursk, Russia.

The Science of Fasting documentary presents research conducted by international scientists put together by a French filmmaker Sylvie Gilman and released initially in Germany in March of 2012.

The film examines the secret Russian water fasting methodology developed by Dr. Yuri Nikolayev and used for over seven decades to heal various diseases, including mental illness.

To me, this was a shock! I had never heard of this until this year, 2020, but I myself did experience depression healing from water fasting on my own in 2018. So, I know from experience how helpful water fasting can be when it comes to brain health and emotional balance. This water fasting documentary is described in detail below, and you can watch it for free on YouTube at the link provided.

Surgery and pharmaceuticals are Western medicine’s default solution for almost any ailment. But a therapeutic alternative, one that has existed for centuries, is gaining attention among researchers and physicians. This program examines the growing interest in fasting as a treatment for cancer, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and other diseases. Journeying to the Goryaschinsk Spring sanatorium on the shores of Lake Baikal, in southern Siberia, the film shows how decades of secret clinical studies conducted by Soviet and post-Soviet doctors have led to new applications for fasting and caloric restriction — with astonishing results. Viewers also encounter dramatic case studies of liver damage reversal and arthritis mitigation at Germany’s Buchinger Clinic, as well as the findings of an innovative gerontologist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Together, these stories suggest a paradigm shift in our understanding of healing and human physiology. The Science of Fasting

Water Fasting Results

People search for water fasting results because they want to see what’s possible if they abstain from food for some time. Everyone’s results from fasting on water will differ based on their starting weight and health conditions, their state of gut microbiome, their intake of medications, their sleep quality, the amount of their physical exercise daily, and their nutrition when they are feasting.

That being said, I want you to have some references to various stories of people who benefited from fasting on water in various different ways. I put together a collection of research and stories for you. See below. Click on each link to read more details.

Note that I am not a doctor and do not provide medical advice. This information is for educational purposes only. If you decide to fast, the consequences are your responsibility. Below is a picture of me from last week after I finished my water fast number ten! I am almost 40 years old, keep that in mind as you see my pictures.

Water Fasting Success Stories

Wow! What a comprehensive list of various results people from all walks of life accomplish regularly and repeatedly by simply not eating! I hope you clicked on the stories shared above and got as inspired as I am now after experiencing so many healing aspects of fasting. As promised, here’s a picture of me last week after another water fast.

If my article is helpful, buy me a coffee.

Anna Szabo at 37 in after experiencing water fasting benefits

What Is Water Fasting?

Water fasting is not an eating pattern. It’s a fasting pattern. When I talk to people about water fasting, they ask me what I typically eat when fasting on water. Um… How do I say this to you? I eat nothing!

Fasting on water implies that you don’t eat.

Fasting is the complete absence of all substances, except water. Dr. Alan Goldhamer

So, when water fasting, you can’t eat.

Fasting is defined as abstinence from consuming food and beverages for different periods of time. Both traditional and modern healthcare systems recommend fasting as a therapeutic intervention for the management of several chronic, non-infectious diseases. Exercise Training and Fasting: Current Insights

No food is allowed when you’re fasting.

Fasting may be defined as a voluntary abstinence from food and drink for specified, recurring periods of time, with the fasting periods typically ranging from 12 hours to three weeks. Fasting as a Therapy in Neurological Disease

What can you drink when fasting? Water!

Water-only fasting is the complete abstinence from all food and liquids except water — for an extended period of time. Dr. Frank Sabatino, Balance for Life

Where does the body get calories from? Your fat.

Fasting is defined as the ability to meet the body’s requirements for macro- and micronutrients during a period of absence of food by using the body’s energy reserves without endangering health. Fasting Therapy by Michael Boschmann and Andreas Michalsen

You take in zero calories when fasting.

Water fasting, also known as a water cleanse, is a type of fasting in which you consume only water for a set period of time. Many cleansing diets are referred to as fasts, but in water fasting, you take in zero calories. It’s distinct from caloric restriction in which a person’s daily caloric intake is reduced by 30–40%. Water-Only Fasting with Dr. Sabatino

When water fasting, you consume only water.

Fasting, as we employ the term, is voluntary and entire abstinence from all food except water. “Little driblet meals,” says Dr. Chas. E. Page, “are not fasting. There should not be a mouthful or sip of anything but water, a few swallows of which would be taken from time to time, according to desire.” We do not employ the word fasting to describe a diet of fruit juice, for example. The Hygienic System by Herbert M. Shelton, D.P., N.D., D.C., D.N.T., D.N. Sc., D.N. Ph., D.N. Litt., Ph. D., D. Orthp.

So, let’s summarize. What is water fasting?

Water fasting is a pattern of not eating and abstaining from any and all food completely for an extended period of time, during which only water is consumed, which results in the profound natural healing of both the body and the brain on a deep cellular level. Anna Szabo

When I see YouTube videos pop up explaining how a person did “water fasting” and drank coffee, tea, smoothies, and broth, I roll my eyes. LOL! If you don’t eat solid food, you do still eat, meaning you aren’t fasting. To fast, you must abstain from food completely.

Many people come to my website looking for answers to such questions as “What can I have on a water fast?” or “Can I drink coffee on a water fast?” and “What can I eat without breaking my water fast?”

The answer to all of the above questions is this: you can’t eat anything on a water fast. If you eat something, you are not fasting. By eating anything, you transition to a restricted feeding diet.

To be on a water diet, you must consume water only. If you want to cheat, go ahead but remember: the one you’re cheating is you. Why cheat yourself? Plus, it’s impossible since you are there! You can’t cheat your body, so your water fasting benefits will be compromised by food consumption. Water fasting implies that you eat nothing.

How Does Water Fasting Work?

When I began abstaining from food and heard about all the miraculous benefits of fasting, I was wondering a lot: “How does water fasting work?” If you have a curious mind, like mine, you may want to explore, too. Understanding how something works helps us stop fearing it.

There’s no need to fear not eating. It’s natural. Eating all the time is unnatural for humans. We as a species evolved by enduring prolonged periods of no food. That’s called famine. Today, all we have is feast but we need famine. Why? That’s how our body is designed to operate: feast, famine, feast, famine. No famine means no rest for the body, and that leads to diseases, early aging, and premature death.

The stages of water fasting outlined below are based on a water-only fast, which doesn’t include any food or tea or coffee or broth or smoothies or whatever else involving eating. Fasting is about not eating, and water fasting implies that you consume water only.

For the first 24 to 48 hours after beginning a water fast, the body burns off circulating blood sugar and sugar stored in the muscles and liver in the form of glycogen. The “real” metabolic fast does not begin until one metabolizes their blood sugar, in approximately 2 to 3 days. At that time, the body begins to burn fat tissue for fuel. When that happens, molecules called ketones enter the blood circulation. These ketones have some very interesting properties. For the faster, the main welcome property of ketones is that they suppress hunger. By day four or five of a water fast, hunger is usually gone and is replaced by a feeling of great well-being. So much of the energy that the body uses all day goes to digesting our food, including muscular contractions of the intestine, chemical energy used to synthesize stomach acid, bile, and digestive enzymes, as well as the billions of immune cells in the intestinal lining that interrogate the chemical nature of the food going by in the digestive tract. When that function is no longer required on a water fast, energy is freed up, and people feel very light and energetic. During a water fast, the body is in “Full Energy Conservation Mode” and it does not want to spend precious chemical energy on chaotic, heat-generating, activities, such as inflammatory reactions and growing tumor tissue. During a fast, hot angry joints in rheumatoid arthritis, gout, and other inflammatory joint diseases (predictably) cool down, inflamed plaques of psoriasis in the skin are becalmed, and wounds in and on the body heal extremely well. If malignant breast cells are multiplying in tissues, the fasting body generates molecules called sirtuins, which put the breaks on cancer growth. Water fasting cleanses the body on a deep, cellular level. All of us, in our body cells, have remnant molecules of every restaurant meal, fast food snack, and processed food dessert we have ever eaten. There are flavorings, colorings, preservatives, dough conditioners, stabilizers, and thousands of other compounds that compose a chemical soup of modern cuisine in all the cells in our body. These substances accumulate in our tissues over time, contributing to feelings of chronic fatigue and bodily dysfunction. A water fast has the effect of “taking your cells through the car wash” where day after day, nothing but pure water washes through each and every cell. This markedly lowers the concentrations of the foreign, disruptive molecules. Thus, it is no wonder that people predictably emerge from a water fast feeling lighter and cleaner on the inside because they really are. The water fast is broken in a gentle matter, starting with vegetable juices or fruit chunks like watermelon, and progressing through phases of gradually increasing fiber content, namely raw vegetables, steamed vegetables, and eventually denser foods, such as rice and beans. One of the greatest benefits of a water fast is that it “re-tunes” the tongue’s taste buds through a process called neuroadaptation. Whole, natural foods begin to taste really delicious again. This opens the way for one to retool their dietary choices and let a truly health-promoting food stream of whole, plant-based foods pour through the body every day, thus creating lasting and glowing health. Dr. Michael Klaper

I hope this explanation helps you visualize the deep-cleansing process the body goes through during a water fast. To help answer the question “How does water fasting work?” I also shared with you my diaries earlier here. I listed the link to each water fast above.

