"Im on day six and if i dont go the whole way my 6 or 7 day fast will feel useless, although itll still be beneficial."


I'm sorry you feel this way--since it sounds as though you are being unressdonably hard on yourself.

Could it end sooner?

Definately, maybe, it could end sooner. :-) Also, be aware that the less 'stores' you have, in the way of alkaline mineral reserves, the more blech you will likely feel.
(the taste) If, for example, a person has been living on coffee, or otherwise taking in very little of true value,
then the body is sort of running on empty. Try to go easy on yourself. Self-talk can be more of a negative influence than anything else.

On my longer fasts, I find that if I am relaxed, I can breathe in the goodness of whatever is gorwing around me.
Flowers become a feast, literally.

Have imperishable patience.

Chiron

Hi Chiron,

Thanks for your reply and comments, they help. If my lipomas go down just a little, I'll be happy. Tomorrow I will have my last cooked meal, then I will eat just fruit for three days before starting the fast. I don't know whether I will finish the fast, but I do know I will learn something about myself. It's actually quite exciting, kind of like when you are 10 years old and cycled with your friends 15 miles to the next big town. Maybe I should just get out more, but I'm looking forward to it. I'll keep in touch.

Thanks again.

Koldo.

santafegirl,
Not all Hygienists agreed among themselves.

Shelton frequently disagreed with Carrington and others: Carrington believed in the employment of "forcing measures" and "enemas" for example, while Shelton and other Hygienists dispensed with them over time, as having little value and the cause of much harm. Shelton described enemas as a "pernicious evil".

We should bear in mind that Shelton was by far the most experienced in terms of fasting supervision.
I have a copy of Carringtons book, and familiar with the part you are referring to.

The point I would like to make is that thin or underweight people are usually this way thru no choice of their own: they may "eat like horses" and still remain thin. This means the digestive and assimilative capacities are impaired, and therefore nutrient reserves are minimal or depleted.

On the other hand, people who gain weight very easily and with the minimal amount of food, means their digestion and assimilation are extremely effective and efficient, and will have better quality food reserves.

Everything but everything hinges on the quality of the pre-fast diet, whether thin or obese.
What I originally referred to was fasting in "underweight" individuals, where Shelton did comment that he was amazed that they could go for 20 days or more before breaking the fast with safety in mind.


SHELTON..........
Graham's statement that the fat man will lose weight much faster than the thin one is literally true...."Science of Human Life, pp. 193-194.

".......but what he overlooked is that this rapid loss of weight is not continued. Indeed, we often see fat women who undertake to fast to reduce, lose twenty to twenty-five pounds the first two weeks, but six pounds the third week and two pounds the fourth week. The rapid rate of loss does not continue. It should be observed at this point, also, that some thin people lose rapidly the first few days of their fast......................

............................A fast of a hundred days or more can be survived even under the most favorable conditions, ONLY by the individual who possesses sufficient food reserves to sustain his vital organs and vital functions for this period of time.
**The smaller the amount of food stores one has in reserve, all things else being equal, the earlier is the starvation period reached."**
http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020127shelton.III/020127.ch6.htm



The crux of the matter as to how long someone may safely fast: the thin/underweight or the fat/obese? depends entirely on the quality and quantity of the food reserves to hand.
I know or have known some very obese people who are literally "starving" because of their malnourished and processed diet, and where this diet does not meet the nutritional needs of the body, and thin/underweight people whose food-reserve quality is the same, because of either a poor diet, or lack of assimilation of nutrients.

It is difficult to come to a firm conclusion, but on the whole the underweight do not fast safely for as long as the normal/obese.

Here is just one reference to food reserves that may be of help...........

FOOD RESERVES........
"the vital tissues are nourished first off the food reserves and, when these are exhausted, off the less vital tissues. No damage will or can occur in any of the vital tissues of the body so long as its reserves are ADEQUATE to meet the nutritive needs of these tissues.
This varies from a few days in very emaciated people to a few months in very fat individuals. There need be no fear of fasting, even the most prolonged fasting, under experienced and intelligent guidance. The human body may have stored within it such enormous resources of energy that it will be able to fast many days.....
http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020127shelton.III/020127.ch4.htm


Also.......
THE FASTERS SUMPTUOUS FARE.
"The fasting organism is safe from harm, so far as abstinence is concerned, so long as its stored reserves and expendables are adequate to meet the nutritive requirements of its functioning tissues. Even thin individuals carry a reserve of food in their tissues to tide them over periods of abstinence." SHELTON.
FASTING FOR RENEWAL OF LIFE...Pages 53 & 54.


Concerning your comment Santafegirl, that the body actually uses its waste material/cancerous growths first and the like -- its diseased tissues; as fuel..................

SHELTON
"........useless fat and the less essential tissues are consumed first, and the most essential tissues of the body are hardly touched, even where death from starvation results. But never having watched the process they cannot know anything of the rapidity with which dropsical fluid, for example, is absorbed from the cavities or tissues and utilized as food. They cannot know how tumor-like growths are often rapidly absorbed and how, even large tumors are reduced in size. Resolution in pneumonia is hastened, the process taking place so rapidly, often that it would be difficult to believe unless one should see it. "Diseased" tissues are broken down, exudates, effusions and deposits are absorbed and either used or eliminated. The body utilizes everything it can dispense with during a fast in order to preserve the integrity of the essential tissues. The useless and least essential things are sacrificed first".....
http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020127shelton.III/020127.ch4.htm



I would also bear in mind that in Sheltons/Carringtons day and their contemporaries, including those who came before them, food quality was superior: little to no processed/devitalized/adulterated food, which is so rampant now, and where the soils in which they grew their crops, was much more fertile.
You only have to ponder the S.A.D. (Standard American Diet) to know that.

