Can Fasting Reverse Long COVID?
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 24 мар 2023
- The world’s leading fasting clinics have reported that a number of their patients have reversed their long COVID while fasting. I explore some of these cases and the repairs induced by fasting that might be behind their reversals.
![Megan Thee Stallion - Rattle [Official Audio]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/qY6qwqVCsww/mqdefault.jpg)
Since a covid infection 2 years ago i have Post Exertional Malaise (PEM). I can take care of myself so I'd call it a mild form. But it's still no fun. The feeling of being sick and fatique is on an off - triggered mostly by physical exertion or stress. Lately it's on since 5 weeks.
So I decided to give fasting a try. I drink mainly water but also some buttermilk and vegetables juice. Today is Day 4. The first 3 days were ok, but it was still present. Today it seems a bit better.
I will update this comment over the next time in hope to give you a proof.
I’m very sorry to hear about the lingering long COVID and glad you’re looking for answers. May I offer a couple of thoughts?
Fasting researchers and doctors have found that if we take too many calories or take protein in any substantial amount, our bodies won’t switch from normal metabolism (eating or fed metabolism) to fasting metabolism. So if you’re drinking buttermilk, with all its protein, your body is probably not in fasting metabolism. Our bodies also won’t enter fasting metabolism if we take too much juice, which is high in calories.
In general, for us to get into fasting metabolism and to get the many repairs that happen in that state, we have to be consuming either water only or no more than 250 low-protein calories a day. At fasting clinics and research centers, the usual nourishment on a 250-calorie-a-day fast (known as a modified fast) is vegetable broth with, if wanted, a small amount of juice.
That said, restricting your diet to buttermilk and juice may yield a *few* health benefits (though I have no idea, of course, about benefits for long COVID) if the total calories and proteins per day are far fewer than in your normal diet. That, at least, is what the studies on caloric and protein restriction would seem to predict. But compared to fasting, there would almost certainly be vastly fewer cellular repairs on such a diet, and they would come about much more slowly.
Finally, just a reminder to everyone that prolonged fasting can be risky for sick people, whose bodies can react poorly and unexpectedly to a fast, which is why fasting experts recommend that fasts of multiple days be supervised by a doctor experienced in fasting. Some fasting doctors even recommend that entirely healthy people never fast on their own for more than a day.
Best of luck with your search and your health!
Thank you for this video. In fact a study on fasting for long covid being put together by Tom Bunker, who has created a protocol for fasting for autophogy specific to LC.
Thanks. I’m glad Bunker and his colleague are doing the study, and I hope they get the results they’re looking for, but one drawback to the study as designed (per its summary at ClinicalTrials.gov, ID NCT06214455) is that it won’t be able to tell us whether fasting helps with long COVID. That’s because the researchers aren’t testing just fasting. The intervention their volunteers are doing is a combination of (1) a no-added-sugar diet, (2) eating daily in an eight-hour window, and (3) fasting once a week for 36 to 60 hours. If the subjects get better, that’s great. The three-pronged protocol could potentially help a lot of people. But we won’t know if it was the diet, the daily time-restricted eating, the weekly fast, or some combination of those interventions that helped people get better. We’d need more trials to test each of the three interventions, one at a time, to see which helps most. Still, any thoughtful work in this area is most welcome and could prepare the ground for more to come.
Thank you so much for this!
Glad you found it useful. Cheers.
Your book is brilliant! Congrats It inspired me a lot!!!!
Many thanks. Glad you enjoyed it!
The incentives of capital highly discourage media and pharmaceutical companies (which often share board members and owners) from highlighting heterodox approaches to medical treatment. To make matters worse, there is narrative bleed-in from genuine quacks, which is a convenient side effect for the profit-seeking yet ostensibly authoritative medical industrial establishment.
I appreciate you for uploading this informative talk, it was helpful in grounding some of my lived experiences.
Yep, the incentives are all wrong both in the private corporations that fund most of our medical research and in our corporate media that take their cues from the medical establishment. And you’re right that it’s too easy for establishmentarians in media and medicine to dismiss alternative remedies as quackery because so many so-called alternative remedies are in fact quackery, alas. The good news is that for the minority of perceptive people who can look at the science dispassionately, a few alternative remedies, like fasting, do hold great promise.