Each one documents all of the specifics of water fasting and the body’s response. Additionally, I recommend reading my other blog posts about this topic, which offer many valuable details to anyone who wants to learn about fasting on water only.

Is Water Fasting Safe?

I was wondering: is water fasting safe? So, I turned to doctors who have practiced this method of healing for decades, and the information I discovered made me realize that fasting on water is safe but not for everyone. Below I share with you what the doctors say. You can also read this chart review by a group of doctors monitoring the safety of water fasting conducted by their peers: “Is fasting safe? Chart review.”

From examining the chart review, I concluded that the doctors do agree that fasting on water is safe. I’m presenting you with some thought-provoking scientific research below. Leverage your own discernment to make accurate conclusions. I’ve completed a water fast eleven times in two years, and I know it’s safe. Today, I’m healthier because of it.

Fasting is no cunning trick of priestcraft, but the most powerful and safest of all medicines. Eating for Strength by M. L. Holbrook In order to be healthier, stronger, and more resistant to illnesses, through our internal organs should flow clean, active, and healthy blood, which will carry nutrients to every cell of our body and take away any accumulated toxic substances. A correctly done fasting is the most powerful form of cleansing starting with the digestive system and finishing up with cells. The organs of the human body are made up of tissues, which are made up of billions of individual cells. When we eat, these cells are fed by nutrients (vitamins, minerals, proteins, etc.) that come from food. As nutrients are “burned,” waste is created within cells that is not completely removed. As time passes and cells are replaced, the waste products are left behind within the tissues of that organ. These toxic wastes poison the cells, weakening them, and making them susceptible to illness and disease. The question is how to gently coax the body, on a cellular level, to release these wastes and, thereby, strengthen the immune system. The answer lies in proper fasting. Our nutrition is based on protein, fats and carbohydrates. Here is what they supposed to do: protein rebuilds new cells and replaces old dead cells, fats build fatty cells, and carbs supply energy. So, what happens when you eat too much of these products, especially if these products are not good quality? Protein is a “construction material.” It is mostly needed for kids during an intense growth period. A grown person, regardless of how much protein they eat, won’t grow more, so the extra goes toward the development of fecal and kidney stones, uric acid, blood impurity, and overwhelming the digestive organs. Over-intake of fats leads to excess weight, overburden for the heart, and all vital organs. Extra fatty cells accumulate a huge amount of toxic elements. Excess carb intake, especially simple carbs which are mostly used in our modern society, leads to the accumulation of big amounts of mucus. The mucus is an ideal environment for infections, bacteria, viruses, and other parasites. Think about it: parasites and bacteria are always inside of the body, so they eat inside and they release it inside, too. So the food that they eat, comes toxic out of them back into the human body. Toxic mucus is bacteria’s fecal matter. It is a thick, glue-like substance, which glues onto the walls of the digestive system, blood vessels, and organs. Depending on where mucus is mainly accumulated, different problems occur. Sinuses, throat, bronchi, lungs, digestive system, clogging of vessels, cells, etc. Toxic mucus is the base for all illnesses: from cold to cancer. When we stop eating, the body turns its attention to “cleaning house” by feeding itself on sick, weak, and old cells first. It also begins to dump any unhealthy materials, such as toxic mucus, tumor, and cancer cells, salts, cholesterol, stored drugs, nicotine, and other stagnated matter, which is stored in the tissues and organs. The body also disposes of the unseen toxic weight stored inside. All cleansings, except fasting, cleanse only the internal surface of the organ. Under that surface, the tissues are still dirty and clogged with toxic waste. Only fasting can reach beneath the surface of the tissues and cleanse down to the cellular level. Dr. Yakov Koyfman, Cell Cleansing Fasting If there were a pill that effectively treated high blood pressure, overcame Type II diabetes, consistently produced dramatic improvements in autoimmune diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis, and provided effective relief for asthma attacks and migraine headaches it would be seen as a wonder drug of the highest order. Yet, such profound improvements in these medical conditions, and many others, are routinely seen during a water fast. Dr. Michael Klaper, Fasting — Effective Therapy For Health Concerns I have to say that in 10 000 consecutive patients, everybody who has walked in for fasting has been able to walk out. We have no mortality associated with fasting to date, and as our safety data indicates, this is a safe and effective process when it is done according to protocol. Dr. Alan Goldhamer, Water Fasting — The Clinical Effectiveness of Rebooting Your Body

Fasting on water is a healing miracle for the body. It offers such significant health benefits as cellar cleansing, anti-aging, cancer prevention and reversal, and even the turning on and off of the DNA! Water fasting is safe if you are someone who is not underweight, not pregnant, not breastfeeding, not on medications, and have access to clean drinking water. Some people should not fast. We will discuss this in a minute but first, let’s review who can benefit from fasting on water.

Who Can Benefit from Fasting on Water Only?

The last three weeks of my life have been dedicated to vigorous research on the topic of water fasting. Why am I obsessing about it? Because the purpose of my ministry and the calling on my life is to help alleviate suicide among women globally.

I am a two-times suicide survivor myself, and water fasting helped significantly and rapidly improve my own mental health. Ultimately, I believe in my heart and know from the scientific research, as well as the results of clinical practice, that water fasting is a simple tool to save people’s lives. This is what truly drives me: I want you to be healthy, fully alive, and living out your purpose while experiencing joy and peace.

The research I’ve conducted indicates that a water fast can help prevent, arrest, and even reverse a wide variety of diseases, such as cancer, type two diabetes, autoimmune disease, arthritis, metabolic syndrome, hypertension, chronic headaches, sinus infections, asthma, depression, obesity, and the list is nearly endless.

Since I’m not a doctor, I want to share with you what a water-fasting-practicing doctor says in response to the question “Who can benefit from fasting on water only?”

