Starvation as the“Great Pollutant.“It is quite common to believe that fasting is the No. 1 method for cleansing the body of so-called “slags.” This is generally a mysterious term to a physician; however, it is even more mysterious, oddly enough, to those quacks who use it. Have you ever wondered what exactly is meant by “slags” and “toxins”? You will not get a clear answer. One possibility is: “excess fats in the blood.” Paul Bragg has infected many people with the “bacillus” of fasting, and it is now common in various wellness systems to talk about the cleansing power of fasting from even 1 – 3 days of fasting.
I will remind Bragg’s words: “If a person who boasts of his health is put on a 5-6 day fasting regime with distilled water, his body will start to eliminate poisons with breath and urine, which will acquire a dark color and a terrible smell”. From this Bragg draws an unambiguous conclusion that all these “slags” began to leave the body. In passing, I will note that the term “slag” is generated by popular literature – there is no such term in medicine. It is more correct to talk about the end products of metabolism in the human body. They include carbon dioxide, formed during the breakdown of carbohydrates and fats and excreted by the lungs, urea, formed during the breakdown of proteins and excreted with urine, uric acid, formed during the breakdown of purine bases of nucleic acids and excreted with urine, etc. All these end products of metabolism can no longer be used by the body, and therefore are eliminated from it with exhaled air, urine, feces and sweat.
There are no other toxins in the body – just these end products of metabolism.
Naturally, during fasting, the metabolic rate decreases and end products begin to be formed in smaller quantities. But to increase the utilization of end products of metabolism, i.e. slags, the body with the help of fasting can not even theoretically. Yes, yes, nothing is mixed up here either! Let’s find out where these notorious “slags and toxins” come from, which our valiant excretory systems (liver, kidneys, skin, etc.) remove during prolonged fasting. To do this, we need to remember gluconeogenesis. During the first week of complete fasting, the main source of energy for nerve cells is glucose derived from proteins (glucogenic amino acids). However, we must not forget that in addition to carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms necessary for the production of hydrocarbons, to which the simplest carbohydrate – glucose – belongs, amino acids contain at least nitrogen and some – sulfur, which turn out to be just excessive waste during the “processing” of amino acids. Nitrogen and sulfur will have to be removed in the form of urea, hydrogen sulfide and other “out of nowhere” slags and toxins.
So what, in fact, is the result? And it turns out that all these “slags and toxins” were formed during the fasting itself. And that they did not exist before the fasting at all! I hope it is clear to everyone that there are no“dumps of rotting waste”in our organism, because all these “slags and toxins” are formed right in the course of fasting!
Note.Yes after reading this author, I can’t understand at all where we get diseases from and why sick people are getting more and more?
Therapeutic fasting is not a rigid new-fangled diet invented by fake doctors to help us get rid of extra pounds. Starvation is a natural, natural system of dietary restrictions, sometimes the only optimal for a sick person. Have you ever noticed what an animal does when it gets sick? It stops eating. So in humans work similar mechanisms. Often in a sick state, the sight and even the smell of food causes us disgust. So what do we do? We force ourselves to eat a little more. And for nothing. Mother Nature has provided a unique mechanism for the renewal of the body – starvation. When we refuse to eat, the body begins to actively use its internal reserves. First of all, carbohydrates are consumed, then fatty tissue. When it runs out, dead cells are burned, then the weakest and unviable. Some of these cells are the cause of disease. It is almost like natural selection in the case of comrade Darwin: survival of the fittest.
Millions of people do not know what starvation is, but nevertheless, more and more people are getting sick. Modern scientific research has long answered the question of what “slags” are and where they come from. Let’s consider it in more detail. Any processes in our body, both physiological (normal) and pathological (painful), are accompanied by a constant accumulation of endogenous, that is, formed in the body itself, toxic substances. And the difference between normal and disease is often only in how intensively endotoxins are formed. Until a certain level is reached, we are healthy, these substances are only a potential danger to the body; as soon as the “Rubicon is crossed”, the danger becomes real.
What are these substances that cause us to constantly live “on a powder keg”?
These are, first of all, end products of cellular metabolism (nitrogenous compounds), intermediate highly active molecules of peroxide compounds, free activated oxygen, as well as simply various debris of large-molecular compounds (roughly speaking, garbage), formed in the course of restructuring processes and “escaped” from the control of “local garbage collectors”. In general, these are the very substances that are usually called slags in popular health literature.
These slags are not so safe: they can negatively affect the cells of organs and tissues (that’s why they are actually called endotoxins.
For example, in the process of tissue respiration oxidants – peroxide compounds are formed, which can act destructively on cells. But these intensive processes of intracellular oxidation are carried out in mitochondria of cells behind a “dense fence” of specialized membrane saturated with antioxidant protection molecules – these molecules in a healthy organism quench the activity of peroxides formed during tissue respiration.
