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Why Has Medicine Been So Slow To See the Benefits of Fasting?

Hi Everyone,

I’ve just released the latest ep of my podcast What Your GP Doesn’t Tell You: Why Has Medicine Been So Slow To See the Benefits of Fasting? which I thought might be of interest to the group

The podcast is newly available on Apple Podcasts (for a new pod it always takes several weeks to be listed by Apple) and is also on Spotify and other platforms.

Dr Jason Fung, kidney specialist and one of the world’s leading pioneers in intermittent fasting and low carb diets, reveals why modern medicine has been so slow to explore the benefits of fasting and discusses its benefits not just for type II diabetes, but for a range of other metabolic and neurological conditions.

For decades, patients with type II diabetes were told to eat a high carbohydrate diet, despite the fact that their problem was that their carbohydrate levels were already out of control.

A major study published back in 2008 in the New England Journal of Medicine, one of the world’s most prestigious medical journals, had actually shown that intensive best practice management of type II diabetes actually increased the death rate from the disease.

But despite this, treatment remained largely unchanged. Yet emerging data now suggests that the majority of type II diabetes patients can not only reverse their disease with diet, they can also prevent it developing and so stop many of the life-changing side effects of the disease, so why did it take so long for medicine to discover this?

And here is a bit about me: my name is Liz Tucker and I am an award winning medical journalist, and former BBC producer and director. I have made films for many of the world’s leading broadcasters which have been shown in over 100 countries.

You can find out more about me and the podcast at What Your GP Doesn’t Tell You, reading my Substack newsletter at liztucker.substack.com and follow me on Twitter @lizctucker

So hope you find the pod interesting, would love to hear your thoughts!

Many thanks

Liz Tucker

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Answer

Doctors deal with large groups of people, so they tend to recommend treatments that most people will cooperate with. Gotta aim for the middle to help the most people.

Most people, when told to exercise and eat better, completely ignore it I’m afraid. Fasting would be even less complied with.

Answer

In addition to what others have already commented, there are some side effects of IF that we dont understand on a population level yet; the research does not exist yet to support widespread adoption of IF. E.g. low blood pressure, anemia, unknown liver and kidney problems

Answer

As stated by Dr. Eric Westman of Duke University (who has used low carb diets in his clinic there for over 25 years to combat metabolic diseases and obesity), Med Schools in particular still turn out graduates based on old paradigms that are just now barely beginning to shift. I suggest you check him out in addition to Dr. Fung.

Answer

Most research is financed by large corporations. The last thing a pharmaceutical company or food industry wants is for something completely free to be the healthiest thing to do. Also many companies will end a research study if it looks like their item won’t ‘win’ in their study

Answer

No money to be made from it. No paid trips to the fasting convention. No perks for prescriptions for “fasting”

The biggest reason I think is knowledge. And then. Getting people to do it. People are lazy. They want a pill to solve the issue so they can go on doing what they want. It is a commitment. It’s a total lifestyle change and it takes relearning everything you have been taught.

This week I finished a 116 hour fast. Never would I have thought I could do that. And I doubt in 52 years ever went longer than 20 hours without eating. I doubt it was longer than 12.

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Categories: jason fung kidney intermittent fasting low carb diabetes carbohydrate blood pressure liver obesity fung 16 hour fast