HELLO!

HELLO -
and Happy New Year!
I truly wish you all success and peace in 2020.

I owe a gigantic apology for being MIA for so long. I have been insanely busy starting and restarting my "re-entry" back into life after 16+ years of misdiagnoses and 5 years of treatment (mostly successful). I've been so anxious to share an update with you all. I'll make it short and sweet--feel free to ask for specifics--I may not check back to the site immediately but I will check back:

After treating to a 70% recovery level (I now know it wasn't really an 90% recovery like I previously thought) I spent the past year or two gearing up to be well enough to work again only to slide backwards and/or relapse... rinse and repeat. Multiple times I tried again and failed. Although at the time I just thought it was "normal" or normal for me. Well, it wasn't and isn't normal. I wasn't as recovered as I kept telling myself.

Finally, after what I did this summer I am now as close to 100% as I've been in 20+ yrs. I sincerely don't remember the last time I felt this well. That's partly because I've felt so bad for so long. I know most of you get that.

What I did this summer was controversial, not recommended for everyone, but about as simple and cheap as life gets for someone who is chronically ill. After studying the topic for a year and 4 months of "training" I very slowly and carefully started a 5-day water-only fast. I was able to continue fasting beyond that initial 5 day target and completed a 35-day water-only fast.

The learning and prep were straight forward although I couldn't find an MD to work with me. I couldn't find support from ANYONE. So I ventured alone, which was scary and I do not recommended anyone do this alone--even a short fast. There are great resources out there. But the results are astounding and I'm surprised every day.

I have tested this recovery in many ways over the past 5 months (conducted 3 yard sales, packed up by myself and moved, have driven across country about 6,000 miles, 4 stressful interviews, helped someone with a whole-house bed-bug crisis requiring deep cleaning on an hourly basis for nearly 2 months, death in the family, holidays, holidays with family, holidays with sick family, drove down the terrifying I-95 corridor from NYC to Richmond the Saturday between Christmas and New Years, in bumper-to-bumper 15mph traffic at night in torrential rain, which took EIGHT HOURS, etc. You name it--I've been tested over the past 5 months and mentally prepared for a crash.

But time and time again, and after a good night's sleep (which I'm now also able to do), and a full return to my dietary protocol, I still feel great. I've been off all meds and nearly all supplements for a year now. Most if not all my 30+ symptoms that I assumed I would live with forever are gone. And the GI attacks, which were my most severe and life-impacting issue that lingered after the Lyme + Co treatment, are completely gone.

I am so eternally grateful for whatever instinct inside me continued to spur my quest for recovery--after the Lyme treatment and relapses and nay-sayers and even more judgement and doubters than I had experienced with the Lyme.

Intermittent fasting, short-term and long-term fasting protocols are being studied and revamped from the scary studies from the 70s (which I now think were intentionally designed to fail). Civilizations have been fasting for health benefits since the beginning of humankind. The 2015 Nobel Price for Science was awarded to a Japanese biologist who studied a process called AUTOPHAGY, or "self-eating".

In a nutshell, this process shifts into high-gear around day 4 of water-only fasting and your body knows how to go to work cleaning house of dead and dying cells and tissues, consuming it as an efficiency (and life-saving) mechanism. On day 5 your body knows to start producing more human growth hormone, which generates cell and tissue growth. If the fast-feast cycle of our hunter-gatherer ancestors weren't so successful we probably wouldn't be here.

ETA this paragraph: another amazing benefit, which I was desperate for, was the body's ability to focus on repair and regenerate without also having to stop and digest food. More than 50% of our body's energy is spent digesting food. This is one reason why the "grazing" diets that were suggested to me always made me feel worse. Repairing GI damage was ground zero for allowing my own immune system to manage some of my infections better and more efficiently, for allowing my body to receive and absorb nutrients more effectively, and to "go to work" on the rest of my body. Aside from the benefits of lowered insulin levels, the rest and repair process is the primary reason for intermittent fasting overnight--and why "break" "fast" is breakfast. Earlier generations always fasted 12+ hours overnight. "Snacks" are a modern invention.

When the body has completed this detoxing process, it usually sends signals to you that it's ready to receive food again and then you start--very slowly over the course of a few days--drinking and then eating food again. I was not receiving signals--I was just a gigantic body-wide yeast machine. I kept waiting for the signals and had an upcoming interview so I finally decided I needed appx 10 days for recovery so I stopped at 35.