Or another example. To assimilate nutrients, it is necessary to break down biological molecules into their constituent parts. For this purpose, there are special active enzymes in the body – proteases. It is clear that these enzymes are also not completely safe for our cells. However, not all endotoxins can be neutralized directly at or near the sites of their formation. Some of these substances freely pass through the membranes of organelles and cells, enter the lymph and blood, but are not completely neutralized. For example, during nitrogen metabolism, highly toxic ammonia compounds are formed and accumulate in the body, easily penetrating organelle and cell membranes. Another example. During the breakdown of heme (the active part of the hemoglobin molecule), toxic free bilirubin is formed. Its subsequent binding and excretion is carried out by the same liver. These slags are not so safe: they can negatively affect the cells of organs and tissues, so, in fact, they are called endotoxins. It often happens that the neutralization systems that exist in the body are out of order, cease to cope with their tasks, the “endotoxin balance” in the body is broken and the “powder keg” explodes. Endotoxins begin to have a damaging effect on the body. Endotoxicosis occurs.
The most surprising thing is that such conditions characterize not a single disease, but a variety of diseases that seem to have nothing in common. Such conditions accompanying various diseases, scientists call typical pathological processes. And today it is already clear that endotoxicosis belongs to just this category. But why does this happen? Why suddenly stop working such seemingly well-established defense systems? We will talk about this further. However, first of all, so that you do not get lost in the forest of terminology, let’s define some basic concepts.
A bit of terminology
Toxic substances, or toxins, arecompounds of different nature and structure, capable of causing disease or death when ingested or accumulated in the human body.
Toxicosis– a pathological process (process of painful changes) caused by the action of toxins, accompanied by pronounced morphological (changes in structure) and functional (changes in function) disorders at the cellular level of organs, the level of body systems.
Intoxicationis a manifestation of a pathological process resulting from the ingress into the body of exogenous (external) toxic substances or accumulation in the body of products formed in the body itself (endotoxins).
Intoxication manifests itself by signs of disturbances in the vital activity of organs and systems of the patient. The person himself feels this condition as a deterioration of well-being, notices various “malfunctions” in the work of his body. The doctor can detect these signs when examining the patient, his interview, and also as a result of special tests.
It’s like pulling out an octopus.
To understand the danger for a healthy person of accumulation of endotoxins in the internal environment, to assess the potential mechanisms of their damaging effect, to justify methods of prevention and treatment of such conditions, let us turn to the data of clinical observations of sick people. After all, it is in these cases are most clearly seen all the dangers of failure in the systems of “endotoxin balance” of a healthy person. It turned out that intoxications proceed differently and depend on which organs and systems are predominantly affected, as well as on the amount and duration of toxins in the body.
As you already know, intoxications are endogenous (endo – internal) and exogenous (exo – external). About exotoxins now written a lot of scientific and popular literature, detailed and the ways of their penetration into the body, and their toxic effects, mechanisms of realization of damaging effects. But the problems of endointoxication are much less covered. This is primarily due to the fact that scientists have singled out the problem of endointoxication as a separate and important relatively recently.
Toxins in the body
The issues of occurrence and development of endointoxication have received much attention only in recent decades. Previously, this problem was lost in the general “chaos” of known toxins. Scientists gave the key role in the occurrence of diseases to the accumulation of bacterial toxins, direct exposure to chemical, physical, radiation and other damaging factors. Various toxins of pathogenic bacteria do possess a huge spectrum of negative effects on the living organism, ranging from direct blocking of intracellular biochemical processes to direct or indirect influence on the regulatory systems of defense or adaptation mechanisms.
But doctors were faced with incomprehensible facts. After all, modern medical pharmacological agents and methods of treatment allow to suppress and destroy microbial flora quite quickly, remove infected tissues, effectively support regulatory systems. However, as experience has shown, all these measures are often not enough to recover a person, especially in severe cases. So why, having eliminated the cause of the disease, it is not always possible to cope with the disease itself? Further research helped to answer this question. It turned out that during the disease violates the coordination of mechanisms of cellular metabolism, falls functional activity of intracellular and tissue defense systems, violates the “endotogenous balance” in the body and develop phenomena of endogenous intoxication. And now it is no longer external aggressors and their toxins, but substances that are formed as a result of metabolism in the body, begin to have a damaging effect and lead to further progression of the disease. The body destroys itself.
The second important discovery that the scientists made was that endogenous intoxication develops against the background of a variety of diseases, differing in localization, and the cause (etiology) that caused them, and the nature of the course. But in all cases, the body reacts in a typical way: the formation of endotoxins increases, the rate of their elimination from the body decreases, and eventually endogenous intoxication develops, which further complicates the picture of disease manifestations. Today we already know a lot about the mechanisms of endogenous intoxication. Scientists have managed to “pull out into the light and look at the octopus”, with all its “tentacles”, previously hidden behind the picture of general disorders.
