Mindful Fasting and Body Detox...

Okay fellow CC friends...

What are your thoughts on fasting as a tool for detoxification? Have you done it? For how long and what did you accomplish through fasting? Do you agree with it?

I am thinking of fasting for 3-5 days to cleanse my body of impurities. Of course, I am going to drink tons of water, green tea, vegetable broth and my capri sun mixed with water (good tip ; - ).

 

I really would like to hear from people who have done this!

Thanks in advance!!!!

 

 

Your body already has a detoxification system in your kidneys and bowels.  The benefits of detoxification have no scientific basis, and it usually just done to get a rapid weight loss in a short period of time.  It is all weight that will come back and will be detrimental to your body in the long run.

 

Fasting for spiritual reasons I agree with.  Fasting on occassion for weight loss doesn't hurt anything (unless you have special needs, like a diabetic).  But in my experience most people either will quit fasting because it is too uncomfortable or overreact when the fast is over by overeating. 

For detox...I don't think it's all that helpful.  I just have to take all the "detox" stuff with a grain of salt.  I beleive it is mostly just to sell us some book, product, or program. 

I will see if I can find some reputable research on it.

I'm searching my University of Texas database and see what I can find:

In general, there is little to no scientific support for detoxification methods. Aside from specific toxicities such as lead or arsenic, medical researchers have observed no general phenomenon of toxification. For this reason, it is difficult to scientifically validate whether detoxification methods actually work.

Most detoxification approaches essentially remain unexamined, rather than proven or disproven, and rely on reasonable concepts but no hard evidence for their justification. Mercury-filling removal is a typical example. Many alternative practitioners believe that the mercury in silver fillings is a cause of numerous health problems and should be removed to prevent or treat disease. However, although it is a matter of indisputable fact that mercury can be toxic, scientific evaluation generally indicates that mercury levels in people with mercury fillings are far below those necessary to cause toxic symptoms. 1 Anti-mercury advocates respond that some people are sensitive to mercury in very low amounts, and that those people will therefore benefit from filling removal even if they are not experiencing actual toxicity. This could certainly be true. However, despite numerous unreliable anecdotes, there is as yet no meaningful evidence that removing mercury fillings can treat or prevent any disease

I'm searching my University of Texas database and see what I can find:

In general, there is little to no scientific support for detoxification methods. Aside from specific toxicities such as lead or arsenic, medical researchers have observed no general phenomenon of toxification. For this reason, it is difficult to scientifically validate whether detoxification methods actually work.

Most detoxification approaches essentially remain unexamined, rather than proven or disproven, and rely on reasonable concepts but no hard evidence for their justification. Mercury-filling removal is a typical example. Many alternative practitioners believe that the mercury in silver fillings is a cause of numerous health problems and should be removed to prevent or treat disease. However, although it is a matter of indisputable fact that mercury can be toxic, scientific evaluation generally indicates that mercury levels in people with mercury fillings are far below those necessary to cause toxic symptoms. 1 Anti-mercury advocates respond that some people are sensitive to mercury in very low amounts, and that those people will therefore benefit from filling removal even if they are not experiencing actual toxicity. This could certainly be true. However, despite numerous unreliable anecdotes, there is as yet no meaningful evidence that removing mercury fillings can treat or prevent any disease

http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma9/fasting.h tml

I have been studying Buddhism and reading Thich Nhat Hahh for quite some time and have been very interested in doing something like this. I think he fasted for almost 100 days in protest to the social climate of Vietnam.

And @67 alecto: do you think our body is equipped to handle all the hormones from the meat we eat and the quantities of food we ingest. I think detoxing isn't that harmful if it is done properly.

I think the main thing is getting our mind right? Don't you think? And actually there is a lot of scientific research of the benefits of fasting and blood pressure as well as regulating glucose levels. I have researched this through EBSCOHOST and a host of various other databases. (I am a librarian, I have a billion places to search for valid articles and scholarly journals). I was just thinking that sometimes we need to give our bodies a break. I could be wrong though! But we'll see...

Much the same can be said about all of the other popular detoxification methods. However, in the case of one form of detoxification, colon cleansing, the theory behind the technique is definitely wrong. According to this nineteenth-century theory known as “colon health” or “colon hygiene,” years of bad diet cause the colon to become caked with layer upon layer of accumulated toxins. This accumulation is said to resemble sedimentary rock. High colonics, which are essentially enemas that reach far up into the large intestine, are said to release the accumulated buildup and thereby restore health.

However, in recent decades, physicians have performed colon examinations to search for colon cancer in millions of patients, and their findings do not support the theory. Most of the patients given these examinations are at least middle-aged, and not very many have devoted their lives to healthy diets and clean colons. According to the colonic hygiene theory, colon examinations on such patients should turn up concrete-like deposits. However, all that shows up during a typical colonoscopy is fresh, pink flesh. Unfortunately, proponents of colonics do not seem to have assimilated this information; they continue to recount theories about the colon that were shown to be untrue decades ago.

The safety of detoxification methods varies widely. While drinking a quart of water a day is undoubtedly benign and mercury-filling removal is unlikely to harm anything but one’s pocketbook, other methods might be risky. High colonics have occasionally resulted in serious internal injury, and intravenous therapies, being highly invasive, must be handled with a certain degree of sophistication to avoid causing harm. Considering that detoxification has not been proven useful, we recommend sticking to the more moderate of its various methods if you wish to try it at all.

References

 

1. Dodes JE. The amalgam controversy. An evidence-based analysis. J Am Dent Assoc. 2001;132:348-356. 

The safety of detoxification methods varies widely. While drinking a quart of water a day is undoubtedly benign and mercury-filling removal is unlikely to harm anything but one’s pocketbook, other methods might be risky. High colonics have occasionally resulted in serious internal injury, and intravenous therapies, being highly invasive, must be handled with a certain degree of sophistication to avoid causing harm. Considering that detoxification has not been proven useful, we recommend sticking to the more moderate of its various methods if you wish to try it at all.

References

 

1. Dodes JE. The amalgam controversy. An evidence-based analysis. J Am Dent Assoc. 2001;132:348-356.

Ah, Just me...then you don't really need me to look for info for you.  You can find your own.