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If you are healthy with all your organs intact (e.g. - you did not have an appendectomy, any part of your digestive system shortened), you can easily do longer

If you are healthy with all your organs intact (e.g. - you did not have an appendectomy, any part of your digestive system shortened), you can easily do longer fasts - 10 or even 20 days. Appetite generally goes away at day 2 or 3, so day 7 is usually easier than day 2. Highly recommended for physical and mental benefits, from my experience. (This is not medical advice. I am not a doctor and don't play one on the internet. For all you know, I might be a dog).

ChuckNorris89 6y ago
> you can easily do longer fasts - 10 or even 20 days. Not gonna argue against this but reading some comments here I feel like HN is full of health quackery sometimes.
- tracker1 6y ago
  Most people can water fast for a few weeks, unless you are very lean to start with. That doesn't mean it's easy... there are a LOT of social queues that can trigger a response... but the hunger really does go away after a couple days.
  - cassianoleal 6y ago
    "Social cues" rather than "social queues." I don't mean this as a tell off, just that it had me confused for a second. :)
- akudha 6y ago
  It is not quackery. It has been proven over and over and over that fasting is good for your health. Even longer fasts (10, 20, 40 days or longer). Check these out for starters https://www.richroll.com/podcast/alan-goldhamer-541/ https://www.richroll.com/podcast/alan-goldhamer-541/ https://www.amazon.com/Rational-Fasting-Arnold-Ehret/dp/1884772013/ https://www.amazon.com/Rational-Fasting-Arnold-Ehret/dp/1884... https://www.diabetes.co.uk/blog/2018/02/story-angus-barbieri-went-382-days-without-eating/#:~:text=In%201965%2C%2027%2Dyear%2D,weighing%20207kg%20(32.5%20stone) https://www.diabetes.co.uk/blog/2018/02/story-angus-barbieri.... Even religions agree on the benefits of fasting. Muslims, Hindus, Jains... all do fasting. Fasting gets bad rep because people do it wrong, especially breaking the fast.
  - beagle3 6y ago
    I would not consider Muslim or Jewish fasting a good example. Both Jews (on "Yom Kippur", Day of Atonement), and Muslims (On Ramadan) do a "dry fast", that is - without any liquids either. That fast CANNOT be sustained for long, and becomes dangerous after just a couple of days regardless of your fat/energy reserves. Jews do it for 25 hours once a year, and traditionally eat an extra lunch upfront ("Mafseket" - "The pause meal") and a regular-to-larger dinner afterwards. Muslims do it for a month, but only during daytime - and feast all night (some who can afford to, just sleep all day and stay up all night and don't actually fast). Neither of these traditions are healthy in any way. I'm not as familiar with the Hindus and Jain fasting traditions - but I know some of them last months and all of them involve water drinking, so those are likely indeed healthy.
jack_pp 6y ago
Do you have any reading on the relationship between fasting and having had an appendectomy? Never heard of this before
- beagle3 6y ago
  I do not, it's an inference I made based on my own experience. I'm not sure fasting after an an appendectomy is dangerous, but I suspect it might be - and that it's almost surely not as useful. I am vegetarian. I had suffered from low B12 since early childhood, to the point of neurological symptoms in my early 20s (which were resolved by monthly B12 injections for a while, and then oral supplements). I slowly stopped taking them while still monitoring, and was stable at the very low end of what's considered acceptable. And then, I did a 25 day fast (not even intentionally at first - I was sick with something, lost my appetite, and didn't eat for a few days; and then I felt great, but still had no appetite, so I didn't eat. It took 25 days for my appetite to come back). I did get my blood tested just before the fast, including a B12 test, and it was low. My GP decided to do a full battery including B12 a month after I stopped fasting (usually only tested once a year or so) - and it was at the high end of normal (any higher, and it would have been suspicious). And it has been between the middle and high end of the range ever since. At the time (over 20 years ago), this was considered impossible, or some unlikely miracle. However, since then the function of the appendix was discovered, which explains this perfectly: The appendix is a backup store of good bacteria that the body maintains "just in case", because the digestive system is hostile (and we make it even more hostile by e.g. using antibiotics). It can go wrong, causing the appendix to rapture, potentially with bad consequences. The conditions under which the body uses this backup to restart good bacteria cultures has not been well characterized yet, but IIRC it does include fasting and starvation. Also, it is known that B12 is synthesized by bacteria in the gut (of humans or animals - the B12 you get from meat was synthesized by the same class of bacteria in e.g. cows - who similarly suffer low B12 because of extended antibiotics use, and who get B12 supplements these days as well). So, my conclusion is that -- for the purpose of restarting your gut cultures -- fasting won't work if you don't have an appendix. I suspect, but do not know, that this might be an important part of why fasting works as well as it does, and might even be a requirement. ... which is why I wrote it the way I did.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

