The New England Journal of Medicine says "Fasting is a valid experience. It can benefit any otherwise healthy person whose calories now have the upper hand in his/her life." Philippus Paracelsus, a Swiss physician and one of the 3 fathers of Western Medicine (including also Hippocrates and Galen), said "Fasting is the greatest remedy-- the physician within." Elson M Haas M.D. says on his website "Fasting is the single greatest healing therapy."

If you fast too long, you can die but if you drink too much water at one time, you can die. The most common problems of modern day people, like being overweight, having trouble sleeping, feeling tired during the day and headaches, are the things that fasting is best for. On forums, people will ask about cleansing the body and others will say that you do not to do anything since the body is constantly cleansing itself.

But at the same time this cleansing is taking place, you are adding more toxins to the body by eating, which can cause this cleansing to get backed up or way behind. This is like the anabolism and catabolism that happen in the human body. This is the building up and the breaking down that is constantly taking place in the body. At the same time that the body is cleansing itself, you are eating and bringing in more toxins or creating metabolic waste to use medical jargon (2: the technical terminology or characteristic idiom of a special activity or group).

So when they say that you do not need to do anything to cleanse the body, the quickest way to cleanse the body is to do nothing, meaning to eat nothing, drink water and rest. Fasting gives your body a rest or vacation, especially the liver, digestive and elimination systems. Your body knows how to fast. When you are not eating, your mouth becomes an organ of elimination with bad tastes in your mouth. That is why your tongue gets coated while fasting. The best thing to rejuvenate the body and mind is fasting.

John Tilden, M.D., who (in his Colorado center) fasted thousands of people, said "I must say in all seriousness that fasting when combined with a properly selected diet is the nearest approach to a 'cure-all' that is possible to conceive-- profoundly simple and simply profound!" With juice fasting, people can still work thier job during it. During the water fast, it is best to just rest. A famous scientist, Alex Carrel, M.D., says "The elimination of waste products by fasting increases longevity."

Gabriel Cousins, MD, says "I often observe in the fasting participants that by four days of fasting, concentration seems to improve, creative thinking expands, depression lifts, insomnia stops, anxieties fade, the mind becomes more tranquil and a natural joy begins to appear. It is my hypothesis that when the physical toxins are cleared from the brain cells, mind-brain function automatically and significantly improves and spiritual capacities expands."

Prescription for Natural Healing by James Balch M.D. and Phyllis Balch CNC says "Fasting is an effective and safe method of detoxifying the body...A technique that wise men have used for centuries to heal the sick. Fast regularly and help the body heal itself and stay well. Give all of your organs a rest.

Fasting can help reverse the aging process, and if we use it correctly we will live longer, happier lives. Each time you complete a fast, you will feel better. Your body will have a chance to heal and rebuild its immune system by regularly fasting. You can fight off illness and the degenerative diseases so common in this chemically polluted environment we live in. When you feel a cold or illness coming on or are just depressed-- fast!" When you lose your appetite, your body is telling you to stop eating. Copyright 2007 by Chuck Bluestein.