Peer-reviewed studies going back to the 1980s have found that fasting followed by a plant-based diet significantly reduces the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis.
I almost think many doctors don't really care for the patients more than keeping the status quo. There is no monetary profit from promoting fasting for pharma companies.
Body has internal energy ...which can cure body internal problems .....if we eat 3 times or more ..this energy is used in digesting the food ...,if we don't eat ..thus the energy gets saved and used in clearing our problems ..this happens in fasting ...
I am glad that I came across this video. I have been diagnosed with seronegative rheumatoid Arthritis. I never had idea about this chronic condition. I did ask my Rheumatologist what food should be avoided but he said I can eat anything. Thanks for this video, we have more clarity now.
Sorry about your diagnosis, but glad you found the video helpful. Sadly, most doctors receive almost no training in nutrition, and your rheumatologist’s advice was the ignorant norm. Contrary to what he told you, there is mounting evidence that poor nutrition (animal products, processed foods) can contribute to or cause RA and that a diet of minimally processed plants can help prevent and/or reverse RA. You might be interested in the following discussion on the Exam Room podcast with a researcher in the field: www.pcrm.org/news/exam-room-podcast/promising-new-research-rheumatoid-arthritis-and-plant-based-diets. Best of luck!
Thanks Steve. This information is surely helpful and I hope the awareness regarding the side effects of medicine and benefits of nutrition increase more. What you're doing is helping others 😊
Thank you so much for putting this out there. The medical Drs never cease to shock me in their blatant refusal to look at any such research no matter how much their patients suffer and Iv had cause to become a natural healer over the past 15 years and now once again, am healing myself, this time of rheumatoid arthritis
Just received your book "The Oldest Cure in the World" - looking forward to reading it. I interned and did a residency with True North Health Center. Thank you for your work.
Many thanks. Hope you enjoy the read. If you feel up to it, I'd be interested in what you think of the book when you've had time to give it a read. You can find my email on the Contact page of my website, SteveHendricks.org.
I like books written by journalists. The research their topics well. I have gone into Steve Hendricks website and will also read his other books. Well done, Steve.
Agreed. I don't know all the specifics of Paddison's program, but his basic idea that a minimally processed diet of plants can, in many cases, reverse RA is sound.
About halfway through the Prolonged Fasting section, you'll find the list under the question "How do I find a clinic that will supervise a fast?" It's a very short list, as there are very few fasting clinics.
Hi! Is it possible to get a link to the Lancet paper please? I would love to see the details, especially the new maintenance diets after the fasts. I wonder what gave them the idea that vegan followed by vegetarian diet would be needed. Thank you for your presentation.
The Lancet paper is here, though the full text may be paywalled: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1681264/. What gave researchers the idea to try vegan and vegetarian diets after the fast? Three-quarters of a century of experience by fasting doctors who found that when their patients ate more plants and fewer animal products, they were healthier. By now, the science on this is clear as can be: animal products and highly processed foods may sustain us in the short run but cause disease in the long run, whereas minimally processed plants protect against disease.
Glad you found the video useful. Fasting doctors and scientists uniformly say (and I think they're right) that if you have a disease (like RA) or if you are taking medications, you should do a prolonged fast only under the guidance of a medical professional who's experienced in supervising fasts. During fasts of multiple days or weeks, the body can struggle a bit, and that's especially true of the diseased or medicated body. It's much safer to have a doctor on hand who can determine whether your struggles are a normal part of fasting or, instead, signs of danger that call for breaking the fast. On the FAQ page of my website, you can find a short list of clinics that supervise fasts either in person or remotely: www.stevehendricks.org/fasting-faq. Search for the question "How do I find a clinic that will supervise a fast?"
Hi Steve, I am just in the process of my Sero negative RA diagnosis. I have not started any medications yet but may be in a month I have to start my medications. I am really concerned if I should avoid medicines and start plant based diet with fasting.Since I am a practicing muslim so We fast for 30 days in a year however during the night time we eat mostly non vegan diet. This year our fasting period is going to start from mid march to mid april do you suggesst me avoiding medication and first practice fasting with vegan diet and see the results?
Thanks for your note, Sobi. Alas, as I’m not a doctor, I can’t give advice on your specific case. What I do, as a reporter, is report what fasting doctors and fasting scientists say about condition X or Y in general. To apply such generalities to your own case and to answer questions about medications and so on, you’d want to speak with a doctor experienced in fasting. You can find a short list of fasting doctors on the FAQ page of my website: www.stevehendricks.org/fasting-faq. As for a minimally processed vegan diet (sometimes called a whole-plant diet), the science is overwhelmingly clear that there are virtually no drawbacks and a vast array of gains to be had from changing to such a diet, whether you have a disease like RA or not. We would all be healthier, as would our planet and of course the animals, if we ate that way. Note that I’m talking about a *minimally processed* or *whole-plant* vegan diet. Most vegan diets are full of what amounts to vegan junk food, with few benefits to health. Avoid those. The section “Sources on Diet” at the back of my book The Oldest Cure in the World lists resources to help you learn more about the science behind healthy vegan diets and about how to make the switch to such a diet. Having said all that, yes, if you made the switch to a whole-plant diet, it’s possible you either wouldn’t need medication for your RA or your need would be less acute. Most doctors familiar with the benefits of whole-plant diets almost always counsel their RA patients to go on such a diet. Their recommendations are based on their own clinical observations (they believe they’ve witnessed their RA patients improving when eating healthy vegan diets) and on studies like the ones discussed on these two webpages: - www.pcrm.org/news/news-releases/vegan-diet-eases-arthritis-pain-finds-new-study - www.pcrm.org/news/news-releases/doctors-group-says-plant-based-diet-could-be-prescription-arthritis-pain A few thoughts on Ramadan . . . There’s a growing body of research about the effects of fasting during Ramadan on health. Unfortunately, the health benefits appear (to my eyes anyway) to be mostly pretty small. I think that’s likely because whatever gains in health you get by fasting during the day are largely wiped out by the eating at night. Our bodies simply weren’t made to be digesting and processing food late in the day, certainly not in the quantities that many Ramadan fasters consume at night. (See my video “The Science of When to Eat Each Day”: czcams.com/video/HU6M9irrtqI/video.html.) There are also some concerns about the dry fasting during Ramadan, i.e. fasting without water, which may be less good for health that fasting on water. None of that is to say don’t fast during Ramadan. If it’s important to you culturally to observe Ramadan, go for it. Certainly there seems to be very little evidence that Ramadan fasting harms health. Just don’t expect great health benefits. You may be interested in a tip I have heard from meal-timing scientists on how to potentially make a Ramadan fast healthier. It’s simply this: 1. Eat more of your day’s calories at the morning meal, when our bodies are better equipped to digest food and process nutrients. 2. Keep the evening meal light, and finish it as early as possible-don’t linger for hours over it. Best of luck.