ChuckNorris89 6y ago

> you can easily do longer fasts - 10 or even 20 days. Not gonna argue against this but reading some comments here I feel like HN is full of health quackery sometimes.

tracker1 6y ago
Most people can water fast for a few weeks, unless you are very lean to start with. That doesn't mean it's easy... there are a LOT of social queues that can trigger a response... but the hunger really does go away after a couple days.
- cassianoleal 6y ago
  "Social cues" rather than "social queues." I don't mean this as a tell off, just that it had me confused for a second. :)
akudha 6y ago
It is not quackery. It has been proven over and over and over that fasting is good for your health. Even longer fasts (10, 20, 40 days or longer). Check these out for starters https://www.richroll.com/podcast/alan-goldhamer-541/ https://www.richroll.com/podcast/alan-goldhamer-541/ https://www.amazon.com/Rational-Fasting-Arnold-Ehret/dp/1884772013/ https://www.amazon.com/Rational-Fasting-Arnold-Ehret/dp/1884... https://www.diabetes.co.uk/blog/2018/02/story-angus-barbieri-went-382-days-without-eating/#:~:text=In%201965%2C%2027%2Dyear%2D,weighing%20207kg%20(32.5%20stone) https://www.diabetes.co.uk/blog/2018/02/story-angus-barbieri.... Even religions agree on the benefits of fasting. Muslims, Hindus, Jains... all do fasting. Fasting gets bad rep because people do it wrong, especially breaking the fast.
- beagle3 6y ago
  I would not consider Muslim or Jewish fasting a good example. Both Jews (on "Yom Kippur", Day of Atonement), and Muslims (On Ramadan) do a "dry fast", that is - without any liquids either. That fast CANNOT be sustained for long, and becomes dangerous after just a couple of days regardless of your fat/energy reserves. Jews do it for 25 hours once a year, and traditionally eat an extra lunch upfront ("Mafseket" - "The pause meal") and a regular-to-larger dinner afterwards. Muslims do it for a month, but only during daytime - and feast all night (some who can afford to, just sleep all day and stay up all night and don't actually fast). Neither of these traditions are healthy in any way. I'm not as familiar with the Hindus and Jain fasting traditions - but I know some of them last months and all of them involve water drinking, so those are likely indeed healthy.

jack_pp 6y ago

Do you have any reading on the relationship between fasting and having had an appendectomy? Never heard of this before

beagle3 6y ago
I do not, it's an inference I made based on my own experience. I'm not sure fasting after an an appendectomy is dangerous, but I suspect it might be - and that it's almost surely not as useful. I am vegetarian. I had suffered from low B12 since early childhood, to the point of neurological symptoms in my early 20s (which were resolved by monthly B12 injections for a while, and then oral supplements). I slowly stopped taking them while still monitoring, and was stable at the very low end of what's considered acceptable. And then, I did a 25 day fast (not even intentionally at first - I was sick with something, lost my appetite, and didn't eat for a few days; and then I felt great, but still had no appetite, so I didn't eat. It took 25 days for my appetite to come back). I did get my blood tested just before the fast, including a B12 test, and it was low. My GP decided to do a full battery including B12 a month after I stopped fasting (usually only tested once a year or so) - and it was at the high end of normal (any higher, and it would have been suspicious). And it has been between the middle and high end of the range ever since. At the time (over 20 years ago), this was considered impossible, or some unlikely miracle. However, since then the function of the appendix was discovered, which explains this perfectly: The appendix is a backup store of good bacteria that the body maintains "just in case", because the digestive system is hostile (and we make it even more hostile by e.g. using antibiotics). It can go wrong, causing the appendix to rapture, potentially with bad consequences. The conditions under which the body uses this backup to restart good bacteria cultures has not been well characterized yet, but IIRC it does include fasting and starvation. Also, it is known that B12 is synthesized by bacteria in the gut (of humans or animals - the B12 you get from meat was synthesized by the same class of bacteria in e.g. cows - who similarly suffer low B12 because of extended antibiotics use, and who get B12 supplements these days as well). So, my conclusion is that -- for the purpose of restarting your gut cultures -- fasting won't work if you don't have an appendix. I suspect, but do not know, that this might be an important part of why fasting works as well as it does, and might even be a requirement. ... which is why I wrote it the way I did.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]