Going
fast

May 16, 2019 -- "How long are you in for?"

The question is like the one inmates ask each other. Here at True North Health (TNH), though, it means, how long is your fast?

Mine is 14 days, followed by 7 days of "refeeding". During the fast, I get only water. Refeeding (I wish they'd come up with a better name) starts gently with light fruit juices for a couple of days, then stronger ones, then a little light solid food, and so on.

True North is a comfortable place. The rooms are well-appointed. Everyone is friendly. There are classes (yoga, stretching, mind/body, meditation) and lectures (mostly medical topics). Between these things, there is lots of free time. I brought my laptop and plenty of work so I am keeping busy. I am treating this as a working vacation.

It's a vacation with some benefits: health, weight loss, education, and lifestyle change.

I am also participating in a research study. I am one of a few dozen subjects selected per strict criteria. Blood test data is collected, as well as body measurements. The exact goal of inquiry is unknown to me, as it should be. It's a double-blind, controlled, randomized clinical trial.

Of course, not eating for 14 days (or whatever duration you choose; the upper limit is 40 days) is not easy. I am in my fourth day now and so far have experienced no ill effects except hunger, that is surprisingly mild and fleeting. I love getting on the scale each morning and seeing another pound or two gone!

Our fasts are medically supervised. Blood is drawn and analyzed. Urinalyses, too, are done. Twice a day our vital signs are checked (pulse, blood pressure, temperature) and a physician checks on us and reviews our progress. The process is remarkably pleasant. And it has real science supporting it (more about that in a future blog.)

Why fast? The health benefits are numerous and well-documented. Some, like me, come here for a tune-up and weight loss. I was recently diagnosed with prediabetes -- at 106 mg/dL I am just over the recommended maximum of 100 -- as is half the adult population of America. But just because it's normal doesn't mean it's good. As a nurse, I have seen what diabetes does and I intend to go nowhere near it!

Some come here with more serious diagnoses. One of the most dire is lymphoma (cancer of the blood) and TNH has actually resolved this. Another is multiple sclerosis (MS). Along with rheumatoid arthritis and many more auto-immune diseases, MS can be cured by fasting and diet change. So can hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and many more. People come to TNH for all kinds of reasons. In its 35 years of operation, 20,000 people have fasted here. All have benefited hugely. There has not been a single death. It's a remarkable track record.

As a medical professional, I know that we're not supposed to say something is cured; we must say (especially regarding chronic diseases) that it's managed. But that's the problem: allopathic medicine (as these alternative medicine folks like to call it) doesn't cure. Well, that's not true; it has has had tremendous successes with bacterial diseases, genetics, immunization, surgery, orthopedics, and many more. But still...

Given TNH's record of accomplishment, one can only wonder, why is this not mainstream? Theories abound. Their essence appears to be resistance to change (by the medical establishment) and threats to sales (by the pharmaceutical, meat, dairy, and refined grains industries).

Indeed, one of my best buddies, an MD, became enraged when I extolled the health benefits of fasting and the vegan/SOS (no salt/oil/sugar) diet. There's no science behind it, he said. (There is; numerous studies support this.) The people who sell this are quacks, he said. (They're not; they have done substantial research and publishing in peer-reviewed journals.) And the best evidence: the thousands of folks who have gotten off their meds and had their quality of life -- if not their life itself -- restored are proof to the contrary.

Fat and sick? This is the place for you.

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