Menu
When your computer operates too slowly, first thing you do is reboot it. Fasting is your reboot and update all in one.
A recent study with mice and cancer showed that fasting during chemotherapy jump-starts the immune system and exposes the cancer cells, ridding the body of old, toxic cells and replaces them with new, healthy ones.
Traditionally, cancer patients have been told to increase nutrients and caloric intake while undergoing chemotherapy treatments, but this approach might now be under review.
Fasting started as a necessity – there was not enough food available.
This was over millions of years and the body incorporated it into its physiology. Clean out time! It was as chance for the body to repair and rebuild. Amazing things like Autophagy occur, which is basically means self-eating. The cell looks within itself and identifies weak and damaged organelles, dissolves them and then rebuilds them. Rebuilt from the inside. Then as civilization and religion came to be, fasting became part of the religious life. Both Jesus and Muhammad were reported to have fasted. Probably because of the ethereal feeling you get as you fast together with the abstinence in reference to a deity.
Fasting comes in many shapes and sizes. I will tell it like we do it.
You can fast here at Wake up and Thrive under controlled conditions adapted to your situation, whether it is for health and longevity or for a medical condition. Below we have outlined our reasoning and approach. If you are interested please email us at wakeupthrive@gmail.com
Our approach to fasting is to begin with a keto diet, getting the body used to this over a period, then transition to intermittent fasting and finally onto an extended water fast, classically between two and four days.
If you would like to conduct all or part of your fast here you are welcome. We can talk and plan out your fast taking into account your other commitments. We will monitor you during your fast, we can measure your blood sugars and ketones and generally support you. Just book a room at Wake Up and Thrive and support is free.
This mimics the foods we would be eating as hunter gatherer.
First clean up the diet. Ditch processed food, sugar and radically reduce carbs. First reduce your fast carbs, pasta, potatoes, rice, bread and the like . Then rely on slow carbs, kumera, beet, carrots and then gradually reduce this in quantity. Your body should be going lightly ketogenic which means it is metabolising fats and protein from the diet then will start mobilizing your fat stores. Depending on how much carbs you consume will deepen or lessen the degree of ketosis that you are in. You will always use a little carb for certain processes and your body can even manufacture carbs if it needs, but we are designed to be able to consume 2 foods, glucose ( from carbs) and ketones from fats .
After about 12 hours of not eating you have depleted your store of glucose. It is stored as glycogen mostly in the liver. After this, your body mobilises fats from your store of fat. We are all at least 18% fat so we got a grand old store. Fat is also very energy dense. Means it has a lot of energy stored for its weight. You can last a long time without eating! Any how back to intermittent fasting. The mobolised fats find their way to the liver and get converted to ketones, aka Rocket fuel , especially for the brain! These circulate the body in the blood, as does glucose, and then is taken up by the cells that need energy, then oxidised producing a chemical called ATP. ATP is the energy currency of the cell. Just about all reactions that take place in the cell need energy, this is provided by ATP.
One of the processes you have to go through especially if you have not been in ketosis much before is in the brain. The brain is super protected and has something called the blood brain barrier. It is very selective what it lets into a brain cell. Ketones have a specific receptors for ketones on the blood brain barrier. These receptors are not used much therefore are not needed to be very efficient. If you don’t use them, you lose them! But under the pressure of lots of ketones and less glucose, they up-regulate themselves. You can imagine them with bulging biceps! They become more efficient at grabbing hold of passing ketones and dragging them into the cell. This period of adaptation the most difficult thing to go through. Your brain is low on fuel. After 24 to 36 hours adaptations is good and get progressively better over time. You may feel a little brain foggy maybe even a light head ache.
When you are comfortable missing breakfast then lunch you are in the One Meal a Day league ( OMD.) As you age it is recommended that you tend towards OMD.
The main problem with fasting is in your head. We have been conditioned to have 3 meals plus snacks. We really don’t need that much food that often. So, to try and change your ideas, breath work, light exercise and meditation are good distractions for the mind. When you have done a little fasting you will see how easy it is. Just a question of reprogramming the mind.
Extended Water fasts Consuming water, teas, coffee (no milk)
There are stages, the most challenging are the first 36 hrs. What is happening is your glucose levels are dropping below the “norm” but your ketone level is rising. Glucose blood concentration is about 6 mmol per litre is the “norm”, you can drop lower than this it is compensated by a rise in the number 2 fuel- Ketones. As this change over occurs and deepens is the most challenging time for the faster. You have a double whammy: your psychological conditioning and your drop in blood glucose both conspiring on you to make you want to eat. After about 36 hours, you no longer produce your hunger hormone and you feel no hunger. What we do at Wake Up and Thrive is take your glucose and ketone levels and explain to you in real time why you are feeling like you are feeling as you enter into fasting. Once over the peak you can conduct your life pretty much as normal except I suggest you don’t go mad on explosive exercise. Gentle, yes.
