Abstract

My 4 -year experience confirms that obesity and Type II diabetes can be reversed and cured by Intermittent Fasting (IF). My years of suffering of severe pain on my left shoulder joint was also eliminated by my IF program.

In early 2017, I was overweight by more than 50 lbs, was obese, was insulin resistance, was pre-diabetes and was one of 42.4% of American adults who are obese.  I was also suffering from years of severe pain on my left shoulder joint.

By doing Intermittent Fasting by eating only one meal per day for several months in 2018, my body weight was reduced by more than 30 lbs,  my A1c blood glucose level was reduced from 6.3 % down to 5.8 %, my triglyceride was reduced from 99 down to 43, and my Remnant Cholesterol was reduced from 20 (in the O.K. range) down to 9 in the optimal range of less than 17.  My ratio of triglyceride/HDL was improved from  2.4 (in early 2017) down to 1.06 (in late 2018) such that I was not insulin resistance anymore in late 2018.  The IF program also eliminated my years of suffering of severe pain on my left shoulder joint.

Thus my personal experience plus valuable experience of many other people confirm that Intermittent Fasting is quite effective and doable by many people to reverse and to cure the chronic health problems of obesity and Type II diabetes. 

I started in 2017 and am continuing the Intermittent Fasting program for more than 4 years now to improve my health further.

In addition to IF program, I switched my diet from Low-Fat High-Carb diet to Low-Carb Healthy-Fat diet (i.e., Ketogenic diet) in mid-November 2010. My fasting blood test on March 10, 2011 indicates that my ratio of triglyceride/HDL has dropped further down to 0.84 which is even better.

Furthermore, more than 40 years of clinical experience of several specialized doctors, several medical institutions and many thousands of patients in Russia, in Germany and in California, USA indicate that extended fasting (for multiple days with water but no solid food) under medical supervision can reverse and cure not only Type II diabetes but also many other dreadful chronic diseases.  In other words, extended Fasting activates two important mechanisms of autophagy and stem cell to  reset, rebuild and reboot the patient's body from the chronic diseased state back to normal healthy state.

Some people tried but could not continue the Intermittent Fasting program because of the powerful problems of hunger and food cravings. Section 8 describes several effective methods to overcome the problems of hunger and food cravings during Intermittent Fasting.  These methods came from several specialized doctors and many people who have many years of extensive experience and in-depth knowledge on Intermittent Fasting.

After eating two meals per day in 2017 and only one meal per day for more than 3 years since 2018, I am not skinny and weak, I am still strong, slightly over-weight but not obese. My current health conditions are much better than my conditions 4 years ago in 2017 when I was obese with severe pain on my left shoulder joint. So, do not be afraid of Intermittent Fasting. 

By eating only One Meal A Day (OMAD), one can afford to buy the absolute best quality foods for that one delicious meal per day. 

1. My Initial Condition in Early 2017

In early 2017, my body weight was 215 lbs. which was not just over weight but was obese. My blood test A1C glucose level was 6.3 % which was pre-diabetics and was close to the threshold (6.4) of diabetic. My triglyceride was 99 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) and my HDL was 41 mg/dL. My ratio of triglyceride/HDL was 2.41 which exceeded the threshold of 1.5 and was an indication that I was insulin resistance according to Professor Benjamin Bikman.

I had also been suffering from severe pain on my left shoulder joint for several years. The doctor sent me to take X-ray which show nothing wrong with shoulder joint. Then sent me to do physical therapy for several months but were not much helpful on my joint pain.

According to the data from 2018 CDC, 42.4% of American adults are obese in 2018 and the trend has been increasing steadily year by year.  It was only 14% in 1970s in USA. This bad upward trend of obesity is one of the contributors to the sad downward trend of decreasing life expectancy of Americans in recent few  years. So, in early 2017, I was one of that 42.4 % of American adults who are obese. 

In 2020, 52 % of American adults (more than 120 millions) are diabetes or prediabetes.

