The Best Health Insurance

"To insure good health: Exercise, walk, breathe, eat lightly, live moderately, cultivate cheerfulness and maintain an interest in life." -William Louden

On Seeking

Seek the wisdom

that will untie your knot.

Seek the path

that demands your whole being.

Leave that which is not,

but appears to be.

Seek that which is, 

but is not apparent.

-Rumi

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.

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.”