Top 5 Health Benefits of Fasting

Hey all, Welcome back to my blog. Today’s topic is all about fasting.in this blog I will be sharing the benefits of fasting and how does it impact on body and mind!

In Indian culture, people keep fast, because they consider it as a divine, spiritual act. Its main purpose is to purify the body and mind.

In general terms, fasting means abstaining from foods and drinks (except water) for a certain period of time.

Fasting could vary from 24 -72 hours. It gets rids of toxins and all the waste products from the body.

It has been shown fasting has numerous benefits, not only it impacts the body but also the mind too.

Intermittent fasting is now a day trendy, But I am not going to write about intermittent fasting, rather I will focus on the Indian traditional/yogic way of fasting. First, let’s discuss the health benefits of fasting.

Physical Health Benefits of Fasting

1-Helps to lose weight and Improve metabolism

When you normally keep fast, you don’t eat anything. it means you don’t take any calories and it’s quite natural you will lose some weight.

Research has also shown that short-term fasting helps to improve metabolism.

There is something called neurotransmitter (It’s basically chemicals made by the nerve cells it transmits messages throughout the cell).

Fasting increases neurotransmitters which help to lose weight. It protects the muscle tissue, helps to reduce body fat too.

Summary

Fasting helps to loose weight naturally,It improves the metabolism,helps to reduce body fat naturally by limiting calories intake.

2-Helps to detoxify the body

Detoxification is a buzzword now, health, nutrition, food, healthy eating everything is just incomplete without this detoxification word.

If I say in simple words detoxification is a process of removing waste from the body.

Good detox or cleansing process is nothing to get rid of old and excess accumulated waste over a period of time.

Fasting is a healthy way of detoxifying the body, especially when your fast ritual allows you to consume fruit and water. It helps to gives proper rest to your organs especially to your digestive system and kidney.

Summary

Detoxification is a good way to rid of excess and old waste from you body.you should keep fast in order to detoxify your body,Apart from fasting there are different ways available to cleanse your body.

3-Helps to prevent cancer cells to grow

Every human body has cancer cells inside their body once they get a chance or proper environment they start increasing, cells start multiplying rapidly, normally we call it cancer.

A medical research found normal people who keep fast at least 1 time in a month have a significant effect on the cancerous cell it just doesn’t allow cells to grow or multiply.

Research has been shown, fasting may help to prevent cancer cells to grow. Fasting boost the immune system which is very helpful to fight a cancer cell.

Some research also has found fasting helps to improve people’s response to chemotherapy.

In 2018 one study has done and it found fasting helps to improve people’s lives who undergoing chemotherapy especially in breast and ovarian cancer cases.

It has been found patients who kept fast during their chemotherapy process seen fewer side effects, higher tolerance, and high energy level as compared who did not keep fast.

A case study has done on mice(Animal-based) found, by limiting calories intake is connected with better outcomes with cancer.

summary

Now you can imagine how beneficial fasting is for healthy body.Fasting is natural and effective treatment for cancer patient as per medical studies.It increases effectiveness of chemotherapy too.

4-Good for heart health

Heart-related problem is the primary cause of death around the world as per the medical study. The major risk includes heart-related diseases are cholesterol, blood pressure, weight, insulin.

Some research has found that incorporating fasting into your routine may be especially beneficial when it comes to heart health.

Research shows fasting could improve insulin resistance, may lower cholesterol levels, helps to lose weight, and lower the blood pressure level.

summary

Fasting is associated with lower risk coronary heart related problems,could helps to reduce insulin level,can lower blood pressure,helps to reduce cholesterol level too.

5-Helps to increase growth hormone

First, let me tell you what is growth hormone! Growth hormone is nothing produced by the pituitary gland and is responsible for all the growth-related factors such as body structure, composition, metabolism, cell development, and repair.

A low HGH(Human growth hormone) level may increase your risk of several kinds of diseases, make you gain weight.

several studies found fasting could naturally increase the growth hormone by reducing body fat.

Fasting also helps to control blood sugar and body insulin level which is also very helpful to increase the HGH to a great extent

summary

Studies has found fasting plays a important role when it comes to growth hormone secretion.Human growth hormone is the key hormone responsible for all the necessary development inside the bodies.

Mental Health Benefits of Fasting

Not only fasting is beneficial for physical health but also it plays an important role in mental aspects too.

Studies have shown (Animal-based study)fasting helps to increase memory, alertness, cognitive function.

It has also shown fasting may help to decrease anxiety, could also be very helpful in behavioral issues, and enhances memory power too(Animal-based study).

One study has been conducted on mice, and found fasting helps to improve both brain structure and function.

Fasting is also helpful to prevent inflammation, it could help to protect brain cells.

More studies have to be done to know how fasting affects the brain in human beings.

I personally experienced the day when I keep fast I feel more energetic mentally as well as physically. I feel very light.

As I said before here I will be focusing on the yogic/traditional way of fasting. without further delay let’s get into it and understand the yogic way of fasting.

Traditional/Yogic way of Fasting

If you really want to keep fast, prepare your body by having the right kind of foods or diet. second listen to your body, you don’t need to fast forcefully.

If you are aware enough and listen to your body you will get to know there are some days it comes in every 40 to 48 days your body does not need any food.

But for this you need to be conscious enough, For everybody, it’s not possible to know.

That’s why there is a simple way in every 14 days Ekadasi comes so that day you can keep fast or else you can go for fruits diet.

Just observe your own body, and you will notice that you do not really need to eat on particular days. So don’t force yourself to have food on those particular days.

Fasting these days creates a perfect environment for health, mind, and spiritual growth.

How to do Fasting

There are different kinds of fasting you can go for such as

1-Complete fasting/water-based fasting– Here you can only consume water.

2-Fruit based fasting- Here you can have a fruit-based diet which is considered as light food for the body.

3-Partial fasting-Here you have to restrict certain kinds of foods and drinks. such as animal-based food, avoid tea and coffee

4-Intermittent fasting-New and trendy style of fasting you can fast for few hours to few days. you can go for alternative days fasting or time-restricted fasting.

Conclusion

Health is something that comes from inside not from outside. As per the yogic system, there should be 8 hours of a gap from one meal to the next meal.

Your body and mind work at their best when your stomach is empty not you are hungry. There is a thin thread between hunger and emptiness.

Hunger means your energy level will drop, you will not feel good. you should understand the basic difference between these two.

If you forcefully fast without preparing your body and mind then your health will be damaged.

Thank you.

Happy Fasting. Have a blessed life ahead.😊