3 day fasting to reset immune system

how prolonged fasting cycles — periods of no food for two to four days at a time over the course of six months — kill older and damaged immune cells and generate new ones,
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Would cyclophosphamide do the same thing (reset the immune system), but a bit more comprehensively?

If so, waiting for the results of Fluge and Mella's study might be a good plan.
 
I trialed fasting several years ago. The first 24 hours went ok, after that I started getting really weak and heart palpitations, which forced me to stop around the 35 hour mark. It doesn't seem that healthy people get huge issues from fasting for a day, so it seems ME/CFS makes fasting harder as well for some of us.
 
Yes, fasting is great for cleaning your body, reducing inflammation and increasing longevity. I try to do several 2-3 day fasts each year.

That being said, I don't expect regular fasting would have much of an impact on ME/CFS, maybe in the short term (temporary relief), but not in the long term.
 
I don't tolerate fasting all that well, so I wouldn't try it. Can't say I've seen any good studies on humans on this either, mostly it's been weight loss studies and all positive findings can be attributted to patients losing weight. Then again many studies also ask participants to drop breakfast, there could be differences in dropping breakfast vs dropping a late meal. Circadian rhytms seems important.

I realise this periodic fasting is not the same as a full three day fast, but I can't see the benefits suddenly appear after three days. Apoptosis has been shown in rodents, and not in all studies. We're not rodents and certainly don't live in the same controlled environment as study animals do.

I believe that if someone wants to fast, they should be in good health before hand as fasting is stressful for the body.
 
Midnattsol said:
I don't tolerate fasting all that well
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Invisible Woman said:
I can't either. If I don't eat regularly I start to feel extremely ill. This has happened since developing ME.
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I can't tolerate fasting either. I just get weak, wobbly, fuzzy-headed, and cognitively challenged. I also start to fall over more than usual and make painful mistakes when doing dangerous things like cutting vegetables.
 
sb4 said:
I did a 30 day fast years ago and my symptoms remained.
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. Surely it wasn’t a complete fast with just water ?

Hutan said:
If so, waiting for the results of Fluge and Mella's study might be a good plan.
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. I wasn’t aware they had something of the sort going on. I’ll look into it.

JES said:
I trialed fasting several years ago. The first 24 hours went ok, after that I started getting really weak and heart palpitations, which forced me to stop around the 35 hour mark.
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. How severely ill are you ?

borko2100 said:
Yes, fasting is great for cleaning your body, reducing inflammation and increasing longevity. I try to do several 2-3 day fasts each year.
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. Have you done a complete 72 hour fast and did you notice even the slightest improvement after ?

Invisible Woman said:
I can't either. If I don't eat regularly I start to feel extremely ill.
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You just reminded me : there was a few times when I didn’t eat for about 24 hours and it increased my symptoms and made me weaker. I wasn’t resting though, which didn’t help.

Mij said:
My mini fast is that I stop eating after 6pm, and don't eat until my breakfast at 7-8 am.
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. I have been doing the same for years. I stop eating around 6-7 pm and start eating the following day around 11-12 am. To me this isn’t hard, I’m just not hungry in the morning.
 
Dechi said:
I wasn’t resting though, which didn’t help.
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Even if resting, I have to eat a little and often. I have some gastric issues that may or may not be related to ME that causes problems if I eat too much in one sitting, or eat too quickly.

I have regular little snacks mid-morning, mid afternoon and 2 in the evening. In addition to lunch and an evening meal. I sometimes have a small.breakfast, sometimes not.depending on whether I sleep through.

If I am more active then sometimes I might need to add another snack so on the rare occasions I am out I normally have something with me.
 
Dechi said:
Surely it wasn’t a complete fast with just water ?
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The first 7 days where dry fasting, so absolutely nothing, the next 23 days where with a glass or 2 of water. Some symptoms improved but this is basically because eating worsens symptoms for me. I felt horribly sick for the majority of the fast (nauseous, etc, not usual symptoms) and it took all my will power. I gained no improvement from it however.
 
Before ME for a variety of reasons I did longer water fasts of 3-10 days several times with little trouble other than the expected headaches and lowered blood pressure. Maybe a day or two where an old injury would be aching, probably from being more inactive during the fast. The hardest part would always be the social aspect, and not having food as entertainment. I always felt refreshed and rested after.

I have tried several times to do similar fasts since getting ME and I just can’t do it. My muscles get really achey and I feel worse, not better like before. Obviously some muscle will be broken down during a fast but now it feels like that’s either the only thing being broken down or something is blocking muscle breakdown. Something is not working in the same way, and there’s a clear difference to my experience. The social aspect isn’t as much of an issue anymore but the entertainment aspect is probably worse since there is little else happening during the day.

I‘m planning on trying again for a few days this weekend. It probably won’t have changed and I won’t manage, but I keep hoping it will. I don’t believe it would make any difference to my ME but it does help with some other minor issues I have or at least it did in the past.

My understanding is that only B-cells are regenerated after a prolonged fast so if that worked for ME we should all have been cured by rituximab by now.
 
Yes, I've fasted for 8 days. It didn't help my issues - chronic bacterial prostatitis and cfs. I don't think it cures anything, neither that it resets the immune system. I also know a guy who tried to cure cancer by water fasting and almost killed himself. He was finally saved after surgery and chemo in the hospital.
 
andypants said:
I‘m planning on trying again for a few days this weekend. It probably won’t have changed and I won’t manage, but I keep hoping it will. I don’t believe it would make any difference to my ME but it does help with some other minor issues I have or at least it did in the past.
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Please come back here to comment, I’d like to know.

andypants said:
My understanding is that only B-cells are regenerated after a prolonged fast so if that worked for ME we should all have been cured by rituximab by now.
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Good observation !

svetoslav80 said:
I also know a guy who tried to cure cancer by water fasting and almost killed himself. He was finally saved after surgery and chemo in the hospital.
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I’ve read 3 day fasting can help people get better after chemio, but it probably doesn’t work for everyone.
 
the article said:
how prolonged fasting cycles — periods of no food for two to four days at a time over the course of six months — kill older and damaged immune cells and generate new ones,
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Just noting that the regime proposed is 'prolonged fasting cycles', not a very prolonged single fast. So, according to what these researchers are proposing, a single fast of several days or more probably wouldn't be expected to produce the immune system reset.

Dechi said:
I wasn’t aware they had something of the sort going on. I’ll look into it.
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There's this thread although it doesn't have much on the blinded trial yet. Hopefully there will be some news soon - I think 'in early 2020' was the last estimate we have heard.
And what if the cyclophosphamide study is positive?
 
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