Fasting and Spiritual Warfare

 

"Throughout Sacred Scripture, we find that when God's people fast, the power of their prayers is increased, especially when they are engaged in spiritual warfare. In the Old Testament, the Lord told Isaiah that a fast properly undertaken would 'loose the bonds of wickedness ... undo the thongs of the yoke ... let the oppressed go free' (Is. 58:6) ... In the New Testament, we find that Jesus fasted for forty days and nights in the wilderness in preparation for His battle with Satan, who came to tempt Him (see Lk 4:1-2) ... If prayer is a spiritual weapon, fasting is the spiritual whetstone on which it is sharpened. It's the spiritual muscle that, when exercised regularly, strengthens the thrust of that weapon to pierce the Enemy and drive him away." — Paul Thigpen, p. 42

AN EXCERPT FROM

Manual for Spiritual Warfare

Intermittent Fasting and Weight Loss and Fasting for Spiritual Awareness

Intermittent Fasting and Weight Loss

Intermittent Fasting and Weight Loss
A form of calorie restriction, intermittent fasting may help you lose those extra pounds.

By Jennifer Marano, D.C.

For many people, following a whole-food, plant-based diet is the key to maintaining optimum weight and health. However, for some of us, strictly adhering to a health-promoting diet as well as engaging in a regular exercise program is not enough to keep us where we want to be weight-wise. We just like eating too much; or perhaps we have extremely efficient digestive systems; or our internal calorie counters are a bit off. Whatever the reason, I and many others tend to maintain a body weight 5 to 10 pounds heavier than what would make us look and feel our best. I have been trying various tricks for years—decades, really—to get rid of those final pounds, and I think I have finally found the answer: intermittent fasting.

I have been involved with fasting for over 30 years as co-founder of TrueNorth Health, a fasting and health center in Northern California, and I am very familiar with the tremendous benefits of fasting for maintaining or restoring optimum health. But we have never recommended fasting as a solution for weight loss. It may jump-start a weight-loss program by resetting our appetite so that we enjoy health-promoting food; but maintaining optimum weight is done by consuming a proper diet every day, not by prolonged fasting followed by a return to bad dietary habits.

But what is a “proper diet”? Is it the same for everyone? Over the past few years I have read a lot about the value of intermittent fasting, both for weight control and general health, and what struck me from the beginning is that the daily eating habits we follow in the developed world—three meals a day supplemented by coffee breaks, mid-afternoon pick-me-ups, and evening nibbles—is a very recent development in human history. For most of the world this abundance of food has not been available until very recently; and in undeveloped areas it is still not the norm. But just mention that you are skipping a meal here and there, and you are met with looks of horror and comments about how unhealthy that is.

But is it unhealthy? What happens when we don’t eat for a period of time? We know that when we eat more than we need to maintain our function, the excess is stored as fat. This is one of the adaptations we possess to keep us going during times of scarcity. When food isn’t available we burn our stored fat to keep us going until we can locate more food. We need certain enzymes to help us store fat and other enzymes to help us mobilize our fat stores. But if we are eating all day long there is never a time when we need to burn fat. It takes 8 to 12 hours to digest and assimilate the food from a meal, so most people in the developed world really never have to mobilize fat. And if the body doesn’t need to do something, it tends to not maintain the equipment (think enzymes) necessary to do that task. You know what happens to your muscles if you don’t exercise. And you know what you have to do to get back into shape. The ability to burn fat waxes or wanes in response to use, just as your muscles respond to use after exercise. You can develop the enzyme systems that allow you to switch easily from burning glucose to burning fat, but it takes some time. And while you are developing them you feel hungry; sometimes very hungry. And it is uncomfortable. Even after you develop these systems you still feel hungry (although it isn’t quite as uncomfortable). But it’s okay—feeling hungry is okay.

What is Intermittent Fasting?
So what is intermittent fasting (IF)? How does it apply to humans? Why do it? What can it do for you? And how do you do it?