The following are six of the most common conditions that respond well to water-only fasting. 1. Obesity is primarily the result of addiction to the artificial stimulation of dopamine in the brain by the consumption of chemicals added to our foods, including oil, sugar, salt, and dairy products. The answer to obesity is to adopt a health-promoting diet derived exclusively from whole natural foods, including fruits and vegetables, raw nuts and seeds, and the variable addition of minimally processed, non-glutinous grains and beans. When fully implemented, in conjunction with adequate sleep and activity, predictable, consistent weight loss will occur that averages 1.5–2 pounds per week for women and 2–3 pounds per week for men. If your goal is to lose excess fat and you have trouble adopting a health-promoting program, a period of fasting may be of benefit. The protected environment of a fasting center provides a focused opportunity for intense education and the social support needed to escape the addictive forces of the dietary pleasure trap. The fasting experience functions like rebooting a corrupted hard drive on a computer. After fasting, whole natural food is appealing, making adopting a health-promoting diet more achievable. If your goal is to lose weight and escape the pleasure trap of processed foods, a period of fasting from a few days to a few weeks may be beneficial. 2. The dietary pleasure trap is insidious, and the consequences of poor dietary choices go beyond obesity. Overstimulation by artificially concentrated calories can confuse normal satiety signals resulting in persistent overeating. Over time, this results in the degenerative diseases of dietary excess, including high blood pressure and the resulting cardiovascular disease. For people who have fallen into the dietary pleasure trap and developed high blood pressure, water-only fasting has been shown to be a safe and effective means of normalizing blood pressure and reversing cardiovascular disease. In a study conducted at the TrueNorth Health Center in conjunction with Cornell University Professor T. Colin Campbell, the use of fasting for 2–4 weeks in patients with stage 3 hypertension resulted in reductions of systolic blood pressure of over 60 mm/Hg. This is the largest effect size of any study published to date. At the TrueNorth Health Center, we routinely see patients normalize their blood pressure and eliminate the need for medications. If your goal is to normalize elevated blood pressure and reverse cardiovascular disease, a period of fasting may be beneficial. 3. Type two diabetes is a condition that is increasing in epidemic proportions. Largely the consequence of dietary excess, the resulting alteration of physiological functions, such as high blood sugar levels and insulin resistance, results in a cascade of consequences, including blindness from retinal damage, heart attacks and stroke, reduced healing capacity, nerve damage, impotence, gangrene, etc. Fasting, along with a health-promoting diet and exercise program, can dramatically increase insulin sensitivity and bring blood sugar levels under control. If your goal is to normalize blood sugar levels and avoid or eliminate the need for medications and their consequences, a period of fasting may prove beneficial. Most patients with type 2 diabetes are capable of achieving normal blood sugar levels without the need for medications. 4. Drug addiction has become the norm. Nicotine, alcohol, caffeine, and a plethora of prescription and recreational drugs dominate the lives of the majority of people living in industrialized society. Fasting can be helpful in getting safely through withdrawal symptoms and more effectively establishing healthy habits while eliminating the perceived need for addictive substances. If your goal is to escape addiction and live a life free of dependence on health-compromising chemicals, a period of fasting may prove to be beneficial. 5. Autoimmune disorders, including arthritis, lupus, colitis, Crohn’s disease, asthma, eczema, psoriasis, and environmental allergies are becoming more common and more debilitating. One possible contributing factor to the aggravation of autoimmune disease involves gut leakage. The absorption of antigenic substances into the bloodstream as a result of increased gut permeability appears to be a factor in the aggravation of these conditions. Fasting can help normalize gut permeability and ease the transition to a health-promoting diet. If your goal is to eliminate the problems associated with autoimmune disorders, a period of medically supervised fasting may be an important component in a comprehensive program designed to save the quality and quantity of your life. 6. Exhaustion, both physical and emotional, has become increasingly common in our fast-paced lives. Feelings of fatigue and depression can compromise the quality of your life. Reliance on artificial stimulants compounds the problem. The lack of adequate sleep and exercise and poor dietary and lifestyle choices work together to interfere with the ability of many people to enjoy their life or fulfill their potential. Fasting can give your body and your mind a complete rest. If your goal is to “recharge” your system, fasting may help you accomplish your goals. When properly utilized, fasting can be a powerful tool in helping your body do what it does best — heal itself. Water fasting is the answer to a number of questions. Who Benefits From Medically Supervised Fasting?

As you can see, Dr. Alan Goldhamer explained very well why so many diseases benefit from water fasting so well: it’s the food and the lifestyle that cause those diseases! So, once you stop aggravating your body and brain with junk food and stop assaulting your system with drugs and lack of sleep as well as exercise, you can power up your natural healing mechanism again, and you’ll heal. Water fasting does miracles. Yet, some people should not fast on water only.

Who Should Not Fast on Water?

People who should not fast on water are pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, those who are underweight and have no “labile reserves” to mobilize (according to Dr. Alan Goldhamer), and also people who must take drugs daily, which must be taken with food, so it is a misfit for water fasting, which is defined as the absence of food.

For people who are on medications that they cannot stop, such as prednisone, antidepressants, etc., a water fast is contraindicated. These people should not water fast, but rather, do a juice cleanse. Fasting — Effective Therapy For Health Concerns

Small children should not be fasting on water only.

Those with illnesses not related to the dietary access should not do a water fast to get better because the source of their disease has nothing to do with their gut health. To see the list of diseases of dietary access, read “The Diseases of Kings.”

I personally want to warn addicts: fasting on water may cause you to binge-eat if you have a history of rebelling against yourself. I am a sex addict in recovery, so I am intimately familiar with the vicious cycle of various addictions.

After water fasting for a few times, I realized that I was apparently addicted to food and developed a binge-eating disorder. Addicts may end up binging after fasting, so beware and take this into consideration. As of today, I am food-addiction free and do not binge anymore but it took time to find my new balance with my new habit of water fasting regularly. By the way, if you plan to fast on water and then go back to your old bad lifestyle and eating habits, you should not fast on water.

People with infectious diseases should not fast.

According to an article about Dr. Georgy Voitovich’s methodology called Indications and Contraindications for Fasting, he believed in the following contraindications for medical fasting:

The period of lactation in the mother The second half of pregnancy Last stage of the immobilized form of tuberculosis patients Last stage form of malignant tumors with motionless of a patient Last stage form of malignant blood diseases with motionless of a patient. Last stage form diffuse disease of connective tissue with motionless of a patient A number of psychoneurological diseases in the far gone stage from being with motionless of a patient or dementia Massive suppuration processes of internal organs (abscesses, gangrene, and a few others) Indications and Contraindications for Fasting by Dr. Georgy Voitovich

According to Dr. Sergei Filonov who has medically supervised thousands of fasts for nearly three decades now, the following conditions indicate that a person should not fast.

Malignant neoplasms and hemoblastosis Tuberculosis of the lungs Thyrotoxicosis and other endocrine disorders Acute and chronic hepatitis Cirrhosis of the liver Purulent-inflammatory diseases of the respiratory system Abdominal cavity Insufficiency of blood circulation Persistent disturbances of cardiac rhythm and conduction Pronounced BMI deficit Thrombophlebitis and thrombosis Period of pregnancy and lactation Early childhood (up to 14 years) Inability to serve oneself Dr. Filonov’s Fasting Method

You can review the links I provided describing the opinions of the doctors, and you can use your own discernment to make accurate and adequate conclusions. Remember that this blog doesn’t offer medical advice. Consult your doctor before you take any actions in relation to your health. This information was collected here for educational purposes only and is not prescriptive in any way.

What Does The Science Say About Fasting on Water?

Science has a lot to say about water fasting benefits. From curing

infertility, acne, and chronic headaches all while reversing aging, inflammation, cancer, type two diabetes, arthritis, and metabolic syndrome, to alleviating the symptoms of depression, PTSD, schizophrenia, epilepsy, and even alcoholism — a water fast heals the body, the brain, the spirit, and the mind.

I’ve collected some incredibly-valuable insights and want to share them with you because I believe this information can change your life for the better and even prolong it. Personally, I never get tired of hearing testimonials of the various miracles people experience after fasting with water only. Currently, I’m learning from a Russian fasting doctor, Dr. Sergei Filonov, who provides many testimonials in his books, and they inspire me. I hope you will also get inspired after reading the body of mind-blowing data I’ve collected for you.

One of the scientific researches I present to you below is by Dr. Yuri Nikolayev, a Russian psychiatrist who cured nearly 70% of his patients via water fasting. It was done behind the “iron curtain” in USSR. He personally spent time teaching Dr. Sergei Filonov, from whom I’m learning now online, and I talk to him via email.

Interestingly, Dr. Yuri Nikolayev’s method was brought from Russia to America and was practiced right here in Atlanta where I live by the Russian doctor, Dr. Yakov Koyfman, who passed away in 2016.

Let the science speak for itself.

