Fasting to help the immune system

[Peaceful Isle]

Just saw this and thought it was interesting. It talks about how fasting can help an immune system. Thought this might help my dh who has multiple sclerosis.

 

http://news.usc.edu/63669/fasting-triggers-stem-cell-regeneration-of-damaged-old-immune-system/

 

What do you all think of it?

[MiMi 4under3]

Since digestion takes up most of the body's energy, it stands to reason that fasting would allow the body to re-route that energy into healing itself.

 

I've heard this before - and have a friend who tries to limit eating to only an 8 hr window each day.

[Guest]

This site has info on a diet that has helped my friend with MS and adapting it slightly, another friend has found big improvement with an auto-immune disorder. http://terrywahls.com

[Katy]

Yeah, Terry Wahls is a medical doctor and instructor at the University of Iowa school of medicine.  She had progressive MS and got so she couldn't even sit in a regular wheelchair, she had to be in a reclining one.  She'd been on multiple medicines and physical therapy and a paleo diet and she just kept getting worse.  Then she realized she was still really deficient in the nutrients she needed for her mitochondria and nervous system to function well and she designed a protocol to get the nutrients (as well as a bunch of other treatments).  She's now up jogging again!  One of the aspects of her diet is that the strictest version (the one she's on) is ketogenic, so it's sort of like fasting even when eating, but still getting the nutrients you need.  Ketogenic diets have helped a lot of things, such as epilepsy and cancer.  I don't have MS, but I have been on & off disability with another illness for more than 10 years and I am really excited about trying her protocol. 

of her from a TEDx a few years back.  She's got a couple books out too, and they all go to fund additional clinical reasearch.  They are currently looking for people with MS to join her clinical trial.

[MBM]

Another person who is an advocate of fasting and ketogenic diets for health issues is Thomas Seyfried at Boston College (formerly a cancer researcher at Yale).

 

http://www.bc.edu/schools/cas/biology/facadmin/seyfried/

http://www.amazon.com/Cancer-Metabolic-Disease-Management-Prevention/dp/0470584920/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

 

Here is a short article about Seyfried's work.

 

http://www.bottomlinepublications.com/content/article/health-a-healing/starve-cancer-to-death-with-the-ketogenic-diet

 

Cynthia Kenyon's research is also worth reading about. You can find her articles and TED talk online.

 

Ron Pardini's work is also interesting.