@@stevehendricks1634 Many thanks for the great insights. I appreciate you took the time to respond to my queries. I will definitely try to learn and understand more about the RA, diet impacts and effective fasting tips.
Enlarged lymph nodes are common in RA, but I'm not aware of any science showing that the mechanism by which RA patients get better when they fast (and eat a healthier diet) is lymphatic drainage.
I’m wondering why the experiments will go far enough on one side to implement a vegan diet but on the other - standard western diet or Mediterranean diet. Why not the vegan equivalent: Carnivore? I’m curious. I’m watching this video as a newly diagnosed patient. I’m checking out my options and being proactive. I just can’t help but notice what’s not being discussed amongst what IS being discussed.
Thanks for asking. The studies discussed in the video were conducted between the late 1970s and early 1990s, well before the carnivore diet reached its current popularity. But I doubt many scientists today would even consider the kind of study you’re suggesting-that is, one looking at the efficacy of the carnivore diet to reverse disease. That’s because we have an overwhelming amount of research showing consistently and conclusively that meat (like other animal products) is generally pathogenic, i.e. disease-causing. Plants, meanwhile, generally have the opposite effect: they protect against disease. A few studies have found this to be the case specifically for rheumatoid arthritis. See, for example, this news release about a 2022 study: www.pcrm.org/news/news-releases/vegan-diet-eases-arthritis-pain-finds-new-study. The full study is here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/15598276221081819?journalCode=ajla. For a podcast discussion of the study and of how one RA sufferer reversed her RA through a minimally processed vegan diet, see The Exam Room episode of May 5, 2022: www.pcrm.org/news/exam-room-podcast/vegan-diet-improved-crippling-rheumatoid-arthritis-pain-ali-digiacomo-exam. I know few of us want to hear the news that animal products are harmful to our health. Nearly all of us, after all, were raised to eat them. (Certainly I was-and did for five decades.) But the research is very compelling. If you’re interested in learning more about the research, you might have a look at some of the many short videos on animal products and health by Dr. Michael Greger and his team at NutritionFacts.org. For a more in-depth look, you might consider the (free) full-length documentary Forks Over Knives: www.forksoverknives.com/the-film/. And of course there are a lot of books on the topic. For a list, see "Sources on Diet" at the end of my book The Oldest Cure in the World. Best of luck with your new diagnosis. I hope you find a path that lessens or perhaps even eliminates your RA.
I defied my rheumatologist and treated my gout myself without drugs 3 years ago, mainly by fasting. My gout disappeared! No side effects, except that I became more attractive, which is not all good, you can ask my wife. I believe the things said in this video.
Many thanks for your comments. So glad to hear you got rid of your gout-and many congrats on keeping it away since then! Re your other comment, about doctors, I hear you. I think, though, that most conventional doctors (though by no means all) do care about their patients, often deeply. But you’re right that with little money to be made from fasting (or dietary change), there’s little incentive for them to prescribe it. An equally huge problem is that their training so steeply indoctrinates them in pharmacology, in invasive procedures, and in the belief that *they* must heal the body, they simply can’t hear that the body can often heal itself simply through rest, fasting, and/or proper nutrition. And it’s a threatening message. After all, if the body can frequently heal itself, what are they there for? Medical schools certainly don’t want to tell their students that. And the corporations that run hospitals and clinics don’t want to hear it either. Because of the indoctrination, it’s the rare doctor who is open-minded enough to look dispassionately at the evidence behind such “radical” ideas like self-healing through fasting, and rarer still the doctor who can think critically about their own profession. Conventional medicine has so very much to learn-and shows so very little interest in learning it any time soon, alas.
The control group had a bad diet of carbohydrates and fructose in processed foods. This for sure will acerbate RA. The fasting group had a heathier diet with less carbs and sugar.
If you’re referring to the 1991 study in The Lancet by Kjeldsen-Kragh et al., your statements are not quite correct on a couple of counts. It’s true that eating processed foods didn’t help the control group. (Neither did eating meat, dairy, and eggs, which are pathogenic.) It’s not true, though, that all carbs and fructose are harmful. *Refined* carbs and *refined* fructose are harmful. *Unrefined* carbs and fructose in whole foods are healthy. On your comment that the experimental group (the fasting group) ate fewer carbs, the truth is exactly the opposite. The fasting group ate many more carbs after their fasts. Because they ate first a vegan diet and then a vegetarian diet, they were eating a lot of plants, which are composed overwhelmingly of carbs. Those carbs were mostly *unrefined* carbs, not the *refined* carbs that are in processed foods. We know from many, many studies that unrefined carbs from whole vegetables and fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and seeds protect against various diseases, while unrefined carbs like white flour and sugar cause disease. And the unrefined carbs usually come packaged with saturated fat, salt, and the other unhealthy ingredients that are abundant in processed foods. The key point here is that the experimental group maintained their improvements after their fasts by eating *more* carbs, by making sure few of those carbs were refined, and by minimizing the animal products and processed foods in their diet.
Hi doctor Thanks for your valuable informations My question is …how many days should be fasting before I start to feel the result I have been fasting for 14 days rheumatoid arthritis and I haven’t seen any changes
I’m not a doctor, so I unfortunately can’t advise you on your specific case. As a journalist, I can tell you that no fasting doctor I know would recommend you fast on your own for 14+ days. Extended fasting can become unsafe if not properly monitored by a medical professional, and that’s especially true for people with health disorders. All the fasting doctors I respect would encourage you to break your fast, slowly refeed on unprocessed plants, stick to a plant-based diet, and if you want to fast again, do so under the supervision of a doctor trained in fasting. Sorry that's not what you were looking for, but people have died from long, unsupervised fasts. Safety first.