IF is a form of calorie restriction, which has been studied for a long time, mostly in animals like rats and mice. It was observed that animals fed a restricted diet lived a lot longer than animals allowed unlimited food. There are people who are practicing calorie restriction with the hope that they will greatly extend their lives. But it is a very uncomfortable way to live, and these people can become very gaunt and weak. Not very many are successful at maintaining this lifestyle. The difference between IF and calorie restriction is the “intermittent” part. Yes, calories are restricted, but only some of the time. And recent animal studies have shown that the benefits are actually greater for the intermittent fasters than for those on a calorie-restricted diet; they both live just as long, but the intermittent fasters don’t lose muscle mass or become stunted. And that makes all the difference when it comes to applying the idea of IF to human health and weight control.

Before getting into the various types of IF, I would like to say a little about the physiological changes that occur with IF and how they impact health. One change is that the level of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) goes down. High levels of IGF-1 in adults are associated with accelerated aging and development of cancer, so lowering this factor may be one explanation for the life-extension effects seen in animal studies. In addition, genes whose function is to repair are turned on by fasting. An organism needs to be in top shape during times of scarcity in order to successfully find food, so the stress of the fast causes this activation, much as the stress of drought or insect pests causes plants to produce more antioxidants. And a third effect is increased insulin sensitivity. Insulin resistance is associated with type 2 diabetes, and high levels of circulating insulin lead to excessive fat storage. Keep these physiological changes in mind as we discuss the various forms of IF; it will increase your understanding of why IF works for weight loss and also why it can be a healthy lifestyle choice, even after you have reached your ideal weight.

The Alternate Day Fasting Plan
One popular form of IF is “alternate day fasting” (ADF, or ADMF for “alternate day modified feeding”). The modified feeding title refers to a system developed by researcher Dr. Krista Varady of the University of Illinois at Chicago. In her system the fasting days actually involve eating a small meal (500 calories for women and 600 calories for men), while feeding days allow unrestricted eating. Dr. Varady found that, contrary to expectations, her subjects did not go crazy on feeding days. They tended to eat about 110% of what they would eat on a normal day before beginning ADMF. This makes ADMF a very effective weight loss program, but it has its difficulties, particularly socially. Friends and family have a hard time keeping track of when you are feeding and when you are fasting. But it is a good choice for people who have a large amount of weight to loose.

The 5:2 Plan
A more easily followed, yet still very effective version of IF is the “5:2 plan,” which was popularized by Dr. Michael Mosley with his Horizon TV program on BBC and in his excellent book, The Fast Diet. On this plan you choose two fast days a week (perhaps Monday and Thursday) when you will eat 500 to 600 calories. The other five days you eat whatever you want, but preferably a health-promoting diet. This plan has been studied extensively. In one study by Dr. Michelle Harvie in Manchester, England, three groups of women were compared for three months. Group 1 was asked to eat 1,500 calories a day on a Mediterranean diet. Group 2 followed a 5:2 plan, eating 650 calories of low-carbohydrate food on the two fast days. Group 3 was asked to avoid carbs two days a week, but was not given any specific calorie target. At the end of three months the 1,500-calorie group lost an average of 5.28 pounds, and the 5:2 groups lost an average of 8.8 pounds!

The Restricted Eating Window Plan
A third version of IF, perhaps the easiest to follow, is the “restricted eating window plan.” This method was based on a mouse study at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies where two groups of mice were each fed an unhealthy, high-fat diet. Each group received the same amount of food, but one group had constant access to the food, while the other group had to do all their eating in an eight-hour period each day and fast for the remaining 16 hours. After 100 days the “unlimited” group had high cholesterol, high blood glucose, and liver damage, while the “fasting” group put on 28% less weight and suffered less liver damage. The fasting group also had lower levels of inflammation, which we are learning is a very important factor in heart disease, cancer, stroke and even Alzheimer’s disease.

