EDIT..Re: Olivia's Update

Hello #111629,
I am not familiar with the case of the woman who fasted for 92 days and who you said took electrolytes throughout. No hunger present either apparently.

I think each case has to be assessed and dealt with individually, and where no experience of hunger means that ketosis was doing its job of suppressing it.

It is known that electrolytes by themselves if taken on a fast will have very little if any benefit, as they rely on the addition of vitamins and other co-factors, and where the body's stores of vitamins within the Liver and elsewhere should suffice on a prolonged fast of anywhere between 30 to 50 days, as deficiencies of this type do not occur..................


"We have no means of knowing how much of a reserve store of vitamins the body possesses, nor do we know where all of these reserves are stored; still less do we know about how much of these vitamins are lost to the body during a fast. All of this is as unknown to Kellogg and to the writer as to the reader, but we may be sure of one thing:--namely, these stores are sufficient to outlast the most prolonged fast.
We know that scurvy and beri-beri never develop on a fast. We know that rickets is positively benefited by fasting. Kellogg overlooks an important difference between fasting and a polished rice diet--namely, that, whereas, in both, the body is deprived of its daily supply of vitamins, fasting makes little if any demand upon its vitamin reserves, while the polished rice diet rapidly consumes these......................
"Vitamin deficient diets compel the body to consume its vitamin stores; but we do not know that the body is forced to consume these stores in living off its own internal resources. We cannot say positively that these reserve stores do not contain the vitamins necessary to their utilization. We only know that pathological conditions attributed to "avitaminosis" do not develop as a result of prolonged fasting. Since there are no such injuries, they do not require adequate compensation"...................
http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020127shelton.III/020127.ch18.htm

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However, to say that there was no starvation in this woman is highly speculative and conjectural as the consumption of any external nutrients acts in much the same way as a diet, and fools the body into thinking it is still in "eating mode"; so instead of living exclusively from internal food reserves and allowing the body itself to "economize" its internal resources, the body is expecting nutrition from outside, and this is the danger as to how deficiencies can arise and quite easily occur.

This is a complicated subject if you haven't surmised that already! and where I would never recommend any supplements on a fast for this reason, as the body will conserve ALL of its nutrients via a lowered metabolism and a conservation effort by the body in prolonging life; whereas in contrast someone who feeds externally via supplements or any other means, usually means a more rapid consumption of these vital nutritional elements from their food reserves and the risk of starvation is brought forward much sooner than would otherwise be the case.
I also believe that the combination of vitamins and minerals she is taking has replenished those supplies, but will more rapidly utilize the other nutrients such as amino acids and essential fatty acids than would not have occurred if no supplements had been taken.

Unless this woman was medically-examined thoroughly after her 92 day fast, then no one can say with any certainty as to whether starvation damage has occurred or not.
This is how I feel presently with Olivia, and where I believe she is taking an awful risk with her health and even life for the very same reasons.

Regards

Chrisb1.

EDIT..
I find it perturbing and unsettling to understand why anyone would want to fast for this length of time that cannot be achieved with shorter and safer fasts of up to 30 to 35 days and then after a satisfactory period of refeeding to repeat the fast again to receive the same physical/mental/spiritual benefits.



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