Its not surprising in a starvation condition every part of body function good and bad is going to decline. The important issue is how long did the arthritis decrease last? I take tremfya for psoriatic arthritis and it works great? Starting 3 days fast tomorrow for detox cleanup but don’t anticipate miraculous cures.
As I say in the video, the fast averaged roughly a week, the vegan and vegetarian diet lasted the rest of the year, and the improvements were maintained throughout that study period, so ~51 weeks. Re your statement "in a starvation condition every part of body function good and bad is going to decline": the research shows that fasting generates a more complicated physiological response than that. Some biomarkers decrease, while others increase.
Can you brush your teeth when fasting, or could that break the fast ? Also, can you exercise during fasting, i don't mean hard, but some medium bodyweight exercise ? Could a prolonged water fast help with knee pain caused by running, damaged cartilage on the patella and the femoral groove ?
Fasting doctors generally recommend brushing teeth without toothpaste while doing a water-only fast. Whether to exercise during fasting is a complicated question, without solid data to say for sure. I discuss what we know about it (not a lot) in my book. If a portion of your knee pain is the result of something that fasting can help relieve-for instance, fasting typically decreases inflammation and sometimes edema-then fasting could conceivably help somewhat. But fasting is not going to fix damaged connective tissue. At least, we have no evidence to say fasting can repair torn cartilage, tendons, or ligaments, and I’d certainly be dubious of any claims that fasting can make such orthopedic repairs.
During fasting we can brush , we should not do heavy exercise as u will consume energy in exercise , for long fastings ..check sodium and potassium levels ..if it drops ...u may need to take coconut water or some electrolyte ..powder ...
I haven’t seen such a study, but I think we could make some intelligent hypotheses about how it would turn out. We know, for example, that unprocessed meat is healthier than processed meat, so compared to the standard Western diet, which has plenty of processed meat, a diet with unprocessed meat might do a little better for diseases like RA. But even unprocessed meat can cause a host of diseases and worsen a wide range of risk factors for other diseases, whereas unprocessed plants generally do not. So for RA (and just about any other disease) we’d expect a diet of unprocessed plants to outperform a diet with a substantial amount of unprocessed meat.
Fasting has shown great promise for retinopathy. Do a web search for fasting and retinopathy, and you can see, for example, that fasting has halted diabetic retinopathy in mice and has also prevented it in mice with type 2 diabetes: - www.reviewofoptometry.com/article/intermittent-fasting-halts-diabetic-retinopathy-in-mice - iovs.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2557911 - easd-elearning.org/could-fasting-help-prevent-and-treat-diabetic-retinopathy/ I’m not aware of any good human studies yet, so we can’t say fasting will do the same for people with retinopathy. But here’s an overview of the state of the science, with some speculation on why fasting might work for humans with the disease: - www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9171076/ There’s also another way to look at this. Most retinopathy, if my hazy memory is correct, is diabetic retinopathy. That is, the real cause of the eye problem is diabetes; retinopathy is just the damage wrought by the diabetes. As I discuss in my book, we’ve known for a century that various forms of prolonged fasting-which for people with a disease should only be done under the supervision of a doctor trained in fasting-can reverse and usually completely eliminate type 2 diabetes. So for most retinopathy sufferers, the wise move would be to get rid of the root cause of their eye trouble, which is the underlying diabetes, and see if that helps with the retinopathy as well. Even if it doesn’t, by getting rid of the diabetes, those patients will be spared many insulin injections and doctor’s visits, to say nothing of the strong possibility of kidney damage, dialysis, amputations, and many other woes, including early death. Type 2 diabetics should also know that fasting isn’t the only way to eliminate their diabetes, whose cause appears to be not (as is commonly believed) too much sugar but too much saturated fat and cholesterol, chiefly from animal products and oils. The sugar just makes diabetes worse once the fast and cholesterol have given them the diabetes. Researchers like Dr. Neal Barnard have shown for decades now that switching type 2 diabetics to a low-fat vegan diet that’s free of oils, cholesterol (cholesterol comes only from animal products), and heavily processed foods consistently reverses and even eliminates the disease. Fasting is quicker at reversing diabetes than diet, but even after fasting, patients need to eat this kind of diet to maintain their reversal, so why not make the switch anyway, whether one fasts or no? For information on reversing type 2 diabetes with diet and for support on how to make the switch to such a diet, see Barnard’s group, PCRM: www.pcrm.org/health-topics/diabetes And here’s a TED talk Barnard gave on the topic a decade ago. The science has advanced, but the basics are the same: www.pcrm.org/health-topics/diabetes The same is true of Barnard’s book, published in 2006 or so: Dr. Neal Barnard’s Program for Reversing Diabetes. The science has advanced, but the book’s recommendations are still sound. It’s not just Barnard, by the way who advocates this approach. I’m just pointing you to him because he’s a leading researcher and practitioner in the field, and I don’t want to bog you down with a dozen other doctors and researchers. But you can find them with a web search. For a good overview of why an oil-free, whole-plant diet is so healthy generally-not just for diabetes but for a whole bunch of diseases, including leading killers like cardiovascular disease and cancer-see the documentary Forks Over Knives, which you can watch for free at their website: www.forksoverknives.com/the-film/. They ask for your email, but they’re a reputable group and just want to send you recipes and such. Hope that’s helpful.
I’ve not looked at the specifics of her protocol, but the general principles behind it (i.e. that animal products and highly processed foods cause disease and early death, and that replacing those things with minimally processed plants can often reverse and sometimes even eliminate a wide range of disease) are backed by extremely good research. I certainly agree that we’d all be healthier if we ate a diet composed of nothing but minimally processed plants. I don’t know whether the particular plants or preparation (a lot of green smoothies, I’m told) that Goldner recommends are in fact better than other plants for certain diseases such as lupus. But I have heard multiple anecdotes of very diseased people who have tried her protocol and reported substantial improvement. My mother is one. She has an pretty drastic autoimmune disease called giant cell arteritis, and she tells me she has improved markedly on Goldner’s diet. Her lab work corroborates her subjective impression and has even caused her doctors to ask what in the heck she’s been doing to get such good results. So Goldner’s protocol seems at the very least quite promising.
