The immune system begins to produce a series of complex chemical reactions very efficiently when any foreign body – be it a virus or other infection – invades the body.
At that point, it sets out on its mission to find and destroy. Our body has a whole system of amoeba-like cells called the phagocytic mononuclei system, which is a bit complicated to the outsider. Each organ has a group of cells specific only to that organ, which have the appearance of amoebas and migrate throughout the organ, eating and digesting everything foreign. There are such specific cells in the skin, and in the liver, and in the heart, and even in the brain. They are constantly migrating, looking for prey. The only trouble is that when any, even plant food, it contains a small amount of fat. And phagocytes (phagocytizing mononuclei) instead of performing their direct duties are engaged in that capture and digest these fat droplets, as if they do not care about anything else. So: during starvation, phagocytes are left without food, i.e. without fat. And they begin to perform their direct duties: capture and digest bacteria, viruses, cell remnants, old, dying cells (thus contributing to the renewal and even rejuvenation of the body). They digest all pathologically altered tissues (cysts,myomas,adenomas) and even cancer cells, which are always present in the body, even in normal conditions.
The destruction of diseased, not healthy cells in therapeutic dry fasting is also due to the release of lymphoepithelial cells throughout the digestive tract.
A multi-day refusal to eat and drink water creates conditions for the withdrawal of a very powerful army of B-lymphocytes from the advancedgastrointestinalpositions. They are pulled from all lymphatic collectors and nodes of the long digestive tract. But especially many of them come from the small intestine. The army of B-lymphocytes transferred to the reserve is used for its direct purpose. It suppresses and neutralizes all available pathogenic and foreign elements.
Infection,parasiteswhich, is in an encapsulated (dormant) state, and practically will not succumb to modern antibacterial therapy (treatment with antibiotics, sulfonamides and other drugs). On the contrary, during this period of life, microorganisms, being in protective shells, become more resistant to these drugs and other medicines. During dry fasting these shells are destroyed by phagocytes and enzymes activated by acidosis, which explains the good therapeutic effect in the treatment ofprostatitis.
The immune system can even improve its functioning! For example, thanks to more complex intercellular communication processes, the immune system can memorize viruses that have invaded the body before and always maintains a “high alert” in case the virus tries to enter the body again. Thanks to this, the response is much faster and more effective. In experiments in experimental mice, food restriction increased 5-9 times the production of antiviral protein interferon in response to the introduction of nucleic acid, which served as a model of the virus.
Dry fasting achieves higher concentrations of biologically active substances, hormones, immunocompetent cells and immunoglobulins in body fluids.
Another immune-stimulating effect of therapeutic fasting
The effect of two-week fasting on blood tests – positive dynamics was in all indicators: erythrocytes, hemoglobin, leukocytes, platelets, erythrocyte sedimentation rate. The changes indicated significant changes in blood and its energetic properties. The indicators improved by 10-20%. But the content of lymphocytes and monocytes in the blood increased the most. The growth of these main manifestants of immune status amounted to 80%. Thus, fasting improved the efficiency of the immune system more than anything else. But we know that this is accomplished through blood energetics. More than half of the “electronic” energy derived from respiration becomes free energy during fasting because it is not spent on food processing. This energy is spent on increasing the energy of tissues and, first of all, the cells of the immune system. Having received additional energy, the cells can work “on themselves”, providing recovery, rehabilitation and cleansing of tissues. And in this they will receive considerable help from the immune system. But the cells of the immune system, having received a powerful energy boost from red blood cells, more actively begin to perform their own functions. Thus, real conditions for recovery and treatment of diseases are created.
An American scientist from the US National Institute on Aging, it has been shown that fasting slows down the aging process of the immune system.
