When Fasting can be dangerous

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Can Water Fasting Be Dangerous?

 

By Ben Kim, D.C.

 

There's no doubt that water fasting is a powerful tool that can be

used to give the body a chance to experience accelerated healing. With

lots of physical rest and no food coming in, a water fast can allow

the body to use the bulk of its resources on its self healing mechanisms.

 

While it might take a year or more for one's self healing mechanisms

to cure high blood pressure with healthy food and lifestyle choices, a

properly conducted water fast can sometimes accomplish the same task

within a week or two.

 

Similarly, any health condition that can benefit from a period of

concentrated rest and more energy for one's self healing mechanisms

can benefit from a well conducted water fast.

 

Not only can a water fast allow for accelerated self healing, it can

also decrease one's stores of toxins. Over time, all of us are exposed

to toxins, some environmental pollutants, and some made within our

digestive tracts from poor digestion. Over years, these toxins can

build up in our tissues, particularly our fat tissues. And this

accumulation of toxicity in our tissues can negatively alter the

normal rhythm and function of our cells. As one's toxic load is

decreased during a properly conducted water fast, dysfunctional cells

can recover, leading to a significant improvement in one's health.

 

While water fasting is generally a safe and powerful tool for health

recovery, it doesn't come without risks. Few books on water fasting

will tell you that in certain situations, water fasting can be

detrimental to health and can even lead to death. That's right, people

have died while water fasting, even while water fasting under the

supervision of people who believe they are competent with the process.

 

I hope to find the time to write more extensively on this subject in

the future. For now, here are three circumstances in which I believe a

water fast should not be conducted.

 

1. When a person has clinical signs and/or subjective symptoms

that suggest the presence of any degree of arteriosclerosis (hardening

of the arteries) and he or she is significantly underweight before

wanting to fast.

 

In my opinion, such people have a higher than average risk of

suffering a hemorrhagic (bleeding) stroke if they fast for more than

about a week. As a water fast goes on, the body is capable of breaking

down cholesterol plaques that line one's blood vessels, as evidenced

by higher blood cholesterol levels for almost everyone who completes a

water fast of more than about a week. In people who are extremely thin

and have a history of arteriosclerosis, some of these plaques that get

broken down may be essential to maintaining the integrity of one's

blood vessels. This is why plaques form in the first place: to repair

and provide reinforcement for damaged blood vessel walls. If such

plaques are broken down, it's possible to experience bleeding from a

blood vessel, which can have disastrous consequences.

 

2. When a person is a type I diabetic or has had a long history of

using glucose-regulating drugs.

 

Such people can experience dangerously low blood sugar levels

during a water fast. Low enough to go into shock and die within

minutes. In my opinion, people who fall into this category should not

undergo water fasting. A great deal can be accomplished with sensible

food and lifestyle choices that don't involve the risk that water

fasting does.

 

3. When a person has a significant history of use of prescription

drugs, particularly fat-soluble drugs that are easily stored in one's

tissues and can alter one's natural output of hormones.

 

The most obvious example of this circumstance are people who have

had a long history of taking steroidal drugs. The compensatory changes

that occur in one's glands with such drugs, particularly those that

occur in the pituitary-hypothalamus-adrenal axis, can cause a variety

of serious endocrine challenges during a long water fast, some of

which can be life-threatening.

 

With all of that being said, for people who are determined to make

significant long term changes to their food and lifestyle choices, I

believe that a water fast of a reasonable duration can serve as a good

foundation for health recovery. What is a reasonable duration? It

really depends on each person's health history and goals, but in

general, I have come to believe that a fast of 7-14 days is

appropriate for the vast majority of folks looking for a jumpstart to

better health.

 

For more information about water fasting, you can read our section on

fasting.

 

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