Does anyone encounter uric acid spike when do a 16:8 fasting? How you guys prevent this when doing fast. For me when i fast , next couple days i felt my joint start to pain. I've already stopped eating most of the meat product except lean chicken meat and alot of cooked vege and now I blend vege juice. Felt like so far just 2 months . The RA still come and go
I did keto and 18-20/4-6 intermitent fasts daily for around 7 months. My blood didn't show uric acid spikes, but what I did notice - I did sometimes get small RA pain in one of my hands (nothing major or very annoying). Although after I stopped keto + IF I did notice that when I try to do keto + IF my light RA pain is present at the start (around up to 2 weeks) and after that it mostly disappears. I tried 72 fast once, was interesting experience. Now I did try 48 hour fast when I had RA pain, and I must say it did help to get rid of it. I think I'll try some alternate day fasts, or introduce longer fasts of 40-48 hours once a week or few weeks. I try to avoid wheat products, sugary drinks and try to limit my carb intake in total, that helps with the pain really well. As I noticed from other videos, comments and information from doctors - we just have to live it up with the disease and just to know what we should avoid and what works well for us.
Reading your book now. Didn’t care for your TRUMP innuendo, but do enjoy the content on fasting. Have been well aware of True North for a very long time. Have used fasting for pain management for decades.
Quite possibly. On the one hand, there are no studies (at least, I’m not aware of any) about the effect of fasting on polymyalgia rheumatica (PR). On the other hand, the mechanisms and symptoms of PR seem similar to the mechanisms and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), so what works for RA might well work for PR. Also, PR is believed to be an autoimmune disease and is definitely an inflammatory disease, and fasting has repeatedly been proven effective against both those sorts of diseases. Finally, there is a little anecdotal evidence, an individual story or two, of people whose PR lessened or disappeared when they did an extended fast. See the short CZcams video “Polymyalgia Rheumatica Gone After Water-Fasting!” . It’s from an interview of a lawyer who says his PR disappeared during a 10-day fast under the supervision of The Fasting Escape. The Fasting Escape is run by Dr. Nathan Gershfeld, one of only a few doctors who will supervise fasters remotely. The lawyer says in the video that it’s been nearly five years since his therapeutic fast, and he’s still free of PR. All in all, it seems quite promising.
I got Covid last year and didn’t eat for few days, except some gingerale and few crackers, then the inflammation of my hands was completely gone , no more RH then came back with eating again. I kind of think our food is poisonous;) This is so ironic cause I was fasting today and now is 5:30 pm , eating ground beef 😮 I’m going to go vegan cause dairy makes me sicker but ai like fish also I am not sure how to balance my vegetarian diet when grains and chickpeas and beans are also not that good! I can’t eat chickpeas that’s for sure . There is no help just pushing drugs ,
Unfortunately, yes, the food most people eat causes disease. Many fasting doctors, noticing what you noticed (that when you take the food away, the disease often goes away), have correctly concluded that our food is the source of a great many of our diseases. What those doctors found over the years is that when they put their fasters on a diet of minimally processed plants, the improvements they achieved during their fasts didn’t go away. We now have enough research to say without doubt that animal foods and highly processed foods, though they can sustain us in the short and mid-term, cause disease over the long term. Whole plants, by contrast, protect us from disease. You say that “grains and chickpeas and beans are also not that good.” If you mean they don’t taste good, that’s of course a personal preference. If you mean they’re not healthy, nothing could be further from the truth. Whole grains and legumes (like chickpeas and beans) are among the healthiest foods on the planet. Good luck with the vegan diet.
There have been anecdotal reports over the years that fasting can reverse sinusitis, also reports (like this one: www.healthpromoting.com/case-studies/testimonials/chick-lewis-expected-and-unexpected-benefits-water-only-fasting) in which people say fasting cleared their gunked-up sinuses. But I’ve seen no published peer-reviewed studies to shed light on the question. We do know beyond doubt that fasting is broadly anti-inflammatory, so it would make since that fasting could reverse an inflammatory condition like sinusitis. Unfortunately, we just have no data to say if, how often, or in what circumstances that might in fact be true.
If you’re asking what kind of broth was used in the rheumatoid arthritis study published in The Lancet, the researchers said only that it was a vegetable broth and that the fasters took between 190 and 300 calories of it a day. At fasting clinics, such broths are typically made of vegetables like carrots, potatoes, leeks, and onions. See, for example, this simple recipe from the Buchinger Wilhelmi Clinic in Germany: facebook.com/Buchinger.Wilhelmi.Bodensee/photos/a.1546189639001810/2952827188338041/.
![4 Common Foods that Make Rheumatoid Arthritis Worse [AVOID THIS]: Gut Health Expert](/img/n.gif)
I almost think many doctors don't really care for the patients more than keeping the status quo. There is no monetary profit from promoting fasting for pharma companies.
Body has internal energy ...which can cure body internal problems .....if we eat 3 times or more ..this energy is used in digesting the food ...,if we don't eat ..thus the energy gets saved and used in clearing our problems ..this happens in fasting ...
No, the rheumatologist would probably gasp in horror at the mention of dietary changes and fasting 🤬 methotrexate!! It horrified me too!!!
I am glad that I came across this video. I have been diagnosed with seronegative rheumatoid Arthritis. I never had idea about this chronic condition. I did ask my Rheumatologist what food should be avoided but he said I can eat anything. Thanks for this video, we have more clarity now.
Sorry about your diagnosis, but glad you found the video helpful. Sadly, most doctors receive almost no training in nutrition, and your rheumatologist’s advice was the ignorant norm. Contrary to what he told you, there is mounting evidence that poor nutrition (animal products, processed foods) can contribute to or cause RA and that a diet of minimally processed plants can help prevent and/or reverse RA. You might be interested in the following discussion on the Exam Room podcast with a researcher in the field: www.pcrm.org/news/exam-room-podcast/promising-new-research-rheumatoid-arthritis-and-plant-based-diets. Best of luck!