There are practitioners helping patients with chronic conditions with a serious success rate using fasting protocols. You might have heard of Dr Fung--a Canadian nephrologist who reports that his geriatric and chronic illness patient base has a 95%+ recovery rate (with the exception of late-stage kidney failure) using fasting protocols. It's astounding to hear him describe how quickly he gets these 70-80-90 year olds OFF meds.

The protocol is a little different depending on how overweight/underweight you might be but studies have shown that for a typical middle-aged man of 155 lbs (rather light for an American man of modern age), he has enough reserves in his body to sustain a 40-day fast. The longest fasting record was a 400 lb man who fasted for 385 days on water-only, under the supervision of an MD who gave him potassium support during the final month, I think.

When the body is not being fed food, which nearly all is converted to sugar for the body's fuel source, the body knows to target fat for consumption. It's why our bodies naturally store fat. Our fat contains significant nutrition and this process (ketosis) is what the training or prep period accomplishes, which can make a fast much much easier on the body and mind. In fact, the Silicon Valley uber competitive 20-somethings are experimenting with fasting to achieve a higher level of brain function. The brain benefits of fat-burning isn't new--kids with former severe seizure disorders have been successfully placed on high-fat protocols for decades.

There is more necessary detail to share to help describe what MY unique experience was with the fasting and of course I hope it inspires others who feel it might be worth exploring.

I hope you are all faring well during the crazy holidays, surrounded by those you love and taking good care of yourselves.

Best wishes to you all -
-p

Post Edited (Pirouette) : 1/2/2020 12:09:17 PM (GMT-7)

hey piro thanks for the update great to hear !

Hi astro -
Thanks! Very good to read your posts again.

Totally agree. I have read accounts by people who run 7 miles during a fast, work out, go to work. I think these are generally high performance athletes, not people who are fasting for chronic illness healing like me. I was doing serious detoxing and was very lethargic from early on--didn't get much worse than that but I basically sat at my table with my laptop the entire time. I was able to get up and go to the store on occasion (to buy water) but that's it.

Another part of my training was using a blood-strip meter to measure blood sugar level and ketone production to make sure I was getting into ketosis. My sister tried a 3-day fast cold turkey and was miserable. Most people report Day 2 as the hardest, you're the hungriest and crankiest and if you're not in ketosis you're likely getting hypoglycemic on overdrive. But for me the hunger was just a quick spurt then passed within 20 min or so. You're allowed sea salt in your water, which, by Day 3 tastes an awful lot like broth. With the exception of a few issues I share below, I sailed through the remainder of the fast. I also needed more than the 8 days I gave myself to recover before my interview--that was very tough.

Hi Bluelyme!
Look at you - reading your profile - you're doing awesome.

Hi k07!
During the fast you're not supposed to take ANY supplements, meds, herbs, which you digest. You don't want anything the body might interpret as food or it will start the digestive process, which pulls resources away from repair and regeneration. I've read accounts of people who continue some meds while under MD supervision, although. And I've also read about people who continue drinking coffee but I don't think they do during long fasts.

I am blanking on one of the cues but feeling a normal, healthy level of hunger is a cue (not the I-might-die-if-I-don't-eat hunger but a light, happy kind of hunger. After the 2nd or 3rd day I never felt hunger (which is so strange but normal). Another cue is the disappearance of symptoms you had before you started and/or sx that developed after you started the fast. The only sx I developed after starting was a collossal, systemic, yeast/fungal detoxing--I had yeast/fungus coming out of every orifice (incl bellybutton). It subsided by week 3 except for the thrush that had developed in my mouth, which never subsided. It was disgusting (but not surprising after 3 yrs of IV antibiotics) and was making me nauseous all the time, horrible taste in my mouth, sticky throat. This was literally the toughest part of the whole fast. I wanted to keep going until it stopped and spoke with a practitioner who had worked with others during long fasts and she also agreed that if I felt OK I should keep going.

Then, about Day 30 I started feeling nauseous to the sea salt and stopped adding it. Then on Day 33 I felt the same way about the water so I didn't drink any water the final 2 days. All the info I'd read to prepare helped me believe that my body was trying to help me understand what to do or allow it to do. It might have been my body trying to transition to a "dry fast" which is literally no water at all and it's understood through research (and mostly clinical work) that the body's autophagy process works four times faster in a dry fast. But at the same time, dry fasting is very tricky and probably a little dangerous at the end of a long fast, especially w/out an MD on hand so I stopped after those 2 days and on the 36th day I slowly started drinking the salt water again, day 37 I added some actual bone broth, day 38 I drank some food powder (pulverized fruits and veggies), and day 39 I tried some steamed veggies. Ate some eggs the day after and started increasing quantities. One of the reasons people died in earlier studies is from shocking the body by eating again too much, too fast, and not eating healthy foods to "re-feed".

