Fasting For Survival

Hello Health Champions. How come some people  say that fasting is natural and even necessary  

while others claim that fasting is unnatural  and dangerous? Today I want to talk about  

fasting for survival. Now is fasting dangerous?  No it is perfectly safe if we're talking about  

time restricted fasting intermittent fasting where  we reduce the number of meals and we eat them in a  

shorter period of time or if we just do a fast for  a few days those are perfectly safe. It is even  

easier to eat within a shorter time window and  eat fewer meals, and most people who try this and  

get into a habit they never go back because they  find it so much easier, so much more convenient  

to do it that way. You don't get hungry. You  don't have to cook all the time. You save time  

and money. It is also very very beneficial. There  are tremendous health benefits to eating that way  

but is it necessary? Well it depends  on what your idea of optimal health is.  

If you have accepted that our current health model  is normal, that we're supposed to get sick around  

50, we're supposed to get diabetes at 60, and  we're supposed to be on 12 different medications  

and die after a period of 20 - 30 years of  relative dysfunction then it is not necessary, but  

if you're looking for optimal health, if you're  looking to feel as good as possible for as long as  

possible it turns out it is necessary. Fasting and  feasting is the most natural thing that humans can  

do because that's what we have done for as long  as we've been around. We never had refrigerators.  

We never had food buffets we never ate five six  times a day. We ate once or twice and that is what  

your genome what your genetic material what your  physiology is designed for. And it's only in the  

very last few years even 50 years ago we really  ate three times a day within an eight to ten hour  

window and this idea of eating six times a day  and having early morning and late night snacks  

to never miss a meal that is actually dangerous  and there's more and more evidence to that fact.  

Now whenever we develop a habit we think that's  the way it works. So most people today they think  

food provides energy and therefore they think  that when we have low energy then we need to eat  

something and lo and behold we have we feel bad we  eat something and then we feel better so we think  

all right that food provided energy but is that  actually what happened? Why do we feel better did  

that food that we just ate did it really provide  energy or did something else happen? Well actually  

the food that you eat shortly thereafter that  food steals energy from you. So how come we feel  

more energetic right after how come we feel better  it's because that food stimulates brain chemicals  

it feeds into a reward pathway that has to do  with a neurotransmitter called dopamine and  

it's because we are like junkies getting our  fix. We feel better because we're getting a fix.  

So here's how that works we eat some food the food  stimulates taste buds the taste buds signal into  

the brain and the brain gets pleasure. The brain  interprets that as pleasure we've been given a  

reward it feeds into this dopamine reward system.  And this happens in a matter of seconds and then  

the brain says hey we've got stuff we've got some  raw materials it's coming a little bit later but  

we're good for now so let's start sending  some signals to the liver because the liver  

stores carbohydrate in the form of glycogen and  now the liver starts breaking this glycogen down  

into glucose and this glucose gets into the  bloodstream and gets converted into energy.  

So first we have the pleasure we feel good and  then we get a tiny little bit of blood sugar  

not from the food we ate but from previously  stored energy. Because the brain basically sensed  

that we just received a shipment so we can afford  to spend some. Now mean while this food gets into  

the digestive tract it causes a little bit of  stretch in a matter of minutes it stimulates  

some receptors in your GI tract that senses hey  there's more stuff this volume is starting to fill  

out it's not just the taste buds and this signals  more to the brain and now the brain continues with  

the receptors in the liver so all of these signal  to the liver to continue breaking down glycogen  

because there is more coming. And now also the  brain gets satisfied a little bit beyond just the  

instant pleasure because it realizes there's  enough here to ensure our survival. We've got  

enough now to go for another day or two. And all  this happens in a matter of minutes this food  

still has nothing to do with the increased energy  or the feeling of pleasure this food is still  

in the stomach. So within a few seconds you'll  start breaking down a few glucose molecules in  

the food you'll start breaking down a little bit  of starch but that's a very very small amount. No  

substantial amount no significant percentage of  this food has yet made it in to the bloodstream.  