Furthermore, Worldwide obesity has nearly tripled since 1975.

As a contrast, only 4 % of Japanese population is obese. This may be one of the key contributors  to the fact that the life expectancy of Japanese is longer than that of American by 6 years.

2. Potentially Fatal Complications of Obesity

Obesity can lead to several fatal diseases, such as heart attack, stroke, some cancers (with 300% higher cancer risk because excess insulin in diabetes is cancer promoter.), diabetes (which can lead to more complications such as  eye damage (retinopathy), blindness, kidney damage (nephropathy), kidney failure, brain failures (dementia, Alzheimer's ) due to Type III diabetes in the brain, nerve damages (neuropathy), gouty arthritis, carpal tunnel, plantar fasciitis,  foot damage (ulcers) or amputation of legs), tooth loss and other oral diseases, tinnitus and hearing impairment,  higher blood pressure and its complications, etc. For example, 

• 50% of diabetics die of a heart attack or a stroke.

• Diabetes is the #1 cause of blindness in America.

• 30% of Diabetics will develop long-term kidney disease.

• More than 60% of non-traumatic lower leg amputations takes place in diabetics.

• People with diabetes are twice as likely to suffer from mental health issues such as depression.

• It’s estimated that every 30 seconds, one leg is amputated because of diabetes.

Furthermore, stroke is the #1 cause of disability. One stroke can put you in a wheelchair, needing someone to change your diapers for decades. 

The number two cause of cancer – from the National Institutes of Health and the NCI (National Cancer Institute) – is obesity. 

New research out of the UK has found that obesity now causes more cases of four common cancers than smoking does. Bowel, kidney, ovarian and liver cancers are more likely to have been caused by being overweight than by smoking tobacco.

3. Measurable Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

3.1. Reduced Body Weight, Blood Glucose and Triglyceride

In last few months in 2018 which is the Phase II of my Intermittent Fasting Program, I have been eating only one meal (Lunch) per day. In each day, I do not eat any solid food or any snacks except for the good, delicious and very enjoyable lunch. I do drink lots of water, green tea, lemon juice water, or some Kombucha tea (for live probiotic) throughout the day. After several months of one-meal per day Intermittent Fasting, my body weight has dropped by at least 30 lbs. My A1c has dropped from 6.3 to 5.8. My triglyceride has dropped from 99 down to 47 which is considered perfectly normal—ideal. The optimal range for triglycerides is less than 80 mg/dL.  My HDL was 44 mg/dL.

3.1.1. IF + Keto Diet is effective to reduce the risk of heart disease

The information from recent medical research in here, here and here indicates that the ratio of triglycerides to HDL-cholesterol is a powerful independent indicator of extent of insulin resistance and heart disease. My ratio of triglyceride/HDL was only 1.06 which is less than the threshold of 1.5 and is an indication that I was insulin sensitive (i.e., not insulin resistance) in late 2018.

In addition to my IF program, I switched my diet from Low-Fat High-Carb diet to Low-Carb High-Fat diet (i.e., Ketogenic diet) in mid-November 2010. My fasting blood test on March 10, 2011 indicates that my ratio of triglyceride/HDL has dropped further down to 0.84 which is even better. 

It is amazing that IF + Keto Diet can provide so much improvement on this ratio (from 2.4 down to 0.84). It is a proof that drug is not the only way to reduce the risk of heart disease. IF + Keto Diet is even more  effective to reduce the risk of heart disease without many serious bad side effects of drugs.

After the weight loss of 30 lbs by eating only one meal a day for several months, I am still overweight, but not obese. The Intermittent Fasting program did not make me into a skinny and weak person.

