Fasting with Heart Disease

Thomas Ryan, answers the question, "Can I fast with heart disease?"

"The United States holds the record: we lead the world in heart and artery problems. Every second of the day someone is dying of a heart attack. Heart trouble is one of the scourges of western civilization. Yet diseases of the heart do not build up rapidly. It takes a long time to harden and block and artery. There are many contributing causes: cholesterol, fats and fibrous tissues are responsible for the blocking and obstructing of the arteries; lack of exercise and stress also contribute to arterial degeneration. As the inner passage of the arteries becomes so narrow that not enough blood can flow thorough to properly nourish the heart muscle, coronary occlusion occurs. We are all as old as our arteries. Inasmuch as fasting cleanses internal impurities, it is preventative and restorative healthcare."

Fasting and Exercise

While kickboxing and spinning classes might go over well just before a breakfast of steelcut oatmeal and berries, a fasting body needs as much physical rest as it can get. The physiological work and repair that happens during the fasting detox, requires an enormous amount of energy that we want to reserve entirely for that purpose. It is however recommended that while fasting we do exercises that facilitate this process. These include walking, yoga, light swimming and breath work. As a yogini, I can attest to the very powerful detox benefits of yoga and breath work, not only physical but also spiritual and mental. 

The breath is the vehicle upon which our life force enters the body, so that when the breath is shallow, our thoughts and actions are shallow. When the breath is labored our thoughts and life are labored. More than anything, while fasting (and even on non-fasting days), I encourage you to notice the breath and breathe with intention. At every moment you can remember, drop in on the breath to see how it’s doing. Follow the inhale to a completely ballooned belly, brining in strength, health, energy, faith and peace. Exhale until the navel meets the spine, letting go of disease, fear, weakness, fatigue and tension. 

Attending to the breath will still agitating thoughts. When left unattended, these thoughts create agitation in the body, which often causes us to feel empty or “hungry” and so we attempt to fill that emptiness with food. Typically the types of food we choose when we are in this mindset are high in salt or sugar because these nutrients, when refined or in excess, act in the same way as drugs, changing the chemistry of the body, creating a diversion from feelings. Catch yourself breathing and you will be able to see more clearly the trajectory of your thinking. When we can see where our thoughts are headed it is easier to get in front of them and change their direction.

Yoga, on the other hand, twists and bends the body in order to allow for better circulation and flow of oxygen. It also wrings the organs and helps jumpstart sluggish glandular systems. The practice of yoga also incorporates breath, which stimulates the body’s ability to relax. A relaxed body is one that is more prepared to take on the task of cleansing and healing.

Be good to your body. Be Good to yourself. Breathe.

Gaining Peace Through the Food We Eat

While fasting is a practice we undertake in order to spring clean our bodies, spirits and minds, much of that hard fought work can unfortunately be undone if we are not mindful of what we take into the body on the days we are eating. Failing to be mindful of what we put into our bodies also makes the fast day more difficult as the body must begin again its attempts to rid the body of too much sugar, stimulants and waste associated with eating “dead”, processed or otherwise unhealthy food. This makes the period of withdrawal that many of us experience during the fast even more difficult to deal with.

According to Queen Afua, author of the book Sacred Woman: A Guide to Healing the Feminine Body, Mind and Spirit, there is another serious side affect to eating what she calls “a violent, toxic diet.”

She writes, “Food is our fuel. What and how we eat determines the effectiveness of our lives. There are natural food alternatives, so we don’t have to feel deprived. We can simply make better choices."

Here are some of the symptoms, according to Queen Afua, of eating a violent, toxic diet:

· Women verbally abusive to men
· Men physically abusive to women
· Stressed out parents unable to talk to children, using blows instead
· Gossiping
· Inability to let go of resentment, depression and worry
· Abusive, animalistic, or uncontrollable sexuality


In looking at my fasting/eating experience I can attest to a significant difference in my relationships and interactions with people. Since beginning fasting/mindful eating practice, it is easier to see how what I put into my body affects my thinking, feelings and behavior.

Here is a great Eden Kitchen recipe you can try. It’s inexpensive, easy to prepare and easy to take to work.

