The Nature Cure

by Andreas Michalsen

  Can we cleanse our body of toxins through fasting? Organic environmental toxins primarily build up in the fat tissue. According to a study from 2011, the concentration of persistent chemicals (POPs, persistent organic pollutants) in the blood of obese people who lose weight increases initially.31 Whether this has an effect on a person’s health is unknown as of yet. What is certain is that, generally speaking, obese people gain a health benefit from weight loss.

  THE BODY’S SELF-REPAIR MECHANISM

  We have seen that fasting sets a few things in motion, such as, for example, maintenance processes in the cells. A team from the University of Sigmaringen and the American gerontologist Mark Mattson were able to show that the body’s ability to repair itself improved after patients had undergone outpatient fasting therapy over the course of a week: The damages to the genetic material caused by negative influences such as UV radiation or various toxins were repaired more efficiently.32 A research team headed by Agnes Flöel, a scientist who specializes in researching dementia at the Charité Hospital, was able to show in a smaller study that cognitive and memory functions were improved after a modified fasting method that included liquid nutrition.33 Maybe this is because more neurotrophic factors are released, or maybe it’s that the proteins that build up on the nerve cells like dental plaque on teeth are diminished more vigorously as enzymes increase their activity during fasting.

  A few years ago, a research team led by Angelika Bierhaus, who at the time was a professor at Heidelberg University Hospital, published very significant findings on “caramelized” proteins. The technical term for these is “advanced glycation end products” (AGEs). AGEs accelerate arteriosclerosis, heart and kidney diseases, and other processes that are caused by chronic inflammations. We ingest them with our food—they are usually formed during industrial processes in the production of convenience food, when proteins, glycose, and fats are heated up and subsequently consumed. The most well-known of them is acrylamide, which is produced in the process of deep-frying and was first detected in potato chips. But it can also be found in coffee, crisp bread, and cookies, if these have been heated higher than 248 degrees.

  These industrially produced AGE proteins are so complex and large that the body is unable to dispose of them with ordinary cleansing mechanisms. It’s possible that it manages to reduce them during fasting. Though we don’t have definite proof of that, a Japanese research team was able to show in an initial study that AGE proteins are increasingly excreted with urine if a diet that included intermittent periods of fasting was adopted for several weeks.34

  But what happens when toxins like dioxin, or heavy metals such as lead, mercury, and cadmium that are stored in the fat tissue, are “melted” during fasting? This remains unclear. It is possible they are mobilized and excreted. Maybe they are delivered to the intestine by bile after being mobilized from the fat tissue. This is where the reason for traditional fasting techniques may be hidden: In the Panchakarma cures of Ayurvedic medicine, medicinal ghee and oils are administered, and since the toxins mentioned earlier are liposoluble, you could sequester them that way so that they can be more easily expelled through the intestine. The case could be similar for medicinal clay commonly used in cloister fasting, which also sequesters toxins.

  Maybe it’s these murky movements of the toxins that are to blame when people who regularly lose or gain significant amounts of weight—i.e., up to thirty-three pounds and more—suffer sudden cardiac death caused by cardiac arrhythmias more often, as the findings of a recent paper presented at a cardiology conference in the United States suggest.35

  But when fasting is done right, there is no need to worry, since patients do not suffer these extreme changes in weight. Furthermore, many other major factors of heart health, like heart rate (pulse), blood pressure, and the so-called heart rate variability, improve.

  FASTING REGULATES METABOLISM AND HAS A STRONG ANTIHYPERTENSIVE EFFECT

  One of the most important effects of fasting, as far as we can presently tell, is change in the way hormones are directed. If body temperature lowers, the hormones responsible for metabolic activity, such as insulin or T3, a thyroid hormone, are reduced, as is the level of the growth factor IGF-1. In contrast, there is an immediate increase of the hormones that facilitate urine expulsion, an effect that almost everyone on a fasting cure notices right away on the first day.

  Beyond that, we were able to show in our studies that during fasting, a pronounced decrease of leptin, the hormone responsible for regulating fat stores, can be observed.36 Leptin is a hormone that regulates our appetite and our metabolism, and most of it is produced in the fat tissue. When the body is flooded with fatty and sweet food too often, the cells protect themselves from this excess of energy by developing a resistance to leptin (a similar process occurs with insulin). The cells close themselves off to this hormone. The body then tries to counteract this development and releases more leptin. Unfortunately, elevated levels of leptin and insulin have an adverse effect on the entire body. They contribute to the development of cardiovascular and cancerous diseases.

  Through fasting, the whole system is essentially returned to square one. The decrease of leptin and insulin as well as the increased water expulsion probably explain the strong antihypertensive effect of fasting, which we were able to prove in our own studies. In two publications, the American naturopath Alan Goldhamer impressively documented that systolic blood pressure is lowered by up to 30–40 mmHg (millimeter of mercury), which is equivalent to the effectiveness of taking two to three medications (one medication usually lowers BP by 10–12 mmHg).37, 38 This is why it may be necessary to reduce blood pressure medication before fasting, and sometimes they have to be discontinued completely. After fasting, blood pressure does indeed increase again, but in most cases it does so only up to half of the former reading.

