Chapter 3: Activating the natural healing mechanisms of the body (How to have better health to better serve Krsna)
The 3rd part of my book about health: The body can cure itself in most situations, but we need to know how to create the right conditions for that.
Chapter 3: Activating the natural healing mechanisms of the body
In 2016, a Japanese researcher named Yoshinori Ohsumi won a Nobel prize due to his research about a mechanism that makes the body recycle damaged tissues and parts of the cells, allowing it to regenerate on a cellular level. This process, called autophagy, quickly attracted the interest of many, leading to much research, which started to revolutionize medical understanding of the human body.
Great thinkers of the past have mentioned the benefits of fasting. However, during the last few decades, doctors have been categorically dismissing and discarding this knowledge, maintaining the view that health doesn’t have anything to do with what we eat, that fasting is useless, and that disease can be treated only with commercial drugs. These new discoveries proved these assumptions incorrect and led to a much better comprehension of how the human body works and how one can not only conserve but also restore his health.
This process culminated with the publication of a review study from the New England Journal of Medicine in 2019 (Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Health, Aging, and Disease) that summarized all the research-proven benefits of fasting and intermittent fasting in promoting autophagy. This review by a prestigious publication allowed it to be used in hospitals, clinics, and as part of public health care initiatives. Although many doctors remain attached to the old ways, a growing number of medical practitioners started to prescribe healthy eating, intermittent fasting, low-carbohydrate diets, etc. as part of the treatment of their patients, and many good results are coming out of that. The best part is that this is a treatment that is largely free and can be practiced by practically anyone.
In short, autophagy is a recycling and regenerative mechanism, one of the greatest secrets of good health and longevity. Each cell inside our bodies is like a complex machine made of a multitude of different components. As the cells operate, certain components wear out and eventually become damaged, just like a car that is used for a long time without proper maintenance. As damage accumulates, the cells become progressively less efficient, and the body as a whole becomes impaired. As the years pass, cells become swollen, inflamed, and eventually die. As such damage accumulates all over the body, our health starts to decline and we feel sluggish and sick, even though we may not have any specific disease. Apart from damage to the cells, debris accumulates all over the body, which doesn't help either.
When the body enters into a process of autophagy, different damaged components of the cells are recycled, and the proteins are used as building blocks for the construction of new components. Diseased cells are eliminated and later replaced by new, healthy cells. Different debris and microorganisms (like viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens) living in the conjunctive tissue between the cells are destroyed by the immune system and so on. The body enters into a cleaning and detox protocol, where everything that is not part of the body, that is damaged, or is not needed for normal operations is recycled. The consequence is healthier cells that can operate more efficiently. As the same happens all over the body, the results can be impressive.
All the hardware is already installed in our own bodies, we just need to learn how to activate it. As mentioned by Hippocrates: “Everyone has a doctor in him or her; we just have to help it in its work. The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well.”
A few benefits of the process of autophagy are:
Restores and regulates the function of the mitochondria inside the cells. The mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cells, responsible for the production of energy. Oxidative stress damages the mitochondria, generating fatigue and a lack of energy. The mitochondria are amongst the first components of the cells regenerated by the process, which can lead to surprising results.
During the process of autophagy, toxins, and pathogens are removed from the cells, and damaged components are repaired or replaced, which makes the existing cells work in a more efficient way. Since the body is the sum of all the cells, healthier cells result in a healthier body.
Promotes the selective elimination of old or damaged cells that are later replaced by new cells. Over time, this creates a profound rejuvenating effect in the body.
The same mechanism that replaces other cells works also in the immune system, replacing old or damaged immune cells with new cells, rejuvenating the immune system and making it more effective. In most people, a great part of the immune cells are actually in an inoperative state, too damaged to be of any use in the case of an infection. It’s like an army where half of the soldiers are sick. If there are 20.000 soldiers, but half are sick, it means that only 10.000 are going to be able to fight in case of an attack. If all the sick soldiers are replaced by healthy soldiers the army would become twice as effective. According to research done by Dr. Valter Longo, a 4-day water fast is capable of resetting the immune system, stimulating the body to recycle old and ineffective immune cells, and replacing them with new healthy cells after the fast is over.
Autophagy restores and protects the nervous system, which is a strong preventive and protective factor against Alzheimer’s, dementia, and other similar conditions.
