Who should do a fast? There are actually very few contraindications for fasting, meaning that most people would benefit. In general people who should not fast are people very emaciated from end-stage disease or serious malnutrition, people with severe anemia, and individuals with a rare fatty acid deficiency of a specific enzyme required to break down fat for energy. Conditions that have been researched and respond well to water fasting are appendicitis, chemical poisoning, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, epilepsy, immune and inflammatory disorders, obesity, pancreatitis, and addictions. Also, fasting in an excellent way for an otherwise healthy individual to improve health and prevent disease. However, and this is very important, a fast longer than 3-5 days must be supervised by a provider properly trained in water dasting (MD, DC, ND). Although fasting has proven to be very safe there are issues that must be monitored via blood work and other tests to make sure the person is tolerating the fast well and to determine when it is time to break a fast. Here at True North each patient is examined (including blood labs) by a trained physician prior to starting a fast and they are cheeked on at least twice a day to make sure they are safe and so any potential issues can be corrected immediately.
2 thoughts on “What Type of Person Should do a Water Fast”
Comments are closed.
Tiffany February 2, 2018
Cool. I would assume pregnancy and nursing would be added to the “not a good time to water fast” list?
drjongindhart February 2, 2018
Hi Tiffany, not necessarily. There is not a lot of research on fasting pregnant non-diabetic women. In diabetic women there can be complications since ketosis in these women can cause damage to the fetus. However, there are many case studies from clinical observation of fasting healthy pregnant women without any complications when the fast is only a few days to a few weeks. Of course, any fast of a pregnant women MUST be monitored by a physical trained in water fasting and would only be recommended on a case by case basis. It is well recognized that fasting during lactation is not generally advised since milk flow during fasting can be halted.