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This is the most comprehensive list of the benefits of dry fasting.
The modern world is far different from the ancient world. We have faced or done lots of changes to our lifestyle i.e, clothing, eating and drinking habits.
But one ancient practice we still practice is dry fasting. Why do we practice it still? Are there any health benefits of dry fasting?
The answer is Yes.
There are lots of health benefits of dry fasting or any other methods of fasting. Now the question arises which are the benefits of dry fasting to our health?
Here we will discuss many advantages of dry fasting to our health and fitness.
Table of Contents
1. What is Dry Fasting?
If I tell you in simple words, dry fasting is the complete avoidance of food and water for a particular time window. It is followed by the breaking of fast in a specific manner.
The period of time when someone fasts, is called the elimination phase, and the period of time when someone eats is called the building phase.
Dry fasting is also called absolute fasting or Hebrew fasting.
You might have noticed that when animals are sick or wounded, they go to an isolated place and fast until the body is restored. We humans also have fasting instincts.
But unfortunately, when we fall sick we don’t fast but continue eating foods in a small amount.
Why does your body lose its appetite when you fall sick?
You definitely have observed that whenever we fall sick, our appetite drops. It is because our bodies use their maximum energy in internal works such as digestion and detoxification.
But our immune system requires a lot of energy to heal our body that’s why it drops its appetite.
When we fast, all the vital forces get engaged in curing the disease. It doesn’t mean that fasting gives a new vital force but it means that fasting removes the toxins from the body as they are the real culprits of bad health.
If anyone practices dry fasting from the very beginning stage of the disease, he or she gets more benefits.
2. Types of Dry Fasting
There are two types of dry fasting.
- Soft Dry Fasting
- Hard Dry Fasting
1) Soft Dry Fasting
It allows its practitioner to come in touch with water which could be via washing hands, face, bathing, washing clothes, etc. Beginners can start with soft dry fasting.
2) Hard Dry Fasting
In this type of dry fasting, the individual is not allowed to come in touch with water via bathing, washing clothes, or any other way. You can’t even brush your teeth. When you practice dry fasting, your body becomes like a sponge.
3. Benefits of Dry Fasting
Let’s discuss the 11 benefits of dry fasting that can make you start dry fasting from the very second day.
1) It boosts and protects the cellular immunity
Prolonged dry fasting protects our bodies against immune system damage. It also induces immune system regeneration by shifting stem cells from a dormant state to a state of self-renewal.
When we are in a fasted state, our system tries to save energy by recycling lots of the immune cells that are not needed (especially the damaged ones).
That’s why white blood cell counts drop with prolonged fast. The drop in the white blood cell counts acts as a trigger for stem cell regeneration in the body and your immune system rebuilds itself.
Here you have to understand that after breaking fast WBC counts come back to normal. Studies show that prolonged fasting shuts down the gene called PKA.
This process allows the stem cell regeneration in the body and your immune system rebuilds itself.
This is very important for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Chemotherapy not only destroys unhealthy cells but also destroys healthy ones. It lowers their immunity immensely.
So dry fasting can help them rebuild their immunity which is one of the best benefits of dry fasting.
Go deeper: 6 benefits of fasting for 24 hours
2) It enhances beauty and it is anti-aging
As dry fasting has effects on stem cell production, it can extend life, youth, and vitality by 15 to 20 years.
Dry fasting also has an amazing rejuvenating effect because it forces the body to remove weak and damaged cells that can’t withstand extreme conditions.
Fasting for a longer period can peel off the older skin and generate a new skin layer. It can give a glow to the skin. It can even heal your acne.
3) It heals the inflammation and infections
Inflammation only occurs in the presence of water. If there is no water, there will be no inflammation.
Research shows that an absolute fast for 3-5 days can cure people of life-long allergic reactions and chronic joint pains.
It also helps in healing inflamed, painful, and stiff joints. Dry fasting also purifies the blood and lymph and can clear blood vessels of any inflammation.
As blood gets purified, it can positively affect cholesterol levels which is also one of the benefits of dry fasting.
4) It can help in diabetes
During fasted state, ketones are produced in our bodies, and regeneration of damaged pancreatic cells occurs.
It increases the insulin sensitivity of our bodies. Dry fasting combined with healthy food is one of the most efficient ways to manage or reverse diabetes.
5) It promotes fat loss
This is one of the most praised benefits of dry fasting. Many studies show that dry fasting of three to five days can make you lose 1-3 kg.
This weight loss is due to the combination of water loss, fat loss, and muscle mass loss.
So if you are thin or aiming to build muscles then you should not practice prolonged dry fasting.
However, there are many studies that prove that dry fasting doesn’t reduce muscle mass significantly. It is because dry fasting can increase the production of Human Growth Hormones (HGH).