Garden Vegetable Soup

4 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups chopped leeks, white part only (from approximately 3 medium leeks)
2 tablespoons finely minced garlic
Kosher salt
2 cups carrots, peeled and chopped into rounds (approximately 2 medium)
2 cups peeled and diced potatoes
2 cups fresh green beans, broken or cut into 3/4-inch pieces
2 quarts chicken or vegetable broth
4 cups peeled, seeded, and chopped tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup packed, chopped fresh parsley leaves
1 to 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice


Heat the olive oil in large, heavy-bottomed stockpot over medium-low heat. Once hot, add the leeks, garlic, and a pinch of salt and sweat until they begin to soften, approximately 7 to 8 minutes. Add the carrots, potatoes, and green beans and continue to cook for 4 to 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the stock, increase the heat to high, and bring to a simmer. Once simmering, add the tomatoes, corn kernels, and pepper. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook until the vegetables are fork tender, approximately 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from heat and add the parsley and lemon juice. Season, to taste, with kosher salt. Serve immediately.

*You can always substitute these vegetable for whatever is in your refrigerator. Enjoy!

The Physiology of Fasting: How Conscious Abstention From Eating and Drinking Restores Health

A true fasting state begins in the first twelve to twenty-four hours after your last meal. This is considered the starting mark chemically; as it is the point in the metabolism process when the body begins to burn its carbohydrate stores (fat) as an energy source. This process is known as ketosis. Human fat is valued at 3,500 calories per pound; enough calories to allow the body to continue functioning normally when burning only one pound per day. We lose weight when fasting for this reason; the body eats up the fat as its energy source. The fast will continue as long as fat and carbohydrate stores are available for energy.

Once the body has depleted these stores it begins to burn protein (muscle) in an effort to keep itself alive. This stage of using the body’s protein and muscle for energy (resulting in loss of muscle mass) is the beginning of starvation. This would typically take 40 to 60 days depending upon the weight of the individual. Much longer than any fast we would be considering for our purposes.

The healing process is also accelerated when we fast. This happens because the energy that had been used in digesting, metabolizing and eliminating waste from the food we eat, is re-directed and begins to perform a kind of internal housecleaning. One that is not possible when the body has spent all of its energy processing the “foods” that are typically consumed in the Standard American Diet. This re-direction of energy causes many healing and repairing processes to begin, including immunity booting cell, tissue and organ repair. The blood supply is also nourished, allowing for improved blood flow and pressure.

Dr. Joel Furman, a regular practitioner of fasting who prescribes it to nearly all of his patients with astounding results writes, “The body can heal itself when the proper environment for healing is established and all obstacles to healing or stressors are removed... By supplying the organism [the body] with its basic requirements – natural, unadulterated food, clean water, and appropriate physical, mental and emotional activities – while simultaneously eliminating all harmful factors and influences, the self-constructing, self-regulating, self-repairing qualities of the body are given full rein. The same innate wisdom that constructed our bodies from two cells at conception is always there to restore the body to health if we let it.”

Some Words of Encouragement.....

"Everyone has a doctor in him or her; we just have to help it in its work. A wise person should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings." --Hippocrates, 400 years before Christ; famed Greek physician and Father of Western Medicine

"Fasting is the greatest remedy--the physician within!"--Philippus Paracelsus, nearly 500 years ago; famed Swiss physician and alchemical genius of the Middle Ages, considered one of three fathers of Western Medicine, along with Greece's Hippocrates and Galen

"Fasting is a valid experience. It can benefit any otherwise healthy person whose calories now have the upper hand in his or her life."--The New England Journal of Medicine

No healing technique on Earth enjoys greater testimonials. . .from veteran fasters such as Buddha, Moses, Mohammed and Christ (40 days); from the three great fathers of Western Medicine; from the ancient Arab philosopher and physician, Avicenna, who prescribed fasting for ailments; from the great Greeks from whom the West received its math and logic--Socrates, Plato (who often wrote he fasted for "greater mental and physical efficiency"), Aristotle and Pythagoras (who wouldn't even reveal his higher tenets to advanced students until they'd done 40-day fasts); right on down through St. Francis (who did 40-day "epiphany" fasts every year prior to Lent), Gandhi, and all the equally great and noble women, historically, whose fasts and accomplishments went unrecognized and unrecorded by the patriarchal societies they suffered in.

Artists, as well as humanity's greatest doctors, scientists and spiritual teachers, have fasted from time immemorial in every nation under the sun. Writers from Russian Leo Tolstoy and Frenchman Francois Voltaire, to American Upton Sinclair and the Austrian Czech Franz Kafka, have long rhapsodized about fasting's marvelous, self-improvement capabilities. Said Sinclair: "I have found a perfect health, a new state of existence, a feeling of purity and happiness, something unknown to humans." Enthused Tolstoy: "To refuse food and drink is more than a pleasure; it is the joy of the soul!"

Is it possible that all these extraordinary human beings have discovered an age-old secret for enhancing their birthright of human potential that you haven't. . .as yet?