Fasting to correct autoimmune diseases??

stealthq

catsdogsh wrote: »

I have lupus. I'm doing intermittent fasting for the last two weeks. I don't know if it's helping my lupus but I feel fantastic and I'm losing weight and have enough energy to exercise a lot! What type of fasting are they talking about? I only fast 16 hours out of 24

They're talking about complete fasting for 72 hrs.

I'm glad you're feeling good - losing weight, improving fitness and keeping overall stress low definitely can help with lupus symptoms.

You might be interested to know that there's recently been some breakthroughs in determining the cause of inflammation in lupus (neutrophil extrusion of mitochondrial DNA). It should provide new targets for drug therapy development. I doubt they'll be ready even for clinical trials soon, but given the last new drug therapy approved for lupus was 50+ years ago, it's still good news.

simplycidalia1173

Whether or not fasting is beneficial depends on the person's health issues and what they mean by fasting. For metabolic syndrom/prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, fasting can improve insulin sensitivity and reduce body fat. But it doesn't mean starve yourself.

To me, fasting is something like skipping breakfast (I'm not a morning food person and usually eat "breakfast" quite late), keeping it to coffee and some cream. Then, I eat normally throughout the rest of day. I eat a normal amount of calories, I just go more than 12 hours without eating (sleeping time plus early morning).

lithezebra

paulgads82 wrote: »

I see a lot of people in the alternative health crowd say AI illnessss are essentially the same problem (the immune system attacking the body) but with different manifestations. The treatment of course being a certain diet.

And that is frustrating, because "the immune system attacking the body" is too broad and vague to be a mechanism of disease. There are a lot of different cells and substances that are part of the immune system, and many different ways that different aspects of immune response can cause damage.

BinaryPulsar

I read some of the earlier comments. But, got too busy to actually follow the thread. I definitely always found it odd that people would recommend one diet for auto-immune disease. My diet has ended up being similar. But, I have malabsorption disorder. I arrived at it by recommendation from my wonderful Rheumatologist to do a food diary tracking my symptoms. And it has helped me tremendously. It takes a lot of work to figure out. I didn't know people were recommending fasting for all auto-immune disease. I have seen it mentioned as a possible avenue for one of my specific issues (mast cell issues). But, they said it's still in the research phase, so don't do it. And only do it under the well trained supervision of a doctor. And if you do it incorrectly it could make things worse. Fasting is stressful on the body. My issues were triggered by being wrongly medicated. But, I wasn't being medicated for something serious. I had very mild blushing. And that caused a series of over reactions and misdiagnoses and wrong medications that worsened a nerve problem in my face. I definitely think it's important for doctors to educate themselves about the meds they prescribe, the side effects, and provide informed consent. I didn't know how to get a second opinion in Canada. It was difficult to get a correct referral. That's why they were just trying out meds to see what would happen. I trusted them. But, it is important to get second, third, or more medical opinions. I have an excellent Rheumatologist now and neurologists. I also like teaching hospitals. Interns are great. The intern neurologist that I saw was really invested in finding a correct diagnosis. And she did! Also older doctors (the neuro-ophthalmologist that I see was very experienced with my issues and the med that injured me because it's a newer drug that used to be used as an eye drop and he said my medical injury happened to people back then and they stopped prescribing it), and doctors that really love what they do, have scientific curiosity, and care. I have a neurological pain disorder. I really like the book: The Brain's Way of Healing by Norman Doidge.

Psychgrrl

midwesterner85 wrote: »

moyer566 wrote: »

midwesterner85 wrote: »

Regardless of the validity of the study referenced in the article, I don't see how this would be good for auto-immune disease. If anything, it would allow auto-immune diseases to progress more quickly.

agreed. your body needs nutrition to stay healthy. fasting doesn't help with that.

i see a lot of people advocating exclusionary diets for controlling autoimmunes. i found just eating healthy, getting exercise, and getting rest, along with working with my many doctors to manage my symptoms

That wasn't my point, so perhaps I should clarify. I haven't read the actual study, but from skimming the article, it looks like the conclusion is that fasting improves immune system function. An auto-immune disease results from the body's own immune system attacking a part of our body. If the findings of the study are valid, and our immune system is improved by fasting, then a person with an auto-immune disease will logically see the auto-immune disease progress more quickly.

Example: One of the auto-immune diseases I have is type 1 diabetes. This occurs because my immune system attacks the islets of langerhans, aka "beta cells" (part of the pancreas). At this point, it wouldn't matter because I basically have no beta cells remaining. However, if my immune system suddenly improved during the time it was still working on killing beta cells, then it would kill those beta cells even faster.

Again, I just skimmed the article, but didn't see anything about auto-immune diseases. OP brought up and applied the article to auto-immune disease. I'm just trying to insert some logic into that correlation.

There’s such a wide range of auto-immune diseases and the systems in the body they affect it’s hard to believe that fasting for a few days could have such a positive effect on them. It seems like someone would have figured that out a while ago if it were true since folks with many of these issues struggle with having an appetite and/or keeping food down at one time or another.