Intermittent fasting can be a powerful weight-loss tool with a bonus of improving your overall health. You can design your own program depending on your goals: ADMF if you have a lot of weight to lose, 5:2 as you get closer to your goal, and you can try a 6:1 plan when you get to your optimum weight so you can continue to reap the physiological benefits of IF. Or restrict your eating window to six or eight hours. If you get a bit off track you can throw in a 500- to 600-calorie day here and there. This approach is endlessly flexible—you just have to figure out what works best for you! And just remember: it’s okay to feel hungry.

Jennifer Marano, D.C., is a graduate of Western States Chiropractic College and along with her husband Dr. Alan Goldhamer is the co-founder of the TrueNorth Health Center in Santa Rosa, California.

https://www.drfuhrman.com/library/eat-to-live-blog/144/fasting-rejuvenates-the-immune-system

Fasting rejuvenates the immune system

Fasting under medical supervision can have amazing healing results. The concept of therapeutic fasting is not new; the early great philosophers, thinkers, and healers used fasting for health. Hippocrates, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle and Galen all praised the benefits of fasting. Paracelsus, one of the three fathers of Western medicine, is quoted as saying, "Fasting is the greatest remedy--the physician within."

Unfortunately, as time went on fasting as a modality to heal became obsolete as pill popping became the modality of treatment. However, a small number of medical professionals kept up with its use and today we are learning of its vast benefits and in particular, how it works on a cellular level. Fasting works because the body has the capacity to heal itself and when the process of digestion stops, healing is accelerated. Eating a Nutritarian diet allows the body to heal at a faster pace. I have been using fasting as a healing strategy throughout my career as a physician for patients who need to quicken the healing process.

Fasting promotes accelerated healing and a valuable treatment for a variety of medical conditions.

In my 1995 book, Fasting and Eating For Health, I described my observations of health improvements due to fasting. In fact, my colleagues and I published a series of case reports that showed remission of autoimmune diseases following supervised fasting. ¹  Reviews of studies on fasting supported those findings, concluding that fasting (followed by a vegetarian or vegan diet) produces improvements in symptoms for patients with autoimmune diseases.^2,3

Although fasting is a powerful healing modality that has been used for many years, only recent research studies are uncovering specifically how fasting works on a cellular level. These new studies are generating more interest in fasting. To understand how fasting works, you first need to know that our bodies stores sugar in the form of glycogen and when we stop eating, the stored glycogen is used by the body. Fasting, after glycogen stores are depleted, (which occurs during the first 24-48 hours of a fast), sets off complex biochemical pathways in the body that aim to conserve energy while adequately fueling vital organs. These complex biochemical pathways have tremendous healing benefits.

New research reveals cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy may have immune building benefit from fasting

 A recent study⁴ suggests that fasting promotes the regenerative capacity of the immune system that could benefit cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy,  as well as healthy individuals.. Previous research suggested that fasting could protect mice against toxicity from chemotherapy (without compromising the effectiveness of the chemotherapy).^5,6 Also, in a series of 10 case reports of patients who had voluntarily fasted alongside some of their chemotherapy treatments, all of the patients experienced fewer and less severe side effects during fasting cycles compared to non-fasting cycles of chemotherapy.^7,8

In an extensive series of experiments, a group of scientists found that fasting decreased DNA damage and cell death in white blood cells and bone marrow cells, and reduced chemotherapy-induced mortality in mice. Most importantly, after 4-5 cycles of fasting accompanying chemotherapy, the white blood cell count of the fasting group returned to normal, but the control group remained diminished by the chemotherapy.

The scientists also looked at fasting without chemotherapy, and found similar results: a six-fold increase in newly generated hematopoietic stem cells. Hematopoietic stem cells are those stem cells that are produced in the bone marrow and which give rise to all the other blood cells, including white blood cells that modulate immune function.  Fasting was able to provoke regeneration of the immune cells in healthy mice, and also changed the hematopoietic stem cell profile of aging mice to that of younger mice. The scientists were surprised at these dramatic results, which suggested that fasting signals the immune system to get rid of old of damaged cells and rebuild itself with new cells.^4,9 

IGF-1 and Fasting: Another fascinating finding

The scientists found that reduced IGF-1 signaling was a key player in the regeneration of immune cells that occurred in response to fasting. Lower levels of IGF-1 are associated with reduced risk of cancer and slower aging.  Mice that were given extra IGF-1 during the fasts did not have the same increase in hematopoietic stem cells.

