Fasting to cure mental illness

[aizome]

i've fasted for a week living on water with lemon juice, as for the link with mental illness, i doubt it. i won't pretend to know much about how fasting affects physical health, but i know when i fasted all i wanted to do was sleep, and i do way too much of that already.

also, on top of headaches and lower abdominal pain, i was irritable 95% of the time.

 

[striker]

There are some things that western medical knowledge is good at fixing. There are some things that they are 'not' good at fixing. The problem lies in the fact that even when a cure isn't available, the whole industry keeps quiet about it and acts like it knows how to fix it.
As a consumer, the sooner one understands this, the better it can be put to use.
- Ever wonder why, when we can studies on every trivial subject, there
aren't any studies done on the efficacy of treatments? Insurance companies
have all the data they need. They can churn down these statistics to the
number of tests done, to the volume of blood tested etc..

- Just because they can fix victims from a car accident doesn't mean, they can fix SA or anything else. Where is the science in it. This is the concept of social proof, applied to medicine.

If you're in a car accident, feel free to limp on over to your faith healer with your guts hanging out and your spine broken; I will go to the hospital to a team of highly trained surgeons. We'll see who fairs better. I will gladly fuel the capitalist system with my mended guts and spine. I fear eating light cool foods won't do much to stop the blood loss, much less fix your spine...those things can be tricky

 

[cosmosis]

That is a very paranoid vision of our post industrial society. I am not going to argue with you whether the Government and corporations are deliberately causing pain and suffering to millions of people for money. I'm not going to dignify paranoid delusions with a response.

It's as if you're telling me the Earth is a cube and the Government has convinced us it's a sphere...I'm not even going to argue with you

Haha! That's funny but sad. I shouldn't be wasting my time, but because its so absurd, let me quote you from a little back.

You always have so many toxins and you need their products or books to get rid of these things you didn't even knew you had, before they were so gracious to tell you. First they convince you you're sick and then, you're in luck, they have the cure!

Mmmmm, tsk tsk, sounds like paranoid delusions to me So let me get this straight, its okay to be paranoid when it comes to anything BUT corporations and government? Ha! Can you seriously sit here and say that corporations are any different to the new age people who also take advantage of people for money? Do you even think for a second before you speak?

The question isn't really if these "toxins" exist, but that fasting will increase your health. There is no evidence that it does

So now they exist? Atleast you are slowly learning. So your statement is that no evidence shows that it will increase your health.

Okay....this is funny, but let me quote the EXACT SAME ARTICLE you quoted 2 pages back. This is right at the point you stopped quoting interesting enough

"There's considerable evidence, for instance, that severe diabetes can be brought under control quickly on a modified fast in which the patient eats nothing but 9 to 12 ounces a day of protein (meat, fish or fowl), plus electrolyte supplements, and bicarbonate of soda, says Blackburn. Eating protein slows the wasting of muscle; and with no intake of carbohydrates, blood sugar stabilizes.

Modified fasting can also lower blood pressure. During his fast, Purcell's pressure fell from 140 over 90 to 108 over 78.

Scandinavian data suggests that fasting also helps people with arthritis, says Dr. Joel Fuhrman, a guru in Belle Mead, N.J., who has overseen the fasts of thousands of patients, including Purcell, who paid $1, 200 to live in Furhman's home during his fast.

When no food is taken in, Furhman believes, the body's inflammatory response to foreign substances may decrease, thus allowing the hyperactive immune system - the hallmark of auto-immune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis - to calm down. "

Just stop for a second and think please so this doesn't have to go on forever. If you want to debate about whether fasting will help SA or something or someone in particular, that's fine. But to say outright that's there no evidence that fasting can ever help, is basically just pissing people off. That is NOT an opinion, that is arrogance. Atleast I can admit that fasting can be bad for some people or at certain times. Can you do the same in the opposite respect?

 

[meatcake]

When no food is taken in, Furhman believes, the body's inflammatory response to foreign substances may decrease, thus allowing the hyperactive immune system - the hallmark of auto-immune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis - to calm down. "

Oh yeah, I forgot about that - people do develop weird immune responses to food proteins also, which could be another (temporary) benefit to fasting. Like seeds have these really densely packed storage proteins which can be hard to digest, and when your immune system sees bits of these proteins in your gut it thinks they're signs of bacteria, so develops an immune response to them. Hence you get things like peanut allergies, wheat allergies, etc.

When I eat peanuts nowadays I'll be incredibly exhausted the next day. It actually took me a long time to figure out what was causing it. But I think it was from when I was eating a lot of peanuts, because I was running out of other food, and didn't want to go to the grocery store. But I think doing that overwhelms your digestive system, and it can't break down all the protein fast enough. So be careful eating peanuts!

 

[Thelema]

My Mother-in-law was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago, she stopped eating completely. It sped up her death by several months. No cure there.

Peace

That's the real fear I have about these wacky beliefs not based on anything rational or scientific. A healthy person's body can tolerate not eating for a couple days, but when a sick person does it, it can make things much worse or kill them.

I don't care if a healthy person wants to eat just avocados for a couple of days to get rid of "toxins", but these beliefs applied to a sick person can do real harm.

