My fasting experience

Several weeks back I posted an article about fasting and lyme, I mentioned that I was thinking about trying it once again. So here is my experience.

I was going to do it incrementally, starting with maybe a 3-day fast, but as I got into it I just kept going. It was a difficult fast, because I had to take my lyme meds as I was going, and how to balance that was something I had to discover. Also, there was the question of electrolytes and vitamins. Most of my fasting works were old classics, and they only wanted you to use pure water, no electrolytes. I didn't know what to do, so I started out with pure water, but after a while I ended up adding salt, potassium salt, and then taking some basic vitamins like the b complex.

During the fast, many issues arose, the first of which was diarrhea. They say if you have persistent diarrhea you should stop the fast, but no, not me. I plowed through, but I did take care to watch my hydration, which is key. Then there was lower back pain, abdominal pain, gas, etc. One thing after another. The diarrhea cleared up when I started using a little bit of psyllium husk. That was a major hurdle taken care of. The rest pretty much took care of itself after a while.

I continued on, and I passed my previous railhead of 25 days. At this point I was also taking increasing amounts of broth, be it vegetable, chicken or beef. I felt maybe I was beginning to come out of the fast. I wasn't sure. But at 28 days I got the feeling that I was overextended. I felt the experiment had been a success, I had achieved many of my goals, and I had learned a lot. I felt it was time to stop, so I did.

I took a good 3 days to re-enter. Actually I had very little appetite, and no BM. In fact I was a little worried, but I exercised faith that it was going to work out, and it did. A week later I was eating normally. I spent a few more days just relaxing about the whole thing, and then I began in 18-6 intermittent fasting regimen, wish I have been adhering to more or less.

My lyme disease is not cured. I used far less herbs during the fast, but now my herbal levels are almost where they were before. Over the 28 days I lost about 35 lb, which is wonderful. And I've been able to keep virtually all of it off. That alone makes the fast worth it, because I feel so much better and I feel that my immune system is much more at liberty to fight the disease.

With the internet and fasting I am still losing weight, but very slowly. And that is fine. I have about 10 more pounds to go I think. I plan on continuing with the intermittent fasting, and I want to go back to another extended fast. I probably will work routine extended fasts into my basic intermittent fasting schedule, say for a few days once or twice a month. But we shall see.

Fasting has so many benefits it is incredible. I'm extremely glad that I tried it again, that I toughed it out and didn't give up, and that I learned much about how to fast. For instance, electrolytes are a must; keeping up the lyme herbs is a must; vitamins are a must.

If anyone is interested, I highly recommend Jason fung's book, the complete guide to fasting.

Be blessed!

Thanks WBF!

Hi Light! Your experience sounds great. I am totally convinced that fasting, done correctly, is great for body, soul and spirit.

What you’ve described is a partial fast, or what in the Bible is referred to as a "Daniel" fast. That points to my first big takeaway from my experience: a partial fast, or an imperfect water fast, or intermittent fasting, is better than no fast at all, and better than a disastrous fast.

I had a disastrous 25 day water fast about 4 years ago, and ended up in the hospital with acute kidney failure. Thankfully my kidneys came back online, but I came away from it with fear of long fasts and with edema in my lower legs because I did not come off the fast correctly (super important to do it slowly. Thankfully this latest fast has done a lot for the edema.

The problem with that bad fast was that I developed severe abdominal pain. The books I had read were all old classics, and some of them said to just tough it out. And that leads me to my second major takeaway: electrolytes are necessary. And that’s especially true with Lyme, because of the elevated need for magnesium.

I couldn't figure out why that would be so, but I came down to that our modern water doesn't have the natural mineral levels of old hang-dug wells or open streams. And most people used refined salt. So electros and trace minerals must be replenished.

For normal people the most critical electro is potassium, because it’s plentiful in most foods, but completely absent when fasting, and it is not stored by the body at all. But sodium, chloride, Mg, and perhaps calcium are all also necessary.

As the fast progressed I found myself using thinned broth increasingly. I'm sure that anything you eat will attenuate autophagy for a while, but again, an imperfect fast is better than none at all.

The psyllium I used as long as needed. As the diarrhea faded I used less or none.

If and when I do it again, I will take electros, trace minerals, vitamins, and herbs from the outset. There's the documented case of a guy who water fasted for over a year, under doctor supervision taking only electros and a multivitamin.

The Fung book I mentioned is super helpful. Also, the fasting and intermittent fasting subreddits are helpful and encouraging. People are losing weight like crazy and reclaiming their lives. It's rewarding to see.

Good luck!