  TREATMENT SUCCESSES IN PATIENTS WITH DIABETES

  A severe reduction of calories has a dramatic positive effect on patients with diabetes mellitus—as proven by Sarah Steven from Newcastle University. Of twenty-nine patients who only consumed six hundred calories a day during an eight-week fasting cure, most reached normal blood sugar levels without medication. Fatty livers, a common consequence of diabetes, improved significantly.39

  Scientists at the Helmoltz Center in Munich and at the German Institute of Human Nutrition (DIfE) in Potsdam found out why: The stress of fasting causes a certain protein to be produced in the liver, which leads to the reduction of fat content in the organ.40 We often combine fasting with bloodletting in patients with diabetes and/or fatty livers. The latter method has proven to have favorable effects in both diseases, and a combined treatment enhances the healing effect.

  Fasting also has a strong anti-inflammatory effect—something that can be demonstrated even on the molecular level. After a rich meal, there is a temporary increase in white blood cells—this is called postprandial leukocytosis, which is the reaction to a slight inflammation that occurs in the cell by the interlinking of molecular processes during the digestion of food. The reverse conclusion is obvious: If every intake of food causes a slight inflammation in the body, fasting should cause a decrease in inflammation. For our body, eating ultimately always entails having to deal with foreign proteins and other foreign substances. The bowel is forced to try and find a compromise—between foreign and toxic substances that have to be expelled, and important substances that are essential for us. All in all, the body can only process food by means of a slight inflammatory and protective reaction. When we fast, this reaction does not happen.

  FASTING STRENGTHENS THE CELL’S ENERGY BALANCE

  Oxygen can cause metal to rust. In the body, it also attacks molecules and rips them apart. This is one of the biggest reasons why our cells age. When we eat less or fast, the oxidative stress to our cells is reduced significantly. The less food the mitochondria—our cells’ energy plants—have to process, the lower the oxidative stress and the fewer free radicals
are produced in turn. Free radicals are chemically highly reactive molecules or atoms. They possess a free electron and, on the search for a partner electron, they can cause damage to other compounds such as proteins or the genetic material, the DNA. For the most part, free radicals in the body stem from mitochondria. That’s where sugar and/or fat is converted to energy in the final stage of food digestion. This happens with the aid of oxygen, which can’t be entirely controlled. Smoking or exposure to too much sunlight, for example, can cause oxidative stress.

  It is essential to reduce oxidative stress in a natural, endogenous way. A lot of people think that it’s enough to take vitamin oils or other micronutrients that are advertised as antioxidants. Antioxidants enjoy a good reputation. But the issue is not that simple. The mitochondria and the cells require a certain amount of training. Supplying the body with vitamin pills (advertised as antioxidants) when it is in a state of physical stress, as it is during exercise, for example, is ultimately harmful. The beneficial training effect of exercise on the metabolism is negated. At least these are the results of an impressive clinical experiment conducted by Michael Ristow, an internist and professor for Energy Metabolism at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.41

  When the body is exposed to stress, mitochondria are animated to deliver energy—be it for digestion or to fuel a physically demanding activity. During this process, free radicals are produced. But the body is smart. It puts up its defense mechanisms—highly effective endogenous antioxidants. But the body must be able to recognize the need for antioxidants. If we supply our bodies with extra portions of antioxidants from vitamin C, E, or beta-carotene pills, we are likely to prevent the body’s antioxidant production process from happening.

  This was the starting point for Ristow’s study: Participants were asked to undergo an exercise training program over the course of four weeks. Exercise has a positive effect on fat and sugar metabolism, which is why it also helps to prevent diabetes. In the study, the participants who did not take any vitamins, but instead took placebos, had notably better metabolisms. This result calls into question the practice of many athletes who take vitamin pills in the belief that they are increasing their fitness. But in actuality, a great number of free radicals are produced when we perform demanding physical activities. The body reacts immediately by producing more endogenous radical scavengers and initiates more repair processes in the muscle cells and the vessels. But a generous intake of vitamins during training levels out these self-help mechanisms of the body.

  This is by no means to say that vitamin pills are always harmful. But it’s all about dosage and individual constitution. A sick or very old person who is unable to feed themselves well or whose body shows a lack of self-healing powers may benefit from vitamins. Indeed, there are promising study results regarding the use of vitamins for geriatric or multimorbid people, or patients with advanced cardiac insufficiency. For healthy people, however, the best way to consume vitamins is via the “natural total package,” i.e., fruit and vegetables. If it must be pills, I recommend taking only a small amount, twice a week at most. This way, the body’s own production of antioxidants isn’t massively suppressed.

  It’s not just exercise that stimulates endogenous antioxidant capacities—fasting does, too. Not only is there less oxidative stress, but for the time after fasting there are more, freshly renovated energy plants—mitochondria—at the body’s disposal.