Thanks Steve. This information is surely helpful and I hope the awareness regarding the side effects of medicine and benefits of nutrition increase more. What you're doing is helping others 😊
@@jeebikasinha7000 😀
Thank you so much for putting this out there. The medical Drs never cease to shock me in their blatant refusal to look at any such research no matter how much their patients suffer and Iv had cause to become a natural healer over the past 15 years and now once again, am healing myself, this time of rheumatoid arthritis
Just received your book "The Oldest Cure in the World" - looking forward to reading it. I interned and did a residency with True North Health Center. Thank you for your work.
Many thanks. Hope you enjoy the read. If you feel up to it, I'd be interested in what you think of the book when you've had time to give it a read. You can find my email on the Contact page of my website, SteveHendricks.org.
Thank you!
My pleasure.
I like books written by journalists. The research their topics well. I have gone into Steve Hendricks website and will also read his other books. Well done, Steve.
Thanks much!
Thank you.
My pleasure. Cheers.
Excellent video. I will read the book
Thanks. Enjoy!
I think you will enjoy talking to Clint Paddison from rheumatoid solutions.
Agreed. I don't know all the specifics of Paddison's program, but his basic idea that a minimally processed diet of plants can, in many cases, reverse RA is sound.
What a fantastic video! Thank you so much!
Glad you found it helpful.
I want to fast but I’m already thin.
Thanks. I looked for the list of fasting clinics on the website but could not find any list.
About halfway through the Prolonged Fasting section, you'll find the list under the question "How do I find a clinic that will supervise a fast?" It's a very short list, as there are very few fasting clinics.
Hi! Is it possible to get a link to the Lancet paper please? I would love to see the details, especially the new maintenance diets after the fasts. I wonder what gave them the idea that vegan followed by vegetarian diet would be needed. Thank you for your presentation.
The Lancet paper is here, though the full text may be paywalled: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1681264/.
What gave researchers the idea to try vegan and vegetarian diets after the fast? Three-quarters of a century of experience by fasting doctors who found that when their patients ate more plants and fewer animal products, they were healthier. By now, the science on this is clear as can be: animal products and highly processed foods may sustain us in the short run but cause disease in the long run, whereas minimally processed plants protect against disease.
@@stevehendricks1634 Thank you! I just got your got your book today too.
What kind of fast pls how to do it
How to buy this book ?
How to do fasting
Great video! Do you have any recommended guides on how to fast for RA?
Glad you found the video useful. Fasting doctors and scientists uniformly say (and I think they're right) that if you have a disease (like RA) or if you are taking medications, you should do a prolonged fast only under the guidance of a medical professional who's experienced in supervising fasts. During fasts of multiple days or weeks, the body can struggle a bit, and that's especially true of the diseased or medicated body. It's much safer to have a doctor on hand who can determine whether your struggles are a normal part of fasting or, instead, signs of danger that call for breaking the fast. On the FAQ page of my website, you can find a short list of clinics that supervise fasts either in person or remotely: www.stevehendricks.org/fasting-faq. Search for the question "How do I find a clinic that will supervise a fast?"
Enjoyed this. From my research…this seems to be the way to go for my bodily inflammation.
@@pamelacooley6457 Glad you found the video useful. Best of luck with the inflammation.
Hi Steve, I am just in the process of my Sero negative RA diagnosis. I have not started any medications yet but may be in a month I have to start my medications. I am really concerned if I should avoid medicines and start plant based diet with fasting.Since I am a practicing muslim so We fast for 30 days in a year however during the night time we eat mostly non vegan diet. This year our fasting period is going to start from mid march to mid april do you suggesst me avoiding medication and first practice fasting with vegan diet and see the results?
Thanks for your note, Sobi. Alas, as I’m not a doctor, I can’t give advice on your specific case. What I do, as a reporter, is report what fasting doctors and fasting scientists say about condition X or Y in general. To apply such generalities to your own case and to answer questions about medications and so on, you’d want to speak with a doctor experienced in fasting. You can find a short list of fasting doctors on the FAQ page of my website: www.stevehendricks.org/fasting-faq.
As for a minimally processed vegan diet (sometimes called a whole-plant diet), the science is overwhelmingly clear that there are virtually no drawbacks and a vast array of gains to be had from changing to such a diet, whether you have a disease like RA or not. We would all be healthier, as would our planet and of course the animals, if we ate that way. Note that I’m talking about a *minimally processed* or *whole-plant* vegan diet. Most vegan diets are full of what amounts to vegan junk food, with few benefits to health. Avoid those. The section “Sources on Diet” at the back of my book The Oldest Cure in the World lists resources to help you learn more about the science behind healthy vegan diets and about how to make the switch to such a diet.
Having said all that, yes, if you made the switch to a whole-plant diet, it’s possible you either wouldn’t need medication for your RA or your need would be less acute. Most doctors familiar with the benefits of whole-plant diets almost always counsel their RA patients to go on such a diet. Their recommendations are based on their own clinical observations (they believe they’ve witnessed their RA patients improving when eating healthy vegan diets) and on studies like the ones discussed on these two webpages:
- www.pcrm.org/news/news-releases/vegan-diet-eases-arthritis-pain-finds-new-study
- www.pcrm.org/news/news-releases/doctors-group-says-plant-based-diet-could-be-prescription-arthritis-pain
A few thoughts on Ramadan . . . There’s a growing body of research about the effects of fasting during Ramadan on health. Unfortunately, the health benefits appear (to my eyes anyway) to be mostly pretty small. I think that’s likely because whatever gains in health you get by fasting during the day are largely wiped out by the eating at night. Our bodies simply weren’t made to be digesting and processing food late in the day, certainly not in the quantities that many Ramadan fasters consume at night. (See my video “The Science of When to Eat Each Day”: czcams.com/video/HU6M9irrtqI/video.html.) There are also some concerns about the dry fasting during Ramadan, i.e. fasting without water, which may be less good for health that fasting on water.
