Re: Fasting and the sauna

I just read what Shelton wrote about sweating a few days ago. He was very nasty about it, pretty much referring to Arnold Ehret as a charlatan. Shelton didn't even know that the skin and sweat glands were an excretory organ back then. Even if he had he may have not encouraged it anyway due to the enervating nature of the sauna, but his ignorance of this bodily process and willingness to condemn anyone that practised it seems more than a bit hypocritical to me. Don't get me wrong, Shelton was awesome no doubt about it. But it does seem to me for that and a few other reasons he was completely blinded to anything else except for fasting, and his way of doing it.

The fact is, sweating takes some of the load off the kidneys, doing a very similar job in cleaning the body of impurities. And while I'm the first to admit that fasting can work well enough on it's own, I think more evidence to the contrary should be given before disregarding the assistance to detoxing that saunas may provide during a fast. It's not like it hasn't been tried and successfully, and debunking it out of hand because some or even many fasting doctors don't advise it isn't reason enough to turn people off it completely. It does work for some and like exercising and dry fasting if people want to give it a go then that's what we as humans with the ability to choose have a right to do.

Again it depends what the fast is for too. There is no precedent in nature for example in fasting just to lose weight. A fat dog or cat doesn't instinctively know it's being fed junk and gone on a fast as it does when seriously injured. We humans make that call and choose to fast to lose the weight. But losing weight isn't, or shouldn't, ever be the only goal. Complete health is attained not just by getting a BMI of 20 or so. It is gained by living a healthy life, eating correctly and exercising regularly. If we just fast then return to unhealthy living we know we are just harming our bodies again and will probably 'suffer' just as much on our next fast. A sedentary person with a BMI of 20 or 21 can be a lot less healthy than an active person with a lot more fat on his body if that person is active and eating well. Anyone fasting can benefit from exercise IF they have the energy to do so, and I believe the fasting body will provide more energy as needed also if not in crisis. Exercising will not hurt you in fasting any more than it will while eating- unless you overdo it. The body doesn't just detox while fasting it rebuilds, exercising can help focus some of that rebuilding also, as well as increasing detox during and after the exercise. And sweating is also useful for detoxing and losing weight, so again if you don't overdo it- same as when you're eating- it could be very useful while fasting.

I do think that the perils of enervation are over emphasised in fasting. We are warned not to have hot baths or cold showers or massages etc etc. Any energy 'lost' is replaced by the body until there is no more left and hunger returns. The biggest problem we probably have with fasting is the limited information on it. The limited research, and the fact that a lot of the research we do have deals with admittedly awesome people who have supervised many fasts, but in limited situations. Fasting in a retreat is miles away from fasting at home while going on with your life. And fasting in relative health- compared to the severly sick and those condemned by modern medicine to death- is miles away from fasting for weight loss.

And everyone is different. Fasting to me is about being your own doctor. And to be our own doctor we have a responsibility to learn as much about our body as we can. Fasting is a natural way of regaining health but for us it is a choice also. It is not enough to just choose to fast, but we need to choose how to fast and what works best for each of us as individuals. In this we have some very strict guidelines but many choices outside of those guidelines. Fasting is far from an exact science, and maybe it's better if it stays that way. We should always stay open and be guided but never led.

Andrew.

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