Re: [Phys-L] Fasting Physics

[brian whatcott <betwys1@sbcglobal.net>]

On 3/1/2019 5:55 PM, Bill Norwood via Phys-l wrote:
> /snip/ - 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.    /snip/
I did not understand this paragraph from Bill's note supporting a 
physician's well-publicized ideas on the role of fasting on recovery 
from injuries.

It appears that the author in question, Joel Fuhrman MD wrote his book, 
Fasting and Eating for Health, after recovering from an injury sustained 
while competing in ice figure-skating, and after losing much muscle mass 
being excluded from the Olympic team in consequence of this wasting 
episode. Twelve years later, with a general practice degree in hand, he 
has by now written a number of popular dieting books featuring fasting.

 Perhaps I could mention two anecdotes which come to mind in this 
connection.   A flight instructor with whom I worked, was an enthusiast 
for natural eating and derogated the medical approach to cancer for 
example, citing poisons and problems with ionizing radiation.
 It happened that he developed a cancer in the neck, and resisted 
orthodox treatments for the reasons given. After a few months, I was 
dismayed to see he was having difficulty speaking because the now 
massive growth was pressing on his wind-pipe.
When he stopped working, I was fairly sure I was in his last days. 
Imagine my surprise when, several months later, he was working again, 
and looking very much normal and unafflicted.
I asked how he had pulled off his convincing recovery. He said that with 
his wife's insistence on his seeking medical help,
he reluctantly underwent the usual cancer therapy featuring burning 
x-rays, chemo-therapy etc, etc.

The second anecdote: two years ago, my horse, a Morgan gelding, 
presented with stumbling, wobbling, seeming deafness and semi-blindness 
and an uncharacteristic aversion to human company. These are symptoms of 
two serious horse diseases, one viral, the other due to parasitic 
invasion of the central nervous system. After examinations by two vets, 
and blood sampling for lab tests it was confirmed that the second 
alternative was implicated - a disease with a roughly 50% survival rate 
- in some cases with subsequent loss of vitality.    The horse 
recovered, as it happened. I mention the episode because when I could 
herd the horse close to a feed tray, he would eat normally, and did so 
every day.

I conclude that using evidence based therapy is still not universal, but 
using orthodox treatment is  the best alternative we have available, 
presently. What is more, my horse anecdote is opposed to the 
'thousands-of-years' observations of animals fasting to recover from 
injury or illness.

Brian W