As a corollary to my last article, titled, “Discovering if Our Food is Toxic”,
I have written another article about the health benefits of fasting and
autophagy and my practice of fasting once every week for 24-hours and
intermittent fasting daily for 17-hours. Some people that know I am
about to launch a 20 course academy that focuses on wealth building
often inquire about why I post videos on my IG: skwealthacademy account or pen articles about health on my blog,
and the answer is simple. Regarding the posts about physical health on
my IG account, since I’m working 12 hour to 16 hour days every day in
preparation for the launch of my academy, I almost never feel like
working out at the end of a very long day. Still, I force myself to do
so as I realize the importance of physical health. Thus, these posts are
meant to emphasize the importance of discipline, persistence, and
grinding through activities that you don’t feel like doing in order to
achieve one’s goals. With my academy, I intend to change how people
think about wealth to include not only material wealth, but a much more
holistic spectrum of wealth that incorporates physical health,
integrity, and mental health. During my previous stint with a Wall
Street firm, I encountered plenty of people with more material wealth
than anyone could ever desire, but yet were devoid, or “poor” in mental
health, physical health and integrity, with the consequent result a
perpetual state of anxiety and overall unhappiness that would exclude
them from a “wealthy” label in my book.
When
I developed painful kidney stones, after never having been sick with
anything but a common cold for the past ten years, because I suspected
consumption of unclean food that I had judged to be clean to be the
culprit (i.e. fresh vegetables purchased from a local market).
Consequently, I decided to begin intermittent fasting for 17-hours every
day as well as to engage in a full-day fast of 24-hours once a week.
The significant benefits of fasting and autophagy have been well known
for centuries, even if the scientific mechanisms of fasting had not yet
been well understood. Famous American muckraker Upton Sinclair wrote a
book at the turn of the 20th century called The Fasting Cure
about his observations of various people with critical ailments that
were cured through strict fasting regimens. Though this book contained
carefully documented accounts of many people who were cured by
undertaking a regimen of fasting, these accounts were strictly anecdotal
and non-scientific, as the science behind the benefits of fasting, at
the molecular level, were not understood at the time.
Since Upton Sinclair published The Fasting Cure
in the early 1900s, the scientific understanding of the benefits of
fasting and autophagy has made tremendous strides. In 2016, Japanese
scientist Yoshinori Ohsumi won the Nobel Prize in physiology and
medicine for his groundbreaking research of autophagy, the study of the
degradation and recycling of cellular components. During periods of
cellular starvation known as autophagy, cells break down proteins and
nonessential cellular components and recycle them for energy sources
while simultaneously destroying invasive bacteria, viruses, and damaged
cellular components. We all instinctively know not to eat when we are
severely sick, and our self-inflicted short periods of starvation
actually induce a period of autophagy in which our bodies expel bacteria
and/or viruses at the cellular level and engage in functions of
cellular repair that helps us to eventually recover from our ailments.
During
one particularly bad flu I suffered more than a decade ago, I recall
not eating for three to four days. In fact, given the work completed by
Dr. Ohsumi, we now know that our family member’s and friend’s
exhortations to “eat something” when we are very ill is completely wrong
advice, as it is the period of mini-starvation that actually helps us
to recover more quickly. In fact, scientists also believe that
disruptions in autophagy leads to the aging process, cardiovascular
disease, bone degradation and cognitive decline as well, so for those of
us that want to look and feel decades younger that our biological age,
intermittent fasting may just be our best all-natural solution for
finding the ever elusive Fountain of Youth.
I
have always believed that students express an abundance of gratitude
upon graduating from high school and/or university and celebrate the
“end” of their learning period because academics and traditional
schooling fails to provide the type of learning and education that
stimulates their interest and curiosity more so than their relief in
being finished with the learning process. In life, we continually
encounter people that extend their educational process well beyond the
years of their highest academic degree achievement, including those that
choose to learn a new language, learn more about nutrition, nature or
history, or even learn how our global banking and monetary system truly
operate for the first time in their lives, as those who sign up for my
skwealthacademy will learn in the near future.
Consequently,
not only has our traditional academic system failed to capture our
imagination and creativity in the learning process, but our occupational
systems have failed miserably in this capacity as well. Dr. Ohsumi
stated, in an interview with The Journal of Cell Biology,
“Unfortunately, these days, at least in Japan, young scientists want to
get a stable job, so they are afraid to take risks. Most people decide
to work on the most popular field because they think that is the easiest
way to get a paper published.” And as you will learn in my academy, the
reason so little intellectual criticism of Central Banking policies
exist is because US Central Bankers serve as the gatekeepers of the
publishing world regarding the world’s top economic journals. Thus, if a
rising academic desires to make his name by being published in top
economic journals, which is always a gold star to have on one’s resume
and an important distinction into gaining access into the upper ranks of
employment and career in economics, one has to refrain from ever
criticizing Central Banker policies to secure this “honor”. To me,
however, such an achievement is only a label of obedience and compliance
to those in power and much more a scarlett letter of shame versus a
distinction of honor. If one rises to the top by becoming a parasite
upon humanity (see my review of the biting social commentary in the Oscar winning movie Parasite here), then there is little honor in such an achievement.
