Starvation is a process of increasing physiologic regeneration, renewal of all cells, their molecular and chemical composition.
Interestingly, the biochemical changes during starvation and reparative regeneration are very similar. In both cases there are two phases: destruction and repair. In both cases destruction is characterized by the predominance of protein and nucleic acid breakdown over their synthesis, pH shift to acidic side, acidosis and other phenomena. The recovery phase is also in both cases characterized by the predominance of the synthesis of nucleic acids over their decay, the return of pH to a neutral state. It is known from the doctrine of regeneration that the strengthening of the“destruction” phaseleads to the strengthening of the“restoration” phase.
Therefore, it is reasonable to consider therapeutic fasting as a natural factor of stimulation of physiologic regeneration.
The therapeutic fasting is based on a general biological process leading to the renewal and rejuvenation of tissues of the whole organism. In modern man in ecologically unfavorable conditions physiological mechanisms of regeneration work incompletely. During therapeuticfasting theorganism is cleansed and regeneration mechanisms begin to work naturally. Everything regenerated has natural automatisms for self-purification and restoration. It rejects foreign things as soon as the process of intentional voluntary intoxication is over. Regenerable is like a spring, which straightens itself as soon as the oppression is removed. Everything regenerable loves purity, cycling and dosage. Excess is as destructive to regenerated systems as uncleanliness and stale.
During dry starvation there is a destruction of primarily diseased, pathological tissues and this triggers in the body a really existing universal mechanism of healing of damages, using the internal cellular reserve – stromal cells of the bone marrow, this is one of the main mechanisms in eliminating theconsequences of brain injuries. After the cessation of starvation there is an increase in regeneration processes in the bone marrow circulation (increase in mitotically dividing cells, etc.). Indicators of hematopoiesis regeneration in peripheral blood (e.g. reticulocytes) are usually 3 times higher than the initial figures. But most importantly, bone marrow stromal cells appear in greater numbers than usual. These cells can turn into any other cells once in the appropriate part of the body. Stromal cells begin to arrive at the damaged area when they receive the appropriate signal from the central nervous system. Once they reach the site of damage, they turn into missing cells of the damaged tissue under the influence of certain signaling molecules.
According to modern scientific research, any cells in the body can grow from bone marrow stromal cells.
Back in the 60s, Friedenstein and his colleagues showed in experiments on animal cells that stromal cells are able to transform into cartilage cells (chondrocytes, which can contribute to the restoration of spinal discs in case ofherniation), into fat cells (adipocytes) and bone cells (osteoblasts). Moreover, their ability to such transformations is preserved even when growing a colony from a single stromal cell. That is, in principle, it is possible to grow a large number of stromal cells, and then with the help of special signaling substances to direct them “along the right path” – to restore damaged tissues. Apparently, stromal cells approach the site of damage, where they receive a “chemical signal” about what cells they need to turn into to compensate for the losses of the organism.
It turned out that the introduction of bone marrow stromal cells into the area of heart muscle damage (infarction zone) almost completely eliminates the phenomena of post-infarction heart failure in experimental animals. Thus, stromal cells injected into “infarcted” pigs already after eight weeks completely degenerate into heart muscle cells, restoring its functions almost completely. The results of such treatment of heart attack in animals are simply amazing. According to the American Heart Association (American Society of Cardiology) for 2000, in rats with artificially induced infarction, 90% of bone marrow stromal cells injected into the heart area are completely reborn into heart muscle cells. After starvation, the animals also undergoeffective rejuvenation ofthe heart muscle.
Mice were induced to have an infarction and then two injections of stromal cells were made into the infarcted area 1-5 hours later. These stromal cells had special tags so that they could be distinguished from their own heart muscle cells. It turned out that all the injected stromal cells rushed to the damaged area, where they turned into heart muscle cells, smooth muscle cells, endothelial cells, new arterioles and coronary vessels. The tissue that emerged at the site of the damage conducts electrical impulses. The success rate of the experiment is 40 percent.
Japanese scientists obtained heart muscle cells from stromal cells of the bone marrow of mice right in the laboratory: a special substance (5-azocytidine) was added to the culture of stromal cells, and they began to transform into heart muscle cells as if by magic. Such cell therapy to repair heart muscle damage after a heart attack is very promising, because it uses the body’s own stem stromal cells. And they are not rejected, in addition, the introduction of adult stem cells excludes the possibility of their malignant degeneration. In my practice there were cases of disappearance of scar changes in the heart muscle after a heart attack. These patients underwent several courses of fractional fasting.
