I sometimes water fast for spiritual reasons...as in fasting and praying. My body has begun to respond by having my bp spike on day 6 or 7 of the water fast. Some of you are very in tune w/physiological responses to what we do or don't eat...any ideas why this would happen and what I might do to prevent it? Terry

Terry,

What do you mean by "water fast"?

I mean just drinking plain water, not eating anything or drinking anything else. I've done it in the distant past for longer periods of time w/no ill effects. Don't know why this is happening now. t

Only thing I can thing of is your body is stressed by something. :\

I'm going to try fasting soon. I want to see if it helps my AS.

Nancy, in the very distant past water fasting actually helped my bp so I spose its possible I wasn't resting enough during these fasts. I usually feel, after getting past the third day "hump" which is often the hardest day for people who water fast, more energetic, alert, etc.... and calm inside at the same time. If you'd like to see a site that is helpful re same, type "freedomyou" into your search engine. I don't agree with their philosophy re how to eat when you're not fasting as there tends to be the bias against eating meat among some posters there, but where fasting is concerned there is good info. If you haven't done this before it helps you understand how to prepare your body for an extended fast and the physical and spiritual benefits. If you have any questions, I've been doing this for about 28 yrs on and off. I don't have all the answers, but I can tell you my own experience. It has done a number on slowing down my metabolism but I don't fast for physical reasons so thats a secondary issue where I'm concerned. Terry

I'm definitely not doing this for spiritual benefits. But I will certainly appreciate any wisdom of preparing for it physically! I was thinking that probably some part of fasting is moving from glucose burning to ketone burning, which we already know is not fun. Maybe being on meat/egg only for a day or two would get me the benefits of ketosis earlier.

Yes... and without the slowing down of your metabolism. JMHO. In fact, if you just do meat and eggs for as many days as you can, you will notice a lot of "cleaning out/detoxing" going on. You will feel much more alert, and any bloating or mucus issues, and any digestion issues will go away. It is sort of a nice "elimination diet". Then, you can add whatever back in slowly and see what happens. I think this type of "fast" is better to try... unless, of course, you want the "spiritual benefits". And, you won't have to "prepare" to go on this type of "fast".

I'm doing this specifically to burn out bacteria living in my gut. The best way of doing that is to not send down anything they can eat. While most live on sugars and starches, there are some, I believe, that can survive on undigested proteins and fats. So, the meat fast gets me part of the way there but the path to starving out those suckers is total food deprivation.

Just be careful, you WANT a whole lot of that bacteria living in your gut. You can have bad bacteria living there, and you can have an overgrowth of good bacteria, but you definitely don't want NO bacteria living in you. I find that just introducing good bacteria, like through active-culture yogurt works well to re-establish balance if things get out of whack.

I've never been a fan of fasts. It stresses the body and sends it all kinds of wrong signals. Knowing my body's ability to retain fat when stressed, I'd probably one of the few people to gain weight while fasting. I'd get the calories from the air, or something.

Plane Crazy
Taking the middle path.

I'll use cocoyo and probiotics afterwards to reestablish a better colony of gut bugs. Interestingly mice with no bacteria in their guts have to eat 30% more calories! Maybe if I can get rid of the right bacteria, I can eat more!

I really question this "good/bad" bacteria theory. Perhaps it would be better to not have any bacteria in one's gut. If that is even possible. ???

Not possible unless you live in a sterile environment... like lab rats are raised in sometimes. However, I'm trying to reboot my gut bacteria.

Well, perhaps you should read up on the sorts of bacteria that are found in the GI tract, if it interests you. Here is a blurb in Wikipedia about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gut_flora

My own form of arthritis is believed by many doctors, including my rhuematologist to be caused by intestinal permeability and a type of bacteria the body finds is an intruder, which is sometimes found in the intestines (Klebsiella pneumonia). Definitely not a good bacteria. About 1/3 of the patients respond to a no-starch diet (NSD), starch being the primary food for that bacteria. Salmonella can cause another form of reactive arthritis called Reiter's Syndrome and there is thinking now that many autoimmune diseases are caused by the same thing, bacteria the body attacks getting past the intestines into the blood stream. This is one of the reasons I won't try raw dairy products. I know I have gut problems and I don't want yet another autoimmune disease is some nasty bacteria should creep out of my intestines.


And if you're interested in more, do a search on dysbiosis.

Some AS patients have had really good luck getting out of a flare with fasting and then following a NSD. So that's what I'm about to try, given that my neck and shoulders are absolutely killing me.

Anyway, if you're interested you can read up on the Kp/AS links, it is also thought that there might be additional buglies that are linked to AS: http://www.kickas.org/medical/index.shtml

I think gut bacteria is great!!
Nancy, have you tried "high" meat? I'm just curious because I know you're trying out a lot of things to help your health. If, in your gut-colonizing quest you're curious, I'd love to chat about it. I've eaten it.

I haven't done an extended fast, though I'd like to do a few mini ones in the future, once the babe needs less milk. Another forum member and I did a 1 day fast this week, I drank Kombucha and water, and she had applejuice kefir. I felt great! At first I wanted to eat and then got over it by the end of the day but could not sleep at all. The baby contributed a little. I was too wired... I get like that when I don't eat much, tons of energy. I tried high meat when I was pregnant and ate too much for a first timer and could not sleep for a few days, just a couple of hours here and there.

I wonder if you tried a "fat fast" with minimal protein, if that would help. The problem with "meat and egg" fast is that it can contain excess protein, depending on your choices. Sounds to me like fat is the least likely of the three macronutrients to cause bacterial overgrowth. I've read a lot of stuff about coconut oil helping with viral and bacterial infections but it's mainly anecdotal. Might be worth looking into though. I eat a couple of tablespoons a day, most days and have not had a serious infection since I started. Could be something else about the low-carb/no junk/no dairy diet though, hard to say.

Wyv

High meat? Is that a animal on THC or does that mean "meat mostly"? I was thinking meat/egg only might work, but I've heard such glowing reports from fasting from other AS sufferers that I figured I'd try that first.

There are bacteria, usually the really bad ones, that can eat proteins or fat, so I just want to starve everyone. Let god sort them out. Then I'll send down colonists... hey... colon colonists! Funny how similar those words are.

I'm really curious how I will feel on this fast. Somehow, I doubt I will feel energetic!

I think of this as a reboot of my gut flora. I guess I'm assuming they'll die out without nourishment for 3 days.