But eventually this food gets digested and then  it can be used for energy in the moment and the  

excess gets used for storage. But this process  takes about two to four hours and sometimes even  

longer to complete. So like I said some calories  a little bit of glucose is going to be absorbed  

gradually but the bulk of this energy the bulk of  this food is going to take several hours to break  

down. So here's the key to understand that if you  have cravings if you feel like eating something  

two hours later then that has nothing to do with  your energy need. Your body does not need energy  

that's not how it works. If you feel that way  it's because of habit. You've trained your brain  

into expecting certain things at certain intervals  and you're basically using food as a drug. You're  

using eating as a way to change how you feel. But  we're so conditioned to this idea of eating all  

the time that if you suggest that somebody miss  a meal you're probably going to get a response  

looking like that. And we have all these reasons  to eat that have nothing to do with the need for  

energy. We use reasons like waking up. Well I just  woke up - Gotta eat something. You know it's lunch  

time or it's dinner time. I always eat at this  time. Maybe it's just because we walked by the  

fridge and it has food in it. Let's eat something.  They brought donuts to work - I gotta have some.  

I saw a vending machine and it had things in it.  I drove by a fast food place it had food inside. I  

watched tv in the evening and I get restless if  I don't munch on something while I'm watching,  

or just in general if you're bored or  stressed or frustrated people tend to eat,  

So all of these are reasons that we eat that have  nothing to do with an actual need for energy. And  

another reason that even I sometimes fall prey  to is that we eat to avoid being hungry later.  

We know, Oh it's going to be a long day what if  I don't eat and I get hungry later? Well as you  

get your body conditioned and habituated  then you realize that that's not an issue  

either. And then there's all these ideas  we have about fasting. We think that if we  

miss a meal we're going to get fatigued. We're  going to get apathy and to some extent that's  

true but it's not because we are not getting  energy, it's because we're not getting our fix.  

We've trained our bodies to expect that and get  the fix. We think that if we miss a whole day  

we could die. And what actually happens is that  if you miraculously survive for about 18 hours,  

then the following is going to happen. And 18  hours is not as hard as it sounds because all  

it means is you ate dinner at six, you skipped  your evening meal and you didn't have breakfast  

that's all it is you've gone 18 hours and now your  body starts making some interesting changes. So  

you start breaking down glycogen because you have  some stored energy and you're making glucose from  

glycogen. That's your one of your reserves you  have many many systems to provide energy and  

do you get fatigue? Do you get apathy? Do you get  foggy? Do you fade away? No, because your body  

knows if you haven't eaten you have to be able to  go out and find some food. You have to stay active  

and alert and energetic. So what happens is  your body makes these hormones. The epinephrine  

helps make you alert. It's a stress hormone  that creates attention. It keeps you on guard  

so you can pay attention to things. And cortisol  is another hormone that provides blood sugar that  

starts converting other sources into glucose  so you can maintain a stable blood sugar and  

have some energy. The next hormone is called BDNF,  brain derived neurotrophic factor it's a big long  

word. All it means is miracle grow for the brain  and it promotes brain growth and plasticity it  

enhances the brain's ability to change and adapt.  And if you can adapt better to your environment  

now you can learn better and you can survive  better. And at the same time your body also  

increases growth hormone which is also essential  to make new synapses, new brain connections and  

new brain cells, but in addition to that it also  burns fat so now you have an additional source of  

fuel. And now you're getting into that state that  you've been looking for you want to burn some of  

that body fat. And at the same time this growth  hormone spares muscle this growth hormone promotes  

muscle growth and prevents muscle breakdown  because once you start making energy from  

other things you don't want to break down that  muscle. We're often told that we're going to get  

hypoglycemia low blood sugar dangerously low  blood sugar but is that going to happen? Well  

you're going to get a mild lowering of blood sugar  meaning you're going to have less blood sugar than  

you did which is a good thing. That's what most  people are looking for but in the process you're  

going to have some discomfort. You're going to  might get some headaches and you're going to have  

some withdrawal symptoms simply because your body  is used to a certain thing and you're changing it  

so anytime you change something you will have  some discomfort because that's just the way the  

body works. And the biggest reason is that you are  carb dependent you've trained your body to receive  

carbs to boost blood sugar to top off your  blood sugar every few hours and when it's  

not getting that it's confused. It hasn't  learned to stabilize blood sugar to generate  

energy other ways and the only time that  you're going to get a dangerous hypoglycemia is  

if you are a diabetic if you're currently  taking insulin and you stop eating because  

now the insulin is there to process the incoming  food if there's no incoming food that insulin is  

going to drop the blood sugar dangerously low.  So this is something you have to understand if  

you're on insulin you need to consult with someone  who understands to guide you or at the very least  

you need to have a very solid understanding and  monitor very very closely but anytime if you've  

been on insulin and you stop eating you need to  lower that insulin. And once you get used to that  

intermittent fasting the time restricted eating  now once your body feels good about that you can  

go a little bit longer and you skip a whole day  you go 24 to 36 maybe 42 hours and by now that  

glycogen is gone. You've used up virtually all of  the stored carbohydrate in the body so now your  

body has to do something called gluconeogenesis.  It has to start making glucose from other things.  

