What is Dry Fasting?
The benefits of dry fasting are almost unbelievable. Dry fasting, also known as total fasting and absolute fasting, is when a person abstains from eating food and drinking any liquid. It is the most aggressive form of fasting. While on a hard dry fast, participants do not drink water, brush their teeth, shower, or wash their hands. While on a soft dry fast, participants brush their teeth and shower to aid in flushing toxins.
Reports of mental clarity, weight loss, and healing have been mentioned by those who have undergone dry fasts. There aren’t any rules for the length of time one undergoes a dry fast. However, there are a few common practices.
Types of dry fasting
- Intermitted dry fasting- where individuals fast for a specified number of hours a day while eating and drinking within that time window. Muslims participate in intermittent dry fasting yearly during the holy month of Ramadan.
- Prolonged dry fasting- where individuals fast for 24 hours straight or longer. Typically one to three full days of fastings.
- Extended dry fasting- where individuals fast for longer than three days at a time in hopes of healing their bodies naturally.
The blog posts on fasting were derived from a free ebook that I prepared for you. This ebook goes into detail about what fasting is, the different types of fasting, how to successfully break your fast, and how to incorporate the Daniel fast to further detox your body! You can find that ebook here.
– Aiyaken Sarai <3
Will you die if you don’t drink water?
Fair question! You may have heard it said that the body can survive weeks without food but that the body can only survive three days without water. Rest assured that many have put this statement to the test and have completed dry fasting for multiple days on end. Did you know that our bodies are fascinating machines that can produce water? Yep! Our bodies create upward of 400ml of water daily through fat oxidation. When our brains sense that we need more hydration it ups its production of water. That’s just ONE of the amazing benefits of dry fasting!
Benefits of dry fasting: Your body will create water for itself!
Here is where it gets a bit sciency but stick with me.
When you’re eating regularly, your body has a lot of fuel in the form of glycogen in the liver and muscles. When you begin to reduce the amount of food you’re ingesting, your body begins to become depleted of that fuel for your cells. This makes your blood thicken, which makes your brain trigger your pituitary gland to release an anti-diuretic hormone ADH.
ADH then stimulates a gland in the kidneys called the adrenal medulla, which releases a hormone called epinephrine. This is where it gets interesting because now your body is breaking down fats through a process called lipolysis. Our bodies create water by breaking down fats! Long story short, no, you will not die from not drinking water for an extended period because while fasting your body is constantly breaking down fast and creating water for your body to run off of. This happens in both dry fasting and water fasting. Now, when you run out of fat for your body to consume, it’s safe to assume that you’ll die from starvation. In our day of age, most people can go a long time before that’s anything to be concerned about.
WHAT IS AUTOPHAGY?
Although physicians have been studying and implementing the benefits of fasting for centuries. It wasn’t until the late 1950s that cell biologists were able to physically see intracellular degradation on the newly developed transmission electronic microscope. (TEM)
Autophagy performs quality control and metabolic regulation within a cell. Autophagy is the removal of damaged and superfluous proteins and organelles. Are you hooked on the amazing benefits of dry fasting yet? Yoshinori Ohsumi was awarded a Nobel Prize in medicine for his long-term dedication and persistence to the significance of autophagy in biology and medicine.
Your body will go through and perform a thorough scan of your body while on a dry fast. It seeks to find damaged cells, sick cells, scar tissue, tumors, and cancer cells. It will target parasites, bacteria, and viruses. During autophagy, your body consumes the proteins of these cells and recycles the protein to create new and healthier cellular parts.
Divya Nambiar from Hack Fasting helped me understand the different types of autophagy.
- Macroautophagy—a large vesicle (autophagosome) captures old organelles like mitochondria, merges with a lysosome, and gets recycled.
- Microautophagy—something outside the cell wall is captured and combined with a lysosome to be processed or recycled.
- Chaperone-mediated-autophagy (CMA)—damaged proteins get targeted to be destroyed or processed by the lysosome.
PREPARING FOR A DRY FAST
You’re going to need to prepare yourself to complete a dry fast. Mental headspace is so important. You need to know when you’re planning to dry fast, how long you’re planning to dry fast, and why you’re planning to dry fast. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If you don’t have a reason behind fasting, you’re simply starting yourself. When you’re starving yourself you’re going to have an unpleasurable experience. It’s far easier to complete a fast when you know you’re seeking to heal yourself naturally, or even have a goal of losing a few pounds.
Be sure to hydrate before beginning your dry fast. About a week ahead of time up your electrolytes, and your nutrients. Adding drinks such as coconut water, and green juices can be beneficial. Decrease the number of meals you’re consuming daily. This could be a great time to incorporate intermittent fasting into your regimen or go to consuming one meal per day.
Also, have a plan intact for how you’ll break your dry fast. If you’re doing intermittent dry fasting it’s okay to be a bit more relaxed about your refeeding time. However, if you’re going to be doing a prolonged dry fast you’ll want to break your dry fast with water, herbal teas, non-sugary drinks, whole fruits, and non-starchy vegetables. You’ll want to stay away from large portioned meals, and do not, under any circumstances return to consuming the SAD diet that made you sick in the first place!
Summary
May you now have a better understanding of the benefits of dry fasting! No, you will not die if you don’t have food or water for longer than three days. The average person has enough fat in their body to go a week without food or water. Our bodies are fascinating machinery that can create their own water.
Dry fasting has been used to help people reverse negative health ailments as well as help people have spiritual encounters with their divine. Be sure to properly prepare for a water fast to set yourself up for success. It’s also a good idea to check with your primary care physician to make sure you do not have any underlying health concerns that could be exacerbated by dry fasting such as kidney disease.
Remember, all things are possible, they are! The best is yet to come and the odds are always in your favor. Take care!
-Aiyaken Sarai
Sources
Nambiar, D. (2022, January 31). Dry fasting: The science behind this incredible new health hack. Hack Fasting. Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://hackfasting.com/dry-fasting-essentials/dry-fasting-the-science-behind-this-incredible-new-health-hack/
Tooze, S. A., & Dikic, I. (2016, December 1). Autophagy captures The Nobel prize. Cell. Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867416315951
This blog post was written without the assistance of AI
