Fasting and Healing: Traditional Clinical Experience and Latest Scientific Evidence

The science of Fasting – This beautiful documentary by Sylvie Gilman and Thierry de Lestrade about the science of fasting is now available on Youtube in English, with auto-translation into Vietnamese.

While life expectancy is increasing in Western countries, cases of diabetes, hypertension, obesity and cancer are increasing, and medication use has exploded. Does this mean that to live to a ripe age, we are condemned to swallow more and more drugs? What if there was another way?

For half a century, in Russia, Germany, and the U.S., doctors and biologists have been exploring a different therapeutic approach: fasting. The results are excellent. Soviet researchers have provided a body of clinical studies of exceptional wealth …only published in Russian and thus unknown in the West.

The documentary starts in the Soviet Union at the Therapeutic and Health Clinic in Siberia, Russia,  where over 10,000 people received treatment from 1972 to 2012. They are still open. This centre uses water fasting, the most challenging kind of fasting there is. They admit it can be a challenging experience, especially the first three days when people experience acidosis. After the first week, the staff said the fasting usually gets easier.  

The documentary stated that water fasting triggers hormonal and endocrine changes that produce therapeutic effects such as improving glucose levels, insulin and lowering cholesterol. Massage, colonics, exercise, hot springs and other methods were used to help the body detox during the fast. The patients stayed an average of 25 days but some stayed up to 40 days. The treatment was covered by state health care. A whole building was reserved for fasters.

The Russian doctors for this fasting centre reported that people who suffered from depression, phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder and schizophrenia experienced “marked improvement” for 70 percent of the patients. Six years later 40 percent of them still had marked improvement.

A psychiatrist, Dr Gurvich, was part of the research team for this institute. He noted the following patterns that were seen with patients who had mental conditions: During the first week of the fast, people reported that their senses sharpened. After the acidosis phase, people experienced euphoria as well as a sedative calming effect. Sometimes they felt as if someone had given them a stimulant. The first week after the water fast people experienced a lift in their depression. Some patients who were so mentally ill they had been unable to function normally before the fast were able to go back to working and support their families. One of the doctors doing the research said that fasting had an impact on “the entire personality”.

The documentary covers more than how fasting helped people with mental problems. The staff noticed fasting helped people with serious health conditions such as digestion disorders, gastro-intestinal disorders, cardiovascular disorders, asthma and others. They said nearly 2/3rds of the patients with these conditions saw their symptoms disappear after 1 or 2 stays at the fasting centre. I can imagine such improvements in physical health would reduce anxiety and depression also.

Prof.Dr. Valter Longo, University of California, Los Angeles

Young biologists from the University of Los Angeles have overturned conventional wisdom and used molecular biology to demonstrate the powerful effects of fasting. These researches suggest a wide-ranging potential, which could include treatments for the disease of the century, cancer. If these scientists are right, maybe our approach to disease and treatment will need a rethink.

This beautiful documentary about the science of fasting is now available on Youtube in English language with auto-translation into Vietnamese. https://youtu.be/sNdWCZWpjxU

Vietnam Detox is a retreat provider, offering Fasting retreats in Vietnam since 2016, pioneering the Buchinger Method from Germany to help Vietnamese people to experience the healing benefits of fasting in a safe and professional environment. For more information visit us at www.vietnamdetox.com