Fasting is associated with increased longevity because of its many roles in modifying human health and aging. Moreover, this unique intervention is considered effective for the management of chronic and acute diseases in both traditional and modern healthcare systems. Fasting is a lifestyle management strategy that benefits several chronic, non-infectious diseases. Fasting: Current Insights In clinical trials, fasting results in weight loss and improvements in insulin sensitivity. Fasting: Is the Wait Worth the Weight? Sporadic fasting represents a simple, safe, and inexpensive means to promote therapeutic neuronal autophagy. Short-term fasting induces profound neuronal autophagy Fasting has been shown to be associated with significant improvements in brain function. Clinical evidence has also shown that fasting dietary regime was effective in improving mood states, such as confusion, anger, and tension. Fasting can help protect against many brain diseases, such as epilepsy, Alzheimer’s, and others. The mechanism of acute fasting‐induced antidepressant‐like effects Acute fasting induces antidepressant‐like effects. Fasting is helpful against depression. The mechanism of acute fasting‐induced antidepressant‐like effects Therapeutic effects of fasting: Helps to lose visible weight. Cleanses the body on the cellular level. Helps the body to heal itself. Rejuvenates the body. Supports, strengthens, improves the immune system. Increases belief in one’s own strength. Cleanses on the emotional and psychological levels. Improves digestion. Improves metabolism. Improves vision and hearing. Improves skin condition. Activates the work of the colon. Promotes active and healthy longevity. Dr. Yakov Koyfman, Cell Cleansing Fasting Dr. Yuri Nikolayev, the Director of the Fasting Clinic of The Moscow Institute of Psychiatry for many years claimed to have successfully treated more than 7,000 patients (as of 1972) suffering from neuro-psychiatric conditions by using therapeutic fasting. The Five Stages of Fasting — Dr. Nikolayev [Russian Case Studies] The application of various modifications of fasting for its therapeutic value has been well documented during many different periods of our civilization. In the earliest eras of recorded civilization, humans found in fasting not only a method of treatment and prevention of some diseases, but a potent weapon for self-discipline and moral education. For this reason the fast became an integral part of many religious doctrines and occupied the thinking of physicians and philosophers of Ancient Greek, Tibetan, Indian, and Middle Eastern cultures. Fasting is not starving, and the synonymous use of the two indicates a lack of understanding of the principles of the fast or its meaning. The word “starvation” is derived from the Old English “sterofan,” a form of the Teutonic verb “sterb” — to die. The word “fast” means to abstain from food. In modern usage, “starvation” is used to designate death from lack of food. Whenever fasting is mentioned to the average person and even to many professionals, the immediate response is to think of the dire consequences of going without food for even a few days. If “fasting” is used interchangeably with “starvation,” the inevitable end result is conceived as death. Yet, members of the professions and the press are guilty of confusing the use of the two terms and help to perpetuate the fear of fasting. It is only since the middle of the 19th Century that investigation of fasting as a therapeutic modality was removed from the lore of folk medicine and became the principal method of treatment in clinics and sanatoriums in Switzerland, France, Germany, and to a lesser extent in the United States. At the present time, the fasting experience has been the treatment of

choice for many thousands of physically ill patients. It is used in internal medicine with excellent results in the treatment of metabolic disorders, allergic diseases, skin disorders, arthritis, ulcerative colitis, and cardiovascular disorders. Results obtained in the treatment of grand mal epilepsy by fasting have been very encouraging and require closer attention and serious research. In the U.S.S.R., fasting was first used 25 years ago as a treatment for mentally ill patients by Dr. Yuri Nikolayev. His experience now

extends to over 6,000 patients, and the reported results are unusually encouraging with those patients who have failed to improve on all other treatment regimens. With the ever-increasing list of psychopharmacological drugs used for their psychotropic activity, there has concomitantly arisen an increasing number of patients resistant to those drugs. Many patients exhibit toxic and allergic complications during pharmacotherapy. For these patients, fasting treatment is the most valuable and potent alternative to decompensation and deterioration. The author’s experience with the use of fasting for the treatment of mentally ill patients began in 1970 with an invitation from Prof. Nikolaev to

come to the Moscow Institute to observe in his Therapeutic Fasting Unit and to discuss my work in Orthomolecular treatment with him and his staff of 10 physicians. The treatment as it is used today incorporates the knowledge gained during 28 years of research and clinical experience by Dr. Yuri Nikolayev and his staff. The treatment is conducted in an 80-bed unit in the Moscow Psychiatric Institute, a 3,000-bed psychiatric research center with a staff of 500 physicians. The fast consists of total abstinence from food for a period of 25–30 days. The large majority of patients request voluntary admission to the unit. A small percentage of the patient population is transferred in from other units when all other conventional treatments have failed to produce improvement. All patients must agree to adhere to the required routine of the treatment and may leave the treatment on request. If the patient

voluntarily breaks the fast, the treatment is ended. Hunger diminishes greatly by the end of the second or third day, and appetite is no longer felt by the fifth day. Throughout the fasting period the patients receive as much water as they desire but

they must take a minimum of one liter each day. They adhere to a regimen, which includes outdoor walks and other exercise, breathing exercises, afternoon nap if desired, hydrotherapy procedures (baths and showers), daily cleansing enemas, and general massage. A minimum of three hours of exercise is required, but the patient may have two periods of exercise consisting of three hours each. Patients lose 15–20 percent of their total body weight on a 30-day fast, but their clinical appearance is not that of a person who is starving. Their skin color is good and muscle and skin tone are healthy. The patients do not express any longing or desire for food. Because their prior experiences with treatment have been that of little or no improvement with frequent relapses, many patients request that their fasting period be extended to ensure the permanence of their improved state. When patients are discharged from the hospital, they are advised to take prophylactic fasts of three to five days each month but not to exceed a total of 10 days in the first three months. After this period three- to five-day fasts not to exceed 10 days in any month are recommended. When feeding is begun, the patient remains in hospital for the number of days equal to the length of the fast. Feeding is begun with a saltfree fruit, vegetable, etc. The amounts of food and its caloric value are gradually increased. Bread is not taken until the sixth or seventh day. The treatment has been found to be effective in more than 70 percent of cases of schizophrenia of many years’ duration. Forty-seven percent of patients followed for a period of six years maintained their improvement. Paranoid types do very well during the fast, but their improvement diminishes after feeding begins. I observed many patients who suffered from the form of schizophrenia, which is characterized by a fear of the escape of offending gases and odors from the body. The patient is convinced that everyone near him can hear the sounds and smell the odors. The syndrome generally includes delusions of cosmetic ugliness, small stature, and a variety of similar complaints, which Professor

Nikolaev has labeled “Delusions of Physical Shortcomings.” The syndrome was first described by Charcot and named “Dysmorphobia.” The resulting effect on behavior is similar to that of

patients suffering from other forms of paranoid illness: fear of leaving his room and mingling with other people, fear that people are repelled by him, and then finding corroboration for this in his

misperception of the ordinary changes in the facial expressions of people he passes in the street or on buses or trains. The results in the treatment of these cases had in the past been extremely poor, but when treated with fasting, the results are very

good. The other types of schizophrenia do well

throughout the fasting and recovery period. The manic phase of the manic-depressive illness is brought under control within five to