Would this work in humans too?

Within the same publication, the scientists have begun to answer this question.  A clinical trial assigned patients undergoing chemotherapy to either 24 or 72 hour fasts prior to each chemotherapy cycle. Preliminary results were similar to what was seen in mice; the 72 hour fasting group saw an improvement in immune cell count and a shift toward the ‘younger’ cellular profile.

This promising and exciting research suggests that occasional fasting could have profound immune-boosting benefits for healthy individuals and those undergoing chemotherapy. By simulating an energy shortage with a few days of fasting, we can jumpstart the immune system’s natural self-renewing capacity, exchanging old immune cells for new ones.

What this could mean for cancer patients

The toxicity and side effects associated with chemotherapy are a major limitation for treatment of cancer.  An important research goal is to identify an adjunct treatment that could ameliorate those side effects without compromising the effectiveness of the chemotherapy. Research suggests that fasting could achieve these goals and even make chemotherapy more effective.  In other words, fasting is thought to protect normal cells while making cancerous cells vulnerable.

Depriving normal, healthy cells of energy-yielding nutrients signals them to set aside growth and go into a mode of energy conservation, protection, maintenance, and repair. It increases the capacity of these cells for stress resistance. In vitro, this resistance to stress helps to prevent oxidative DNA damage from chemotherapy drugs.

Since cancerous cells have mutations that hyper activate growth pathways, causing uncontrolled proliferation, they are unable to go into the protective stress-resistance mode like healthy cells.^5,10This is called “differential stress resistance.”  Fasting appears to induce stress resistance in normal cells but vulnerability in cancerous cells. Like the results regarding immune function, a reduction in IGF-1 levels due to fasting contributes to this differential stress resistance.^6,10

After the early series of 10 case reports noted a low rate of side effects in patients that had fasted prior to chemotherapy,⁷ additional studies in human patients were undertaken. The studies were small, but the results are positive. In one study, patients who fasted for 48 or 72 hours showed reduced chemotherapy-related side effects (including fatigue and nausea) and DNA damage in white blood cells compared to those who completed a shorter fast of 24 hours.¹¹

 A randomized controlled trial in women with breast cancer also showed evidence of attenuated DNA damage due to chemotherapy in the fasting group compared to the non-fasting group over the course of multiple chemotherapy cycles.¹²

 Future studies are needed to determine whether fasting strengthens patients’ response to chemotherapy, and also to determine the optimal fasting length for reducing side effects.  Potentially this research could lead to a widespread use of fasting as an adjunct treatment alongside chemotherapy.

Fasting and Eating for Health

My book, Fasting and Eating for Health, is still a must read for the health enthusiast, though 20 years ago we did not know about fasting’s potential to help rejuvenate the immune system and sensitize cancerous cells through a combination of reduced IGF-1, stem cell rejuvenation and stress resistance.

The Power of Intermittent Fasting-Prayer with Fasting!

THE POWER OF FASTING

NEED A BREAKTHROUGH THIS LENT? TRY FASTING--SERIOUSLY  

Lent is here, and there's no better time than to begin the spiritual practice of fasting. Fasting is the utmost of prayers, causing breakthroughs within us and around us that prayer alone does not always do. Intractable problems are relieved. Jobs are found. Kids come back to church. Confusion dissolves into clarity. Hardship is handled. Doors open. Healing happens. And our hearts are cleansed to receive and give more love. A friend of mine once said to me, as his eyes filled with tears, "It's hard for me to fast, but I see so many beautiful things happening in my life, and to the people around me, that I can't stop."