Scientists from the University of Oregon conducted test experiments on macaques. In an experiment on monkeys, scientists found that fasting promotes longevity in short-lived animals such as worms, flies and spiders. Starvation has a number of benefits – it increases insulin sensitivity, increases resistance to stress, reduces morbidity and increases longevity. However, it takes a fairly long period of time for these positive effects of fasting to manifest themselves. Experiments on mice fasted every other day have shown that similar results can be achieved by “intermittent fasting”. In addition, fasting every other day has the property of increasing the resistance of brain tissue of mice to toxic and damaging effects, which is promising in terms of treatment ofcranial – brain injuries. It was the turn for experiments on the closest human relatives. Scientists observed 42 monkeys aged from 19 to 23 years (which corresponds to 60-70 years of human age).
Fourteen monkeys received a low-calorie diet for 10 years. All other monkeys had a normal diet. The scientists focused their attention on the state of the immune system, more specifically T-lymphocytes. It was found that the T-lymphocytes of monkeys on a spartan diet changed less with age than those of their free-fed peers. Scientists believe that the good functioning of T-lymphocytes provides good resistance to infections and prolongs life. The study also found that the macaques had improved immunity and a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. The results of these studies were published by the University of Wisconsin, which confirmed that half-starved monkeys live longer and are less likely to get sick, unlike their satiated brothers they do not get diabetes. Experiments on mice have shown that even a 30% reduction in caloric intake can increase life expectancy by 10-20% and reduce the chance of cancer
Starvation and the immune system
In the United States, laboratory studies have been conducted on volunteers during the fasting month of Ramadan. Fasting is a short-term dry fast. Before the fasting began, throughout the month and after the fast ended, blood tests were taken. The studies included the chemical composition of the blood, including the determination of the content of lipoproteins, as well as special studies of the capacity of the immune system of the body, which included determining the number of lymphocytes in the blood, the ratio of their different types, the capacity of each of them, as well as measuring the content of antibodies in the blood. The experiments showed a clearly positive effect of fasting on the body’s immune system: the functional indices of lymphocytes improved tenfold; although their total number remained unchanged, the number of the species responsible for disease resistance increased significantly in relation to other species. In addition, there was a noticeable increase in the content of IGE protein, which belongs to the group of proteins responsible for the formation of antibodies in the blood; in the group of lipoproteins there was an increase in the content of their low consistency species (LDL), without any increase in the content of the high consistency species (HDL), indicating an increase in the activity of immune reactions.
Therapeutic fasting boosts immunity
Studies of fasting in Japanese universities have clearly shown that one of the effects of therapeutic fasting is a phenomenal increase in the body’s immunity. Professor Terai Takao of the Osaka University Medical Department conducted such experiments.
Two dogs had burns made on their backs, grape bacteria were grafted there, and the burns were allowed to fester. One dog was given a large portion of beef every day and the other was given once a week. The result was that the dog fed daily took 2 weeks to recover, while the other, with the restricted diet, took only 8 days, that is, half as long. For some experiments Prof. Terai performed abdominal dissection of rabbits, but, as many rabbits died after the operation, he decided to restrict their nutrition before the operation. As a result, of the 10 rabbits who were given food as usual, 5 after the operation died, and those rabbits who 2 days before the operation did not give food, every single rabbit after the operation remained alive.
Well, what about people?
In the book “Recommendations on Fasting” prepared by Prof. Terai and others, the following is stated. “Fasting has a positive effect on all purulent diseases caused by the entrance of germs from outside. These are empyema, dental caries, wet eczema, and others. In people with empyema and dental caries, with limited nutrition, pus slowly flows out of the affected part of the body. It looks as if reinforced self-defense troops, having defeated the external enemy, are expelling it outside the body. There are many examples of curing venereal diseases, trachoma,rheumatoid arthritisand other diseases. It is said that even syphilis at the initial stage is curable. In short, starvation creates a situation in the body where viruses cannot live in the body.
Prof. D. Bridge, who is an authority on fasting, says the following: “It is remarkable that so-called incurable diseases are completely cured by fasting.”
It follows that the fasting method has the power to increase the immunity of the body incredibly. Thus the so-called “common sense” contained in the proposition “without food, the body’s resistance to pathogenic microbes is weakened” is in reality a mere prejudice.