Yes I had neuropathy prior although my worst was earlier in treatment.

I have not had many autoimmune tests done but from what testing I did do I have not developed any autoimmune markers other than the IgG and IgA from foods.

Liver flush:
One of the reasons for my delay in starting the fast was I wanted to do a liver flush but kept reading conflicting info on protocol so I just took pieces from different theories and tried it. I tried eliminating all fats for a week and focusing on only veggies. I added in some malic acid and binders. I stuck to the following dietary protocol for the couple months before the fast and ever since.

I really felt no "benefits" during the fast other than I had no issues with food digestion! That was a daily, every meal occurance for me for 20 yrs. I did experience the odd ache and pain that came and went--learned that was common. Oddly, I had a couple slight mini-GI attacks the couple days after I stopped the fast and was absolutely crushed, thinking the fast hadn't worked. But this might have just been my body trying to eliminate the dead stuff--dead parasites or whatever it was causing the attacks that had died from lack of food. I haven't had any attacks since then.

Diet:
- My first priority is to intermittent fast every day from 8pm to 8am
- 2nd is to eat as many different (organic) veggies and as much as I can at 2 meals/day (organic is important but I learned it's far more important to just eat high quantities of veggies since these days they are less nutritious than they used to be so we need more)
- I also try not to eliminate any specific food (other than processed foods) and I do eat meats/fish/eggs but I eat only organic and only a couple times/wk and only 2-3 oz per meal
- I have noticed amazing impacts with eating 2 specific things every day--I'll eat an entire head of dark green red leaf lettuce (sometimes I don't even wash it off), and I dump as many different veggies as I can get my hands on into a food processor, add an entire onion and head of garlic and make a slaw and I eat about 2-3 cups of this daily--raw. I stopped this the day before and after Thanksgiving for obvious reasons and boy did I start to feel a crash coming--resumed it immediately and never crashed.

Good questions. Hope that was helpful.
-p

Post Edited (Pirouette) : 1/2/2020 3:04:28 PM (GMT-7)

wow, 35 days very impressive.

Did you have some fat reserves before the fast?

welcome back -p … real good info on fasting that I'll clip into my treatment archives.

tickbite666,

Hi dcd2103 -
Good questions.
There are many "detox" and "fasting" diets out there that include food in various forms. As you probably guessed those are fundamentally not authentic fasting protocols promoting autophagy, which is the who shabang.

However, I spent the better part of 3 yrs on mostly liquid diets, which did help my GI to move food along better and did reduce some symptoms. But due to the problems in the GI I wasn't really absorbing nutrients any better and I wasn't addressing the damage that wasn't repairing itself and therefore, since 80% of your immune system IS the mucosal lining of your GI (about the size of 2 tennis courts). So I also wasn't boosting my immune system--enough. I was also on a medicated food powder with dozens and dozens of high-quality vitamins, minerals, supplements, etc. And even after all that time I did OK w/out solid foods. But it was the fast that "reset my gut", rebooted my immune system and so much more.

THRUSH
I have a long history of mild yeast + fungal overgrowth. I think I got it from my dad. I also had a significant amount of amalgams from a very young age, which I also finally removed (most) last year. Add to that 1 year of various oral antibiotics and 3 years of IV antibiotics and I was a yeast factory. When I started the fast I didn't have overt yeasty symptoms (appeared only when I drank wine or beer or ate sugary foods). When I started treating Lyme & Co I was already on antifungals from all of the oral antibiotics I tried the previous year for a chronic sinusitis and bronchitis ordeal, which I soon learned was also yeast+fungus, not bacterial. And I talked a lot here on HW.com about how to address y+f overgrowth, which I had been doing quite successfully for years. Even then, my body apparently still had a tremendous amount of y+f to detox.

So my y+f issues were already very present although I assumed (since I no longer had symptoms) that they had been minimized.

MICROBIOME
I'm not sure about the die off sequence--which is an interesting concept. One of the primary benefits of a long-term fast is a total GI microbiome reset and the literature I've read suggests this includes the re-feeding process as a critical function in rebuilding a healthy microbiome, which I desperately needed. Based on my investigations, a lot of factors impact an unhealthy, unbalanced microbiome--certainly in the GI. But most of the info I've looked into and especially my own experiences confirm that the most effective way to rebuild microbiome is with food. Although I've spent a few years trying everything under the sun in addition to diet so for me, it also took a total reset, which was the fast.

