Big Pharma Won’t Tell You That
Fasting Works Miracles
On Your Brain/Body
(M. Javed Naseem)
“If people fast, the food industry loses money.
What about the pharmaceutical industries?
What if people do some intermittent fasting,
exercise periodically and are very healthy;
is the pharmaceutical industry going to
make any money on healthy people?”
--- Dr. Mark Mattson, PhD
Fasting is extremely beneficial for your physical and spiritual well-being. Unfortunately, the biased media has dubbed it as a Muslim religious ritual (referring to Ramadan) only thus taking away all the health benefits your body can derive from it. Fasting is good for the body and the soul. It’s not only materially beneficial, it’s also a godly act. It’s good for the entire mankind though it’s now obligatory for Muslims only. But all scriptures show that all Messengers or Prophets of God (like Abraham, Moses, Jesus, etc.) used to fast. And there’s a strong possibility that their followers did the same. The Quran says that fasting was as well obligatory for all other nations as it is obligatory for Muslims.
‘Fasting shifts stem cells from a dormant
state to a state of self-renewal. It triggers
stem cell based regeneration of an organ
or system.’ – Study
In some narrations, it is said that the Prophet (s.a.w.) used to fast twice a week (every Monday and Thursday); while in others it is said that he used to fast three days (13th, 14th and 15th) of every month. In any case, it proves the point I want to emphasize – fasting. This kind of fasting is called ‘intermittent fasting’ (i.e., not continuous).
‘Fasting twice a week could significantly
lower the risk of developing both
Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.’
-- Neuroscientists
What Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) recommended 14 centuries ago, is being discovered and researched by modern world today. Modern medical science has come up with the proof that fasting, especially intermittent fasting, works miracles on your body, particularly the brains. But the money-making Big Pharma is not interested in supporting and researching such a study. They would lose most of their clients. They want people to stay sick and suffer from all kinds of illnesses so that they could make money by selling drugs in the name of treatment. This is a trillion-dollar business. When health becomes a business, the only consideration is to boost the profits. If people are healthy, doctors and Big Pharma would not make big money. Simple!
“Intermittent fasting enhances the ability
of nerve cells to repair DNA.” – Study
Following are excerpts from an article by Arjun Walia, published December 11, 2015, by Collective Evolution:
Neuro-scientist Shows What Fasting Does To Your Brain &
Why Big Pharma Won’t Study It
Below is a TEDx talk given by Mark Mattson, the current Chief of the Laboratory of Neuroscience at the National Institute on Aging. He is also a professor of Neuroscience at The Johns Hopkins University, and one of the foremost researchers in the area of cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying multiple neuro-degenerative disorders, like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.
I chose to include ‘Big Pharma’ in the title because that’s exactly what it is. There have been countless examples of the manipulation of published research at the hands of pharmaceutical companies in recent years.
This is why Harvard Professor of Medicine Arnold Symour Relman told the world that the medical profession has been bought by the pharmaceutical industry.
It’s why Dr. Richard Horton, Editor in Chief of The Lancet, recently stated that much of the scientific literature published today is simply untrue.
It’s why Dr. Marcia Angell, former Editor in Chief of The New England Journal of Medicine, said that the “pharmaceutical industry likes to depict itself as a research-based industry, as the source of innovative drugs. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
And it’s why John Ioannidis, an epidemiologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine, published an article titled “Why Most Published Research Findings Are False” which subsequently became the most widely accessed article in the history of the Public Library of Science (PLoS).
I also chose to mention ‘Big Pharma’ because of Dr. Mattson’s comments towards the end of the video:
“Why is it that the normal diet is three meals a day plus snacks? It isn’t that it’s the healthiest eating pattern, now that’s my opinion but I think there is a lot of evidence to support that. There are a lot of pressures to have that eating pattern, there’s a lot of money involved. The food industry — are they going to make money from skipping breakfast like I did today? No, they’re going to lose money. If people fast, the food industry loses money. What about the pharmaceutical industries? What if people do some intermittent fasting, exercise periodically and are very healthy, is the pharmaceutical industry going to make any money on healthy people?”
Mark and his team have published several papers that discuss how fasting twice a week could significantly lower the risk of developing both Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.
“Dietary changes have long been known to have an effect on the brain. Children who suffer from epileptic seizures have fewer of them when placed on caloric restriction or fasts. It is believed that fasting helps kick-start protective measures that help counteract the overexcited signals that epileptic brains often exhibit. (Some children with epilepsy have also benefited from a specific high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet.) Normal brains, when overfed, can experience another kind of uncontrolled excitation, impairing the brain’s function, Mattson and another researcher reported in January in the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience.”
Fasting does good things for the brain, and this is evident by all of the beneficial neuro-chemical changes that happen in the brain when we fast. It also improves cognitive function, increases neuro-trophic factors, increases stress resistance, and reduces inflammation.
Fasting is a challenge to your brain, and your brain responds to that challenge by adapting stress response pathways which help your brain cope with stress and risk for disease. The same changes that occur in the brain during fasting mimic the changes that occur with regular exercise. They both increase the production of protein in the brain (neuro-trophic factors), which in turn promotes the growth of neurons, the connection between neurons, and the strength of synapses.
“Challenges to your brain, whether it’s intermittent fasting [or] vigorous exercise . . . is cognitive challenges. When this happens neuro-circuits are activated, levels of neuro-trophic factors increase, that promotes the growth of neurons [and] the formation and strengthening of synapses. . . .”
Fasting can also stimulate the production of new nerve cells from stem cells in the hippocampus. He also mentions ketones (an energy source for neurons), and how fasting stimulates the production of ketones and that it may also increase the number of mitochondria in neurons. Fasting also increases the number of mitochondria in nerve cells; this comes as a result of the neurons adapting to the stress of fasting (by producing more mitochondria). By increasing the number of mitochondria in the neurons, the ability for nerons to form and maintain the connections between each other also increases, thereby improving learning and memory ability.
“Intermittent fasting enhances the ability of nerve cells to repair DNA.”
The scientist also goes into the evolutionary aspect of this theory – how our ancestors adapted and were built for going long periods of time without food.
A study published in the June 5 issue of Cell Stem Cell by researchers from the University of Southern California showed that cycles of prolonged fasting protect against immune system damage and, moreover, induce immune system regeneration. They concluded that fasting shifts stem cells from a dormant state to a state of self-renewal. It triggers stem cell based regeneration of an organ or system.
A
scientific review of multiple scientific studies regarding fasting
was published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2007.
It examined a multitude of both human and animal studies and
determined that fasting is an effective way to reduce the risk of
cardiovascular disease and cancer. It also showed significant
potential in treating diabetes.
(Courtesy:
www.collective-evolution.com/2015/12/11/neuroscientist-shows-what-fasting-does-to-your-brain-why-big-pharma-wont-study-it)
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