Fasting is the oldest therapeutic method known to man. Even before the advent of the healing arts, man instinctively stopped eating when feeling ill and abstained from food until his health was restored. Perhaps he learned this from animals, which always fast when not feeling well.

Throughout medical history, fasting has been regarded as one of the most dependable curative methods. Hippocrates, Galen, Paracelsus and many other “greats” of medicine prescribed fasting.

But with the advent of modern, drug-oriented medicine, fasting has fallen into disregard in the eyes of the orthodox practitioners. All kinds of reducing diets – yes; but the total abstinence from food – the best form of reducing as well as healing – is seldom tried.

Happily, things are beginning to change. Many scientific studies are now being made around the world, particularly in Europe, to determine the prophylactic, therapeutic and rejuvenative effects of fasting.

The Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, a world famous medical research institution, has made clinical studies of fasting up to 55 days under Drs. P. Reizenstein and J. Kellberg. Studies demonstrated that fasting is not only a perfectly safe measure, but that it also has a definite beneficial healing effect.

The famous Swedish fast marches, led by Dr. Lennart Edren, proved to the world the great potential of fasting as well as its safety. Although the fasting participants were under an extremely severe stress walking 33 miles a day for 10 days, their health condition only improved and “they felt stronger and had more vigor and vitality after the fast than before it”, as expressed by Dr. Karl-Otto Aly, M.D., one of the participants of the fast march.

In Germany, fasting is now used in hundreds of biological clinics operated by medical doctors. One doctor, Otto Buchinger, Jr., has supervised over 90,000 successful fasts. In German and Swedish clinics fasting is now routinely used to treat virtually every disease – rheumatic conditions, digestive disorders, skin conditions, cardio-vascular disorders, etc.

In Russia, doctors have used fasting experimentally for 23 years and report excellent results. The latest report from Russia shows that controlled fasting was found to be the most effective treatment for schizophrenia – 64% of the patients had improved mentally after 20-30 days of controlled fasting.

Some recent animal studies in the United States have shown that periodic fasting can increase the life span considerably. In one study, fasting worms periodically – every other day – caused them to live 50 times as long as usual! Larger animals or man may not do as well, but the Cornell University studies with rats showed that keeping them from overeating and starving them systematically increased their life span 2 1/2 times!

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GENERAL HEALTH