DNA
The science of epigenetics over the past decade has revealed that our bodies are 99% microbial DNA--not human DNA! I think that is astounding and empowering for people (like me) who thought we were up against unfavorable genes. We are not. Our genes are turned on and off by the microbial environment in our bodies and about our bodies. So that means we CAN impact whatever genetic issues are there simply by our lifestyle choices--for the most part.

I am CERTAIN I still have an unhealthy amount of y+f in my body since I abruptly ended my fast while still experiencing thrush (and I think the thrush indicates it's mainly a GI y+f issue) since the other more systemic sx went away earlier in the fast. Had I continued the fast until the thrush had also disappeared, which was what I wanted to do, I think I could be more confident that I nipped all that in the bud.

RECOVERY
Yes--I am absolutely convinced this reset killed stuff off and helped reboot my immune system to a stronger capacity to do what it's supposed to do--to the extent that the sx caused by infections were mitigated. I might of disagreed with this next statement throughout most of my treatment over the past 5 yrs but I now believe we have such a complicated environment in our bodies and once our immune system gets punched in the face and starts to wobble, it's often impossible to really know what we're trying to fight. I'll admit that once I tried the extended fast and felt the changes in my body I was a little regretful at some of the treatments I did. I don't know how things would have turned out but I do wish 100% I had tried this fasting before I went down a very, very expensive 5-yr road. My loss of savings and income from 20 years of misdiagnoses surpassed the $500k mark last yr.

The fasting actually saves you money and therein lies the reason the food industry and the pharmaceutical industry do not want people fasting for health.

This is a little back story to why I zero'd in on fasting as something I wanted to try:
When I started the IV Vancomycin my GI attacks stopped entirely. When my IV port stopped working Nov 2017 I had it removed and I also stopped all the abx (I was unwilling to take anymore oral antimicrobials--abx OR herbal--I felt they had done all they were going to do and that I wasn't going to improve until I got my immune system stronger). And I started various diets intended to rebuild the gut microbiome, which included grazing and lots of probiotics, etc. I'd already been detoxing like a fiend. But I was getting worse and the attacks were getting worse. I had one of my worst GI attacks in June 2018. I was so incapacitated that I ended up--accidentally--fasting for about 5 days. The attacks are seriously physically draining and I usually end up pulling or straining abdomen muscles and I'm just spent. But after a few days of recovery, I was terrified to eat and didn't, but I noticed that my body wasn't in so much pain like it usually was.

Most astounding is that my brain was crystal clear. I was firing on all cylinders and felt more alive and engaged and connected than I had in 20+ years. It's tough to describe to the rest of the world what "Lyme brain" is like and it took other posters here describing this strange phenomenon, and a couple studies and articles by Lyme profesionals for me to realize this strange neuro-psycho condition. And I'd lived with it for so long I had forgotten what normal felt like. Well, after this accidental 5-day fast all of a sudden I was reminded. And a when the GI attacks returned a few months later I went back to the drawing board to try other ways to strengthen immune functions and on a whim I thought there had to be something to that accidental fast. When I dug into the info and the research I realized the opportunity with a more structured fasting protocol.

As I dug into the info I learned that these fasting and keto protocols are being adapted by the Silicon Valley competitors for
its benefits for brain functioning and now I totally get why. I have experienced firsthand the clarity in the brain.

INFLAMMATION
Another major target is reduction of inflammation and I simply have no way of quantifying how many issues and symptoms were caused by inflammation. This is part of the GI repair process, it's also part of the immune system reboot, and it's a part of the insulin rebalancing process. Inflammation is also a primary component in autoimmune issues, and the autophagy and regeneration process helps replace old and malfunctioning cells resulting in less inflammation.

RESOURCES
- The fasting guru is Valter Longo and I recommend starting there.
- There are also very expensive clinics that you check into to do supervised fasts but I would research the reviews of them and read comments voraciously to learn what to expect, etc.
- I read everything I could read as far as others' anecdotal experiences with the training phase or the keto diets and intermittent fasting, which was invaluable.
- I followed Dr Jason Fung (nephrologist) and decided that if his geriatric, chronically ill patients can manage a long-term fast, so can I. He has a whole staffing/counselor system that provides a free 15-min consultation, which I found helpful but not quite tuned into chronic infections at this point
- I was also a follower of a former chiropractor-turned-chronic-illness-expert Dan Pompa for awhile (he and family members have recovered from heavy metals, Lyme, autism, you name it) and watched how he started implementing various keto+fasting protocols with his patients very successfully. He also has been conducting a "group" 5-day fast a few times a year with his FaceBook followers and records and posts a Q&A on Youtube. Great info and a great quick intro to the facets of fasting without financial investment.
- I also used the support of a local GI guru (she is very alternative but had some good input on the long-term fasting and helped me determine what labs to do before, during and after the fast.) I can forward her contact info since she works mostly remotely.

