Last Updated on November 9, 2023 by Fasting Planet
Do you ever wish you could press a button to heal your entire body? You know there’s no way to make that possible, but surely there’s something you can do for a healthier you. Lately, you’ve considered fasting for better health. Is it possible to heal the body through a fast?
Fasting can indeed heal the body, and it mostly does so through a process known as autophagy. During autophagy, your body takes damaged and old cell parts and consumes or recycles them. This can lessen your risk of disease and even lead to a longer life. Other parts of your body, such as the digestive system, can also rest and heal during a fast.
If you’re new to this blog and you don’t yet know a lot about autophagy, this post will serve as a great introduction. In it, we’ll discuss how you can heal your body through fasting, what benefits you can expect, and how long it will take. Keep reading!
How Does Fasting Heal the Body?
The average human body is comprised of 37.2 trillion cells. From the day you were born until today, most of those original cells are no longer a part of you. Some cells, like heart muscle cells, can live on for 40 years, but other crucial cells, such as white blood cells, have a lifespan of about three weeks.
When a cell gets older, its efficacy drops. If enough of your cells are old or damaged, you could be at higher risk for infection or disease. Through fasting, it’s possible to get rid of these old cells and remove damaged parts of otherwise good cells so their efficiency increases.
This is known as autophagy.
Autophagy comes from an Ancient Greek term that means “self-devouring.” It’s a process that occurs regularly, but fasting can kickstart it. We’ll talk in the next section about the benefits of autophagy, but they’re quite plentiful.
While your cells are cleaning themselves up, other parts of your body are enjoying the nice break they get during a fast. Your digestive system especially works constantly to process the foods you put into it.
Digestion, by the way, is not an instantaneous process. Six or eight hours after you eat your breakfast, your body is still digesting it. By that point, you may have consumed lunch or even dinner, giving your body even more to digest.
During a fast, once your digestive system can eventually process all the food it has to go through, it stops for a while. The digestive organs will begin repairing themselves, becoming stronger for the next time you eat.
What Are the Benefits of Autophagy?
Getting back to autophagy, the main means of healing your body during a fast, here’s an overview of autophagy benefits as promised.
Lower Rate of Cell Death
When cells die, also known as apoptosis, it’s not a pretty process. The mess that’s left behind puts more strain on your cells, as they now have to pull double-duty as a cleaning crew. When autophagy kicks in and your healthy cells eat the old or damaged ones before cell death occurs, you avoid more inflammation from cell cleanup.
Fat Burning and Weight Loss
The fat burning that occurs during a fast begins when your body goes through its supply of glucose, an energy source. This is the primary means of losing weight on a fast besides restricting calories.
All that fat burning your body does is supplemented by autophagy for better results on the scale post-fast. Further, autophagic processes can fix up package proteins for a healthier metabolism, which makes it easier to stay trim.
The Right Amount of Inflammation
Not all inflammation is necessarily bad. A bout of inflammation can trigger parts of the body into action. For example, inflammation around the immune system might it to get ready to fight off foreign invaders.
Yet too much inflammation, also known as chronic inflammation, can lead to symptoms like chest and abdominal pain, rashes, mouth sores, fever, and fatigue, none of which are good for your health.
In an autophagic state, your body can produce more antigens. An antigen is a type of protein that controls inflammation so your body never has too much or too little.
Longer Life
The biggest benefit of autophagy by far is increasing your lifespan. Studies have long since proven that autophagy may make it harder for cancer cells to survive by removing DNA damage and reducing inflammation. (In most cases; some data shows that autophagy can cause cancer cell multiplication.)
Further, autophagic processes can influence cells to eat microbes that may contribute to infectious viruses and diseases such as HIV or tuberculosis. Your risk of developing a neurodegenerative disease like Parkinson’s, dementia, or Alzheimer’s may lessen as well when your cells eat the proteins specific to those conditions.
A healthier, disease-free you is one who lives longer.
How Long Do You Have to Fast for Autophagy?
You’re eager to begin healing your body through fasting. How long will it take for autophagy to start when on a fast? It depends, but the consensus is between 18 and 20 hours.
Your body’s cells can do the most recycling within 48 to 72 hours. If you want to heal yourself from the inside out, plan for a multi-day fast.
Conclusion
Fasting can heal your body in a multitude of ways. When your digestive system gets a break, the cells can repair and restore themselves for better digestion. Autophagy, an internal process of cell recycling and consumption, works best on a fast.
Through autophagy, you can safeguard yourself from disease, enhance your metabolism, prevent messy cell death, control inflammation, and even boost your weight loss potential. You do have to fast for a few days to enter an optimal autophagic state, but the results are worth it. You could even live longer!