None of that is to say don’t fast during Ramadan. If it’s important to you culturally to observe Ramadan, go for it. Certainly there seems to be very little evidence that Ramadan fasting harms health. Just don’t expect great health benefits.
You may be interested in a tip I have heard from meal-timing scientists on how to potentially make a Ramadan fast healthier. It’s simply this: 1. Eat more of your day’s calories at the morning meal, when our bodies are better equipped to digest food and process nutrients. 2. Keep the evening meal light, and finish it as early as possible-don’t linger for hours over it.
Best of luck.
@@stevehendricks1634 Many thanks for the great insights. I appreciate you took the time to respond to my queries. I will definitely try to learn and understand more about the RA, diet impacts and effective fasting tips.
I have a rheumatoid arthritis and I try everything, the only thing which works for is carnivore diet. I suggest you us you try it In Shaa Allah
Have you started any medication?
Do many of these diseases involve lymphatic buildup and does fasting then help to drain the lymph glands?
Enlarged lymph nodes are common in RA, but I'm not aware of any science showing that the mechanism by which RA patients get better when they fast (and eat a healthier diet) is lymphatic drainage.
I’m wondering why the experiments will go far enough on one side to implement a vegan diet but on the other - standard western diet or Mediterranean diet. Why not the vegan equivalent: Carnivore? I’m curious. I’m watching this video as a newly diagnosed patient. I’m checking out my options and being proactive. I just can’t help but notice what’s not being discussed amongst what IS being discussed.
And fasting is life!!!
Thanks for asking. The studies discussed in the video were conducted between the late 1970s and early 1990s, well before the carnivore diet reached its current popularity. But I doubt many scientists today would even consider the kind of study you’re suggesting-that is, one looking at the efficacy of the carnivore diet to reverse disease. That’s because we have an overwhelming amount of research showing consistently and conclusively that meat (like other animal products) is generally pathogenic, i.e. disease-causing. Plants, meanwhile, generally have the opposite effect: they protect against disease.
A few studies have found this to be the case specifically for rheumatoid arthritis. See, for example, this news release about a 2022 study: www.pcrm.org/news/news-releases/vegan-diet-eases-arthritis-pain-finds-new-study.
The full study is here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/15598276221081819?journalCode=ajla.
For a podcast discussion of the study and of how one RA sufferer reversed her RA through a minimally processed vegan diet, see The Exam Room episode of May 5, 2022: www.pcrm.org/news/exam-room-podcast/vegan-diet-improved-crippling-rheumatoid-arthritis-pain-ali-digiacomo-exam.
I know few of us want to hear the news that animal products are harmful to our health. Nearly all of us, after all, were raised to eat them. (Certainly I was-and did for five decades.) But the research is very compelling. If you’re interested in learning more about the research, you might have a look at some of the many short videos on animal products and health by Dr. Michael Greger and his team at NutritionFacts.org. For a more in-depth look, you might consider the (free) full-length documentary Forks Over Knives: www.forksoverknives.com/the-film/. And of course there are a lot of books on the topic. For a list, see "Sources on Diet" at the end of my book The Oldest Cure in the World.
Best of luck with your new diagnosis. I hope you find a path that lessens or perhaps even eliminates your RA.
I defied my rheumatologist and treated my gout myself without drugs 3 years ago, mainly by fasting. My gout disappeared! No side effects, except that I became more attractive, which is not all good, you can ask my wife.
I believe the things said in this video.
Many thanks for your comments. So glad to hear you got rid of your gout-and many congrats on keeping it away since then!
Re your other comment, about doctors, I hear you. I think, though, that most conventional doctors (though by no means all) do care about their patients, often deeply. But you’re right that with little money to be made from fasting (or dietary change), there’s little incentive for them to prescribe it. An equally huge problem is that their training so steeply indoctrinates them in pharmacology, in invasive procedures, and in the belief that *they* must heal the body, they simply can’t hear that the body can often heal itself simply through rest, fasting, and/or proper nutrition. And it’s a threatening message. After all, if the body can frequently heal itself, what are they there for? Medical schools certainly don’t want to tell their students that. And the corporations that run hospitals and clinics don’t want to hear it either.
Because of the indoctrination, it’s the rare doctor who is open-minded enough to look dispassionately at the evidence behind such “radical” ideas like self-healing through fasting, and rarer still the doctor who can think critically about their own profession. Conventional medicine has so very much to learn-and shows so very little interest in learning it any time soon, alas.
What kind of fast did u do
Like what did you do ? How long did you fast for ?
The control group had a bad diet of carbohydrates and fructose in processed foods. This for sure will acerbate RA. The fasting group had a heathier diet with less carbs and sugar.
If you’re referring to the 1991 study in The Lancet by Kjeldsen-Kragh et al., your statements are not quite correct on a couple of counts. It’s true that eating processed foods didn’t help the control group. (Neither did eating meat, dairy, and eggs, which are pathogenic.) It’s not true, though, that all carbs and fructose are harmful. *Refined* carbs and *refined* fructose are harmful. *Unrefined* carbs and fructose in whole foods are healthy.
On your comment that the experimental group (the fasting group) ate fewer carbs, the truth is exactly the opposite. The fasting group ate many more carbs after their fasts. Because they ate first a vegan diet and then a vegetarian diet, they were eating a lot of plants, which are composed overwhelmingly of carbs. Those carbs were mostly *unrefined* carbs, not the *refined* carbs that are in processed foods. We know from many, many studies that unrefined carbs from whole vegetables and fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and seeds protect against various diseases, while unrefined carbs like white flour and sugar cause disease. And the unrefined carbs usually come packaged with saturated fat, salt, and the other unhealthy ingredients that are abundant in processed foods. The key point here is that the experimental group maintained their improvements after their fasts by eating *more* carbs, by making sure few of those carbs were refined, and by minimizing the animal products and processed foods in their diet.
