Fast to Boost Your Immune System

In this issue we explore the scientific research on how fasting boosts the immune system, we have a quick start fasting guide, and we cover how fasting alone changed one person's body composition.

SCIENCE SNIPPET: Fasting Gives an Immune System Boost

With new virus variants named every week, who doesn’t want an immune system boost? And also, who doesn’t want to hear some positive health news for once?

The news I have seems almost too good to be true. That’s why I’m quoting from medical literature so extensively this week.

Two weeks ago, I explained the powerful discoveries surrounding autophagy made in the last 50 years. These centered on the body’s innate ability to repair itself when it’s deprived of food for even short periods of time. But did you know that autophagy works directly to boost the immune system as well?

In 2020, the journal Immunology Letters published an article titled “Intermittent Fasting, a Possible Priming Tool for Host Defense against SARS-CoV-2 Infection: Crosstalk among Calorie Restriction, Autophagy and Immune Response.” This review study draws conclusions from 80 studies done on fasting and immunity with implications on how fasting can help one fight COVID-19 and other viruses. The article is worth reading in full for those interested. Here we’ll address just a few of its most relevant conclusions.