Benefits of Fasting:

[Guest guest]

http://www.frenzy.com/~sam/mc/fuhrman_interview.htm

Dr. Fuhrman is a board-certified family physician who

specializes in nutritional medicine. He is in practice in Belle

Mead, N.J. He is author of Fasting and Eating for Health: A Medical

Doctor's Program for Conquering Disease. His address is 450 Amwell

Road, Suite E, Belle Mead, NJ 08502. Phone (908) 359-1775 Fax (908)

359-2068

RC: Dr. Fuhrman, how did you become interested in fasting?

JF: I was 19, and a champion figure skater training for the Olympics

with my sister Gail. We were number two in U.S. pairs figure

skating. I had a severe injury to my leg, and could not walk, let

alone skate. The best physicians didn't help me, and wanted to do

experimental surgery. I was on crutches for a year. My arthritic

father had recovered from arthritis through fasting, so I chose to

try it. I fasted to resorb the calcium deposits on my foot that had

come from the repetitive stress that had caused my injury. I went to

Dr. Shelton's health school in San in 1974, and the foot

healed after a 36 day fast. After that my sister and I resumed our

athletic career and were rated third in the world. When I was

fasting, I saw other patients throw away their asthma and blood

pressure medications. Contrast that with going to medical school and

watching almost no one getting better, where patients need more and

more medications.

The value of fasting is that it allows us to correct the damage done

to us by our diet. Most of the major killer diseases such as cancer

and heart disease have a nutritional origin. They are diseases of

excess nutrition.

Through a proper diet high in phytonutrients and lower in fat and

protein, people can make great strides in improving their health.

Yet when people try to make dietary changes, they will see gradual

and slow improvements. They often reach a plateau. They often can't

get off their asthma or high blood pressure medications or get rid

of chest pains. These are cases where a therapeutic fast, properly

supervised, can bring a patient to a new plateau where their disease

will go into complete remission.

RC: Fasting means nothing but water.

JF: Yes. Juice fasts and light diets do not have the powerful

healing effects of a water fast.

RC: Why does water fasting have such healing power?

JF: High blood pressure is an example of a disease where the blood

vessels are narrowed. They are stiffened because of the build of

plaque in the arteries. Frequently, through weight loss and good

nutrition, a person's blood pressure can improve. That can take many

years of following the right diet, however. It's often difficult for

people to get people to have the motivation and see the progress

occurring. Fasting can do what would many years of eating correctly

could accomplish in a few weeks time. Blood pressure can drop

quickly into a normal range. And many people can't tolerate many

medications-- they get headaches, they get impotent, tired. And

medications don't touch the underlying cause of the disease-- the

stiffened blood vessels and the plaque.

RC: Do plaque deposits regress during a fast?

JF: Absolutely. I've seen many patients that have stopped all high

blood pressure medications.

The exciting part is when you have patients with advanced coronary

artery disease who are told they need angioplasty or bypass surgery

and who are still on multiple medications for chest pain, and a fast

resolves all their chest pains. During a fast, the body will use for

its sustenance the cholesterol plaques and atheromas-- the build up

lining the blood vessels--that causes heart and artery disease and

high blood pressure in the first place.

A person who is overweight and fasts will not see the same

impressive results as those of normal weight. Overweight people

should lose weight before they fast through healthy eating. The fast

can then direct its attention to removing the cholesterol and the

atheromas which are harder to remove than by just eating right. A

fast will look for whatever superfluous tissue the body has and

remove it.

RC: Can you share one case of angina reversal?

JF: Certainly. When you practice medicine this way, you remove the

cause of disease, and it is very rewarding for the doctor and the

patient. A 51 year-old man came to me who had had three

angioplasties. They told him he needed another one. His chest pain

would come back after a month or two after each one he had.

Angioplasties merely condense the plaque and make things worse in

the long run. 30-40% of arteries reocclude in a three month time

after an angioplasty. They really cause an acceleration of the

disease process.

I put this man on a extremely low fat diet rich in fruits and

vegetables for one month. Then I put him on a fast of nothing more

than distilled spring water for 24 days. After the fast, he was able

to play tennis and golf. He has no more chest pains. His pet scan

showed that blockages in his coronary arteries went from 95-99% to

60-70%. Three years after the fast, he has never had another chest

pain. His flow was increased, and he had no more need for invasive

procedures. This has happened with so many other patients. I have

set them free. They don't need me anymore.

RC: When you tell your medical colleagues this, what do they say?

JF: They say, " Wow. But I could never get my patients to do that. " I

say, let's tell patients what their alternatives are. With fasting,

people with life threatening conditions and so many other problems

can get well again and lead a normal life. Patients deserve to make

their own choice, and fasting should be an option.

RC: You have said that the modern medical management of heart

disease is malpractice.

JF: That's my belief. People are pushed into cardiac

catheterizations, bypass surgery, angioplasty, and cholesterol-

lowering medications, and are never talked to about aggressive

nutritional interventions. Eating less fat and less cholesterol is

not enough. They have to do much more than follow the American Heart

Association recommendations about eating 30% of calories from fat

and no more than 300 mg of cholesterol per day. They need to follow

a very low fat diet high in fresh fruits and vegetables and very low

in cholesterol.

RC: In 1909, we ate more cholesterol, and yet had less heart disease

than we do today. Is eating cholesterol really the problem?

