longer fasting

[Nadia]

RRM ,
in case of a longer fast , say 20 days , is it necessary to do enemas / colonics ?
by not doing them ( and the bowels do not move over a longer period of time ) , the toxins in the bile are readsorbed into the blood-stream and get recirculated , right ?

[RRM]

Im sorry, but i cannot advice you on that, as i am opposed to such long periods of fasting.
To me, that seems dangerous. Unhealthy at least.
Why not stick to intermittent fasting instead?

[Nadia]

sure … but …
i read that many people cured themselves from serious illnesses with long ( 40 days and more ) water fasting … so for them it was very healthy ; )
you think IF ( with a narrow eating window ) could produce the same results ?

[RRM]

You can look at it this way:
You can cure cancer by taking very aggressive drugs, that destroy half your organs. At the end, the cancer may be wiped out. So, yes, then the chemo was very helpful.
Fasting so long is depriving your organs from essential nutrients, so that the body will eat your own cells for energy. Along with all the badly affected cells, also healthy cells will be consumed. In the end, that may be very helpful.

So, yes, the end result may be very beneficial if you have cancer, but that does not mean that fasting so long is healthy for healthy people.
It may actually shorten your life. Just as for healthy people chemotherapy may make their life shorter.

Everything healthy needs to come in balance. More is not always better. More extreme is not always more healthy.
Fasting for a month may affect your healthy very badly.

[RRM]

you think IF ( with a narrow eating window ) could produce the same results ?

Luckily not, because then i might be facing serious problems.
Not the same, as fasting for a month is way more extreme.
But yes, IF may reverse diabetes, for example.
It is basically the same, but IF is balanced, and fasting for a month is extreme.
IF is balanced in the sense that you will meet your nutrient requirements, and will only temporarily deprive you of enery.
Fasting for a month deprives you of many essential nutrients.

Are you ill?

[Nadia]

so in the autophagy process , the body always eats both unhealthy & healthy cells for energy ? long or short fast ?

[RRM]

Yes.
Even if you do sports, you are already evoking autophagy as you will evoke a lack of energy locally, due to the high need for energy in your active muscles.
When fasting, this will also be at the expense of some of your muscle volume.
Fasting for so long does not makes as much sense as intermittent fasting, because the whole idea is that the fasting is to counterbalance the collateral damage caused on a daily basis, due to the use of oygen for the utilisation of energy and other nutrients. Every day, collateral damge is caused. So, every day, we may need some autophagy to clean that up.
If you fast for a month, initially, there will be quite some mess to clean up, but as you keep fasting, there will be less garbage to clean up, and the lack of energy will increasingly be at the expense of healthy cells.
With intermittent fasting, this ratio is much better.

I found that initially (the first 2 years), i could fast very long (20 to 22 hours per day), but if i now fast as long as i did intitially, it is more at the expense of my muscles. Now my optimum is about 18 hours per day. This may be attributed to the lower availability of garbage.

[Nadia]

the body doesn’t prefer to eat the garbage 1st , in order to preserve the healthy cells ?

[RRM]

Yes, but autophagy will not be triggered in every cell immediately. Autophagy always comes with some apoptosis, which is cell death. When evoking autophagy, one will always be evoking some apoptosis also.

[Nadia]

okay , i’ve got it !
thanks a lot RRM ! : )