seven days on the water fast. Fasting Treatment for Schizophrenia by Dr. Yuri Nikolayev, 1974 How do toxins dissolve and eliminate during fasting? When we stop eating, we increase the quantity of liquid intake. This liquid absorbs through the walls of our digestive system into the blood and spreads throughout the body. The increased flow of clean and bio-active fluid flushes and dissolves toxins, flushes out parasites, and pushes it all out to the kidneys, digestive system, lungs, and skin. During the fast, all of these organs become overwhelmed eliminating dirt and parasites, so they need help. The liver also needs help because it has the main responsibility of neutralizing the toxins, which come to the surface during the fast. To help the liver, it is necessary to apply a heating pad for 30–60 minutes on the liver area. Kidneys can be helped with a special message, heating, and special exercises to increase their function and ability. With all the help, kidneys release sand, toxic mucus, small parasites, uric acid, and stones. To increase the elimination functions of the lungs, it is important to do special breathing exercises and heating for the lungs. So, lungs release toxic gas, which accumulates and gets stuck from the cleansing process. To effectively cleanse and increase skin function, use sauna. It is easier to get the dirt off with hot water than cold water. In sauna, toxins dissolve and come out from the very deep levels: blood vessels, lymph, cells, etc. Hot air worms up lungs and dissolves toxins, mucus, kills parasites, and also absorbs into the blood. Wormed up blood and lymph more effectively flush the base of illnesses, tumors, and blockages, toxic mucus in the organs and cells, and releases it through the wide-open pores of the skin. This way cleanses the blood, blood vessels, lungs, kidneys, sinuses, thyroid gland, adrenals, and other glands. The digestive system plays the main role during fasting because it burns and releases the majority of toxins and parasites from the body. To increase the functioning of the digestive system, do internal organ massage, which activates the function of the stomach, liver, pancreas, small, and large intestines. On the cellular level, youth and aging are determined by the relative amount of old and young cells. In youth, the number of young, healthy, and strong cells predominates over the number of old, weak, and sick cells. With time, the cells become polluted and old, and the renewing ability of the body decreases. During fasting, by switching from outer to inner nourishment, the body “eats” old and sick cells (autophagy), and the body’s ability to exchange old cells for new cells increases and speeds up. Metabolism improves. During the breaking of the fast (the renewal period), the body replaces the “eaten” cells for new, healthy, and young cells. The person who does seasonal fasting regularly, without waiting for the disease to come, looks much younger than his or her age. This person is full of energy and has a high resistance to disease. Dr. Yakov Koyfman, Cell Cleansing Fasting Fasting regimens that induce the metabolic switch have the potential to improve body composition in overweight individuals. Moreover, fasting regimens also induce the coordinated activation of signaling pathways that optimize physiological function, enhance performance, and slow aging and disease processes. Flipping the Metabolic Switch: Understanding and Applying Health Benefits of Fasting Fasting has been practiced for millennia, but only recently studies have shed light on its role in adaptive cellular responses that reduce oxidative damage and inflammation, optimize metabolism, and bolster cellular protection. In lower eukaryotes, chronic fasting extends longevity in part by reprogramming metabolic and stress resistance pathways. In rodents intermittent or periodic fasting protects against diabetes, cancers, heart disease, and neurodegeneration, while in humans it helps reduce obesity, hypertension, asthma, and rheumatoid arthritis. Thus, fasting has the potential to delay aging and help prevent and treat diseases while minimizing the side effects caused by chronic dietary interventions. Fasting: Molecular Mechanisms and Clinical Applications

Science supports the benefits of water fasting. Many studies have been done to examine the various aspects of genuine holistic healing people experience when abstaining from food. I’ll share more science with you later about water fasting results.

Below is an iPhone-taken picture of me captured last week at the beach in Destin, FL. I am almost 40 years old, in the best shape of my life, peaceful, and genuinely happy. Fasting with water only plays a huge role in my health optimization on a regular basis.

Fasting on water only helps me look young, feel excellent, avoid medications, and save money on medical bills. Below is that iPhone-captured picture from last week at the beach. I had never had any beauty procedures done. All I do is fast periodically and let my body heal itself, just exactly what God created it to do.

Anna Szabo after water fasting in 2020 in Destin FL

What Is The History of Water Fasting?

Why is it important to understand the history of water fasting? Because this health practice isn’t something someone invented yesterday. We as a species have actually evolved by both feasting and fasting. Once we start answering the question “What is the history of water fasting?” you’ll see that sometimes, there was food, and other times, our ancestors faced famine, so they went without food for prolonged periods of time. It’s good for the body.

During the famine seasons, our body is designed to use up its stored fat and self-heal. The smart body God gave us uses old or damaged cells to eat them up for protein, and we end up clean, healthy, and young. This process of autophagy can’t be activated, unless we abstain from food for over 24 hours. Ever fasting on water for one day is good for you!

In the modern world, famine never comes.

We feast all the time, overeating, drinking crap, and assaulting our bodies constantly with toxins. So, we get sick and wonder why. Eating all the time is unnatural. Feasting must be followed by fasting. Abstaining from food is natural to us as humans with millions of years of evolution.

We say: “This disease runs in my family!” Yes, true, but only because eating habits run in families, and not for any other reason. I’ll answer your question “What is the history of water fasting?” in a minute but I want you to understand why diseases run in families and what you can do to stop it. You are in charge of your own health at all times!

Lifestyle habits run in families, and that’s why diseases get passed from generation to generation. There’s no reason for this. You can change your lifestyle, your eating habits, and your exercise regimen, and you’ll stop having the same diseases your family has.

My entire family is obese, sick, addicted, violent, angry, and miserable. I described the abuse endured in my childhood in my article called Daughters of Narcissistic Mothers. Early in life, I decided to not be like them. My father spent most of his life in jail, so I definitely had a high awareness of my bad genes, and trust me, they did play out: I became an alcoholic, a sex addict, and showed violent behaviors at times.

Today, I am healthy and peaceful. Thank God for the journey of healing. He taught me about my identity in Christ, and I replaced my false beliefs embedded in my headspace by my family with the true beliefs from the Bible. I know that I came here from God, not from my family.

God made me for a purpose, and my health is important if I want to fulfill His calling on my life. My body is a temple for The Holy Spirit, and I must honor God with my body. All these breakthroughs helped me embrace healthful living, gain peace, experience joy, and heal.

I don’t eat, think, or live the same way my family members do. When I was with them and followed their lifestyle, I was hospitalized with various diseases multiple times each year. God gave me my own discernment. He told me how to live and eat. It’s all in the Bible.

That’s why I eat plants like Daniel, fast for prolonged periods like Jesus, walk 10000 steps a day like my ancestors, practice Christian guided meditation to have a strong communion with God, keep a gratitude journal to protect my mind from entitlement, and choose peace daily by taking every thought captive and submitting it to the truth of Christ, which is shown in the ITCEBO model I created. That’s how the diseases of my family don’t run my life. God’s healing power runs my life!

We each have a choice, and exploring the question “What is the history of water fasting?” can help us realize how essential famine is in human life. Fasting is healthy. Feasting all the time is unhealthy.

Since we naturally have an excess of food, we must force famine artificially on ourselves using the power of our mind. Dr. Sergei Filonov talks in his books a lot about the mental preparation for the period of abstaining from food. It’s a good practice of conquering flesh.

So, what is the history of water fasting?