Without
taking risks and without ever stepping out of line with the wishes of
those that control who gains fame and honor in each industry, Dr. Ohsumi
would never have produced his groundbreaking work about the benefits of
fasting and autophagy and bestowed the gift of his research upon us
all. However, when there are those that are willing to break the
shackles of limitations that those in power try to place upon us, in the
words of Dr. Ana Maria Cuervo, an autophagy researcher and co-director
of the Institute for Aging at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the
Bronx, we are gifted with "some of the most elegant [research] you can
imagine for the knowledge and the beauty of how cells work.” Juleen
Zierath, a member of the Nobel committee that awarded Ohsumi the Nobel
Prize declared, “Every day we need to replace about 200 to 300g of
protein in our bodies... We are eating proteins every day, about 70g,
but that’s not enough to take care of the requirement to make new
proteins. Because of this machinery, we’re able to rely on some of our
own proteins, maybe the damaged proteins or the long-lived proteins, and
they are recycled with this sophisticated machinery so that we can
sustain and we survive.”
In
any event, I started my regimen of fasting for 24-hours one day each
week and fasting for 17-hours every day not to stay youthful, but much
more so for the benefits that regular fasting bestow on human physiology
through the expulsion of damaged and dead cellular material. As long as
I am not growing my own vegetables or farming or hunting for the meat
and fish that I consume, I can never be sure that my food is clean due
to the rampant mislabeling or non-labeling of food that occurs in every
nation in the world, third world or developed. Thus, I can never be
certain with 100% confidence that my food is devoid of heavy metals,
pesticides, and even toxic artificial chemicals (please read my article,
“Discovering if Our Food is Toxic” to learn why).
Despite
the science of autophagy being relatively new, human beings have
understood the benefits of fasting and autophagy for thousands of years.
The ancient Greek historian Herodotus documented Egyptians fasting
three times a month during ancient Egypt, and many historical figures
have documented the health benefits of their fasting regimens for
centuries. For those among you that may be younger and more
self-indulgent and worried about your appearance, I specifically posted
one photo on my Instagram to alleviate the concerns of those that
falsely believe that fasting will cause loss of muscle mass. In this photo,
though physical appearance was not the reason I started an intermittent
fasting regimen, I retained all my muscle mass, and basically just
became leaner, for a nice unexpected consequence of my fasting regime. Furthermore,
three to four times a week, I engage in two-a-day workout routine, with
my first workout either an isometric or weightlifting regimen at 5:30AM
and my second workout a sprinting or stair running regimen at 7PM. The
first workout of the day that I complete is always on an empty stomach
and I almost never feel tired or unable to complete my routine due to a
lack of any food for the prior 12-hours.
In
fact, since I started my regimen of fasting nearly a year-and-a-half
ago, I feel more mentally and cognitively aware as well as more
physically energetic throughout the duration of every day as opposed to
the time when I used to eat three square meals because that’s simply
what everyone else was doing. Herschel Walker, a professional American
football player, famously only consumed one meal a day, subjecting his
body to long periods of intermittent fasting daily and did not lose
muscle mass. For the effects of autophagy to kick in, I’ve read
different time frames for refraining from eating and drinking any liquid
but water during intermittent fasting, with some periods as short as
12-hours (so yes, coffee addicts, this means that if you wake up and
drink a cup of coffee, this consumption marks your “eating” period, as
no liquid consumption but water is allowed during your intermittent
fasting period). However, to really be effective, I believe that your
intermittent fasting period should be 15-hours, not 12-hours at a
minimum, and I always aim for either a 16 or 17-hour daily intermittent
fasting period.
In
any event, I have never felt better physically in my life since I
committed to my fasting regime and can only recall being sick for a few
days, with nothing more than a common cold, for the past year-and-a-half
of my life. I know that my account above is purely anecdotal, but if
you need a more scientific-grounded basis for starting your own fasting
regime, merely read Dr. Ohsumi’s papers on autophagy.
I believe that all of us should strive to learn throughout the course
of our entire lives, and this topic makes a fine subject about which to
learn more regarding its ability to significantly increase the quality
of your life.