Once you discover the blessings, heavenly aid, and power of fasting, you will not want to give up this important spiritual practice, even when Easter arrives. Fasting pulls down from God's throne a shower of graces.

But do we have to fast? Who says so? Jesus. Fasting, believe it or not, is a practice that Jesus assumed his disciples were doing. There are three very challenging and much ignored words that Jesus says in the gospel of Matthew, Chapter 6. He says, "When you fast," and goes on to say, "do not look gloomy like the hypocrites." He doesn't say, "If you perhaps might one day decide to possibly give fasting a go, that is, if you feel like it." Jesus assumes that we are fasting in order to spread the kingdom of God. Fasting was a common practice in his time, and the book of Acts indicates that prayer and fasting were very important to his first disciples, aiding in their ministry and discernment (Acts 13:2, Luke 2:36-38). Moses fasted forty days and nights before receiving the Ten Commandments. Jesus fasted forty days and nights before beginning his public ministry. The Catechism of the Catholic Church also calls us to fast.   

Fasting purifies our souls, helping us to fight off temptation and conform our will to God's. When we say no to our appetites, we might see certain aspects of the flesh rise up in ourselves, like irritability, self-pity, anger, pride, lust, etc. We can blame it on the fasting, but actually, this practice simply allows us to see what is already inside ourselves, so that we might experience spiritual purification. It is no wonder that all the saints fasted. Without fasting, we can only get so far in the spiritual life, and our prayers for others and for the world will only be so effective. Prayer without fasting is like a bird trying to fly with only one wing.

An authentic Christian life is nurtured by acts of self-denial, which open the heart to love. If we were to follow our body's and our mind's every selfish inclination, we would successfully drown out God's voice and direction from our lives and mute the power of our prayers and Christian witness. Fasting tames our self-serving nature, and also unites us with the majority of the people in our world who live on simple diets like just rice and beans, since that's all they can afford.

Traditional fast days in the Church were Wednesdays and Fridays and Saturdays, and a most efficacious fast is to have bread and water on two of those days. As with all spiritual practices, danger can creep in, when one does it for the wrong reason: out of pride, or vanity, or without attention to personal health problems, or if one forgets that the entire reason behind it is to love God with all our mind, soul, heart and strength, and our neighbor as ourself. Fasting with the heart brings us closer to Jesus Christ. It is all about our intimate relationship with the One who loves us most.

God pays serious attention to our prayers when we fast because we're willing to sacrifice for what we believe in. A version of Mark, Chapter 9, verse 29 describes a situation where the disciples asked Jesus why they were not able to cast out a demon from a boy. Jesus responded: "This kind can only come out through prayer and through fasting."

The power in fasting has amazed me to no end, causing good things happen that otherwise might not. My husband and I adopted a beautiful baby boy a couple years ago, after waiting for a child in the foster care system for three and a half years. During the first week that we took the baby home, we came to a horrible crossroad. Our adoption worker called to tell us that the baby's biological mother, who had never met us, was choosing a different adoption service. The baby, with whom we were madly in love, was going to be taken away from our in two days on a Friday, and there was absolutely nothing we could do to prevent it. Shocked and grief-stricken, I began to cry, and my husband crawled into bed, pulled the covers over his head, and wouldn't move. We almost despaired. But by God's grace, we remembered there was something we could do. We could pray, and we could fast. For two and a half-days straight, we ate little-to-nothing and prayed constantly. Come that Friday, the day the baby was supposed to be taken away, the baby's birth mother and grandmother were sitting in our living room, grateful to choose us as parents.

St. John Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests, known for reading souls and converting an entire town in a few short years, was a great proponent of fasting. A parish priest once complained to him about the indifference of the people in his parish, and St. John Vianney answered, "You have preached, you have prayed, but have you fasted? Have you taken the discipline? Have you slept on the floor? So long as you have done none of these things, you have no right to complain."