Autophagy stimulates the growth of new brain cells (a process called neurogenesis) as well as nerve tissues. As we know, in normal conditions no new neurons grow in the brain of adults, we can just preserve what we have. Recent research (doi.org/10.1038/jcbfm.2014.36) however, contests this information, proving that new brain cells can grow under certain circumstances, helping to fix damage to the brain. These conditions are not ordinarily present but are created by the process of autophagy.
In the same way it creates the environment for the growth of new brain cells, autophagy is capable of activating stem cells and repairing damage to different tissues around the body. Many lesions that are not normally healable can be spontaneously cured when autophagy is induced.
Autophagy can dramatically improve heart health, by creating the conditions for the cleaning of plaque deposited in blood vessels, reducing risk factors such as bad cholesterol, high blood sugar, etc., and even facilitating the growth of new cells, repairing existent damage to the tissues of the heart.
Although usually not sufficient to completely destroy a cancer tumor, autophagy creates an environment that is hostile to cancer cells. This not only reduces the risk of one getting cancer but also helps to slow down the growth of existing cancers, giving one more time to seek treatment. Not only do cancer cells have a harder time getting enough nutrients to grow, but they also start being attacked by the immune system in a more active way. Autophagy can also reduce the size of benign tumors.
Feasting and fasting
As we saw, autophagy offers a myriad of important benefits. In fact, young persons have a high level of autophagy, which allows the body to repair itself in a very efficient way. The body of an 18-year-old can surely tolerate much more abuse than the body of a 50-year-old, and that's exactly because the process of autophagy is more active and is capable of fighting the damage. As we become older, the capacity of the body to use autophagy to repair itself declines, and this is one of the main factors that contribute to aging.
To make matters worse, our modern lifestyle represses this repair system, causing many of our health problems. The question is, how can we revert the trend and start activating it, so we can enjoy the benefits? This is actually the focus of much of the research that has been done in the past years since the discoveries of Yoshinori Ohsumi. By following the appropriate process, one can elevate the levels of autophagy in the body to levels similar to a young person, something that can have a profound rejuvenating effect.
The main factor in activating autophagy is eating restriction. In other words, autophagy is activated when we fast or severely restrict our eating. As long as one is eating five or six times per day, the presence of insulin is going to suppress autophagy, as well as many of the other healing mechanisms of the body.
We can see practically that our bodies are very efficient in terms of self-preservation. We could even say that the human body is very wise. When one has a bacterial infection, for example, one loses his appetite. It happens that bacteria need different nutrients to survive and reproduce, and by stopping eating, the amount of nutrients in the blood decreases drastically. The infection thus slows down, giving an opportunity to the immune system to control it. At the same time, we feel weak or lethargic when sick, which makes us stop our normal activities and take rest, which is precisely what the body needs at this moment.
In ancient societies, people would have to go through hard periods regularly, during the winter, due to failed crops, due to religious observances, and so on. In other words, they would have to fast or severely restrict their food intake regularly, sometimes for extended periods of time. It makes sense that the body would use these periods for healing. This mechanism was well-known to many physicians, philosophers, and thinkers of antiquity, who developed their conclusions based on testing and observation. Plutarch, for example, used to say: “Instead of using medicine, rather fast a day.”
Just as eating properly is essential, fasting is an important factor for good health. When we are eating, the body focuses on digesting the food and storing the nutrients, and when we fast, the body uses the reserves to repair itself. Just as we can’t be healthy without eating, we also can’t be perfectly healthy without fasting. The secret of good health is to properly switch between these two: fasting and feasting.
When one speaks about fasting, images of starved prisoners from WW2, or malnourished children from Africa may come to mind. Most people are afraid of fasting, seeing it as some impossible feat. However, organically speaking, to fast is perfectly normal. Our bodies have all the necessary mechanisms to deal with it. If it was not for this, most of us would not be here today: all our ancestors would have died during famines long ago.
A healthy person can fast for weeks before entering into starvation. In fact, the world record for fasting is held by Angus Barbieri, who in 1965 fasted for 382 days (!!) under medical supervision, taking just water and vitamins. He weighed 207 kilos before the fast and completed it with just 82 kilos. Incredibly, he preserved most of his muscle mass. Although this is an exceptional case (done by a person more than 120 kg over his ideal weight and under strict medical supervision), it makes the point that we can go a lot longer without food than we usually think.