I'm fasting to treat covid. I met Dr. Goldhammer years ago for chiropractic adjustments for pain. I received the best nutrition and fasting education i never thought i needed. It has been life changing. I still get caught up in the pleasure trap. I love sugar. I went for almost 2 years eating a whole food plant based. I felt so good. So I've had long covid for over a year and i have to get better. So I came to RUclips looking for truenorth health videos and to see if anyone is fasting to beat covid 19. I found your video. Today is day 3. I feel stress free at the moment. My brain doesn't feel hot to the touch either. I'd say that's a good start.
So sorry to hear about your long COVID, Nicki, but glad you’re looking for answers.
The pleasure trap can indeed be difficult to break free of. On the sugar front . . . have you tried sweetening with dates? I also have a sweet tooth and eat dessert daily, but our brownies and cookies, cakes and pies are all sweetened with dates rather than sugar. None of our guests ever notice.
I hope this doesn’t sound too parental, but remember that prolonged fasting can be risky for sick people, whose bodies can react poorly and unexpectedly to a fast. If you can’t make it to a fasting clinic but are interested in being supervised by a doctor experienced in fasting, at least one doctor-Nathan Gershfeld at The Fasting Escape-supervises patients remotely. I’ve never met him, but I’ll toss that out there. I think his prices for remote fasting are about half those of fasting at a clinic.
All the best of luck to you!
How are you currently doing?
It has been two months...any good news?
So I had long covid/chronic fatigue- I did a 40hr fast and gone - was amazing for me, got my energy back and felt normal again -
Great to hear! How long had you had long COVID? And did you have symptoms other than fatigue?
For how long did you have long covid? Im just interesting, Im 2 years in right now.
Thank you for this info, currently long covid for 2 years now.
Glad you found it useful. Best of luck to you.
I became interested in fasting about a year and a half ago and had begun fasting since. I initially fasted for health reasons but quickly began doing it for Biblical reasons. I was recently watching Jimmy Dore and he had a doctor on his show that treats long COVID patients and stated that he uses and has had success with about 70% using fasting. I was really surprised by that. I know how powerful fasting is but never put it together with treating COVID. Hopefully more people will see the life changing benefits of fast as a result.
Good job ❤
Thanks.
Another would be Dr. Natasha Campbell-Mcbride wou has written extensively and successfully treated children and adults with a very effective diet.
Started my 2nd 3-day water fast this morning. I have issues with endurance and recovery, and lingering tinnitus from LC. At one point it was pretty bad, I was on a downward spiral after likely getting covid again around Christmas. For me, ivermectin made a massive night and day difference and now I'm recovering. I hope fasting will help with tinnitus and the lingering metabolic issues with exercise endurance and recovery. Will report back.
I’m almost finished reading “The Oldest Cure in the World.” It’s comprehensive and well written. I have done many fasts with great success and have read many books on it. However, the vegetarian/vegan bias is misleading. Sorry, but you would do well to research carnivore. I have autoimmune disease and fiber and vegetables wreak havoc on me. Carnivore is the ultimate diet for that.
Many thanks for your comment, Alan. I appreciate your letting me know you disagree with that aspect of my book. If I may, though, I wouldn’t say the book has a “vegetarian/vegan bias,” because bias implies I came to my view through unjust prejudice. Not so. I’ve read great masses of papers on nutritional research (including on the carnivore diet), listened to untold numbers of experts (some of whom I cite at the back of the book), weighed the evidence, and have simply been convinced that the preponderance of the research shows that minimally processed plants are the healthiest diet for humans. I gather you interpret the research differently.
I’d be the first to agree that a carnivore diet, like a keto diet, may do well for certain disorders in the short term. But we have a mound of evidence that suggests in the long term (and quite often in the short term too), the carnivore diet, like the keto diet, will greatly raise the odds of getting a host of diseases (notably cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes), to say nothing of dying early. That’s why no study has found a population of people who eat tons of meat and live long lives, whereas many studies have shown that the world’s longest-lived peoples eat diets heavy in plants (e.g. in the Blue Zones).