3 to 5 days is a good fasting time. I suggest a few times a year
Benefits and stages of fasting in order
Stages of fasting https://perfectketo.com/the-5-stages-of-fasting/
Stage 1 2 hrs. Stabilise blood sugars then ketosis. 2 hours then mental clarity comes with ketosis as ketones cause Autophagy-rebuilding cells from the inside
Stage 2 (12 to 18 hours) Ketosis, fat burning and mental clarity, Appetite suppression
Stage 3 ( 24hrs) Autophagy and anti-aging
Stage 4 ( 36 to 48hours) Increase Growth hormone production causing tissue repair
Stage 5 (72+ hours) Stem cell production and immune system regeneration.
Then there is eating again. This is actually very important as the right foods and the right gut bacteria are super important. Things like bone broth and light keto meals.
Consuming water, teas, coffee (no milk)
There are stages, the most challenging are the first 36 hrs. What is happening is your glucose levels are dropping below the “norm” but your ketone level is rising. Glucose blood concentration is about 6 mmol per litre is the “norm”, you can drop lower than this it is compensated by a rise in the number 2 fuel- Ketones. As this change over occurs and deepens is the most challenging time for the faster. You have a double whammy: your psychological conditioning and your drop in blood glucose both conspiring on you to make you want to eat. After about 36 hours, you no longer produce your hunger hormone and you feel no hunger. What we do at Wake Up and Thrive is take your glucose and ketone levels and explain to you in real time why you are feeling like you are feeling as you enter into fasting. Once over the peak you can conduct your life pretty much as normal except I suggest you don’t go mad on explosive exercise. Gentle, yes.
3 to 5 days is a good fasting time. I suggest a few times a year
Benefits and stages of fasting in order
Stages of fasting https://perfectketo.com/the-5-stages-of-fasting/
Stage 1 2 hrs. Stabilise blood sugars then ketosis. 2 hours then mental clarity comes with ketosis as ketones cause Autophagy-rebuilding cells from the inside
Stage 2 (12 to 18 hours) Ketosis, fat burning and mental clarity, Appetite suppression
Stage 3 ( 24hrs) Autophagy and anti-aging
Stage 4 ( 36 to 48hours) Increase Growth hormone production causing tissue repair
Stage 5 (72+ hours) Stem cell production and immune system regeneration.
Then there is eating again. This is actually very important as the right foods and the right gut bacteria are super important. Things like bone broth and light keto meals.
Probably the most well documented is its remarkable effect on cancer. It is highly efficient in many conditions but lets talk about a subject that I know well. I know this condition well because my wife passed away because of a brain tumour (a GBM). The prognosis was so devasting. It was 90% of sufferers die 14 months from diagnosis.. My wife lasted 14 months. Later, I learnt from a medical doctor at the local hospital that he had treated the exact same condition on a lady of similar age. She was alive 4 years later and relatively healthy ..on diet and fasting alone. So, I made it my quest to practice, understand and teach fasting.
The biology works something like this. Cancer cells are our own cells that have lost cell to cell inhibition. They also lose their differentiation i.e. a kidney cell no longer looks like a kidney cell. It becomes an angry pac men It hell bent on dividing, multiplying just for the hell of it. Growth for the sake of growth. This often causes tumours which mess up the body sometimes leading to its demise.
The cancer cells Achilles heal is sugar . Sweet right? Cancers consume glucose at a prodigious rate. But, it needs glucose and only glucose ( as always there are exceptions so careful research into the type of cancer and its physiology and previous documented cases and their reaction to fasting). I have not come across a cancer that does not respond favourably to fasting. Feed the body ketones and just about all your own body cells have no problem getting energy out of ketone except cancer cells. You starve out your cancer! There is much data on the net that supports this. Fasting for things like this are often longer going to 20+ days. Much longer ones are possible medical supervision would be recommended but also desperation may drive you. I.e. no other rational choice.
We can help you through. Email and discuss your options and we can set up a conference call.
So, you would like to Fast?
Let us help you. We have several years of experience of fasting. Whether you need to or you just want awesome health. We monetor you blood glucose and ketone levels to help guide you.
With Dave Ward-Smith
BSc (hons) Osteo. MSc Cog.neuro Phycology
1 hour appointment
Osteo and breathwork techniques used.
This service is free of charge with accomodation.
© 2023 2025 Wake up and thrive. All rights reserved