Such long periods of fasting are possible because the body has systems for burning fat and non-essential cells and preserving muscle, essential organs, and nutrients.
All of us know about the daily requirements of different vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. Some nutrients can be stored by the body (like vitamin D, calcium, iron, etc.) while others need to be taken every day (like vitamin C, zinc, etc.). When we are fasting, we don't get any potassium, for example, so how can one survive? The first point is that most of the daily requirements of nutrients are due to the necessity of maintaining a balance in the body. When we don't eat anything (or just supplement a few essential nutrients), it is actually easier for the body to maintain the balance and just keep recycling the nutrients it already has.
A second point is that much of the nutrients the body needs are actually necessary for all the chemical reactions used to digest food. When we don't eat, the body needs far fewer nutrients to keep its functions. Finally, we also have the process of autophagy which is capable of reclaiming nutrients from the digestion of debris and damaged components of the cells.
The combination of a smaller demand for nutrients and the recycling of used compounds and damaged parts of the cells allows the body to go a long way without food. It can go on for a few days (usually five days, but it can be more or less, depending on the person), until the body starts lacking electrolytes and B vitamins, gradually followed by other nutrients. It’s not that one can’t water fast for more than five days, but it should be done with caution and preferentially under medical supervision.
Many people confuse fasting with starvation, although these are two completely different things. To fast means to make the body use its reserves of fat, while starvation starts when the body exhausts all reserves and starts to use proteins from the muscles and organs. Starvation is a dangerous condition, while fasting is healthy.
An average lean person has about 20% of fat in his body. In a 75 kg male, for example, this equals 15 kg of fat. An average person will lose about 225 grams of fat per day during a fast (one may lose much more weight in the first days, but it will be mainly water), therefore one would have to fast for more than a month to start getting close to exhausting his body's fat reserves! A short fast, of one, two, or three days, will barely scratch it.
In ancient societies, people used to fast regularly. Apart from periods of scarcity, where people would be forced to fast due to a simple lack of food, there were regular religious fastings, they would fast as a way to cure disease or to get divine inspiration in times of need, and so on.
Modern life brought two things that were not available in ancient societies: the supermarket and the refrigerator. Not only do we now have a stable supply of food, where we can just go and buy more anytime we need, but also a convenient way of storing it at home. Not only that but the abundance of ready-to-eat industrial food guarantees that we have always something at hand. As a result, fasting became a distant memory. Many people live and die without having fasted for a single day during their lifetime.
This is exacerbated by the fact we started eating more frequently. While in most ancient societies people would have only one or two meals per day, we normally have three meals, plus two or three snacks. In total, many people eat six times per day (or even more) and many never stay more than eight hours without eating. From the viewpoint of the body, their lives are a constant feast.
When we start to eat six times per day and lead a sedentary life, we actually end up with more health problems, because we are going against the body’s design. Just like one needs to do some type of exercise to remain healthy, regular fasts are also essential for good health.
Apart from autophagy, there are many essential functions that the body can only perform when one is fasting. Therefore, to preserve our health we need to alternate periods when we eat well (with nutritious and wholesome food) and periods when we fast. We can see that many ancient cultures have religious or ritualist fastings a few times per year (as Vaishnavas we are supposed to fast two times per month on Ekadasis, for example). In most cases, it is not only for spiritual reasons: there is an important health aspect as well.
Intermittent fasting
As mentioned, good health depends on two things: providing the body with the necessary nutrients and providing it with the right conditions so these nutrients can be used for healing. One side is what to eat, the other side is when to eat.
Apart from eating incorrectly, another problem is that we eat too frequently. The human body has two modes of operation which are regulated by insulin. When we eat, there is a discharge of insulin that signals to the different cells of the body that it is feast time. The body enters a storage mode, where the food is digested and the nutrients stored. As the insulin fades away, the body enters in a repair mode, where toxins are eliminated, cells and tissues are repaired, and so on. To maintain good health, we need to properly alternate between these two states.
In other words, the human body is made to feast and fast. We are supposed to combine periods when we eat well, supplying our nutritional needs, and periods when we don't eat, allowing the body to repair. Most of the repairing processes in the body start 12 hours from the last meal, therefore one should, at the very least, have an interval of 12 hours between dinner and breakfast the next day.