Hi doctor
Thanks for your valuable informations
My question is …how many days should be fasting before I start to feel the result
I have been fasting for 14 days rheumatoid arthritis and I haven’t seen any changes
I’m not a doctor, so I unfortunately can’t advise you on your specific case. As a journalist, I can tell you that no fasting doctor I know would recommend you fast on your own for 14+ days. Extended fasting can become unsafe if not properly monitored by a medical professional, and that’s especially true for people with health disorders. All the fasting doctors I respect would encourage you to break your fast, slowly refeed on unprocessed plants, stick to a plant-based diet, and if you want to fast again, do so under the supervision of a doctor trained in fasting. Sorry that's not what you were looking for, but people have died from long, unsupervised fasts. Safety first.
Its not surprising in a starvation condition every part of body function good and bad is going to decline. The important issue is how long did the arthritis decrease last? I take tremfya for psoriatic arthritis and it works great? Starting 3 days fast tomorrow for detox cleanup but don’t anticipate miraculous cures.
As I say in the video, the fast averaged roughly a week, the vegan and vegetarian diet lasted the rest of the year, and the improvements were maintained throughout that study period, so ~51 weeks. Re your statement "in a starvation condition every part of body function good and bad is going to decline": the research shows that fasting generates a more complicated physiological response than that. Some biomarkers decrease, while others increase.
@@stevehendricks1634 thanks for clarification, might be worth a try. Thanks
Can you brush your teeth when fasting, or could that break the fast ?
Also, can you exercise during fasting, i don't mean hard, but some medium bodyweight exercise ?
Could a prolonged water fast help with knee pain caused by running, damaged cartilage on the patella and the femoral groove ?
Fasting doctors generally recommend brushing teeth without toothpaste while doing a water-only fast. Whether to exercise during fasting is a complicated question, without solid data to say for sure. I discuss what we know about it (not a lot) in my book. If a portion of your knee pain is the result of something that fasting can help relieve-for instance, fasting typically decreases inflammation and sometimes edema-then fasting could conceivably help somewhat. But fasting is not going to fix damaged connective tissue. At least, we have no evidence to say fasting can repair torn cartilage, tendons, or ligaments, and I’d certainly be dubious of any claims that fasting can make such orthopedic repairs.
During fasting we can brush , we should not do heavy exercise as u will consume energy in exercise , for long fastings ..check sodium and potassium levels ..if it drops ...u may need to take coconut water or some electrolyte ..powder ...
im curious to see how a whole foods diet of unprocessed meat and vegetables compares to a vegetarian diet or vegan
I haven’t seen such a study, but I think we could make some intelligent hypotheses about how it would turn out. We know, for example, that unprocessed meat is healthier than processed meat, so compared to the standard Western diet, which has plenty of processed meat, a diet with unprocessed meat might do a little better for diseases like RA. But even unprocessed meat can cause a host of diseases and worsen a wide range of risk factors for other diseases, whereas unprocessed plants generally do not. So for RA (and just about any other disease) we’d expect a diet of unprocessed plants to outperform a diet with a substantial amount of unprocessed meat.
How about research on fasting effects on retinopathy
Fasting has shown great promise for retinopathy. Do a web search for fasting and retinopathy, and you can see, for example, that fasting has halted diabetic retinopathy in mice and has also prevented it in mice with type 2 diabetes:
- www.reviewofoptometry.com/article/intermittent-fasting-halts-diabetic-retinopathy-in-mice
- iovs.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2557911
- easd-elearning.org/could-fasting-help-prevent-and-treat-diabetic-retinopathy/
I’m not aware of any good human studies yet, so we can’t say fasting will do the same for people with retinopathy. But here’s an overview of the state of the science, with some speculation on why fasting might work for humans with the disease:
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9171076/
There’s also another way to look at this. Most retinopathy, if my hazy memory is correct, is diabetic retinopathy. That is, the real cause of the eye problem is diabetes; retinopathy is just the damage wrought by the diabetes. As I discuss in my book, we’ve known for a century that various forms of prolonged fasting-which for people with a disease should only be done under the supervision of a doctor trained in fasting-can reverse and usually completely eliminate type 2 diabetes. So for most retinopathy sufferers, the wise move would be to get rid of the root cause of their eye trouble, which is the underlying diabetes, and see if that helps with the retinopathy as well. Even if it doesn’t, by getting rid of the diabetes, those patients will be spared many insulin injections and doctor’s visits, to say nothing of the strong possibility of kidney damage, dialysis, amputations, and many other woes, including early death.
Type 2 diabetics should also know that fasting isn’t the only way to eliminate their diabetes, whose cause appears to be not (as is commonly believed) too much sugar but too much saturated fat and cholesterol, chiefly from animal products and oils. The sugar just makes diabetes worse once the fast and cholesterol have given them the diabetes. Researchers like Dr. Neal Barnard have shown for decades now that switching type 2 diabetics to a low-fat vegan diet that’s free of oils, cholesterol (cholesterol comes only from animal products), and heavily processed foods consistently reverses and even eliminates the disease. Fasting is quicker at reversing diabetes than diet, but even after fasting, patients need to eat this kind of diet to maintain their reversal, so why not make the switch anyway, whether one fasts or no?
For information on reversing type 2 diabetes with diet and for support on how to make the switch to such a diet, see Barnard’s group, PCRM: www.pcrm.org/health-topics/diabetes
And here’s a TED talk Barnard gave on the topic a decade ago. The science has advanced, but the basics are the same: www.pcrm.org/health-topics/diabetes
The same is true of Barnard’s book, published in 2006 or so: Dr. Neal Barnard’s Program for Reversing Diabetes. The science has advanced, but the book’s recommendations are still sound.
It’s not just Barnard, by the way who advocates this approach. I’m just pointing you to him because he’s a leading researcher and practitioner in the field, and I don’t want to bog you down with a dozen other doctors and researchers. But you can find them with a web search.
For a good overview of why an oil-free, whole-plant diet is so healthy generally-not just for diabetes but for a whole bunch of diseases, including leading killers like cardiovascular disease and cancer-see the documentary Forks Over Knives, which you can watch for free at their website: www.forksoverknives.com/the-film/. They ask for your email, but they’re a reputable group and just want to send you recipes and such.