And the primary thing is going to be from  glycerol because you're starting to burn  

fat and along with the stored fat is a little  molecule called glycerol that you can convert  

into glucose. You're also going to convert some  protein before you really get into fat burning  

you're going to tap into your protein pool so  you have some circulating protein from cells  

that break down from things that are already  circulating in the bloodstream and initially  

you'll convert some of that into glucose. Is it  going to break down muscles? Well actually know  

because muscles are precious you're going to need  them to go on that hunt to find food next time. So  

your body gradually increases growth hormone the  longer you fast the more growth hormone increases  

to spare the muscles because like we said you're  going to need them and the body gets better and  

better at getting energy from other sources. So  you get better at fat burning and when that really  

kicks in you start making some ketones which is an  alternative fuel for the brain. So now your brain  

can function perfectly on much much lower levels  of glucose. Another benefit is weight loss and fat  

burning and this is the biggest reason that most  people get into this in the first place and then  

they discover all the other benefits but it all  has to do with insulin because while insulin is  

high we cannot burn fat. That fat is locked away  it's not visible it's not available to the body.  

And the insulin rises primarily because we  eat carbohydrates and we eat frequently. So  

if we eat like most people eat six times a day and  none of this is to scale it's just to illustrate  

the direction of things then we eat insulin rises  it drops it rises it drops every time but it stays  

at a high level and over time we push it higher  and higher. Now if we just go fasting for 24 hours  

then during that entire time there is no food  coming in there's no reason for the body to  

release insulin so it's going to drop. And then on  day three we went 24 hours or a little bit beyond  

and now we eat and the curve looks completely  different because we're starting at a lower level.  

And here's the critical difference between  eating in a fasted state or eating in a fed  

state. When you're fasted your body is in balance  it's going to be in fat burning some of the time  

but you're when you're eating in a fed state  then you never get into this fat burning.  

Once insulin drops low enough you will be able to  access that fat and burn. So if you fast for a day  

you'll definitely be in fat burning and that  continues until you eat then when you eat you  

get out of fat burning just long enough to process  that food and store it and then if insulin is low  

you get right back into fat burning. When you're  eating in a fed state on the other hand you'll  

never get even close to that fat burning zone.  That high insulin is keeping the fat locked away  

and everything you're eating either gets used in  the moment or stored. And all of that energy all  

of that excess is stored for future reserves for  a famine that never comes. Another huge benefit  

is autophagy this is something people learn  about and benefit from down the road even if  

they didn't start for this reason but autophagy  means self eating auto is self, phagy is eating.  

And it's basically about recycling or digesting  things that are left over in the body.  

So just like your body has organs inside meaning  smaller parts the cell has organelles meaning tiny  

little parts inside the cells. And your body  starts digesting some of these old ones it starts  

breaking them down and then you're also breaking  down damaged proteins and debris and things that  

have sort of gotten left over. It digests these  proteins into smaller proteins into amino acids  

and then it releases them into circulation  into the bloodstream so that they can be  

best used wherever there's the greatest need in  the body. So the cells are essentially trimming  

down a little bit but the cells get to stay alive  and they get rid of the old parts but they don't  

have the resources yet to rebuild things. So  what we have then is bone marrow that if we go  

a little bit longer like three days or so now  this bone marrow starts making stem cells it  

starts making replacement parts for the things  that have been lost and these stem cells are  

basically baby cells they're very young they're  juvenile. And then something super cool happens  

that this cell that sacrificed a little bit of  itself which wasn't really sacrificed because  

you get rid of old stuff, it says to the bone  marrow I want a rain check. I gave up some stuff  

so next time that you refeed next time that you  get some more resources when you can really ramp  

up the production to replenish these pieces,  then it sends a signal and says I want first  

dibs I want you to send me some of those stem  cells to replace what I gave up so think about  

the power of that it gave up some old stuff and  it's getting some young stuff to replace it so  

in a sense that is rejuvenating. Your cells got  younger and if your cells get younger you get to  

live longer. Another growing problem that can  be helped is autoimmune issues so rheumatoid  

arthritis and psoriatic arthritis and lupus which  are absolutely devastating and debilitating,  