I’m sorry to hear vegetables disagree with your digestion. It’s certainly true, as I say in the book, that if you’re not used to eating plants, the fiber in them can kick up a lot of gas and sometimes other digestive excitement. It’s a bit like getting sore muscles on your first few jogs if you’re not used to exercising. But since fiber has been shown in study after study to be essential for good health and longevity, and since, conversely, not getting enough fiber has been tied to disease and early death, and since the only place to get fiber is from plants, most health authorities conclude (and I agree) that gradually working vegetables and other plants into one’s diet and steadily building the capacity to digest fiber is the best path to long-term health.
Thanks again for your thoughts, and I wish you all the luck in achieving good health.
Almost done reading! It’s been hard to take breaks from it. Thank you for the response. I appreciate you taking the time. If I can get fasting to improve my gut even more I may try shifting a bit into more raw vegetables. Thanks again.
Typical, a probably 350lb nurse at church was mortified when I told her that I’d lost the 70lbs by fasting. Ironic and sad.
@@alananderson5202you would want to laugh and cry at the same time. I can feel your frustration with you. They ask, "whats your secret? You look great! You look so healthy!"
"Fasting!", You say, and they furiously tell you that is unhealthy... While they waddle away ...
Just started 4th day of fast. First day was ok, second not so much, third ok andb woth more energy and huner has gone. I started with some flu or something, in the third day I do not had symptoms. Now in the 4th day I am feeling good and have more energy than in the previous days but not as usual yet. I hear chatter in my ears but it is probably because of many videos I watched during fast to cope with thinking, bore etc.72h was ma goal but I woll continue. Now the goal is 5 days maybe 7. After 5 days some cells reset and I hope it will happen to the cells with insuline resistance. After 5 days some special cells can build new things in our body, they can transform i to needed cells.
I have a bad case of covid right now so fasting, will report back if I remember.
I'm not a doctor so don't advise people on their specific illnesses, but I can pass on the general information that no fasting doctor or fasting researcher I know would recommend fasting during a case of acute COVID. Most of them say just the opposite: don't fast when severely ill unless you're under the supervision of a doctor trained in fasting. It can be quite dangerous for acutely sick people to fast unsupervised.
@@stevehendricks1634 Ok, thank you I just broke my fast from this infomation.
What about stomach acid (GERD) from fasting? Any advice? It gets so bad it burns my vocal chords and I cannot talk.
If you have acid reflux or any other concerning symptom during fasting, all the reputable fasting doctors I know would urge you to stop fasting now. They’d also recommend, and I’d agree, that you consult a doctor experienced in fasting before fasting again to see if there’s a way to minimize or eliminate the problem. You can find a short list of the very few fasting clinics in North America (plus a couple in Europe) on the Fasting FAQ page of my website. I’m not in the employ of these clinics and don’t endorse any particular one; the list is simply for information. Best of luck!
@@stevehendricks1634 Thank you for the reply. I will take this into consideration.
@@teri03i am not a doctor, etc.... Drinking water )one or two litres) in the mornings, then dry fast for the rest of the day, helps me. I dont know how else to deal with my worsening reflux, which keeps me awake through the night.
If i get actually thirsty, then i will sip water, but basically, dry fasting helps me.
My question is do any of these people fasting have a crash or flare after exercising with the extreme fatigue Long covid has created?
Good question. I’ve heard a couple of reports of people who fasted for long COVID, got better, but continued to struggle with fatigue in varying degrees. These people said they were much better off than before their fasts, but fasting didn’t bring them a complete cure.
I can second their experience with my own. A year or so after I made this video, I caught a mystery virus (not COVID) and fell victim to a nasty post-viral syndrome. I was bedridden for two months until a couple of fasts I made got me out of bed and seemed to reverse virtually all of my symptoms. Yet for many months afterward I continued to be fatigued after hard activity or a strenuous day of writing. Often the fatigue showed up the same day, but sometimes not till the next day. Over time this post-exertional fatigue diminished, possibly because of other fasts I made, possibly because I was taking care of myself generally (eating well, sleeping well, meditating, etc.), possibly because of some other, entirely unknown cause.
