Fasting For Three Days Can Regenerate Stem Cells And Reverse Immune System-Suppression

June 19

Even though to many people fasting may sound as depriving your body from certain foods and therefore allowing your body lack nutrients, in reality it is quite the opposite. In fact, there are only benefits from fasting. Any type of fast- water fast, juice fast, excluding certain types of food from your diet, or giving your digestive system a rest for three days will improve your general health, regenerate your cells and improve your immune system.

In order to keep your immune system healthy, it is advisable to fast for several days, three to four times in a year. According to the University of South California in L.A., it will keep you healthy, protect your body and also promote regeneration. If you have an immunocompromised immune system fasting is the only alternative which will fight disease and protect you of any upcoming ones.

To show that the theory works in practice, a professor of Gerontology and the Biological Sciences at the USC Davis School of Gerontology, Valter Longo, made an experiment with people and mice, by putting them on a fast. He realized that when mammals fast, the white blood cells in their blood decreases. This meant that with fasting the body has the opportunity only to recycle old immune cells, which automatically triggers the production of new immune cells, so they can replace the old ones.

We have to realize that no matter our diet, exercise etc. immune cells become worn out and stop functioning properly after a certain period of time. However, fasting can solve this problem by flipping a regenerative switch in our body and therefore filter all the waste material from our blood and immunity. By fasting you detox your body and rest your whole digestive system, by giving your body a chance to turn to the other parts of your body which need to be repaired.

“We could not predict that prolonged fasting would have such a remarkable effect in promoting stem cell-based regeneration of the hematopoietic system. When you starve, the system tries to save energy, and one of the things it can do to save energy is to recycle a lot of the immune cells that are not needed, especially those that may be damaged. What we started noticing in both our human work and animal work is that the white blood cell count goes down with prolonged fasting. Then when you re-feed, the blood cells come back. So we started thinking, well, where does it come from?”

This study mainly focused on chemo patients, but it also extended to other conditions like autoimmune disorders. The triggering of the new production of new, undamaged immune cells, fasting could help people who suffer from what the system has been claimed of incurable medical conditions. Prolonged Fasting forces the body the use stores of glucose, fat, and ketones as well as a portion of existing white blood cells. So, fasting acts as a detoxification that clears out the old so it can bring in the new.

Prolonged fasting reduces levels of an enzyme known as PKA, or protein kinase A. Earlier research has found bolsters the regulation of stem cell self-renewal and pluripotency along with extending longevity. Taking part in prolonged fasting helps decrease levels of IGF-1, which is a growth factor hormone that’s been linked to aging, tumor progression and cancer risk.

“PKA is the key gene that needs to shut down for these stem cells to switch into regenerative mode,” says Longo. “It gives the OK for stem cells to go ahead and begin proliferating and rebuild the entire system. And the good news is that the body got rid of the parts of the system that might be damaged or old, the inefficient parts, during the fasting. Now, if you start with a system heavily damaged by chemotherapy or aging, fasting cycles can generate, a new immune system.”