He also once said, "My friend, the devil is not greatly afraid of instruments of penance. That which beats him is the curtailment of one's food, drink, and sleep. There is nothing the devil fears more, consequently nothing is more pleasing to God. Oh, how often I have experienced it! When I was alone, it happened at times that I refrained from food for entire days. On those occasions, I obtained, both for myself and for others, whatever I asked of Almighty God."

Mary, the Mother of God, has also spoken of the power of fasting through her messages in Medjugorje. She is urging the world to fast on bread and water on Wednesdays and Fridays-not just in Lent.

On July 21, 1982, she said: "The best fast is on bread and water. Through fasting and prayer, one can stop wars, one can suspend the laws of nature. Charity cannot replace fasting. Those who are not able to fast can sometime replace it with prayer, charity, and a confession; but everyone, except the sick, must fast."

A few months later, on December 25, 1982, she stressed again, "You have forgotten that through prayer and fasting you can avert wars and suspend the laws of nature."

If you find this hard to believe, I will conclude with a true story of prayer and fasting doing just that. I used to work as a resident minister at the University of San Francisco where I met a student named Dennis, who told me of something that happened to him in 1986, when he was home in the Philippines, a very Catholic country. During that time, people were no longer willing to tolerate the great injustice, corruption, and repression of basic human liberties by the country's dictatorship under Marco, which kept much of the population in extreme poverty. The people were demonstrating, marching and protesting in the streets. The government responded by employing tanks to begin firing at civilians. The Catholic bishops got word of this and publicized throughout the nation that everyone should begin to fast and pray the rosary. As this was happening, Dennis was marching in the street. A tank began to advance towards him, and he thought to himself, "I'm about to be killed. This is my last moment on earth." But suddenly he felt a wave of exquisite peace pass through him, and he fell to his knees, as though he were being lowered down gently. "It was so unreal," he said. "At one level, I knew that my life was in danger, and on another level, I was completely at peace, not worried about a single thing." Those who were standing around him fell to their knees, as well. All of the tanks came to a halt at the same time, and the soldiers began to climb out of them. They found themselves incapable of advancing or firing. Then protesters and small children walked towards the tanks and began handing the soldiers flowers. Later several interviews with soldiers revealed that they, too, had felt a wave of peace come over them and nothing in their entire beings would allow them to fight. They had overthrown the orders of their military superiors. This miraculous event came to be known as the Edsa revolution.

Through fasting, we take on a sliver of the cross, relieve some of Jesus' sufferings, help transform the world, and in return, gain a bit of heaven ourselves. If you wish to make a lasting difference in this world and experience spiritual breakthroughs in your life, try fasting this Lent-and beyond. 
 

BY  CHRISTINE WATKINS

Christine Watkins, MTS, LCSWAuthor of Full of Grace: Miraculous Stories of 
Healing and Conversion through Mary's Intercession(AVAILABLE NOW from Ave Maria Press)
christinewatkins.com
BLOG medjugorjemiracles.com 

Dr. Chauncey Crandall, the doctor who prayed for the dead, now gives suggestions for fasting to keep alive

Friday, April 3, 2009

By Dan Wooding-Founder of ASSIST Ministries
PALM BEACH, CA (ANS) -- Dr. Chauncey W. Crandall IV, who serves at the Palm Beach Cardiovascular Clinic in Palm Beach, Florida, made headlines around the world when he recounted the story to a doctors conference of how he prayed for a middle-aged auto mechanic, who had died and eventually came back to life and gave his life to Jesus Christ.

Dr. Chauncey W. Crandall IV

That man was Jeff Markin who, on October 20, 2006, walked into the Emergency Room at the Palm Beach Gardens Hospital and collapsed from a massive heart attack. Forty minutes later he was declared dead. After filling out his final report, the supervising cardiologist, Dr. Chauncey Crandall, started out of the room.
Dr. Crandall explained, “Before I crossed its threshold, however, I sensed God was telling me to turn around and pray for that dead patient.”
Crandall had learned to follow that impulse even if he was embarrassed. “Father God,” he said, under his breath, “I cry out for this man’s soul. If he does not know you as his Lord and Savior, raise him from the dead now, in Jesus’ name.”
With that prayer and Dr. Crandall’s instruction to give the man what seemed one more useless shock from the defibrillator, Jeff Markin came back to life—and remains alive and well today.
In Dr. Crandall’s practice he has become a doctor who prays with his patients, and he has seen many healed, but now he is dealing with another part of life – fasting to help get ride of toxic overload in the body.