Water-only fasting is one of the most profound, natural, and effective tools for cleansing and health recovery. While fasting has been a part of human culture for millions of years, only in the last few hundred years have we begun to investigate the therapeutic benefits of this practice. Interestingly, modern science has found a variety of verifiable positive effects fasting has on human health. Water-Only Fasting Fasting In Man Man is an animal and, as such, is subject to the same laws of existence and the same conditions of living, as are other animals. As a part of the great organic world, he is not a being that is set apart from the ordinary and regular conditions of life, governed by different laws and requirements of existence. It is not surprising, therefore, that we find man not only able to fast for prolonged periods and able to do so with benefit, but also find him fasting under a wide variety of circumstances and for a wide variety of purposes. We shall briefly review the most important of the conditions, under which man fasts, and the purposes, for which he fasts. RELIGIOUS FASTING Fasting as a religious observance has long been practiced for the accomplishment of certain goods. Religious fasting is of early origin, antedating recorded history. Partial or entire abstinence from food, or from certain kinds of foods, at stated seasons, prevailed in Assyria, Persia, Babylon, Scythia, Greece, Rome, India, Ninevah, Palestine, China, in northern Europe among the Druids, and in America among the Indians. It was a widely diffused practice, often indulged as a means of penitence, in mourning, and as a preparation for participation in religious rites, such as baptism and communion. At the very dawn of civilization, the Ancient Mysteries, a secret worship or wisdom religion that flourished for thousands of years in Egypt, India, Greece, Persia, Thrace, Scandinavia, and the Gothic and Celtic nations, prescribed and practiced fasting. The Druidical religion among the Celtic peoples required a long probationary period of fasting and prayer before the candidate could advance. A fast of fifty days was required in the Mithraic religion in Persia. Indeed, fasting was common to all the mysteries, which were all quite similar to the Egyptian mysteries and were probably derived from these. Moses, who was learned in “all the wisdom of Egypt,” is said to have fasted for more than 120 days on Mount Sinai. The mysteries of Tyre, which were represented in Judea in the days of Jesus, in a secret society known as the Essenes, also prescribed fasting. In the first century A.D., there existed in Alexandria, Egypt, an ascetic sect of Jews, called Therapeutae, who resembled the Essenes and who borrowed much from the Kabala and from the Pythagorian and Orphic systems. These Therapeutae gave great attention to the sick and held fasting in high esteem as a curative measure. Fasting is mentioned quite frequently in the Bible while several fasts of considerable duration are recorded therein, as, Moses forty days (Ex. 24:18; Exodus 34:28); Elijah forty days (1st Kings, 19:8); David seven days (2 Sam. 12:20); Jesus forty days (Matthew 4:2); Luke, “I fast twice in the week” (Luke 18:12); “This kind cometh not out save by prayer and fasting” (Matt. 17:21); a fast throughout all Judea (2 Chronicles 20:8). The Bible cautions against fasting for mere notoriety (Matt. 6:17, 18). It also advises fasters not to wear a sad countenance (Matt. 6:16); but to find pleasure in fasting and to perform one’s work (Isa. 58:3), and that certain fasts shall be fasts of gladness (Zech. 8.19). We may very properly assume that some great good was the object of the many fasts mentioned in the Bible, even though we may be sure that they were not always intended for the “cure” of “disease.” We may also be sure that the ancients had no fear of starving to death by missing a few meals. For two thousand years, the Christian religion has recommended “prayer and fasting” and the story of the forty days’ fast in the wilderness has been told from thousands of pulpits. Religious fasts were frequently practiced in the early days of Christianity and during the Middle Ages. Thomas Campanella tells us that frail nuns often sought relief from attacks of hysteria by fasting “seven times seventy hours,” or twenty and one half days. John Calvin and John Wesley both strongly urged fasting as a beneficial measure for both ministers and people. Among the early Christians, fasting was purification. Fasting is yet a regular practice among the nations of the Far East, especially among the East Indians. The many fasts of Gandhi are generally known. Penance-worn members of the early church frequently retired to the desert for a month or two to fight down temptations. They would drink water from some dilapidated old cistern during the period, but to eat so much as a millet-seed was considered a breach of their vows and destroyed the merits of their penance. At the end of the second month the “gaunt world-renouncers” generally had sufficient strength to return home unassisted. The writer of Peregrinato Silviæ, in describing how Lent was observed in Jerusalem, when she was there about 386 A.D., says: “They abstained entirely from all food during Lent, except on Saturdays and Sundays. They took a meal about midday on Sunday, and after that they took nothing until Saturday morning. This was their rule through Lent.” Although the Catholic Church has no law requiring fasting, as we use the term, it was voluntarily practiced by many individuals in the past. Fasting, whether total abstinence from food or abstinence from proscribed foods, is regarded by this Church as a penance. The Catholic Church also teaches that Jesus fasted in order to instruct and encourage belief in the practice of penance. The Roman Church has both “fast-days” and “abstinence-days,” though they are not necessarily the same. The “law of abstinence” is on a different basis and “is regulated, not by the quantity, but by the quality of food” permitted. “The law of abstinence forbids the use of meat or meat broth, but not eggs, ‘lacticinia’ (milk), or condiments of any kind even from ‘the fat of animals’.” The rule of the church in fasting is: “What constitutes fasting is the taking of only one full meal in a day.” “In earlier times a strict fast was kept until sunset. Now, this full meal may be taken any time after mid-day, or, as the church’s approved authors hold, shortly before. Some even hold that the full meal may be taken at any time during the 24 hours.” But this “one full meal in twenty-four hours” does not prohibit the taking of some food in the morning and evening. Indeed, “local custom,” which is often a somewhat undefined phrase, as determined by the local bishop, determines what extra-food may be taken daily. In America, the rule is that the morning meal should not exceed two ounces of bread; in Westminster (England) the limit is three ounces. Obviously a “fast” of this nature is not what we mean by fasting, for a man may eat enough in this manner to grow fat. Nor can Hygienists accept the so-called moral principle of the Roman Church — “parvum pro nihilo reputatur” and “ne potus noceat” — “a little is reckoned as nothing,” “lest drink unaccompanied by anything solid should be harmful.” We hold that little driblet meals are not fasting. The Lenten fast of Catholics is also merely a period of abstinence from certain proscribed foods, although there are Catholics who take advantage of the period for a real fast. The early practice of fasting until sundown, then feasting, is similar to the practice of Mohammedans in their so-called fast of Ramadan. During this season, people do not eat and cannot drink wine nor smoke cigarettes from sunrise to sunset, but they have their cigarettes handy, ready to begin smoking as soon as the sun goes down, and they enjoy a night of feasting. A grand carouse at night makes up for their abstinence during the day. Their cities hold nightly carnivals, the restaurants are lighted, and the streets are filled with revelers, the bazaars are well-illuminated, and the peddlers of lemonade and sweetmeats are in their glory. The wealthy sit up all night receiving and returning calls and giving dinner parties. After forty days of this feasting and reveling, the people celebrate the end of their month of “fasting” with the feasting of Bairam. At the present time Christians of all sects and denominations rarely undergo real fasts. Most fasts of Roman, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant communicants are merely periods of abstinence from flesh foods. Abstinence from flesh foods other than fish on “fast” days appears to have been enjoined merely to aid the fishing and shipbuilding industries. Among the Jews fasting always means entire abstinence from food, and at least one of their fast days carries with it abstinence from water also. Their periods of fasting are commonly only short ones. While the Hindu Nationalist’s leader, Gandhi, fully understood the hygienic value of the fast, and often fasted for hygienic purposes, most of his fasts were “purification” or penance fasts and political weapons, by which he compelled England to accede to his demands. He even fasted for the purification of India, and not merely for his own cleansing. Fasting formed part of the religious observances of the Aztecs and Toltecs of Mexico, the Incas of Peru, and of other American tribes. Fasting was also practiced by the Pacific Islanders; while there are traces of fasting in China and Japan, even before their contact with Buddhism. In Eastern Asia and wherever Brahmanism and Buddhism have spread, fasting has been kept alive. FASTING AS MAGIC With fasting as magic we have nothing to do, except to study the phenomenon. Tribal fasts, as seen among the American Indians, to avert some threatened calamity, or fasting, as by Gandhi to purify India, is the use of fasting as magic. Fasting was widely observed, both in private and in public ceremonials by the American Indians. Fathers of newborn children are required to fast among the Melanesians. Fasting was often part of the rite of initiation into manhood and womanhood or for sacred and ritual acts among many tribes of people. David’s twelve days’ fast, as recorded in the Bible, while his son was ill, was a magic fast. Ceremonial fasting carried out in several religions may properly be classed as magic fasting. If we carefully distinguish between magic fasting and protest fasting, as in hunger strikes, we may say that magic fasting is fasting undergone to achieve some desired end outside the person of the faster. We are interested in such fasts simply as another part of the evidence that man, like the lower animals, may fast for extended periods and may do so not only without harm, but with positive benefit. DISCIPLINARY FASTS Major W. C. Gotschall, M. S., says: “There is nothing new about fasting. Among the ancients it was recognized as a sovereign method of attaining and maintaining marked mental and physical efficiency. Socrates and Plato, two of the greatest of the Greek philosophers and teachers, fasted