Hashimoto's thyroiditis, hypothyroid, multiple  sclerosis often leaves people in wheelchairs. All  

of these conditions can be helped by fasting. Part  of it is because of the autophagy that we just  

spoke about you're replacing and rejuvenating but  also fasting dramatically reduces inflammation and  

you can start healing the leaky gut because a big  reason why we develop these autoimmune problems is  

that if your gut is leaky then pieces get out into  circulation into your bloodstream that shouldn't  

be there. They should be filtered out but if  the gut is leaky they get in they create immune  

reactions and if that goes on we can develop  autoimmunity but fasting allows the body to  

start healing that gut because you're not putting  food in there all day long. Another huge concern  

that can be helped by fasting is dementia. So  when we fast we reduce insulin resistance and now  

the fuel the glucose has better access into the  brain we can give the brain some energy. We reduce  

inflammation with fasting and inflammation causing  neuro-inflammation causing neuro-degeneration  

is what drives a lot of dementia. We can reduce  protein debris in the brain so a hallmark of  

Alzheimer's is that there's buildup of protein  that don't get cleaned out and through autophagy  

we can start cleaning up some of that debris. And  in fact the brain is really bad at cleaning things  

up unless we get into a state of autophagy. The  rest of the body is pretty good at cleaning things  

up the brain can't unless we get in autophagy. We  also start burning fat we start increasing ketones  

providing additional fuel for the  brain so it can start doing new things.  

We increase brain derived neurotrophic factor the  miracle grow that can start making changes in the  

brain along with increased growth hormone. So all  these factors are incredibly powerful. If you want  

to lessen your risk of a heart attack then fasting  can improve your cardiovascular health through all  

the mechanisms we talked about the autophagy, the  growth hormone, the reduced insulin now we are  

dramatically reducing and reversing something  called metabolic syndrome, reducing inflammation,  

reducing hypertension, which is goes to  hand in hand with metabolic syndrome.  

And we can also reduce the risk of stroke.  There's also growing evidence of preventing  

or even reversing cancer with fasting. So with  cancer we have to understand that cancer is your  

cells it's your own body tissues. It's not  something that attacks you from the outside.  

There's a mutation something goes wrong in your  cells and they disconnect they stop listening  

to the greater whole. So in your body at 40  trillion cells they pay attention to each other  

they take care of each other. They have  consideration for each other but a cancer cell  

is just somebody who stopped listening and paying  attention to the others. It just wants to grow  

and hog every resource around and that results  in a very high metabolic rate. It's growing it's  

turning things over faster than other cells and  that means it eats sugar. In fact when they do  

imaging of cancer they inject people with the  radioactive sugar and they know that the sugar  

the cancer is going to hog all the sugar and it's  going to light up on different types of scans. And  

if we fast then we stop the supply of sugar we  dramatically reduce the supply of sugar and this  

weakens the cancer but at the same time like we  talked about before fasting strengthens the normal  

healthy cells. So now we've given the healthy  cells an advantage over the cancer. And then we go  

in with autophagy self-eating so now it's easier  for the autophagy processes to eat the cancer  

and further benefit the normal cells when  they have less competition. And same thing  

if you decide to undergo chemotherapy then the  chemo is going to work better because it is  

going to be better able to attack these weakened  cancer cells but it won't affect the stronger  

normal cells so much. So they've done some studies  with fasting and chemotherapy that shows it's so  

beneficial that you have virtually no side effects  or dramatically less side effects from chemo if  

you're fasting in conjunction with that. A lot  of people have asked about growth hormone because  

there's some studies that suggest that  high levels of growth hormone can also  

increase cancer and that is true only if the  growth hormone is injected if it's exogenous  

meaning it's coming from the outside. Because we  haven't changed the other variables that normally  

produce growth hormone. So what we're fasting  now that fasting results in less cancer or even  

reversal like we just spoke about. How is  that? It's because even though the fasting  

results in more growth hormone that theoretically  according to these studies would be a bad thing  

when it's endogenous meaning it's produced on  the inside it's only produced under conditions  

of very low insulin and very low protein. So under  those conditions now we create autophagy and it's  

a perfectly beneficial thing to have more growth  hormone. When we inject it we're not accounting  

for insulin or protein we're not inducing any  autophagy we're just adding the growth hormone  

to an already unhealthy situation. And that's just  one more example of how things usually go wrong  

when we try to intervene, but when we let natural  processes balance things out then the body takes  

care of things perfectly. If you enjoyed this  video, you're going to love that one. And if you  

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