Episode Details

From Dr. Joseph Mercola, my friend, multiple-time podcast guest, a guy who thinks way outside-the-box and seems to always be discovering some new cutting-edge way to enhance human health and longevity, and one of the world's foremost authorities on alternative health has just written a guide to using the principles of ketogenic eating, meal planning, and timing to treat disease, promote weight loss, and optimize health.

The new book is called "KetoFast: Rejuvenate Your Health with a Step-by-Step Guide to Timing Your Ketogenic Meals". In the book, he explores the profound health benefits that result when ketogenic living and well-planned fasting are combined. Topics include:

-How our food is making us sick and what we can do about it...

-The physiology and mechanisms of fasting, including stem cell activation...

-How the cyclical ketogenic diet--with fasting included--differs from the conventional keto diet...

-How fasting works and how safe it is for you...

-How regular one-day fasts support fat burning and detoxification while minimizing hunger and side effects...

-How to monitor your progress with lab tests...

-And much more...

During our discussion, you'll discover: -The fascinating history of fasting among different religions and cultures...8:25

• Dr. Mercola's book was originally written to learn to optimize multiple day water fasting
• Most religions integrate fasting into their practice (speaks to its efficacy throughout history)
• It's one of the best ways to express care for your spirit, especially when combined with meditation, gratitude, solitude, etc.
• Therapeutic fasting:
  • Calorie restriction to activate metabolic processes to catalyze the healing process
  • Fasting didn't become popular in the U.S. until the 1800's with the natural hygiene movement
  • Became more popular when Herbert Shelton popularized it in 1911
• TrueNorth Health Center

-Autophagy, and why Dr. Mercola thinks of a fast as a "free stem cell transplant"...16:45

• Different varieties of fasting:
  • Intermittent (the foundation)
    • Dr. Satchin Panda found that 90% of people don't do this (listen to my podcast with Dr. Panda)
  • You need more than intermittent to get the max effect of autophagy
  • Fasting mimicking diet, water diet
  • Hybrid of the two, minimize the harmful effects
• Autophagy:
  • 3 types
    • Micro
    • Macro
    • Chaperone mediated
  • You activate autophagy with the keto fast
  • Dr. Mercola does not recommend a long-term water fast
  • Free stem cell transplant is what happens during the regeneration phase, after the autophagy phase
  • The magic happens during the refeed and strength rebuilding; similar to a growth hormone injection
  • Do a 42 hour fast, in which you eat 300-500 calories 2x per week

-How fasting affects intestinal stem cell function...24:20

• Extended fasting helps reduce gut permeability by stimulating brain/gut pathways
• Consider fasting before other treatments or supplements for repairing the gut
  • Certain supplements will inhibit autophagy: colostrum, B12
• AMP-k and mTOR
  • It's your friend; The higher the better
  • A nutrient sensor
  • Puts your body in "repair mode"
  • See Saw: AMP-k up, mTOR down, vice versa