regularly for a period of ten days at a time. Pythagoras, another of the Greek philosophers, was also a regular faster, and before he took an examination at the University of Alexandria, fasted for forty days. He required his pupils to fast for forty days before they could enter his class.” H. B. Cushman tells us in his History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Natchez Indians, that the Choctaw warrior and hunter “often indulged in protracted fasts” to train him to “endure hunger.” PERIODIC AND YEARLY FASTS Luke mentions in his Gospel the practice of fasting one day out of each week, which seems to have been very general in his day. Periodic fasting has been practiced by many different people and by many different individuals. It is asserted that the ancient Egyptians were accustomed to fasting for a brief period, about two weeks each summer. Many people of today do this same thing. They have a fast or two fasts each year. Others follow the custom referred to by Luke and fast one day out of each week. Others fast three to five days out of each month. The practice of periodic fasting takes many forms with many different individuals. These fasts are usually of but short duration, but they are always of distinct benefit. HUNGER STRIKES Hunger strikes have become very frequent during the past thirty years. Perhaps the most famous of these have been the protest fasts of Gandhi and the hunger strike of McSwiney and his co-political prisoners in Cork, Ireland, in 1920. Joseph Murphy, who went on the hunger strike with McSwiney, died on the 68th day of his fast; McSwiney on the 74th day. Older readers will recall that some years ago when the suffragettes of England would go on hunger strikes, they would be forcibly fed by a painful process, while, at the same time, there was much talk of letting them “starve” in prison. Gandhi’s frequent fasts were usually protests against some British policy, although sometimes he fasted to purify India because of some wrongs she had committed. He was, however, fully acquainted with the Hygienic value of the fast and was fully conversant with the literature on the subject. His longest fast seems to have been about twenty-one days. Many men and women in all parts of the world have staged hunger-strikes of longer or shorter duration. EXHIBITION OR STUNT FASTS There have been a number of fasters who were more or less professional fasters, fasting largely for show and making money out of the process. These have fasted publicly and have charged admission to the public to get in to see them. Of such were Succi and Merlatti, two Italian exhibition fasters, and Jacques. Jacques fasted 42 days in London in 1890 and 50 days in the same city in 1891. He fasted 30 days in Edinburgh, in 1889. Merlatti fasted 50 days in Paris in 1885. Succi took several long fasts ranging from 21 to 46 days. One of his fasts was carefully studied by Prof. Luciani, famous Italian authority on nutrition. EXPERIMENTAL FASTS Experimental fasts, in which men and women have taken part, are perhaps more numerous than we think. Profs. Carlson and Kunde, of the University of Chicago, made a few experiments of this nature a few years ago. Their fasts were of relatively short duration. At this time, I believe that Dr. Carlson is conducting experiments with the fast and he is said to take occasional short fasts himself. But few experimental fasts of considerable duration have been made in man. Dr. Luigi Luciani, professor of Physiology at the University of Rome, studied a thirty days fast undergone by Succi in 1889. Victor Pashutin, director of the Imperial Military Medical Academy, Petrograd, Russia, performed a number of experiments upon animals, and investigated cases of death from starvation in man and published the results of his researches in his “Pathological Physiology of Inanition.“ Dr. Francis Gano Benedict, of the Carnegie Institute at Roxbury, Mass., published a book some years ago, entitled the “Metabolism of Inanition.” In spite of the care observed in the conduct of his fasting experiments and the skill, with which the various tests and measurements were carried out, very few decisive results came from these experiments, for they were based on short fasts, the longest one of seven days, having been that of a hypochondriac, who, according to Tucsek, being abnormal, could not produce normal physiological results. It is also true that the first few days of the fast witness the worst troubles, so that the results of these short fasts were very misleading, or as Prof. Levanzin says, “that great book, on which the Carnegie Institute squandered six thousand dollars, is not worth the paper, on which it was printed.” Benedict’s discussion of past experiments with the fast is devoted to fasts in healthy subjects, and this can throw but little light on the importance of the fast in disease. In 1912 Professor Agostino Levanzin of Malta came to America to be studied by Prof. Benedict, while he underwent a fast of thirty-one days’ duration. His fast was commenced on April 13, 1912 at a weight of “less than two pounds over 132 pounds, normal weight, according to the Yale University measurements, my height being five feet, six, and one-half inches.” Levanzin thinks that this is an important point in every fast. He points out that professional fasters, like hibernating animals, generally overeat before they start fasting and accumulate a good store of fat and other reserves. He thinks that, due to this fact, the long fasts previously studied were of the destruction of adipose tissue and not of the whole body. He attempted to avoid this “mistake” by starting his fast at “normal” body weight. It was his opinion that the length of the fast is of no importance if it is not started from normal body weight. He was of the opinion that man can lose sixty percent of his normal body-weight without any risk of death or damage to his health. He says that the greatest part of the normal body weight is also a storage of food. “At the outset of my fast, my exact weight was a shade over 133½ pounds (60.6 kilograms). At the conclusion of the thirty-one days of my fast, I weighed barely 104½ pounds (47.4 kilograms), a total loss of twenty-nine pounds during the fast. Throughout the fast, tests were taken of my pulse rate, blood pressure, respiration rate, respiration volume, blood examination, anthropometrical measurements, urine analysis, and growth of hair, not to mention innumerable other observations of my mental and physical condition from day to day.” FASTING WHEN EATING IS IMPOSSIBLE There are pathological conditions, under which eating is impossible. Such conditions as cancer of the stomach, destruction of the stomach by acids, and by other causes, renders it no longer possible to take food. Persons in this condition often go for extended periods without food, before they finally die. In certain conditions of gastric neurosis food is vomited about as fast as it is swallowed, or it is passed into the small intestine with almost equal rapidity and hurried to the exit and expelled without being digested. Such an individual, though eating, is going without food. Such a state of affairs may last for an extended period. SHIPWRECKED SAILORS AND PASSENGERS Shipwrecked sailors and aviators forced down at sea, have, in many instances, been forced to exist for long periods without food, and often without water. Many have survived long periods without food under the many severe conditions that the sea offers. During the recent war, many instances of this nature received much publicity. In “My Debut As A Literary Person,” Mark Twain, seriously in this instance, records some of his experiences with and observations of fasting. He says: “A little starvation can really do more for the average sick man than can the best of medicines and the best of doctors. I do not mean a restricted diet, I mean total abstinence from food for one or two days. I speak from experience; starvation has been my cold and fever doctor for fifteen years, and has accomplished a cure in all instances. The third mate told me in Honolulu that the ‘por-tyghee’ had lain in his hammock for months, raising his family of abscesses and feeding like a cannibal. We have seen that in spite of dreadful weather, deprivation of sleep, scorching, drenching, and all manner of miseries, thirteen days of starvation ‘wonderfully recovered’ him. There were four sailors down sick when the ship was burned. Twenty-five days of pitiless starvation have followed, and now we have this curious record: ‘all men are hearty and strong, even the ones that were down sick are well, except poor Peter.’ When I wrote an article some months ago urging temporary abstinence from food as a remedy for an inactive appetite and for disease, I was accused of jesting, but I was in earnest. ‘We are all wonderfully well and strong, comparatively speaking.’ On this day the starvation regimen drew its belt a couple of buckle-holes tighter; the bread ration was reduced from the usual piece of cracker the size of a silver dollar to the half of that, and one meal was abolished from the daily three. This will weaken the men physically, but if there are any diseases of the ordinary sort left in them, they will disappear.” ENTOMBED MINERS Frequently, when there are mine cave-ins, one or more miners are entombed for shorter or longer periods, during which time they are without food and often without water. Their survival until they can be rescued depends not upon food, but upon air. If the oxygen supply is exhausted before rescuers reach them, they perish, otherwise, they survive days without food. The entombed miner is like the animal buried for days and weeks under a snow-drift. He is able to go for prolonged periods without food and survive, just as are these animals. FASTING IN ILLNESS It is estimated that fasting for the alleviation of human suffering has been practiced uninterruptedly for 10,000 years. No doubt it has been employed from the time man first began to get sick. Fasting was a part of the methods of healing practiced in the Ancient Aesculapian Temples of Toscurd Guido, 1300 years before the time of Jesus. Hippocrates, the mythical Greek “Father of Physics,” seems to have prescribed total abstinence from food while a “disease” was on the increase, and especially at the critical period, and a spare diet on other occasions. Tertullian has left us a treatise on fasting written about 200 A.D. Plutarch said: “Instead of using medicine rather fast a day.” Avicenna, the great Arab physician often prescribed fasting for three weeks or more. I think that there is no room to doubt that man, like the lower animals, has always fasted when acutely ill. In more modern times, the medical profession has taught the sick that they must eat to keep up their strength and that, if they do not eat, their resistance will be lowered and they will lose strength. The thought behind all of this is that unless the sick eat they are likely to die. The reverse of this is the truth: the more they eat, the more likely are they to die. In his “Eating for Strength”, M. L. Holbrook, an