  These recent scientific findings allowed me to better understand the results of my first study on fasting, which I had conducted together with Gerald Hüther. In that study, we were surprised to see increases in the production of stress hormones in the body immediately after the start of the fasting period—adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol levels were clearly elevated. There is a simple explanation for this: Fasting does indeed place the body in a state of slight stress in the beginning, because sugar and energy derived from food are initially missing. But the stress hormones kick-start the healthy, endogenous counter reaction. Glycogen stores in the liver are emptied and fat reduction begins. Somatic cells transition quite swiftly to their calmer protective mode, accompanied by a dewatering, antihypertensive effect—which also relieves the intestine—and the increased availability of happiness hormones. That’s why our fasting patients were relaxed despite the presence of stress hormones and presented with a slow pulse and low blood pressure.

  Moreover, if we fast for longer periods of time or fast on a regular basis, the healthy counter effect becomes even more pronounced. As early as the 1990s, data collected by a research team headed by Lars Göhler at the Charité Hospital was able to prove that the level of stress hormones decreases after about two to three weeks and is subsequently even lower than before the fasting cure was begun.42 Many fasting patients in our clinic report that the more often they fast, the faster their body enters the mode of relaxation and self-healing.

  And so it seems that fasting stress is no different from everyday stress and mental stress. It’s always important that the stress is controlled, well-dosed, and self-determined. This kind of stress tends to make us healthy more than anything else, which is true for fasting as well as for exercise, hydrotherapy, and “good” mental stress.

  Moreover, fasting leads to an increased production of stem cells. In some of their most recent work, the research team around Valter Longo was able to demonstrate this, a result that once more indicates the regenerative and rejuvenating effects of fasting.43

  THE ADAPTABILITY OF INTESTINAL BACTERIA

  There are a growing number of studies that connect the microbiome, the sum of our bacteria, to the development and progression of certain diseases. It’s become more and more obvious that bacteria in the body—particularly in the intestine—play a role in determining the body’s health, for better or worse. The relationship between microbiota (intestinal flora) and the nervous and immune system is essential for the self-regulation (homeostasis) of the body.

  There are a confusing variety of organisms living in the intestine—roughly forty trillion bacteria that can be reduced to several main branches and a few hundred species.44 Which kinds of bacteria colonize us depends on our environment. The path through the birth canal is plastered with bacteria, and infants are exposed to even more kinds of bacteria from the nipples and skin of their mother.45, 46, 47 Bacteria help us utilize the food we ingest and change their composition rather quickly when we change our eating habits.

  If you switch, for example, from an omnivorous diet to a vegetarian one, clear changes in the microbiota can be observed within just a few days. It’s difficult, however, to evaluate such changes. What is good, what is bad? What is certain is that diversity of intestinal microbiota is a positive thing. People in industrial countries show a reduced diversity of these tiny helpers compared to people from other parts of the world.48 After a week of fasting, however, this diversity increases, probably because the restriction of energy supply provides a growth opportunity for different species of bacteria that have, up to that point, only led a marginal existence.49 Research over the next few years will likely show which changes are caused by fasting and how sustainable they are.

  FASTING PRODUCES FUEL FOR THE BRAIN

  I have mentioned ketone bodies several times now. They seem to be pivotal in the health-enhancing effects of fasting. A reminder: During the first twelve to twenty-four hours of fasting, the body makes glycogen reserves in the liver available for the production of energy and sugar. This glycogen is quickly turned into sugar—the brain in particular is in constant need of this nutrient, because its nerve cells are unable to use any other source of energy.

  When the glycogen stores are used up, the endogenous fat reduction, i.e., lipolysis, is initiated. The freed fatty acids are used to produce energy. For the brain, however, the body produces a special fuel: ketone bodies. Proteins can also supply a certain amount of energy, but the longer you fast, the more the ketone bodies are called to action.
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br />   A ketogenic diet without sugar and carbohydrates is trending at the moment, but ultimately, it’s not healthy, because it’s difficult to meet the requirements of energy gained from fats and proteins with a vegetable-based diet. But it’s possible to increase ketone bodies through intermittent fasting, because the process begins after only twelve to fourteen hours of fasting. It’s long since been a well-known fact that ketone bodies have a beneficial effect on nervous diseases. They have been used in modern medicine to treat epilepsy for decades. Even in ancient Rome, people who suffered from severe seizures were locked up and left without food for several days. Back then, it was believed that demons could be expelled that way. But the seizures were probably appeased by the forced production of ketone bodies.50

  FASTING MAKES YOU HAPPY

  Apart from these physiological markers, it’s the effect that fasting has on a patient’s psyche that fascinates me especially: From the third to the fifth day onward, most people are in a very positive mood, some are even euphoric—until the end of the fasting period. And such an experience of euphoria has a lasting effect. As a rule, we experience feelings of happiness when we eat a delicious meal, when we are invited to a meal, or when we cook for others. So then why do feelings of happiness and contentedness occur during an ascetic renouncement of food? The answer to this can be found in evolution.