-p

borrelioburgdorferii--

What type of water did you drink? Spring Water by the gallon? about how much per day?

A: Excellent question. Based on the very poor quality of most tap water throughout the country it's recommended that you do not drink unfiltered tap water at all during the fast and instead buy (glass) bottled mineral, sparkling, distilled water (from various sources). I'm sure well water is OK in some parts of the country but in high agricultural areas and throughout most of the south I learned that all natural sources have unhealthy levels of glyphosate and likely other contaminants.

Do you ever drink coffee? Like with maybe some Stevia or Coconut Oil?

A: I am not a coffee drinker but I know that is a huge sticking point for some people. I don't know if you've ever heard of "bullet-proof coffee" but it's basically coffee with an MCT oil based creamer that is healthy coconut fat and excellent for keto diets. Some people claim their ketones remain high on fasts even with coffee.

fun symptoms for today: tinnitus and a hot feeling on the top inner part of my head, due to some Holiday relaxations of my strict diet...

A: There is a LOT of truth behind your statement--I wish I had found the work of Kasia Hines decades ago. I've always had trouble with high viral loads too and her work focuses on evidence-based food and dieto solutions to reduce viral loads. I wrote about it in this thread but the "hot feeling" was always a viral indicator for me. And while my tinnitus went away with the fast, my neurologist always suggested it was an inflammation symptom.

[url]https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=4174244[url]

Post Edited (Pirouette) : 1/3/2020 1:32:34 PM (GMT-7)

So happy for you!! When I first came to this forum, many people would say... you have to find what works for you.
So dang true.
To everyone...don't give up keep searching and fighting for healing.
We are going to heal.
Take care and thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing you r story and helping all of us.

Thanks for your replies, Pirouette! So you talk about sparkling water, do you think aluminum cans are bad?...because that's how I get sparkling water right now. Otherwise it is poorly filtered tap, I just put a makeshift charcoal packet from a coffee maker that I put in a plastic refrigerator dispenser, not even sure if it absorbs any bad stuff from tap water... I think I read something about aluminum and Alzheimers...that's why I ask.

Also wondering if you drink any herbal teas or soups during the "water-only" fast? Because I just made some pretty great sugar-free fresh lemon-ginger green-white ginseng ice tea with Stevia. I think it's the best unsweetened lemonade tea I've ever made. It's like lemon water, with added herbal medicine.

Congrats Pirouette- I really enjoyed reading this and I'm very happy for you.

I wasn't around when you were a frequent poster/moderator, but I have come across many of your old posts through the search function, and I've always found them well written, thorough, and helpful.

I am very interested in fasting. I have been sitting on Buhner's fasting book for a while now, just haven't had a chance to get into it. Right now I'm treating with Disulfiram and any long term fast would probably have to wait until after I'm through with that. I will definitely come back to this thread in the future and I will look into the sources you have given for more info...

Thanks for sharing!

This is soooo inspiring!
...and it gives me hope!
Just having hope makes so much better.

I’m 7 months into treatment. I would like to try this eventually, but am unsure if I should continuing treating for a certain period and then try (maybe after a year of treatment) or go ahead and start studying and gearing my body up for it with intermittent fasting and Keto. Any advice or thoughts?

Awesome, thank you for the info!!!

I'm almost 2 days into my 5 day fast. I had crushing headaches and nausea that just ended (which i heard can happen the first 2 days), now I'm feeling really good! Will report back with a full report when its over.

goshawk said...
So happy for you!! When I first came to this forum, many people would say... you have to find what works for you.
So dang true.
To everyone...don't give up keep searching and fighting for healing.
We are going to heal.
Take care and thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing you r story and helping all of us.

A beautiful post. THIS is what hw.com is all about--certainly an incredible resource for information, support and a place to turn during your roughest days. But the biggest impact hw has had for me is exposure to personal stories and experiences, which aren't easy to share yet almost always help me understand my own and what options are available to investigate. The more I learn about everything the mainstream medical industry intentionally disregards or isn't even knowledgeable of, the more I realize that in most cases we each have our own unique set of challenges and solutions. We need to be the leader of these investigations and this is my MO moving forward in life to achieve/maintain optimal health. Thank you to everyone who has contributed.
-p