Fasting to treat P?

[Praxedes]

Has anyone tried fasting as a way to treat their P? There are some articles about this on alternative medicine sites but I haven't seen an actual study. Anecdotal evidence welcome. ;-)

[Resist]

I have heard fasting is good for the body every once in a while, so I tried it....once. Didn't do any good for my Psoriasis though.

[stametst]

Has anyone tried fasting as a way to treat their P? There are some articles about this on alternative medicine sites but I haven't seen an actual study. Anecdotal evidence welcome. ;-)

Have never tried it but will give it a whirl! Anything is possible.

[deemah]

Many times I have thought of fasting to see if it would help my p. But I haven't actually done it.

[brianrt]

how does a person go about fasting? What is a fasting diet? I will try it but i dont know how to fast

[DanielEW]

I have a brother (in law) who fasts twice a year for 30 days. Has done for over 20 years. His reasons are religious (he goes into a vision state, and while I have issues with his particular faith, I have no doubt he has 'real' and insightful visions), but . . . in essence, fasting is just 'not eating anything'. It's that simple. He does drink plenty of fruit juices and always water. I'm not positive of the 'stages' he goes through, but it's something like - only water for the first week, then he moves to fruit juices, with the last week starting up slowly eating again with only vegetables and fruit juices. His fast includes hours of meditation and prayer, but I'm fairly certain those wouldn't be necessary if you were attempting to clear your body of toxins.

http://www.falconblanco.com/health/fasting.htm is one of many quickly google'd guides, and glancing over it it seems to be much of what my bro-in-law does. I have to say that he's one of the healthiest people I know.

[DottieD]

I have read two books on inflammation both which say that quite a few people with inflammatory disorders (that would include psoriasis) have allergic-type reactions to various foods - not enough to cause an allergic response, but enough to increase the level of inflammation in our bodies when you eat the food(s). Both books say that if you go on a fasting diet for about 4-5 days, IF you have this type of a problem with any specific food, you will see a difference in that amount of time.

I haven't tried it myself.
DottieD

[DanielEW]

I actually gave thought to your theory of A-Acid Dottie, and had wondered if its been put to this type of test. I'd think that if reducing the levels were key to skin clearing, a 30 day fast would surely show if it worked. I know that fasting is rigorous, and not for the faint of heart. But if someone wants to 'detoxify' this is without doubt the way to be sure it's done.

Anecdotally ~ Tibetan lamas are known to (in rare cases) have (purposefully) mummified themselves by fasting on a strict detoxing regimen prior to meditation into death.

[DottieD]

Hi Daniel -
The arachidonic acid story is not somethng I came up with. I read about it in a book called Win the War Within by Dr. Floyd Chilton, a professor/scientist at Wake Forest who was previously on the faculty at Yale. His lifetime research has dealt with inflammation.

Then I started reading abstracts on PubMed and found many that stated the same thing: the inflammatory cytokines are made from arachidonic acid. There seems to be no question about this, as the biochemistry of the pathways has been pretty much worked out.

It is also well established that psoriasis lesions are the result of overproduction of skin cells, and this production is regulated by inflammatory cytokines, such as the notorious TNF-alpha that Enbrel and Humira target.

So I reasoned that the severity of psoriasis ought be affected by the amount of raw material (arachidonic acid) available to make the inflammatory cytokines. Unfortunately, there are no controlled studies testing this on psoriasis patients. However, I tried it on myself. After 40 years of having p and trying everything natural I could think of to get better (with little to show for it) I was amazed to see that I cleared up about 70% with a low arachidonic acid diet (no eggs or liver, only lean meats). I've been trying to spread the word ever since.

There are many things that cause inflammation in our bodies - infections, injuries, stress, allergies and allergic-type responses, excess fatty tissue, a nutrient deficiency, lack of moisture in the skin. We each have to find out the source of our own problem and treat it. But whatever the cause, the extent of our body's response has to be at least partly dependent on how much raw material is available to make the inflammatory cytokines.

Our bodies are able to produce some arachidonic acid on its own - from linoleic acid, which is found in most of the omega-6 oils (safflower, sunflower, corn, soybean oils). I got some additional improvement from cutting down on margarine, using olive oil and canola oil in cooking, and not eating fried foods from restaurants. Some arachidonic acid is essential to the body, so I don't try to cut my intake down to zero. (Actually, lean meats have some arachidonic acid in them.)

The problem with fasting as a "treatment" is that it's not a long-term solution! If you fast for 4 or 5 days, then go back to your normal eating, by the time your cytokine production goes down and your skin cells quit multiplying so fast, you'll be ratcheting the process up again. It is well known that losing weight helps a lot of people with p, but you can't keep losing weight the rest of your life, either. For me, the key is to find a long-term way to keep the inflammation in my body down - and that's a low arachidonic acid diet, along with some omega-3's and antioxidants.

You may already know this, Daniel, but I can't resist the opportunity to say it once again for any newcomers. Thanks for the opportunity!

DottieD

[Resist]

Before starting a fast I would seek a doctor's input. Depending on the medications one takes, fasting could be an issue.

[daytonaflyer]

I did the Master Cleanser lemonade cleanse back in 2005. It is a fast in which you only drink a special lemonade mix for at least 10 days. I did have more energy and lost 22 pounds, but it did not help my P. In fact, I believe my P got slightly worse during the fast.

