Comment by derefr | Hacker News Reader

Comment by derefr | Hacker News Reader

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Also:

• you've probably entirely emptied out everything in your intestines+colon by then;

• you've possibly starved your intestinal microbiome enough that it's stopped excreting any metabolic byproducts;

• you've probably starved any bacteria hanging out in your mouth/sinuses/tonsils/adenoids, and so breathing + drinking water + saliva has finally had a chance to actually get rid of those;

• any of the inflammatory compounds that get into your bloodstream from your food, have been removed, so your total tissue inflammation is lower than it ever is otherwise (like being on corticosteroids, sort of);

• since your liver/kidneys aren't dealing with a constant stream of input, they can 1. clean themselves for a change, and 2. clean "lower-priority" stuff out of your blood;

• and once they've done that, now they can just shut down and stop spending energy or consuming metabolites.

Presuming you're also drinking a normal amount of water,

• your blood pH and O2 sat. are likely maintained much more closely than they are when you eat food, which allows your organs and your immune system to function slightly more optimally.

This sounds made up without any scientific backing. You starve bacteria? That's now how it works, that's now how any of this works :)

It's a gloss: your intestinal microbiome is maintained because bacterial biofilms in the intestines constantly grow, but are also constantly scraped away by fibrous matter travelling through the intestines (the balance is sort of like bone remodelling.) If you eat only fiber while otherwise fasting, the scraping will occur without the regrowth. Combine this with a course of antibiotics beforehand and a course of probiotics (or a foecal transplant) afterward, and you can fully replace your microbiome.

I've been a long time IBS suffferer and I think yeast overgrowth plays a key role in my case. I took anti yeast medicines for a while and felt great. Should've taken probiotics at the same time.

Do you know of a book/source that sums all of these points up? (I'm going to try the 3 (5?) days strategy and understanding what's going on would add to the motivation.)

We know very little about the bacteria in our gut. Take it from someone who had to get surgery because of ulcerative colitis. Things might fuck up in your intestinal system and doctors who have been in the field for 20 years can only shrug. There's no book on that, I'd not suggest trying to fuck with your intestinal system (antibiotics + probiotics) like there's some science behind it. There isn't.

I've never heard of a fiber only fast. What can you eat that only contains fiber?

This is a very bad idea. Some healthy bacteria cannot be replaced once they're gone. You should only use antibiotics when the pros outweigh the cons, which is if you suffer from an infection.

Are these personal observations, or empirically established facts? For example - would liver and kidneys actually shut down when they don't have any work to do?

I was intentionally using sloppy non-clinical language. :) "Shut down" in the sense that the liver specifically is full of xenometabolizing enzymes, and those enzymes get replaced by the densely-packed mitochondria in liver cells as they get used up, requiring nutrients to feed said mitochondria. If those enzymes are consumed at a slower rate, those mitochondria consume your body's nutrient stores more slowly.

What would happen if the fast includes water, like in the 4-day vision quest fast (no food and no water) practiced by Native Americans?

Many things, but for a short list.

Massive headaches, mucus membranes dry up, hallucinations, and at 4 days there is some risk of death depending on conditions though this is generally minimal unless you involve sweat lodge conditions or where somewhat dehydrated to start with.

These typically start and end with short sweat lodges. I know quite a few people who've went through the experience but no testimonials about hallucinations or death (amongst everyone I know who did this and everyone they did this with).

I was wondering about possibility for kidney damage?

Done correctly there are few issues unless you have other medical conditions. But, you can also really mess things up, so I guess it depends.

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