outstanding Hygienist of the last century, says: “Fasting is no cunning trick of priestcraft, but the most powerful and safest of all medicines.” When animals are sick, they refuse food. Only when they are well, and not before, will they resume eating. It is as natural or normal for man to refuse food when sick as for animals to do so. His natural repulsion to food is a safe guide to not eating. The aversions and dislikes of the sick, especially to food, noise, motion, light, close air, etc., are not to be lightly dismissed. They express protective measures of the sick body. FAMINE AND WAR War and famine, whether the famine has been produced by drought, insect pests, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, freezes, snows, etc., have frequently deprived whole populations of food for extended periods, so they have been forced to fast. In many of these instances, they have had limited food supplies, but in others, no food has been available for long periods. The ability of man to fast, even for long periods, proves to be, as with the lower animals, an important means of survival under such circumstances. Such prolonged periods of deprivation were much more frequent in past ages than today when rapid transportation and modern means of communication make it possible to get food to people in famine districts in a very short time. FASTING UNDER EMOTIONAL STRESS Grief, worry, anger, shock, and other emotional irritations are almost as potent in suspending the desire for food and in rendering digestion practically impossible as are pain, fever, and severe inflammation. An excellent example of this is that of the young lady, in New York, who a few years ago attempted to drown herself and who explained, when rescued by two sailors, that when her sweetheart who had been in port two days had not called to see her nor communicated with her, she thought she had been jilted. Her sailor friend, kept on duty and not having the opportunity to communicate with her, was permitted to see her. He asked when she had eaten and she replied: “Not since yesterday, Bill, I couldn’t.” Her grief or sense of loss had resulted in a suspension of digestive secretions and a loss of desire for food. FASTING BY THE INSANE The insane commonly manifest a strong aversion to food and, unless forcibly fed, will often go for extended periods without eating. It is customary in institutions devoted to the care of the mentally ill, to force-feed such patients, often by very cruel means. This aversion to food by the insane is undoubtedly an instinctive move in the right direction. In his “Natural Cure,” pp. 140–143, Dr. Page presents a very interesting account of a patient that recovered normal mental health by fasting forty-one days, after other treatment had miserably failed. One case of insanity in a young man who came under my care refused food for thirty-nine days, resuming eating on the morning of the fortieth day of fasting, greatly improved in mental condition. I have used fasting in other cases of mental disease and have no doubt that fasting is distinctly beneficial and, I am convinced that when the insane patient refuses food, this is an instinctive measure designed to assist the body in its reconstructive work. HIBERNATION IN MAN Of possible human hibernation, it has been said that it is “a condition utterly inexplicable on any principle taught in the schools.” Nonetheless, there are a number of people who practice a near approach to hibernation during the winter season. This is true of the Eskimos of northern Canada, as well as of certain tribes of northern Russia. By putting on fat and wintering very much as does the bear, only much less completely, the Eskimo reveals that man has some hibernating power. By keeping warm, usually by huddling together in the home, and moving very little, he goes through the long winter on half the usual food. At the onset of winter, the Eskimo will sew himself up in his fur-lined parka, leaving accessible openings for certain physiological necessities, and will stay in his hut for the duration of the winter, existing on dried salmon, hard-tack, ground corn cakes, and water. The fact that he undertakes very little physical activity reduces the amount of energy spent, thus aiding him in sustaining the food reserves accumulated in his body at a level, at which there is no danger of systemic detriment. Certain Russian peasants of the Pskov region have been known to sleep around a fire during most of the winter, awakening once daily to eat. There is no evidence that this is anything other than a quasi-hibernation, as they employ fire to keep themselves warm, awaken daily to eat, and, it should not be forgotten, it is easily possible to take all the food required by an even active life in one meal daily. INSTINCTIVE FASTING Fasting above all other measures can lay claim to being a strictly natural method. There can be no doubt that it is the oldest of all measures of meeting those crises in the organism called “disease.” It is much older than the human race itself since it is resorted to instinctively by sick and wounded animals. “The fasting-cure instinct,” says Oswald, “is not limited to our dumb fellow-creatures. It is a common experience that pain, fevers, gastric congestions, and even mental afflictions ‘take away the appetite,’ and only unwise nurses will try to thwart the purpose of nature in this respect.” The doctrine of total depravity taught men to distrust the promptings of their natural instincts, and, while the doctrine is slowly fading from religion, it is as strong as ever in medicine. The promptings of instinct are ignored and the sick are stuffed with “good nourishing food” to “keep up their strength.” “There is a very general concurrence of opinion,” says Jennings, “that the aversion to food, which characterizes all cases of acute disease and is fully in proportion to the severity of the symptoms, is one of nature’s blunders that require the intervention of art, and hence enforced feeding regardless of aversion.” Dr. Shew declared: “Abstinence is by far too much feared in the treatment of disease generally. We have a good reason for believing that many a life has been destroyed by the indiscriminate feeding, which is so often practiced among the sick.” In the human realm, instinct prevails only to the extent that we permit. Although one of the first things nature does to the person with acute “disease” is to stop all desire for food, the well-meaning friends of the sick man encourage him to eat. These may bring in tasty and tempting dishes designed to please his taste and excite an appetite but the most they ever succeed in doing is to get the patient to nibble a few bites. The ignorant physician may insist that he must “eat to keep up strength,” but Mother Nature, who is wiser than any doctor who ever lived, continues to say, “do not eat.” The man who is sick, but who is able to be about his work, complains of having lost his appetite. He no longer enjoys his food. This is because his organic instincts know that to eat in the usual way is to increase the “disease.” The man thinks the loss of appetite is a great calamity and seeks a way to restore it. In this, he is encouraged by physicians and friends, who, alike, erroneously think that the sick man must eat to keep up his strength. The doctor prescribes a tonic and stuffing and, of course, the patient is made worse. LONG FASTS IN MAN Animals may go without food for prolonged periods without damage to their bodies or to individual organs. The objection is often raised that, while some animals may do this, man cannot, for there are still those who would place man outside of the uniformities of Nature and make him an exception. Nevertheless, the facts prove that man may go for long periods without food, not alone without injury to himself, but with positive benefit. Old mistakes are repeated year after year in reference works so that the public is at all times misinformed. The New Standard Encyclopedia (1931) says: “Generally death occurs after eight days of deprivation of food.” This encyclopedia mentions the fifteen men survivors of the frigate Medusa (1876), who were thirteen days on an open raft without food, and also a case instanced by Bernard which was “sustained on water alone for 63 days.” Succi’s forty days fast is also mentioned. No mention is made of fasting as a hygienic or remedial measure, and not a single scientific and up-to-date book on fasting is included in the bibliography. Until the 1921 revisions of that work were made, the Encyclopedia Britannica and similar works, carried articles on inanition and fasting, stating, over the signatures of eminent medical authorities, that from ten to fourteen days marked the extreme limit to which the human body could endure without food. Thousands of fasts of much longer duration, even up to 70 and 90 days, had been recorded; but the medical profession and scientists gave no attention to them. That “common sense” may still be arrayed against the demonstrated facts of experiment and experience, and that men who pose as scientists, may deny what may be known about the body because it does not seem to them to harmonize with what they think they now know about the body is amazing proof that there have been ignorant bigots and that they are not all dead. Sinclair says he talked with a well-known and successful physician, “who refused point-blank to believe that a human being could live for more than five days without any sort of nutriment.” “There was no use talking to him about it — it was a physiological impossibility.” He refused to investigate the evidence offered that it could be done. Bigotry we have with us always. Men who form their opinions in advance of investigation and, who, then refuse to investigate, lest they have their opinions swept away, are all too common. The American People’s Encyclopedia says that the survival time of acute “starvation” (complete abstinence from all food) is forty days in man. It says that in individual men the survival time (as determined in laboratory “starvation” experiments) ranges from 17 to 76 days. It is not likely that any such laboratory experiments have ever been made. One thing we may be certain of: namely, the survival times given are not accurate. A baby may survive more than seventeen days of fasting. Numerous fasters have not only survived but benefitted by fasts lasting longer than 76 days. While man is, apparently, not capable of fasting for such long periods as are many of the lower animals, many long fasts have been recorded in man. “Modern science” is said to be very skeptical of these reported long fasts; but “modern science,” despite its proud boasting of its experimental methods and its readiness to investigate, is not willing to investigate fasting. If any of the nit-wits who are called scientists really desire to observe and study long fasts at firsthand, it may be easily arranged. There is no excuse for either doubt or incredulity when knowledge may be had. In this connection, it should be noted that the so-called authorities look well upon the reported fast