In a recent appearance of The 700 Club, Dr. Crandall said that fasting, which is a period of abstinence from all food or specific items, is actually beneficial to the body.

Mimi Elliott, writing up a story about Dr. Crandall’s appearance on CBN show said “During a fast, Dr. Crandall says the body will systematically cleanse itself of everything except vital tissue. Starvation only occurs when the body is forced to use vital tissue to survive. Although protein is being used by the body during a fast, a person fasting for 40 days on water will not suffer a deficiency of protein, vitamins, minerals or fatty acids. When the unhealthy cells break down, Dr. Crandall says all essential substances are used and conserved.”
She quoted Dr. Crandall as saying, “There is an unwarranted fear of fasting that strength diminishes from the catabolism of proteins from muscle fibers.”
She added, “Dr. Crandall says. Even during long fasts, the number of fibers remains the same. Healthy cells, though they may reduce in size or strength, also remain perfectly sound. A well-nourished man can live from 50 to 75 days without food, provided he is not exposed to harsh elements. Human fat is valued at 3,500 calories per pound. Ten pounds of fat are equal to 35,000 calories.”
“Most of us have sufficient reserves, capable of sustaining us for many weeks,” Dr. Crandall says.
Mimi Elliott, in her report went on to say, “The human body has many ordinary modes of achieving elimination: the lungs, liver, kidneys, colon, etc. When these are overloaded, the body will resort to ‘extraordinary’ methods of elimination: boils, mucous and other discharges, sweat, vomiting, diarrhea, etc. If elimination is impossible, the toxic overload will go into storage forms in the joints, vessels, muscles, organs, etc. While fasting, the body is highly conservative of its energy and resources. During this rest, toxin intake and production are reduced to a minimum while elimination proceeds unchecked. Anabolic processes, such as tissue and bone healing, also proceed at a maximal rate during the fast.

Cleansing and Healing
“The first stage of cleansing removes large quantities of waste matter and digestive residues. The first few days of a fast can be rough due to the quantity of waste passing into the blood stream. After the third day of the fast, there is a little desire for food. The second stage is cleansing of mucous, fat, diseased and dying cells and the more easily removed toxins. As the fast continues, the cleansing process becomes more thorough. The last stage is the cleansing of toxins that have been accumulating in your cellular tissue from birth, and the microscopic tubes that carry vital elements to the brain.”
“Cleansing is the last layer only possible through a combination of juice fasting, water fasting, and a healthy diet high in raw foods,” Dr. Crandall says. To overcome a severe disease like cancer, Dr. Crandall says it is important to continue through a series of fasts to the point where the full scouring action of catabolism removes the disease from the tissue.

Her story went on to say, “One of the surprises that comes from fasting is an increase in mental acuity. Large amounts of blood and nervous energies have to be sent to digestive organs to digest a meal. During a fast, these energies are not required and may be used by the brain for better thinking. This increase doesn’t usually happen until after the first few days of a fast because the body is busy cleaning out toxins.

“During a fast, a metamorphosis occurs. The body undergoes a tearing down and rebuilding of damaged materials. For this reason, fasting is famous for its ability to rejuvenate and give the body a youthful tone. Fasting dissolves diseased cells and leaves healthy tissue. Fasting is beneficial for arthritis, asthma, high blood pressure, lupus, chronic fatigue, colitis, Crohn’s disease, diverticulitis, cases of paralysis, neuritis, etc.”

To watch the video of his appearance, go to www.cbn.com/700club/guests/bios/Chauncey_Crandall040109.aspx