These growth hormones can build muscle mass in addition to fat loss. So dry fasting is one of the best methods to lose fat.
6) It heals the digestive system
Due to our eating and drinking habits, our stomach has to do lots of work. Dry fasting provides the rest to an overworked stomach.
It removes all the toxins from the body and promotes the production of good bacteria in the guts. These good bacteria can aid digestion.
This gives you an idea of how healing digestion is one of the prominent benefits of dry fasting.
Dry fasting can also help with bloating, indigestion, flatulence, constipation, etc.
If dry fasting is done in a proper way, it can also help you treat more complex digestive disorders like gastritis, peptic ulcers, irritable bowels, etc.
If you feel pain due to a peptic ulcer while dry fasting, you can tackle it with an alternate hot and cold compress.
7) It can prevent cancer
It is IGF -1 (Insulin-like Growth Factor), a growth factor hormone that is associated with aging, tumor progression, and cancer risk.
Dry fasting has the capacity to heal and block the progression of cancer.
Cancerous cells are nothing but our own body cells that are mutated and need carbs as energy to multiply. When we dry fast, we prevent intaking any food so is carbs.
And our body starts using energy obtained from the metabolism of fat cells so cancerous cells are not able to multiply.
During cancer treatment when cancer neither heals nor remains stable, dry fasting is used to break the terrain of the body and confuse the cancer cells by creating extreme environments that only normal and healthy cells can respond quickly.
8) Extremely beneficial to treat autoimmune disease
Helping to treat autoimmune diseases can be considered one of the most important benefits of dry fasting.
Every autoimmune disease starts from the gut. Nowadays, we have made our lifestyle such that we eat and drink continuously and don’t give the digestive system a chance to rest and repair.
This makes the sensitive gut lining disturbed. It causes the slow corrosion of the inside walls of the stomach.
When the wall of the gut lining gets damaged, it allows protein molecules from the food to seep into our bloodstream.
This makes our immune system alert and launches an attack. This is called autoimmunity. As mentioned earlier, dry fasting is extremely beneficial to treat autoimmune diseases.
It is because when we are in a fasted state, the gut lining gets enough time to heal itself. Though dry fasting can help you treat autoimmune diseases don’t do prolonger dry fasting.
It is because it will lead to the accumulation of ketones which need to be eliminated from the body. Dry fasting of 15 hours, three days a week is recommended.
GO DEEP – 6 benefits of fasting for 24 hours
9) It improves the mental ability
While dry fasting, when your cells are finally done with digestion and all the sugar storage is used up, then your body can heal.
It is because after using up all the sugar storage, your body starts burning fat and produces ketones. These ketones produce an alternative fuel to the neurons that boost their energy.
It is because fasting can increase the production of a protein in the brain called the Neurotropic factor. It promotes the growth and connection of neurons and the strengthening of synapses.
So our mental ability gets improved.
By practicing dry fasting regularly, one can experience improved cognition and concentration.
10) Better Self Control
Yes, increasing self-control is one of the benefits of dry fasting.
Buddhists generally do dry fasts in order to increase their self-control and self-discipline.
Dry fasting can increase self-control because when we say ‘no’ to food which is the most basic desire, we can learn to control the body’s desire for anything.
11) It reduces the cravings for sugar and salt
Have you ever thought we have so many cravings for sugar and salt rather than any other?
Toxins which are harmful bacteria in the guts are the main reason behind the cravings for sugar and salt. A toxic body always craves sugar and salt because they are both for which toxins thrive.
When we do dry fasting, these toxins get destroyed and our bodies get cleansed.
And the cleaner body will not demand salt and sugar much.
4. Other benefits of Dry Fasting
- As dry fasting can eliminate the toxins from the body, our sense of smell and taste also increase
- Elimination of toxins can also increase our energy levels.
- Dry fasting also regulates the secretion of leptin and ghrelin ( a hunger hormone) which can result in the regulation of appetite
- It also increases the learning and remembering ability.
Conclusion
Here we have talked about the benefits of dry fasting. We have seen more than 10 benefits of dry fasting.
Friends, the benefits of dry fasting are not new for us. They were all there. It is we who come to know about them later on. Now science is also promoting dry fasting and its benefits.
Let’s have a quick view of the benefits of dry fasting.
- It boosts and protects the cellular immunity
- It enhances the beauty and serves anti-aging effects
- It heals the inflammation and infections
- It helps in diabetes
- Promotes fat loss
- Heals the digestive system
- It can prevent cancer
- Extremely beneficial to treat autoimmune diseases
- Improves the mental ability
- Improves the self-control
- Reduces the cravings for sugar and salt.
Which of the benefits of dry fasting did you like the most? Tell me in the comment box.
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Thanks for reading…!!!
