How Fasting can help us recover from bacterial, but not viral, infections
A fasting Buddha.
Fasting has a long history in many cultures, and it's now trendy, at least for some
Over the past few years, fasting has become quite popular among those who follow the paleo/primal lifestyle, myself included. Many of us find benefits to going without food for periods ranging from less than a day to a few days. The longest I’ve done was about 3 days when I had dermatitis. Fasting did temporarily reduce the inflammation, as I mentioned in my previous post about How I got dermatitis, and recovered!. I also discussed my experience with fasting in my post Intermittent Fasting: my experience and why it can be surprisingly easy to get in touch with our prehistoric roots!.
This post at Mark’s Daily Apple from 2011 discusses The Myriad Benefits of Intermittent Fasting. In the 2013 video podcast below, Abel James, the Fat-Burning Man, interviews Ori Hofmekler about Intermittent Fasting:
New findings recently published in the journal Cell reveal how fasting can help the human fight off bacterial infections.
Sick people often lose appetite, feel lethargic, and withdraw from social contact. The authors of this new study looked into the physiological and biochemical reasons for such behaviors typical of sick people. One key is that fasting reduces inflammation.
This press release at ScienceDaily goes into more detail.
Highlights from Wang et al. (Cell, vol. 166, 2016)
- Fasting metabolism is protective in bacterial, but not viral, inflammation
- Ketone bodies limit ROS-induced neuronal damage during bacterial inflammation
- Glucose utilization prevents UPR-mediated neuronal damage during viral inflammation
Low-carb diets and Ketosis
WebMD has some good info on ketosis, here, including the pros and cons. With respect to disease-fighting benefits, they say:
Some research suggests that ketogenic diets can help lower your risk of heart disease. Other studies show specific very-low-carb diets help people with metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes. Researchers are also studying the effects of these diets on acne, cancer, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and nervous system diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Lou Gehrig's disease.
Ketogenic diets are becoming pretty popular, too.
Here’s an interview with Chris Blair, who says that he has much more energy eating ketogenic. These newly published results furthermore show that ketosis protects our neurons from damage done by bacterial infections.
But don’t fast if you have a Viral Infection, such as influenza!
An important take-home message from the new findings is that fasting does more harm than good for those suffering from viral infections.
S. Lan Smith
Kamakura, Japan
September 23, 2016
Thanks to everyone who produced and made freely available the images used herein.
That is surprising! I would think fasting would help much more in viral cases since you are depending on your own body to get the virus suppressed. Bacteria could continue to thrive and multiply if antibiotics are not taken... I think the reason they say don't fast with a virus is if the virus has dehydrated you... otherwise it doesn't make much sense.
The dehydration may well play a role. However, the mechanism that they identify has to do with our metabolism f glucose. Suppressing the use of glucose, as in ketosis, reduces inflammation and the damage done by bacterial infections.
You said that dermatitis did not totally heal. Is it still the condition or did more fasting help?
Do you fast regular like once a week or only when your body needs healing?
I have done an article on Chaos theory where the initial condition determines the future conditions of a system. I am now trying to relate this to the fasting and the state of the body. Can fasting be an initial condition which results in a different outcome for the body?
Sorry to be so late with this reply.
I'd say that I have very nearly fully recovered from the dermatitis. I still have some spots of slightly pink skin, some of which are not quite as smooth as the surrounding skin where I did not have dermatitis. The fasting only really helped in an obvious way while I was fasting. Once I started eating again, the dermatitis would come back. I don't fast regularly. Most often I fast when I take long international flights. I have one scheduled for tomorrow, in fact, and I plan to fast.
I don't think the recovery is chaotic in any real sense. If it were, slight changes in diet or other conditions would result in greatly different outcomes. I do suspect that fasting may help to reset the body, by prompting the body to degrade and dispose of older proteins and use up stored fat.
Thanks for the reply. I have started a routine to fast for a day once in a week. I have read that the body excrete Growth Hormone again (I am older than 40) which help the body to heal. My theory is that a regular fast should improve my general health over time, but I am still experimenting.