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What's the scientific consensus on prolonged fasting and Covid vaccination?

I’m struggling to find any information regarding fasting and vaccinations.

It’s been roughly 8 days since I got my booster and I was hoping to do a fast as a method of discovering the cause of a chronic skin condition (Elimination Diet).

Not sure whether to wait longer or if I’m okay to start a 3 day fast now.

I was hoping to generate discussion here, perhaps an exchange of scientific inquiry/ studies/ etc.

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Answer

There are plenty of studies to show how fasting lowers your immune response during a fast, but dramatically increases your immune response after completing a fast.

The standing CDC guidance is to wait to 2 weeks until you should consider yourself “vaccinated.”

Like the previous post, however, I have received all my COVID vaccinations, never stopped my IF protocols, and haven’t had COVID.

Answer

Fasting lowers your immune system (your body kills off old immune cells), and then refeeding refreshes it (your body makes new immune cells). Source: 2014 study by Valter Longo and colleagues (that’s a Forbes article about it, easier to read, but it links to the study itself). Actually, 72-hour fasts were exactly what they studied.

So I would not undertake a 3-day fast until a full two weeks after your COVID vaccination. Give your immune system time to build up immunity from the vaccine before you kill off existing immune cells.

Answer

Boosters have been given to probably millions of older adults who have compromised immune systems for any number of reasons. And they have been effective at preventing disease or significantly reducing illness severity in this population.

My guess is, if you are a healthy adult, fasting won’t have a significant affect on the immunity response. If you are worried about it, just wait until 14 days afterwards.

No scientific studies to cite here - just the advice I’d give to a patient.

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