That was actually what most people used to do a few decades ago. They would take breakfast at 7 or 8 a.m., have lunch at noon, and some dinner in the evening. People would eat three meals a day, with an interval of around 13 or 14 hours between dinner and breakfast in the next day. Two important differences we can notice: people at those times were usually slimmer than nowadays, and they would be healthier than people nowadays. When we eat too much and too frequently, we actually harm our bodies.
The first step is exactly to do like in the old times: stop snacking and have only three meals a day at specified times. You can start with a period of 12 hours between dinner and the next breakfast and try to increase from there, having dinner a little bit earlier and having breakfast a little later. The goal in this phase is not to eat less, but simply to start eating in a regular fashion, breaking with the habit of snacking. When it's time to eat, you eat, and when it's not time to eat, you don't eat.
The intermittent fasting system consists in simply maintaining an interval between the last meal of the day and the first meal of the next, providing the body with the necessary nutrients when we eat, but also giving it a time without eating, when the body can heal and rebuild.
The process of intermittent fasting is not about eating less or eating more, but simply about adjusting when to eat. Theoretically, intermittent fasting can be practiced even by someone who is eating junk food, however, the real benefits appear when it's combined with a healthy diet, as described previously.
The modern idea that we need to have three meals a day with snacks in between is actually not very scientific, and it is actually harmful to our health. It's bad in two senses: first because it's actually difficult to eat in such small portions (especially if one is eating refined carbohydrates) and second because even if one has the mental control to do so, still this frequent eating will not be good.
Historically, most societies would eat one big meal, plus one or two small, simple meals (like in the case of the Romans). They would also fast regularly due to religious observances. This idea of eating frequently is actually a modern idea, pushed by the food industry. Even the idea that “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” started from a marketing campaign from Kellogg's company to increase the sales of their breakfast cereal. It's not based on the idea of making people healthier, but simply to sell more products.
The 16:8 system
As one becomes used to eating at regular times and not eating for certain intervals, it's possible to potentialize the benefits by increasing the fasting period. One can have, for example, a light breakfast at 9 a.m., lunch at noon, and dinner at 5 p.m. In this case, he would have an eating window of 8 hours and a total of 16 hours of fasting every day. This is a moderate style of intermittent fasting, called 16:8. We can see that this is not such a huge change from what we may be doing now, but the results can be really impressive.
The times of the meals can be adjusted according to your routine, the important part is the total interval between the first and last meal. If you wake up late, you can take dinner at noon, some lunch at 5 p.m. and dinner at 8 p.m, for example. It works the same.
Intermittent fasting offers a wide range of benefits. It reduces inflammation (helping with all kinds of painful conditions), increases the release of growth hormone (that promotes fat loss, the building of muscle, and repair of tissues), improves testosterone levels in men (which results in important health benefits), promotes fat burning and weight loss, rebuilds the immune system, protects against most types of cancer, and so on. If someone would create a medicine that would offer all these benefits simultaneously, he could charge a lot of money for it, but intermittent fasting is free.
A common argument against staying such long periods without eating is that it could lead to muscle loss. However, actually, the opposite happens. One can lose muscle when he eats too frequently, because the insulin blocks the burning of fat, forcing the body to burn muscle to produce energy. In natural conditions, the body will always first burn the glucose of the food and then start burning fat. It will start to burn muscle at a significant rate only after weeks of fasting when the reserves of fat in the body start to run out. It’s a concept similar to someone living in a forest house during a harsh winter: he will not start burning his furniture until he exhausts his supply of firewood.
Intermittent fasting consists in having relatively large meals, combined with relatively long fasting periods. This makes the body work in a completely different way, using glucose from the food in the first few hours after the meals (when the insulin is high), and then switching to fat-burning as the insulin runs out. This results in the loss of fat and the preservation of muscle.
18:6 and 20:4
After one becomes used to the 16:8 system, he or she can try the 18:6 system, which consists in eating for 6 hours and fasting for 18 hours. This system is more suitable for the ones that can skip dinner or breakfast, focusing on two meals. One could have breakfast at 8 a.m. and lunch before 2 p.m., skipping dinner or, alternatively, skipping breakfast, having lunch at noon and some light dinner before 6 p.m., for example. Any combination inside this period of 6 hours work.
