Re: [Phys-L] Fasting Physics

[Bill Norwood <bnorwood111@gmail.com>]

Don,
- What precipitated this fast was a fall which bruised a shin bone. The
typical healing time is 1 to 12 months.
- Wanting relief from the pain and the sometimes extreme pain, and wanting
rapid healing, I opted for water-only fasting which had worked before with
a dangerous infection.
- Again this method is working very well.
- I understand that I can never be anything but an anecdote, but at the
same time I must be responsible for my own health and heed my body's
signals and obvious responses.
- I have read Joel Fuhrman MD's book, Fasting and Eating for Health and now
consider this to be an authoritative reference. And I have read plenty of
stuff online supporting Fuhrman's teaching.
- For thousands of years fasting has been mankind's universally recognized
primary method for healing. Hardly anything else was available. Fasting is
mentioned 40 times in the bible, and, no, I do not have a religious agenda
here.
- Also, the animals stop eating when they need to heal or get well.
- What you write makes it clear to me that there is no way, from either the
standpoint of a physicist's thinking or a chemist's thinking, to put
together an energy expenditure table/list which would be understandable by
any layman.
- I do not buy it.
- My reaction is that laymen should retract/block funding from the involved
academics.
Thanks,
Bill Norwood


On Fri, Mar 1, 2019, 5:34 PM John Denker via Phys-l <phys-l@mail.phys-l.org>
wrote:

> On 3/1/19 2:38 PM, Bill Norwood via Phys-l wrote:
>
> > - I am now in the 12th day of a who-knows-how-many-day fast.
>
> 😟
>
> > - Here is what I wrote. Did I get it right? Did I miss anything?
>
> >          Fasting Physics
> >
> > For a longer water-only fast, especially if not fat, one needs to
> consider
> > the various ways that maximum healing energy can be made available for
> the
> > body's healing work:
> >
> > 1. The water-only rule insures that the massive chemical and ("muscle")
> > energy expended in digestion will be reduced to essentially zero.
> >
> > 2. Overdressing 24/7, if not in a hot climate, will relieve the body of
> the
> > necessity to expend much energy in order to keep the body warm.
> >
> > 3. Limiting the exercising and walking about reduces the mechanical
> energy
> > expended.
> >
> > 4. Limiting the stress reduces the brainwork and the heart rate, both
> > organs, along with the digestive system, being major users of energy.
>
>
> Reading between the lines, I surmise that you wouldn't be
> doing this unless there was something terrible happening.
> I am very sorry to hear about that.  See recommendations
> below.
>
> As for the physics, the main thing you missed is that
> conservation of energy is not the only law of physics.
> There are, among others, 92 separate conservation laws,
> i.e. one for each chemical element.  In the absence of
> nutrition, healing of one part requires catabolysis of
> some other part(s), which is not a sustainable strategy.
>
> In addition, there are 10 essential amino acids and
> various micronutrients (aka vitamins) that cannot be
> made in the human body, but can be destroyed.  These
> give rise to a number of paraconservation laws (i.e.
> inequalities rather than equalities).  If you are not
> getting a good supply of these from food, then healing
> is out of the question and irreversible damage (including
> brain damage) becomes the relevant question.
>
> Recommendations:
> -- If this is a protest, you might want to consider other
>  forms of protest.  Long-term fasting is Not Good for you.
> -- You mentioned healing.  If you want to heal, you need
>  nutrition.  If you can't stand the thought of food, that
>  itself is a symptom of serious GI or liver disease.  If
>  you are so sick that you can't eat, you should ask about
>  Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN).
> -- If you are trying to lose weight, you still need to
>  eat a healthy balanced diet.  Make sure you get plenty
>  of protein, plenty of micronutrients, and an adequate
>  amount of fiber.  Then, to balance the energy budget,
>  exercise.  It takes a *lot* of exercise, but don't go
>  crazy all at once;  build up to it gradually.
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