"Hello Dada, I'm surprised that you fast a lot these days, looks like you're gone more spiritual than you used to be." "Far from it Paul,” Dada quipped, “ I'm more spiritual but I fast more these days to stay smarter and live longer!" "What? Tell me more—I thought fasting was only for very serious-minded religious people?”
Indeed, culturally, fasting is associated with religious events and rites. While fasting may have spiritual benefits on an individual, it sure has enormous health benefits too.
There are many types of fasting. The commonest types include intermittent fasting, juice fasting, water fasting and others. Here are some of the health benefits of fasting.
Blood sugar control: Are you concerned about diabetes? Are you diagnosed with pre-diabetes? Are you wondering how to stay safe by controlling your blood sugar? Have you ever read about insulin resistance and how it causes diabetes? Well, you'll be interested in fasting because it's one of the proven methods for controlling your blood sugar. Fasting makes your body more sensitive to insulin, the hormone that regulates sugar; meaning you can transport sugar from your bloodstream to your body cells more effectively. Even diabetic patients have benefited from fasting to control blood sugar.
Cancer prevention: Did you ever imagine that fasting works for cancer? Scientists have found a close link between fasting and a reduced risk of cancer. Fasting rids your body of toxic chemicals that could potentially be carcinogenic. This doesn't mean that fasting cures cancer, though; but fasting does help mitigate your symptoms and slow down progression of certain cancers.
Weight loss: Have you attempted calorie-reduction techniques as you try to lose weight? Well, there's good news; fasting may be more effective than calorie restriction weight-loss programs. The major reason for this is fasting boosts metabolism by breaking down excess fats and burning u calories to produce fuel for the body.
Better brain function: This is an era of non-communicable diseases and age-related disorders. Happily, fasting delays ageing and prevents age-related decline. In fact, fasting protects brain health by helping to create new nerve cells and to improve cognitive function.
Reduced blood cholesterol and improved heart health: Fasting lowers your body’s bad cholesterol levels. It gets even more interesting because fasting helps control blood pressure and lowers the risk of coronary artery disease. In essence, fasting is good for your heart.
Reduced inflammation: Research shows we can trace more illnesses to inflammation than we ever considered. Even cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and heart disease part of the pack. The good news is that intermittent fasting reduces inflammatory chemicals in the body, meaning that fasting is anti inflammatory.
Boost Immune System: Fasting helps repair and boost the production of your immune cells. Consequently, the more you fast, the more your immune system functions optimally. This also means that you are better protected from i
Take-home: Although fasting is a popular religious exercise, but research shows that there are many health benefits of fasting. Thus, you might need to adopt fasting for its immense medical benefits.