Some people will do better by taking breakfast and skipping dinner, and others will do better by skipping breakfast and taking dinner. You can test both ideas and see what is suitable for you. The two rules in the 18:6 system are simply to keep this interval of 18 hours and avoid taking a large meal too late in the evening. Eating too much right before bed time will reduce the quality of the sleep and promote fat accumulation, which is not our goal.
If one wants to go still further, he can contract the interval between his two meals, leaving an interval of only 4 hours. One could thus have breakfast at 9 a.m. and dinner before 1 p.m., or lunch at 2 p.m. and dinner before 6 p.m., for example, stopping his eating there.
This is the 20:4 system, which results in further benefits over the 18:6. Naturally, this system is also much more difficult to maintain. In general, it's better to go slowly, starting with three meals a day, then 16:8 and then 18:6, before trying the 20:4.
The million dollar secret for doing intermittent fasting is to reduce or eliminate the refined carbohydrates from our diet, and focus on vegetables, whole grains (in moderation), healthy fats, fruits and low-glycemic foods, as described previously. As one does that, he will not only switch to a much more nutritious diet, but without the peaks of insulin, he will not feel very hungry. After a few months of adaptation, there will be hunger only at the times of the meals. Not only that, but he is going to have much more energy. The problem is just the adaptation period.
Another point about intermittent fasting is that you don't necessarily have to do it every single day. It's perfectly fine to take a day off and just eat three meals sometimes. The effects of intermittent fasting are cumulative: even if you don't do it every day, still you get the benefit for the days you do.
Nowadays many elite athletes do intermittent fasting for better results in their training. Similarly, many highly paid professionals do it as a way to improve their cognitive power and disposition. Intermittent fasting is also a good option for people that have a hectic schedule because it reduces the time one needs to dedicate to prepare and take his meals. One may not have six hours per day to cook and eat three times, but he may be able to spare one hour per day to prepare a single nutritious meal.
HGH and testosterone
Two other important benefits of intermittent fasting are the elevation of the levels of human growth hormone (in both sexes) and testosterone (in men). Let’s quickly examine these two factors before moving to the next topic.
Human growth hormone, or HGH, is used in an injectable form by bodybuilders to grow muscles and tone their bodies, but apart from such illegal and harmful uses, HGH has a very important function in our organism, being responsible for the growth and multiplication of cells. It directly influences the multiplication of cells in the immune system, muscles, bones, skin, and even hair and nails.
In our early years, the levels of HGH are very high, and this is responsible for our body growing. As we enter adulthood, the levels fall drastically. As we become old, the levels become increasingly low and as a result our capacity of growing or maintaining muscle, bones, or even immune cells is impaired. One becomes lethargic, starts to lose muscle and bone mass, and becomes more prone to gain weight.
According to a study published in 1992 by The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1548337/), regular fasts are capable of dramatically increasing the human growth hormone levels, which work as an antidote for these undesirable symptoms. For older persons, this helps enormously to counteract many of the effects of advanced age, and in younger individuals, it promotes a general improvement in health, mood, and physical endurance. It also helps one to gain muscle, accentuating the effects of any type of exercise. In other words, fasting works as a free and natural type of hormonal therapy that doesn't have any collateral effects.
HGH also acts on the fat cells, making them release the stored energy. This energy becomes available for the brain, muscles, and other cells in the body, improving one's thinking capacity, concentration, mood, and even athletic performance. The increase in human growth hormone as a result of regular fasts can provoke some dramatic changes in these areas.
Intermittent fasting also elevates the levels of testosterone in men. This is especially important nowadays, because of all the sources of estrogen that men are exposed to. Estrogen is present in drinking water, plastics, and all kinds of chemical products used in the manufacture of products we use on a daily basis. Even someone that avoids soy products will still get a lot of estrogen from these other sources. Elevated levels of estrogen suppress testosterone, which has very detrimental effects on a man's health. Intermittent fasting is capable of dramatically elevating testosterone levels, which in turn nullifies many of the bad effects of exposure to estrogen in men.
Naturally, the increase in testosterone affects only men. Women have other health benefits, including reduced body fat, decreased risk of heart disease and diabetes, preservation of muscle mass, improvement of psychological well-being, reduction in menstrual pain, and so on.