[soxfan87]

I was just really sick with food poisoning type sickness for the past few days, so I wasn't really able to eat much of anything. Suprisingly, my P has gotten better since then (light pinkish color). Hopefully it doesn't flare again.

[stametst]

I was just really sick with food poisoning type sickness for the past few days, so I wasn't really able to eat much of anything. Suprisingly, my P has gotten better since then (light pinkish color). Hopefully it doesn't flare again.

I was wondering did you check with your doctor on this to see if there is any relevancy to it? If I could do this maybe it will help clear mine up too.

I will try anything once to get relief.

[Praxedes]

I was wondering did you check with your doctor on this to see if there is any relevancy to it? If I could do this maybe it will help clear mine up too.

I will try anything once to get relief.

Imo, if it does help, it's not the type of thing most MDs would know about. Modern doctors usually aren't familiar with natural treatments for disease. Medical schools are heavily funded by pharmaceutical companies and they can't sell you fasting. Also, there tend not to be a lot of studies on these treatments because private industry doesn't fund them, because it doesn't produce a product they can sell to recoup their costs.

DaneilEW - that was interesting about your BIL.

[DottieD]

You are certainly right that physicians get very little training in nutrition in terms of using diet to help control diseases. They're too busy learning to diagnose diseases and learn procedures and drug treatments. And when they get out in practice, they just don't have the time it takes to follow a nutritional approach. It's so much easier and faster to write a prescription.

But I don't believe that pharmaceutical companies are the problem here. Most medical school income comes from patient charges (hospital stays and office visits), from state budgets, and from research grants from the National Institutes of Health.

It is becoming increasingly clear that most chronic diseases are greatly affected by inflammation in the body. And natural approaches to controlling them could save millions (or billions) of health care dollars. It bothers me that our health care system doesn't make a greater effort in this regard.

DottieD

[NearDark]

dunno about fasting but I tried speeding but that got me a ticket.

[Praxedes]

But I don't believe that pharmaceutical companies are the problem here.

Dottie - We certainly don't need to agree.


NearDark - ;-)

[abuabdallah]

Been there, WATER FASTED FOR 14 days.......less itching and inflamation, just my own experience

[lysistrata]

This post really interested me...My own experience says fasting works. As I was going through my divorce, obviously a stressful time, I became anorexic, severely so. With the exception of my elbows, I was completely clear of all plaques for about 2 years, with no treatment. I thought it odd at the time since I was under so much stress and that has always been a huge trigger for me. I certainly wouldn't condone it though since it caused a myriad of other health problems for me. It would be interesting to find out if the anorexia was what cleared me and why it did.

[nina2002nina]

I too was sick with fever and hardly any food for 4-5 days and saw nice clearing earlier this year. I wasn't sure if the fever or the fasting or the fact that I was off my feet for a few days (my PPPP was on my foot) helped with this clearing.

I have heard others say that their P goes away when they eat nothing but rice and green beans for a week. I think they call it "elimination diet". Then they reintroduce foods slowly to see what bothers their skin.

[elliott]

For me fasting would aggrivate my P as when I go on a diet my P reacts becuase of the absence of fat. It make my skin extremely dry. Winter weather has the same impact as the humidity drops and I dry up like an tree.

[DanielEW]

Hi Lysistrata, and welcome to the boards.

[kinghippy]

I can't speak for p (because I wasn't in a p flare when I tried the fasting) but fasting works wonders on PA. At least in my experience. I don't know why it works, but it does. And it isn't like it just works a little. It's like the PA is just gone completely.

The bad part is that you have to eat again sometime ... and when you do all the symptoms return.

Edited to add: also, it takes about 3-4 days for the results to start kicking in ... so if you try fasting, I would try no less than a seven day fast. Also, I'm not convinced that it needs to be a complete fast. When I was fasting, it was because I didn't feel like eating (I was going through a divorce.) I noticed the positive results only incidentally. But it wasn't a complete fast. I had a taco bell taco at one point. And a friend offered me a salad which I went ahead and ate to avoid offending her. It's possible that you could achieve the same results as a complete fast with a juice fast or a smoothie fast, in which case you could prolong the fast much, much longer, thereby achieving the beneficial results for a longer period of time.

[singlebarrel]

They've know about fasting and prosiasis for 60 years now (at least) and it's no secret to the pharmaceutical companies or to doctors. It was noted when eastern european jews affected with psoriasis went into remission while in concentration camps. When they were liberated and back on "normal" diets the psoriasis returned. The rational is quite simple...when your body is starving certain functions shut down. If your starving long enough then entire body shuts down...thus dying of starvation. Fasting for long enough reduces the immune function...or starts to shut down the immune system and an auto-immune disease such as psoriasis can improve, start clear, or even clear completely. A lot depends on the type of fast one does and for how long they do it for.

[sarah603]

A good book to read on the subject is Fasting and Eating for Health by Dr. Joel Fuhrman.

I would love to try an extended fast, but cannot find a provider willing to medically supervise it. May end up trying to get down to NJ to see Dr. Fuhrman --- his nutrient dense eating approach has made a world of difference in reducing my inflammation.

After several 7 day water only fasts I have seen a reduction in my skin P as well as reduced inflammation and pain in my joints affected by PsA.