And an absolutely incredible metamorphosis – stromal cells can so “forget” their medullary origin that under the influence of certain factors they even turn into nerve cells (neurons).
Two weeks after adding a special signaling substance to the stromal cell culture, they already consist of 80% neurons! This is still only a “test-tube” achievement, but it gives hope for the cure of patients with severe spinal cord and brain lesions. Especially since (as many researchers have shown) when injecting bone marrow stromal cells into the human spinal canal, they are evenly distributed throughout all parts of the brain without disturbing its structure.
An extremely important experiment was conducted by American researchers. A stroke was artificially induced in mice, after which they were injected with their own stromal cells into the spinal canal. In 100% of cases, the mice had partial restoration of motor activity of the limbs. The result is promising, so it is not surprising that the U.S. National Institutes of Health system has allocated huge funds for the development of the problem of turning stromal cells into neurons. Stroke is a widespread and incurable disease.
Stromal cells are also transformed into hepatic cells. It has been established that in case of liver damage new liver cells (hepatocytes) and their precursors are formed mainly from donor stromal cells of bone marrow. All these studies on laboratory animals confirm practical cases of successful treatment by fasting in people of such seemingly incurable diseases as consequences of organic lesions of CNS, cerebral palsy, consequences of strokes, multiple sclerosis,rheumatoid arthritis, hepatitis.
Stromal cells in clinical practice are already a reality
In the therapeutic use of stromal cells today, orthopedics is undoubtedly the leader. The fact is that physicians have unique substances in their hands: special proteins, so-called bone morphogenic proteins (BMP), which cause the transformation of stromal cells into bone tissue cells (osteoblasts). It took researchers almost a quarter of a century to isolate and study the properties of BMPs. The results of clinical trials are impressive.
In the USA, a 91-year-old patient with a fracture that had not healed for 13 years was implanted with a special collagen plate with BMPs applied to it. The stromal cells coming into the fracture zone were “attracted” to the plate and under the influence of BMP began to transform into bone tissue cells. Eight months after the plate was placed, the patient’s broken bone was practically restored.
In the USA, special porous sponges filled with both stromal cells and BMP are already undergoing the last stage of testing and will soon be widely used in clinics. By placing such miracle sponges in the damaged area (fracture zone or void after osteosarcoma removal), it is possible to fill the missing gap up to 25 centimeters long within two months.
But the stromal cell repository may not be inexhaustible.
There’s another problem. When we are born, we have one stromal cell per 10,000 hematopoietic stem cells in our bone marrow. In adolescents, there are 10 times fewer stromal cells. By the age of 50 there is one stromal cell per half a million stem cells, and at the age of 70 it is simply pointless to take a bone marrow sample – there is only one stromal cell per million stem cells. That is, it makes sense to give bone marrow only at a young age, old people will have to use someone else’s stromal cell cultures. More recently, striking data have been published: stromal cells can be obtained from adipose tissue cells (adipocytes). Adipocytes, as it turned out, are not far removed from their predecessors, and with the help of special substances they can be “brought back” relatively easily. As I have already written, after undergoing therapeutic fasting, the number of stromal cells naturally increases at any age.
Of course, the achievements of modern medicine in the study of stromal cells are admirable, and naturally there are certain diseases and conditions where the use of these cells can be of great benefit. But the widespread fascination with nanotechnology has a downside. Our ecology will get worse and worse every year, modern nutrition will not lag behind either. Accordingly, global pollution of the human body will continue, and against this background, the artificial introduction of stromal cells, I think it will be difficult to predict then what will be the consequences. After all, when human hormones were artificially synthesized, we also thought that many diseases will be finished. But unfortunately in practice it turned out to be the opposite. Even fasting, one of the effective natural methods of nature, is practically very difficult to help people, when treating certain diseases, if the hormonal history is very long. After all, their own hormonal systems are completely atrophied, and the treatment is based on their natural stimulation, and won’t the same situation happen with artificial introduction of stem cells?
I specifically tried to cite these interesting scientific studies to show that all these unique mechanisms are embedded in our body. And there are natural methods when they start to work. My opinion is that our future lies in the study, development and improvement of our own enormous possibilities. And therapeutic dry fasting can play a decisive role in this process.
