Fasting still. This morning is day three. I have found a doctor who is willing to supervise my fasts, otherwise I would not be so quick to do one, because fasting can be weird.
And through this doctor I have learned some things that I think are very interesting and true to my experience.
For instance, yesterday I had a sore throat for about an hour that then mysteriously disappeared. Apparently this is normal, to have symptoms that look like illness or may be even the controversial detox, that later resolve.
And yesterday I was belching a lot, and not, as my mother suggested because I was, "desperately gulping down air because I was so hungry"
(my mother is adorable, even though she hates to be thought of that way. But I get that she'd be concerned so I have to call every day to prove I am OK)
Anyway, the doctor said that belching is common when the liver is dumping bile full of irritants into the small intestine, and that it is likely a positive sign that my body is dealing with retained wastes.
Also interesting to learn is that is might take many cumulative days of fasting to resolve issues like autoimmune disease. Meaning that doing repeated short fasts of 2-3 days, once every 6-8 weeks, is as (or more) helpful as doing one long fast of something like 10-15 days, and safer to boot.
Also significant is never to fast when vitamin or mineral deficiencies are present, especially vitamin d and b12, but really any of them.
Which brings me to something interesting I found out about yesterday, which relates to something I read in The Autoimmune Epidemic.
I was noodling online and came across
the blog of a young Australian woman who was blogging about battling her cancer diagnosis through the Gerson Therapy as I was looking for information about healing and stress and specifically meditaitions for healing and stress relief.(she has a vey interesting interview on ger site with an Australian man who had cancer and is healed and leads retreats)
Anyway, I noodled around on her site, partially because I have always been curious as to what the Gerson Therapy entails, but mostly because she is a very engaging writer with a fascinating story, and I came across
this interview about Nutritional Genomic Testing.
Basically, in The Autoimmune Epidemic, I had read about a genetic test that showed that certain women with a defect in a gene, or a missing gene or something like that, had higher levels of retained pesticides after exposure that other women who had a gene fully intact to deal with processing that particular chemical group.(the authors point was that there are safe levels set for different chemicals based on the idea that we all process chemicals the same, which we do not)
In the video, the doctor tells the blogger that she has many genetic defects that lead to her not getting rid of toxins she is exposed to, and theorizes that this is why her body created cancer.
I don't have a point exactly right now, but it is interesting.
P.s. I apologize for any typos-I am using an ipad and it is too much of a pain to figure out how to fix the, right now. I am just proud I got the links in!
ETA: I guess I do have appoint after all. After doing more noodling and reading
this article on Nutrigenomics I have come to the conclusion that getting a DNA test is expensive, has privacy issues and is therefore not helpful, but getting my vitamin levels checked twice a year and supplementing or altering my diet as necessary based in the tests, might very well be, in case I have a DNA defect that makes it hard for me to store a vitamin or something.
Not that I am saying anyone else should do this, just something I am curious about experimenting with for me.
Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 4:28 pm
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