Regulators, or endotoxins
So why does the formation of endotoxins increase during illness and detoxification systems begin to fail?
This is partly due to our body’s attempts to protect itself from harmful influences. When an aggressive agent enters the body, the body’s metabolism changes. Cells seem to become agitated, activated and begin to secrete various biological substances (regulators) in larger quantities than usual.
As long as the organism lived in a calm mode, the regulators, having fulfilled their coordinating function, did not cause any harm, because they were timely eliminated from the body by detoxification systems. But when “general mobilization” is announced, the concentration of these substances increases significantly. Consequently, the total biological activity of regulators increases many times and can become excessive. And this leads to malfunctions in the work of other systems, thereby generating an avalanche-like uncontrolled cascade of changes in the whole organism.
Thus, regulators, accumulating in high concentrations, lose their regulatory value and, in fact, become toxins, i.e. factors of damage to organs and systems. This happens roughly as if instead of carefully pressing the computer keyboard with our fingers, we start banging on it with a hammer with all our might, or instead of taking a warm shower, we stand under a stream of boiling water. In such a situation, it is quite difficult to distinguish between the concepts of “endotoxin” and “regulator”. After all, both are formed in the course of normal metabolism, both affect the living organism at both cellular and systemic levels. And it all comes down to how adequate these regulatory effects are to the situation.
The fast dividing cells of the gastrointestinal tract, which suffer most from endotoxicosis, sharply slow down their division during starvation. After all, they are forced to divide rapidly due to the fact that in the process of digestion are exposed to their own digestive enzymes, damaged and sloughing. The body due to the rapidity of division of these cells restores the walls of the stomach and intestines. This is not the case during starvation. Cells of the gastrointestinal tract rest, and the energy previously spent on accelerated division, now goes to the restoration of internal structures, repair of broken DNA and RNA helices. This is also facilitated by increased biosynthesis inside the cell due to the fixation of CO2 in it, which is not present in the food regime. Thanks to this, they do not die, are not rejected by their own body and when switching to the food regime as if nothing had happened, they divide and fully perform their former functions. But under nutrition these two processes of division and restoration of internal structures of the cell cannot be fully realized, and endotoxicosis aggravates it even more. Another important fact: when we are dealing with already developed endotoxicosis, to think about the causes of its occurrence is irrelevant, you need to urgently take action to treat this disease. It is necessary to eliminate endotoxins from the body.
In Russian, everyone will say “remove slags from the body”.
And the Americans found out that it is not slag, but“stale”protein debris in cells, non-working proteins, unclaimed amino acids. All this clutters the cells, interferes with the work, but is not thrown out. The body – it is hoarding, evolved under conditions of constant food shortages and the threat of starvation. The arrival ofketonesin the cells as fuel signals the beginning of hunger, lysosomes (small organelles in cells that break down proteins and peptides to amino acids) are activated, amino acids come from the cells to the blood, from the blood – to the liver, which “makes” them glucose. So while the turn comes to burning muscles, the cells get rid of deposits of unnecessary “junk”.
In the process of fasting there is also an increaseddestructionand excretion of functionally inferior extra- and intracellular structures. It can act as one of the few methods of realrejuvenation ofthe organism. Such a result is caused by a decrease in the content of deaminated proteins in the tissues of the organism, the amount of which increases with age. During fasting the molecular structure of protein changes, which has a positive effect on the state of the organism, in particular on its reserve capabilities. Normalization of medullary hematopoiesis is possible due to elimination (removal) of pathological clones of hematopoietic cells. Most of the so-called toxins or slags serve as an energy substrate for organs and tissues, are the basis for the subsequent synthesis of vital compounds, for example glucose, or play the role of direct regulators of key metabolic reactions, thus providing adaptation of the organism to starvation. Also one of the essential mechanisms of the positive effect of fasting is the removal of metabolic products. There is an intensive removal from the body of poisonous products accumulated as a result of disturbed metabolism, transferred diseases, prolonged intake of medicines, improper diet, alcohol consumption, smoking tobacco and other harmful effects that create in the body poisonous products that are deposited in the tissues for a long time.
Since the flow of endotoxins into the blood stream during fasting is not impeded by the flow of food substances into the cells, endotoxins are eliminated much more actively. In addition, all the energy previously spent on digesting food is sublimated into additional energy for excretion of toxins. Thus, the endotoxins are eliminated even more intensively due to the additional energy. Not only old, diseased and dead cells are eliminated, but also nitrates, pesticides, heavy metals, radionucleotides, synthetic food substances, toxins, remnants of previously taken medications, excess sodium and much more. The degree of cleansing from endotoxins depends on the duration of fasting. First, the fluid media of the organism are cleansed, then slags of thicker consistency are removed and, finally, crystalline deposits begin to be dissolved and eliminated.
Moreover, even such substances are removed from the organism during fasting, which under normal conditions are never and under no circumstances removed, for example, asbestos particles.
