disclaimer: i am not seeking medical advice, only tips/thoughts/suggestions, especially from folks who have fasted for medical reasons, since most folks here seem to do it for weight management reasons.
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hi everyone!
i have had some great luck in the past with 40-hour fasts 1x/week to treat long COVID. i’ve also had some not-so-great luck with it. so, i’m curious to hear from other folks who have used fasting as a symptom mitigation tool for chronic illness.
my questions: do you have any general tips/advice regarding fasting for medical reasons? does 40 hours seem like enough time? would it make more sense to do ADF or rolling 48/72 hour fasts? should i make sure i’m still taking all my vitamins & supplements while fasting?
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here’s my symptoms, the other treatments i use, and the general effects of fasting on my symptoms, in case context is useful:
symptoms: persistent shortness of breath, brain fog, fatigue, PEM (post-exertion malaise), body temperature dysregulation. my exertion limits include: can’t be in the sun for an hour, can’t walk for more than \~1.5km, can’t consume any alcohol whatsoever, can’t concentrate on a difficult project/task for more than an hour or so at a time. (if i fail to stay inside the exertion limits, i’m completely zapped for at least one full day, usually 2-3.)
other treatments: symbicort turbuhaler 2x/day, wim hof breathing exercises 1x/day, vitamins & supplements (B-complex vitamin, omega-3s, vitamin D, ritual women’s multivitamin, L-lysine, magnesium threonate with zinc), low histamine diet (i am also vegan, if that matters), meditation & mindfulness practice.
effects of the 40 hour fast: two of the four previous fasts resulted in great success, while two were complete failures. (i suspect that i needed to be doing the low histamine diet when breaking fast, and that may be the cause of the failures.) when they were successful, my symptoms were reduced about 90% across the board. e.g., i still couldn’t do cardio safely, but i could walk for hours with no problem. overall, it was miraculous. i felt like i got my life back. i’m looking to create a routine to incorporate fasting into my life in a reliable, sustainable, healthy way so that i can resume school & work.
I’m a March 2020 long hauler. Also recently figured out 24-40 fasts give me a huge boost. Still finding my feet with it though. Are you taking spermidine and resveratrol as well? Meant to help further induce autophagy and kill off viral any whatsits still in us.
I’m basically doing the 1 or 2ish day fasts when I feel up to it and trying to build up to doing 3-4 days fast by the end of the year.
I do 72 hr fasts to help control my inflammation. I broke my heel bone two years ago so I have a lot of ankle issues now. When I notice it’s getting stiff more often I know I need to fast again. Normally 20 hr fasts (OMAD) works well but a good 48-72 hr fasts definitely resets my systems and allows my body to remove the extra inflammation. I prob do these longer fast once every 1-2 months
You might find it more manageable to do one meal a day with fasting in between.
I also read a post here about someone who had lost sense of taste, I think, due to covid. She did a 13 day fast and it fixed it.
I’m “only” suffering from a tenacious productive cough since I had Covid in April but I found 2+ days fasts to be helping a lot at least with the sore throat. If that’s from autophagy etc. or from food not passing by the inflamed areas I of course don’t know.
Ironically the Symbicort Turbohaler worsens the sore throat for me, all fasts I tried while I took it did not help. That’s only anecdotal of course. I should try the Wim Hof exercises though.
Have you heard of the Buchinger Wilhelmi fasting clinic? They’re well known for therapeutic fasting and have done some research around long Covid and fasting. They have a YouTube channel where they’ve talked about it in at least one video. I really like their extended fasting protocol, it’s very kind to the body and easy to follow. Not a ton of info congregated in one place about it, but easy to research.
Keeping insulin in check and not overeating due to fasting is definitely beneficial and can keep inflammation down. However, fasting itself is a stressor on the body so I would be very careful. I have found focusing solely on keeping inflammation low by eating smaller, lower protein and lower glycemic meals (lot of fiber and vegetables) is more beneficial and less stressful than fasting all day.
I’ve had many of the same symptoms as you and the only thing that has helped has been optimizing testosterone, through specific supplements. For some reason no vitamins helped at all, just herbal adaptogens (tongkat ali)