 

[Thelema]

There are some things that western medical knowledge is good at fixing. There are some things that they are 'not' good at fixing. The problem lies in the fact that even when a cure isn't available, the whole industry keeps quiet about it and acts like it knows how to fix it.
As a consumer, the sooner one understands this, the better it can be put to use.
- Ever wonder why, when we can studies on every trivial subject, there
aren't any studies done on the efficacy of treatments? Insurance companies
have all the data they need. They can churn down these statistics to the
number of tests done, to the volume of blood tested etc..

- Just because they can fix victims from a car accident doesn't mean, they can fix SA or anything else. Where is the science in it. This is the concept of social proof, applied to medicine.

The whole industry, as you put it, is comprised of thousands of scientists dedicating their life to treating and curing disease. By their advances MILLIONS of people are here today that would have died just a couple hundred years ago.

How dare you belittle medical science's accomplishments.

"Social proof"...I'm disgusted you can say that when referring to scientists and medical doctors

 

[cosmosis]

The whole industry, as you put it, is comprised of thousands of scientists dedicating their life to treating and curing disease. By their advances MILLIONS of people are here today that would have died just a couple hundred years ago.

How dare you belittle medical science's accomplishments.

"Social proof"...I'm disgusted you can say that when referring to scientists and medical doctors

Hehehe. That's just like the image I had in gradeschool - Thousands of nerdy guys with white coats in giant government buildings working feverishly to discover the truth or a cure. If only it was true

In the real world, research is paid by someone. Most of the time its corporations. Or if its the government, many times its on behalf of the lobbyists, which essentially is the corporations again.

The scientists are not to blame of course. But they need to make a livings and they are under the guidance of research grants.

As a corporation, what do you think makes the most money? Putting millions of dollars of research to find a cure (or a preventive measure) that will not make them a damn cent and in fact takes away a potential market. Or putting millions of dollars of research into possible 'treatments' that are long term or perpetual that will make them lots of money?

Corporations don't even have a choice. They answer to the stock holders and they take the route that will make them the most money every single time. Unfortunately, altruistic research is very minimal.

That's the real fear I have about these wacky beliefs not based on anything rational or scientific. A healthy person's body can tolerate not eating for a couple days, but when a sick person does it, it can make things much worse or kill them.

Nonsense. All animals naturally fast when sick. They get by just fine. Humans also lose their appetites when sick. I will let you think about the reason for that. Granted that it is beneficial to have minimal nutrients when sick. But too much food and you can get complications that way. I don't care how sick you are, you cannot die from fasting in 2 days unless you were going to die anyway.

 

[NormanBates]

Why is it that up until recently, non-westernized countries didn't have so much heart attacks and cancer? Was it an accident? Or did their knowing of foods etc. dissuade them from ever thinking up serving themselves any similar disease causing foodstuffs?

 

[striker]

I am going to stick to the topic at hand: Fasting

The Ayurvedic/Yogic view on this is, that fasting is beneficial when its done once a week.

The reason being, the digestive process uses a lot of resources, so as long as the body is being is subjected to a such continuous process, it doesn't do any house cleaning.

So leave a day or half a day and fast for that time in a given week, so it gives the body some breathing space and it does it internal cleansing.

Also ideally, we should be eating to 1/3ths of our appetite, leaving the 1/3rd.

Yoga Diet - Fasting the Yoga Way

 

[Thelema]

Why is it that up until recently, non-westernized countries didn't have so much heart attacks and cancer? Was it an accident? Or did their knowing of foods etc. dissuade them from ever thinking up serving themselves any similar disease causing foodstuffs?

I think the topic of obesity and over eating of crap has been studied to death.

Even tho we've let ourselves go as a society, we're still living longer and longer because of our medical technology. I remember reading we're not so far off from taking a pill to turn off the aging process in the body, so we might become practically immortal (unless you get run over by a bus) within our lifetimes. I just hope it isn't our generation's flying car tho.

No more death from age and perpetually young, pretty exciting stuff, huh?

 

[dottie]

first of all i don't think there is a "cure" for mental illness. (why even call it an illness? is it really illness? or is it normal for humans to vary in mentality- just like characteristics like height and skin color.) even if it is an "illness" i don't believe in a cure. especially, not from fasting for a set period of time.

secondly, being hungry makes me a crazy bitch. if you think i'm crazy before... lol... when i'm hungry it is 10 times worse. especially the paranoia.

 

[Lea]

If fasting could cure aspergers, would be good. Which of course it won´t.
As someone pointed out before, many people mistake fasting with only being hungry when their dinner isn´t in time. But by fasting when it´s done right, we shouldn´t feel hunger. I think when we stop feeling the hunger is a good sign that the body went clean. Feeling hungry and nervous means, the body is still in the poisoned state.

 

[jaim38]

I don't know if the human body is capable of surviving without food or water for days, weeks, or months. Because the biological body is created to turn food into energy. We are not gods, ghosts, witches, or supernatural creatures. I would not try fasting to cure anything.

 

[Flanscho]

Doesn't make any sense to me.
If you already have a mental illness, and use that to "fuel" fasting, then you might quickly exaggerate it ("I'm still not normal! I have to eat less!!!") and become anorexic. And ****ed up eating habits will not only **** up your body but also your mind. Better eat normal.

 

[Solo Dolo]

its what you put in your body when your not fasting that matters