Chrisb1.

Koldo,
an excess of fat reserves are not the only food reserves that should be available during a prolonged fast.
There are minerals and Vitamins and phytonutrients that are also essential as well.

Muscle tissue is well-preserved during even the most prolonged fast: even in starvation.
Yeo's physiology gives these estimated losses that occur in death from starvation as:--
Fat 97% Spleen 63%
Muscle 30% Blood 17%
Liver 56% Nerve Centers 000

The body enters a “protein–sparing” state when water-only fasting. In this state the body conserves its muscle reserves and fat is broken down as a bodily preference.

Normally, if we don't eat for a day or two, we start to use muscle tissue to make the glucose needed by the body, since glucose can be manufactured from amino acids stored in our
muscles. If we continue to fast, however, the body senses what is happening and attempts to conserve its lean muscle mass by a few different mechanisms. Fats are broken down to fatty acids that can then be utilized by the muscles, heart and liver for energy.

By about the third day of a total fast, the liver starts generating a large quantity of ketones from the body's fat stores. As the level of ketones rises in the bloodstream, the brain and other organs begin to use these ketones as their major fuel, which greatly reduces the need/use of glucose by the body.
This significantly limits muscle wasting.
These keto-acids are used for fuel mainly by the brain, muscle tissue, and the heart.
This production of ketones, called ketosis, develops within 48 hours in females and 72 hours in males, and muscle wasting at this time decreases to very low levels.
This is known as protein sparing.

Thus, the human body responds to the fasting state by attempting to conserve its muscle and lean body tissue to the maximum.
However, with severely restrictive diets, like juice fasts, the body does lose weight, but the brain and other organs do not subsist mainly on ketones. Therefore, in proportion to the actual weight lost, juice-fasts (feasts) and severely restrictive diets cause us to lose more lean body tissue and less fatty tissue than do total fasts on water-only.

There is no optimum starting weight for beginning a fast.

Q. "Is more than one fast necessary to reach completion or the return of natural and genuine hunger"?

A. Absolutely not. Any first fast, if carried thru for long enough, will eventually reach the point where its food reserves are becoming exhausted, and this is where natural hunger will make an appearance.

It is also well known that the return of natural hunger will make itself known if the max' healing and cleansing of the body has been reached. This could even be in a matter of days and not weeks or months and well before the food reserves have become depleted.

The most success with fasting comes from those who achieve the maximum rest of the body (physical) and mind (freedom from stress and anxiety). This conserves food reserves.

Fasting is essentially a state of "physiological rest" and so if we maximize and channel our available energies into cleansing and healing, the best results are obtained.

Chrisb1.

Hi Chiron,

my comment that you referred to...........
"The return of hunger only means that your food reserves are about to expire, but your body may still be laden with toxins and where healing has not yet been fully completed."

Hereward Carrington spoke of a "race" between the preservation of food reserves against the elimination of toxins and the max' amount of healing on a water-only fast. The reference eludes me for the moment but it is contained within his excellent book "Vitality Fasting and Nutrition".

I agree with him on that score from personal experience.
Although my first fast of 25 days was an incredible ordeal for me in terms of detox: I had every detox experience going including spitting crises and vomiting; the second fast of 30 days some 6 weeks later, was much easier and mostly enjoyable, but still had mild symptoms of detox intermittently throughout.

I suppose we could say that it is reasonable to assume that if someone has high levels of toxins, and their food reserves are normal to minimal, then this would be the case.

Shelton also spoke in terms of a series of long fasts with careful refeeding in between to achieve the max' amount of healing possible.
I am convinced that both were true in my own case in overcoming Leukemia.

Chrisb1.

Hello April Rain,
with a weight of only 117.5 and standing at 5'5" it would not be advisable to fast (in my opinion) beyond 30 days and certainly not to 90 days.
There is the very real danger you may enter the starvation period and especially so if your food reserves are inadequate from a pre-fast diet.

Any disease ending with "itis" just means "inflammation" of the organ mentioned. It is mainly addressing the causes of this "itis" which Natural Hygiene states as toxemia.

Pancreatitis?
Is this the acute or chronic form?

Sheltons advice is...........
"Care of the Patient: If fasting does not bring immediate relief from symptoms in acute pancreatitis, a surgeon should be called.
The care in chronic pancreatitis must eliminate toxemia, restore normal nerve energy and correct digestion and assimilation. So long as there is pain and discomfort no food should be taken. After toxemia has been eliminated and comfort has returned, fruits and vegetables should constitute the diet.
It may truly be said of pancreatitis: it is better prevented by right living than cured by any kind of program".

Veggie-juicing will be very beneficial, but the main thing is to nourish your body in this way, while simultaneously eliminating toxemia or the root cause.
I would adhere to a raw plant-based diet being careful to eat ONLY WHEN HUNGRY, while veggie-juicing.

Veggie juicing will deliver the most nutrients in the most easily available form.........liquids.
Sip your juice and masticate it as food.......which it is.

Given sufficient time your "itis" will disappear.

Chrisb1.