Re: Loosie and Rainy..Re: Water and fasting

Chrisb1,

I find it hard to believe that you "have personally undertaken two extended water-fasts of 25 and 30 days respectively, and on distilled water only with absolutely no adverse health effects".

I read hundreds of fasting reports and noticed long ago that people fasting on distilled (or similarly poor in minerals rain or melted snow) water usually develop an aversion to it, already by day 10 or so. Those who religiously avoid salt in their regular diet can get to this point in as little as 4 days, especially if they drink a lot of distilled water "in order to better flush out the toxins". If they insist on continuing drinking despite their growing aversion, they soon come to the point where they throw up soon after they force in a few sips -- and the water they just drank comes out with gastric acids in it.

When the fasting crowd on this forum hears about this, instead of sounding the alarm, they congratulate the sufferer, "your detox has finally began!" This is no detox. Aversion to water to the point of nausea is the sure sign of the frank electrolyte imbalance: Desperately trying to maintain the balance between its two main electrolytes, Na+ and Cl-, having run into a frank Na+ deficiency, the body dumps excess Cl- in the form of HCl.

So when some claim that they fasted almost a month on distilled water alone, I find it hard to believe. It contradicts the theory nor have I seen anyone do it in practice. To the contrary, those who supplement minerals/electrolytes can fast successfully for quite a long time. But on distilled water? NEVER.

Even those who drink a lot of plain water run into the same problem, usually by the end of the 3rd week. The first sign of a frank electrolyte imbalance is paradoxical aversion to water while being obviously dehydrated and feeling thirsty at the same time.

With sodium running low the body cannot help but become dehydrated -- and the more water you force into yourself the more dehydrated you become. This is because plasma _must_ have a certain concentration of Na+ and when it gets low, so is the volume of water the body can hold (this is the principle behind salt avoidance with hypertension, i.e. less Na+ = smaller volume = lesser pressure). When running low, kidneys try to conserve sodium but they cannot do it beyond a certain gradient. Some Na+ is _always_ lost in urine.

When the body becomes dehydrated due to insufficient Na+ the first to suffer is the lymphatic system -- the lymph congeals and cannot function properly. Second is the heart -- it struggles pumping blood when its flow is reduced to a trickle. Third, people get lightheaded, especially when they get up abruptly -- it is called orthostatic hypotension and some fasters sustained serious injuries because of it. Then there is general weakness and painful muscle cramps, as well as an array of lesser problems -- all of which can be avoided by supplementing less than 1g of NaCl daily.


I saw very few successful reports of fasting on distilled water that appeared genuine. Interesting that all 3 of those men suffered from spondylosis (severe Arthritis due to hyper-mineralization). I suspect that Bragg had the same condition and that's why he swore by distilled water (however his fasts only were about a week long). That is the only group for whom I saw distilled water work. For everyone else distilled water was the reason why they were forced to break their fast early due to electrolyte imbalance, often severe to the point of vomiting. Tweet