Fasting to Reverse Diabetes

Article overview:

• One study found that an intermittent fasting schedule can help reverse type 2 diabetes to the extent that medication is no longer needed.
• Within a month of fasting, participants stopped needing insulin injections to maintain healthy blood sugar levels and lost 10 to 18 percent of their total body weight.
• Jon Barron has been a strong advocate of fasting for many years, and fasting is an integral part of the Baseline of Health program for preventing and even reversing catastrophic diseases.

Fasting for Diabetes

Diabetes is a very common condition in the United States. It is estimated that more than 100 million adults are diabetic or pre-diabetic. To avoid a future full of insulin injections, many people are trying to find non-pharmaceutical ways to deal with diabetes. To this end, there is new hope from research suggesting that fasting could be an effective way to stop diabetes.

The study, conducted at Scarborough Hospital in Ontario, Canada, found that an intermittent fasting schedule can help reverse type 2 diabetes to the extent that medication is no longer needed. These results are based on a study in which three men between the ages of 40 and 67 participated. All of them were diagnosed with diabetes as well as high blood pressure and high cholesterol. A combination of drugs and daily insulin injections was taken to control their blood sugar levels.

The subjects took part in an educational seminar on nutrition training and therapeutic fasting. They were then given a fasting schedule in which two of the men fasted for 24 hours on alternate days and the third man fasted for 24 hours three days a week. These were not total fasts that did not allow eating, but modified fasts designed to maintain a strict calorie count. They were allowed to consume water, tea, coffee and low-calorie broth during the fasting days, and in the evening they ate a very low-calorie dinner.

Fasting reduced insulin injections and weight

Within a month of starting this fasting routine, all three participants stopped needing their insulin injections to maintain healthy blood sugar levels. In fact, one of them reached this milestone in an impressive five days. In addition, one of the volunteers was able to stop three of the four drugs he was taking to treat diabetes, and the other two stopped any drug for diabetes.

Aside from lowering blood sugar levels, the subjects also lost 10 to 18 percent of their total body weight. Undoubtedly, this helped in reversing diabetes, as studies have shown that being overweight is a major risk factor for developing diabetes.

Calorie Reduction & Diabetes

We must of course take the results of this study with a grain of salt as we cannot base too many conclusions on the experience of just three people. Even so, it's not hard to believe that fasting could have such profound health effects. Previous research has shown that fasting has health benefits, including lowering cholesterol, reducing damage in the aging brain, and fighting cancer. Nor is this the first study to find that calorie restriction is beneficial for diabetics. A 2016 study at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota showed that reduced calorie diets are linked to improved insulin sensitivity, which helps reduce the incidence of diabetes.

Another argument in favor of fasting is a 2014 study at the University of Southern California that found that as little as three days of fasting flipped a "regenerative switch" that causes stem cells to make brand new white blood cells that are in the Essentially regenerate the entire immune system. Fasting allows the body to break down damaged cells and rebuild them with healthy cells. But if giving up eating for a full day seems too much for you, the 16/8 diet might be ideal. This includes limiting food consumption to eight hours per day. As soon as this window closes, you can only drink water or calorie-free drinks. In a small study, subjects had significant drops in blood pressure and weight on the 16/8 diet.

Fasting & the baseline of the health program

Jon Barron has been a strong advocate of fasting for many years, and fasting is an integral part of the Baseline of Health program for preventing and even reversing catastrophic diseases. While different forms of fasting can help produce different end results, Jon himself most often uses a vegetable juice that is quickly supplemented with chlorella or spirulina. For more information on Jon's recommended regimen, see Water Fasting and Juice Fasting.

Whether or not you have diabetes, you may want to incorporate fasting into your routine on a weekly or monthly basis. It can be a valuable addition to a healthy lifestyle that helps prevent disease in old age.