JF: Animal protein and saturated fat has more of an effect on

cholesterol levels than eating cholesterol. The lack of

phytonutrients and fiber also causes problems.

RC: You've said that the fastest way to put a high risk heart

patient into a low risk patient is to fast them.

JF: It is. Fasting thins the blood and interferes with the ability

of platelets to clot, therefore greatly reducing the risk of having

a heart attack. Every patient that is slated for bypass surgery

could use fasting as an alternative.

RC: What about hypoglycemics who want to fast?

JF: Hypoglycemics can do well if they cleanse their body. As blood

glucose lowers during the hypoglycemic attack, the body begins to

dump nitrogenous wastes. A high protein diet is not the solution to

hypoglycemia. It is like taking a drug addict and giving them more

drugs, because the real problem is the nitrogenous wastes of the

high protein diet.

RC: You've said you can get rid of migraines through fasting.

JF: Yes. Ninety-five percent of the migraine patients who see me are

cured after a fast. There are hundreds of toxic substances that

irritate the brain. Coffee is just one of the hundreds of substances

people are detoxifying from on a daily basis. When these substances

are removed from the central nervous system, you cure the problem.

Toxic drugs-- barbiturates, ergotamines, narcotics-- prolong the

problem. The doctor who treats headaches with these medications is

no different than a drug pusher selling drugs to prolong an

addiction.

RC: How do you know when a fast should be ended?

JF: I look at body weight, nutritional reserves, blood pressure, and

electrolytes. When potassium and other electrolytes go too low, you

have to end a fast. A precipitous drop in blood pressure is another

sign to end a fast.

RC: The Lancet had an article that showed that rheumatoid arthritics

were helped by a fast. That was exciting. The question is, which

foods should they eat after the fast?

JF: There is no one diet that will suit every RA patient. There is

no way to tell until we fast them and introduce foods slowly, one at

a time. I will just add one food every three days. If their pain

starts to come back, we know they are sensitive to that food. One

out of three are sensitive to wheat, one out of twenty sensitive to

nightshade vegetables. We treat every RA patient as an individual.

It may take a month to add back all the foods, but this is only way

to do it.

RC: Why, even with published articles in the esteemed Lancet, is

fasting looked down upon by the medical establishment and the

Arthritis Foundation?

JF: I don't know. Most rheumatologists are not interested in

nutrition. They want to write prescriptions, not spend an hour with

each patient educating them about nutrition. There is a world

literature out there about fasting. It should be employed to help

people.

RC: Does fasting help people with fatigue and adrenal burnout?

JF: Absolutely. The body can discharge toxins that are much of the

cause of fatigue during a fast, allowing the body to repair and

rejuvenate itself.

RC: What about lupus?

JF: If caught in the early stages, fasting will completely reverse

lupus. I have so many case histories. Most of them come to me on

drugs like prednisone, and I wean them off them slowly. A fast

allows the body to detoxify the toxins that cause many autoimmune

diseases.

RC: Can fasting help asthma?

JF: Asthma patients come to me because they are tired of taking

medications. The inflammation that occurs in asthma is the response

of tissue in an effort to dilute, ward off or throw off a noxious

irritant. By taking drugs that suppress the body's response to the

noxious irritants, we are making the body not react to these

irritants, and they hang around and things get worse. Some of the

drugs that cause dilation like beta agonists add more toxins,

further aggravating the situation. These drugs are associated with

increased mortality from asthma.

The anti-inflammatory effects of a water fast, however, are at once

very powerful and more in accord with the body's healing goals.

Fasting removes the toxins that causes the inflammation in the first

place. Once these irritants are removed, the patient can start

breathing normally. I then begin to wean the patient off the

medications. The benefits of the fast can be maintained long term if

the patient eats a healthy diet.

RC: How do people feel on a fast?

JF: It is different for everyone. If you cut back on high fat foods,

salty and sweet foods, and eat a lot of foods of vegetables, you'll

do better. There is no hunger after day two. What most people think

of as everyday hunger is really withdrawal from their diet of rich

foods. A lot of people who eat an improper diet will go through

withdrawals. Yet after the first few days of headaches and nausea,

even these patients will feel terrific and sail comfortably through

the rest of the fast.

RC: Do people need to rest and avoid work and stress while fasting?

JF: Absolutely. To get maximum benefit from the fast, it is

important that the person is at rest and not exercising strenuously.

They should go to places where other people are fasting if possible.

Yoga and stretching are fine.

RC: What are contraindications for fasting?

JF: Liver or kidney failure, pregnancy, type I diabetes, or a strong

fear of fasting.

RC: What about guidelines for coming off a fast?

JF: The key is to eat bland foods and start in small amounts. I

usually have patients start by eating a fist size serving of

watermelon. Spicy foods and alcohol should also be avoided, for they

can severely irritate the GI tract right after a fast.

RC: You recommend that all patients with medical problems-- indeed

anyone who is going to fast for more than three days-- do so under

medical supervision.

JF: Absolutely.

RC: Can physicians contact you for more information about how to

supervise fasting?

JF: Yes. I am happy to help train physicians in this modality.

RC: What is the one thing you want people to remember about fasting?

JF: All fasting does is remove the stresses from the body so that

the body can direct its energies towards healing. It is thrilling

watching patients get well and throw away their medications. That is

why I went to medical school and what this is all about.

RC: Dr. Fuhrman, thanks for being with us.

JF: Thank you, .