A talk by Dr. Francoise Wilhelmi de Toledo (head of research at Buchinger Wilhelmi clinics) summarizing clinical observations and a large cohort study on periodic fasting. The 2016 study (1,422 subjects fasting 4–20 days under a three-dimension program: medical, community, emotional/spiritual) reported metabolic improvements (weight, abdominal circumference, blood pressure, glycemia, lipids), reduced inflammatory markers, activation of autophagy/stem-cell–mediated regeneration, and high subjective well-being. The talk encourages supervised periodic and intermittent fasting as a regenerative health practice.
Questions this video answers
1,422 subjects
Between 4 and 20 days
Published in PLOS ONE, January 2019
About 500 subjects
85% reported a subjective huge improvement
Chapters
Hello everybody. My name is Dr. Francoise Wilhelmi de Toledo. I am the head of the research department of the Buchinger Wilhelmi clinics in Ueberlingen, south of Germany, and Mabelia, south of Spain. These clinics, which are specialized in periodic fasting, exist since more than 70 years and have a huge clinical experience. Myself, I have followed thousands of patients fasting during periods going from five to 20 days or more. Myself, I fast already since the age of 17. So since some years we have decided to document what we were seeing clinically since so many years and try to convince the people that fasting is a natural method to cure a lot of diseases. This started with a huge study in 2016 with 1,422 subjects who fasted between four and 20 days. And they had not all overweight. They were men and women. There was a very diverse community and they fasted according to the program of the Boringer Wilhelmi Clinic, which is very traditional program with three dimensions. A medical dimension, a community dimension, and an emotional spiritual dimension. What we found first were that all the parameters, metabolic parameters improved, were modulated, were normalized tendentially. First, the weight diminished and especially the abdominal circumference diminished. So you lose weight and at the right place. Then the blood pressure diminished, systolic and diastolic as well, by people who have a normal blood pressure. As the one who had a medication, we had to take off the medication or to reduce the medication so that the people don't have problems. The glycemia went down and normalized at the lower level of the norm, and the ketone bodies and the urine were going up. So this was documenting the fasting metabolic switch. You go from the mode of eating in the mode of fasting. So what did you more observe? The blood parameters changed a lot. So we had for instance, a diminution of the lipids in the blood, triglycerides, but also LDL cholesterol. This of course was modulation. So the normal person stay normal and the one who have elevated values, they correct them very quickly. We controlled the kidneys and liver values, which were normal. We have in another study also documented the fatty liver, which was able to recover and to get rid of the excess fat. Maybe a special observation in this huge group of humans is that the sedimentation rate and other inflammatory parameters were diminished. And this documents what many other studies in animals had already shown, that the inflammatory parameter, the inflammation, tends to decrease during the fasting. Another interesting confirmation of what I've been seen in shorter periods of fasting, like intermittent fasting or every other day fasting, and also in animal models, is that the blood cells are reduced, probably due to the autophagy and the apoptosis. This is a phenomenon who leads during the fasting to an elimination of old structures or old cells, which are senescent, damaged cells. Damaged structures can be self digested and partially recycled. And then after the fasting, and we always have asked the people to stay at least four to five days in the setting to refeed, to get through the period after the fasting, where you slowly reintroduce the food. This is a wonderful period anyway, because your taste buds are renewed and you enjoy the food. Even the simplest food is a real feast. But at the same time, we know that cells regenerate, tissues regenerate, rejuvenate, because there has been an activation of stem cells during the fasting. And now they are coming out and renewing the pool of cells of tissues, organs and especially the immune cells in the blood. We had also subjects having special conditions in this group, somewhere healthy for preventive reasons. But about 500 had a special condition. These conditions are three groups more or less. The ones who have metabolic problems, high blood pressure, diabetes, type 2, hyperlipidemia, cholesterolemia, all risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. Another group is the chronic inflammatory diseases. People coming for arthritis, for polyathritis, for gastritis, conditions of the digestive system, skin problems, neurodermitis, neurofibromyalgia, they all come. And then the third group would be pre burnout, depressive mood, people having a state of exhaustion, psychologically or physically. And 85% documenting a subjective huge improvement. Some had more or less the same result. So this is a first study with a very large cohort, using a method which is traditional, which has been used 70 years long under medical supervision, with a very beautiful context, nature, an activity program, teaching program also, so that the people after the fasting can go to better life habits. We pay a big attention to to the accompaniment of the people and giving a synergistic program. So this is a study published in plos one in January 2019. And of course we would be happy if this study is giving you the taste of fasting, because you know you have it in your genes. The program is in yourself. You just have to have the right setting and a good guidance. If you have an illness, you have to be under medical supervision and you can really discover one. Fasting is enjoyable. Yes, you heard right. We have documented also the well being. And from the first day to the last day, you can see an improvement of the emotional as well as the physical well being. So it's exactly the contrary what people would think. They would think maybe you feel tired, you feel bad, you are hungry. And we noticed also that 93% of the people didn't feel hunger after some hours. And this is exactly what we would expect you would expect. So that we really encourage you to give it a try. And I'm sure when you have rediscovered this program and this ability in yourself, then you will use it regularly. We recommend to fast periodic every year and then maybe one or two days per week if it's necessary, and some hours a day. So to have a long pause in the food, this would be intermittent fasting, for instance. But you can use other nutritional strategies. And if you are healthy and have a normal weight, then you can just do a periodic fasting. The very nice thing about it, it is the only possibility as an adult to regenerate your cells and your tissues, to rejuvenate them. So it would be crazy not to use that ability. Thank you very much for watching this video and just do it.