Hope that’s helpful.
@@stevehendricks1634
Thanks for the link
What kind of fasting is done
Pls check satvic movement you tube channel
What do you think of Dr. Brooke Goldner’s Hypernutrition protocol for lupus and all types of disease reversal?
I’ve not looked at the specifics of her protocol, but the general principles behind it (i.e. that animal products and highly processed foods cause disease and early death, and that replacing those things with minimally processed plants can often reverse and sometimes even eliminate a wide range of disease) are backed by extremely good research. I certainly agree that we’d all be healthier if we ate a diet composed of nothing but minimally processed plants. I don’t know whether the particular plants or preparation (a lot of green smoothies, I’m told) that Goldner recommends are in fact better than other plants for certain diseases such as lupus. But I have heard multiple anecdotes of very diseased people who have tried her protocol and reported substantial improvement. My mother is one. She has an pretty drastic autoimmune disease called giant cell arteritis, and she tells me she has improved markedly on Goldner’s diet. Her lab work corroborates her subjective impression and has even caused her doctors to ask what in the heck she’s been doing to get such good results. So Goldner’s protocol seems at the very least quite promising.
Does anyone encounter uric acid spike when do a 16:8 fasting? How you guys prevent this when doing fast.
For me when i fast , next couple days i felt my joint start to pain. I've already stopped eating most of the meat product except lean chicken meat and alot of cooked vege and now I blend vege juice.
Felt like so far just 2 months . The RA still come and go
I did keto and 18-20/4-6 intermitent fasts daily for around 7 months. My blood didn't show uric acid spikes, but what I did notice - I did sometimes get small RA pain in one of my hands (nothing major or very annoying). Although after I stopped keto + IF I did notice that when I try to do keto + IF my light RA pain is present at the start (around up to 2 weeks) and after that it mostly disappears. I tried 72 fast once, was interesting experience. Now I did try 48 hour fast when I had RA pain, and I must say it did help to get rid of it. I think I'll try some alternate day fasts, or introduce longer fasts of 40-48 hours once a week or few weeks. I try to avoid wheat products, sugary drinks and try to limit my carb intake in total, that helps with the pain really well. As I noticed from other videos, comments and information from doctors - we just have to live it up with the disease and just to know what we should avoid and what works well for us.
Reading your book now. Didn’t care for your TRUMP innuendo, but do enjoy the content on fasting. Have been well aware of True North for a very long time. Have used fasting for pain management for decades.
Would the same advice hold for dealing with Polymyalgia Rheumatica?
Quite possibly. On the one hand, there are no studies (at least, I’m not aware of any) about the effect of fasting on polymyalgia rheumatica (PR). On the other hand, the mechanisms and symptoms of PR seem similar to the mechanisms and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), so what works for RA might well work for PR. Also, PR is believed to be an autoimmune disease and is definitely an inflammatory disease, and fasting has repeatedly been proven effective against both those sorts of diseases.
Finally, there is a little anecdotal evidence, an individual story or two, of people whose PR lessened or disappeared when they did an extended fast. See the short CZcams video “Polymyalgia Rheumatica Gone After Water-Fasting!” . It’s from an interview of a lawyer who says his PR disappeared during a 10-day fast under the supervision of The Fasting Escape. The Fasting Escape is run by Dr. Nathan Gershfeld, one of only a few doctors who will supervise fasters remotely. The lawyer says in the video that it’s been nearly five years since his therapeutic fast, and he’s still free of PR. All in all, it seems quite promising.
Can you explain the fast? 16/8 ?
The fasting method in the main study I discuss is described approximately 4 minutes into the video.
I got Covid last year and didn’t eat for few days, except some gingerale and few crackers, then the inflammation of my hands was completely gone , no more RH then came back with eating again. I kind of think our food is poisonous;) This is so ironic cause I was fasting today and now is 5:30 pm , eating ground beef 😮 I’m going to go vegan cause dairy makes me sicker but ai like fish also I am not sure how to balance my vegetarian diet when grains and chickpeas and beans are also not that good! I can’t eat chickpeas that’s for sure . There is no help just pushing drugs ,
Unfortunately, yes, the food most people eat causes disease. Many fasting doctors, noticing what you noticed (that when you take the food away, the disease often goes away), have correctly concluded that our food is the source of a great many of our diseases. What those doctors found over the years is that when they put their fasters on a diet of minimally processed plants, the improvements they achieved during their fasts didn’t go away. We now have enough research to say without doubt that animal foods and highly processed foods, though they can sustain us in the short and mid-term, cause disease over the long term. Whole plants, by contrast, protect us from disease.
You say that “grains and chickpeas and beans are also not that good.” If you mean they don’t taste good, that’s of course a personal preference. If you mean they’re not healthy, nothing could be further from the truth. Whole grains and legumes (like chickpeas and beans) are among the healthiest foods on the planet. Good luck with the vegan diet.
What about fasting and sinusitis?
There have been anecdotal reports over the years that fasting can reverse sinusitis, also reports (like this one: www.healthpromoting.com/case-studies/testimonials/chick-lewis-expected-and-unexpected-benefits-water-only-fasting) in which people say fasting cleared their gunked-up sinuses. But I’ve seen no published peer-reviewed studies to shed light on the question. We do know beyond doubt that fasting is broadly anti-inflammatory, so it would make since that fasting could reverse an inflammatory condition like sinusitis. Unfortunately, we just have no data to say if, how often, or in what circumstances that might in fact be true.
@@stevehendricks1634 ok thanks!
@@stevehendricks1634 what if its allergical though?
@@zlotko13 We don't know.
What kind of broth
If you’re asking what kind of broth was used in the rheumatoid arthritis study published in The Lancet, the researchers said only that it was a vegetable broth and that the fasters took between 190 and 300 calories of it a day. At fasting clinics, such broths are typically made of vegetables like carrots, potatoes, leeks, and onions. See, for example, this simple recipe from the Buchinger Wilhelmi Clinic in Germany: facebook.com/Buchinger.Wilhelmi.Bodensee/photos/a.1546189639001810/2952827188338041/.
Some people heal entirely on a carnivore diet.