You can read about my experience with post-viral syndrome and fasting to reverse it-and also much more about fasting for long COVID-in an essay I recently published as a free ebook. It’s called A Cure for Long COVID? and is available at most online booksellers as well as my website: www.stevehendricks.org/a-cure-for-long-covid. I make no money from it-just want the info out there for anyone who might find it useful.
Works for vaccine injury also
Just taking the mechanisms that fasting creates, in my mind, may be the best thing. I had covid 2 months after having 1 shot. I never took shot number 2. I fast regularly. The sickness lasted 2 and a half days for me. The body seems to have a strong defwnce of our original rna/dna. Fasting and eating right are best options.
Love so much of the book. Carbs, sugar and seed oils are the problem. Not clean animal products.
I’m guessing you’ve seen the fasting and atophogy groups online? We have not seen overwhelming improvements
I don’t frequent a lot of online groups, so unfortunately I haven’t seen the ones you're referring to. What sorts of fasting have people been trying?
Do you mean improvements in helping with Covid by fasting or benefits to fasting in general?
I am in a fasting group a large one. There has been zero benefits for anyone fasting for Covid that I have read. I hope you didn’t mean there are no benefits to fasting ?!
Didn't help me, I needed the calories after losing 40 pounds during a year of long covid. I fasted when i slept which was all the time due to profound fstigue. After i healed a good amount i found that autophagy helped me feel better, but that came later and not through fasting. 😊
I certainly agree you wouldn’t want to fast if you were underweight. Sorry fasting didn’t help you, but out of curiosity, was the only fasting you did during your sleep?
@stevehendricks1634 yes that was the only time I fasted. I took supplements that helped induce autophagy these past few months and that has helped get me over the remainder of the fatigue. Felt so exhausted on a cellular level if that makes sense. I also take supplements that help my mitochondria. And juicing has also made a huge difference.
@@dawnowens2345 Researchers haven’t found health benefits in people who fast only when sleeping, so it’s not surprising your long COVID didn't improve much with that kind of fasting. But it's great to hear you're health has improved so much and the fatigue is hopefully behind you!
I’ve been successfully fasting for years up to 3x42 a week regularly, was in fasting maintenance prior to getting Covid 5 months ago. Fasting is controversial when we have a virus. A study did show with a bacterial infection fasting has been shown to help mice but not a viral one. We need to feed a virus. Covid is a virus. Not enough research has been done as there is no money in it for Pharma as fasting is free. I tried every single protocol for fasting vs not fasting throughout this Long Covid Post Exertion Malaise experience I’ve been having for 5 months. Nothing has made a difference so I just fast because I don’t want to gain weight and feel better doing it. I don’t do as many extended fasts of 42 hrs though maybe once a week however. With little research with Long Covid and fasting we just have to carry on doing the techniques for breathing that are out there online and reducing the stresses of physical, social emotional and cognitive that trigger the return of our symptoms, but fasting will not make a difference I believe. Like me fast if it’s your lifestyle only. It’s also difficult to get fat adapted to start fasting if you have L Covid and that can take up to 6 weeks.
What kind of suplements did you use?
Hasn't in over 3 years so........looks like a no
I told my daughter, who worked in the nutrition department of a big hospital, of all of the cases I’d heard of vegetarians suffering from depression and other mental illnesses. She said, “That’s interesting dad. Our patient requests for vegetarian meals are mostly from the psych ward.”
Long Vax, Long Vax, Long Vax, Long Vax !!!!!!
No
Why?
@@Plethorality Fasting can help symptoms but cannot reverse long Covid.
The answer is
fasting cannot reverse long Covid ….
Fact ….
Apart from for the people who have recovered.
Based on what evidence? Many have.
Wrong
ArtemiC Support has helped some people with Longcovid. And ArtemiC Rescue with Covid.