3.2.  Improvement in Remnant Cholesterol

For many years, my cholesterol has always been in normal range and has not been affected much by the Intermittent Fasting. However, recent medical research indicates that the critical factor to watch is Remnant Cholesterol which is defined as the Total Cholesterol minus HDL and minus LDL. My Remnant Cholesterol was 20 mg/dL on Dec 7, 2016 (before Intermittent Fasting) and was 9 mg/dL on Sept 5, 2018 (after several months of Intermittent Fasting). So, several months of Intermittent Fasting has improved and reduced my Remnant Cholesterol from 20 (in the O.K. range) down to 9 in the optimal range of less than 17. 

Four months after I switched my diet from Low-Fat High-Carb diet to Low-Carb High-Fat diet (i.e., Ketogenic diet), my blood test on March 10, 2021 indicates that my Remnant Cholesterol has dropped down to 8 which is the lowest and my best since 2016.

The Remnant Cholesterol is explained by Dr. Eric Berg, DC, in the following website:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN9TEfqTMiE&t=36s

and in the following Wikipedia website:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remnant_cholesterol

I am still continuing the Intermittent Fasting hoping to reduce my body weight further down closer to the normal range, which is expected to reduce my A1C down closer to the normal range. 

3.3. Great Relief from Severe Pain on Shoulder Joint

During these four years of doing Intermittent Fasting, I noticed that the severe pain on my left shoulder joint were gradually decreasing and eventually disappeared all together. I am so happy that the severe pain on my left shoulder joint for several years is all gone now. What a great relief after several years of suffering. 

3.4. Health Benefits of Intermittent Fasting from My Experience

My 4-year of experience confirms that: 

3.4.1. Intermittent Fasting (IF) is effective to reverse and to cure obesity and diabetes

3.4.2. IF can prevent several fatal diseases caused by obesity and diabetes

3.4.3. IF cured my problem of several pain on my left shoulder joint

3.4.4. Thank God for the precious Nobel Prized gift of healing power of autophagy activated after long hours (> 18 hours) of Fasting.

4. My Intermittent Fasting Programs and Experience

4.1. Phase I Program of Warm Up Training in 2017

In 2017, I started by skipping breakfast and eating two meals (lunch and dinner) per day. After several months on this Phase I program, my body weight was reduced by only about 10 lbs but would not go down further. I was overweight by more than 50 lbs and needed to reduce my weight by 50 lbs or more. So, those several months of 2-meal per day Intermittent Fasting in 2017 can be considered only as a warm up exercise to train my body to get used to about 17 hours of fasting (from dinner time to the lunch time of the following day) per day. After several months of such warm-up training, my body had been tuned up to be able to handle 17 hours of fasting without solid foods. By 2018, I was ready to move on to the Phase II program of Intermittent Fasting by eating only One Meal A Day (OMAD) with fasting period of more than 20 hours per day.

4.2. Phase II Program of One Meal A Day (OMAD) in 2018

In my Phase II  Intermittent Fasting program in 2018, the first thing I do immediately after getting up in the morning is to drink lots of water.

The one meal that I eat every day is a very nutritious good meal including meat (beef, or chicken, or fish, or duck, etc.), lots of many kinds with many colors of vegetables and fruits, but reduced intake of carbohydrate. It is a very delicious and enjoyable meal with good quantity and nutrition. I do not limit the portion size and do not count calories. I just enjoy this very delicious single meal until I am full, then stop. I also eat some fermented raw unpasteurized vegetables, such as raw sauerkraut, Kimchi, pickles,  etc. or Probiotic Supplement for good probiotics to maintain my healthy digestion system (i.e., to avoid Leaky Gut related problems). 

4.2.1. Long Fasting Hours to Burn Off Excess Body Fat 

One of several benefits of long fasting hours is to stimulate my body to switch my metabolism in my body from the energy source of glucose/carbohydrate to the energy source of fat/ketone to burn off the excess fat in my obese body. In other words, during the long fasting hours, my body is getting the necessary energy to sustain the important life functions by burning off the excess fat/ketone in my obese body because of the lack of food intake in the long fasting hours each day.  When our body does not have enough food intake for our cells to burn for energy, our body will burn fat instead. For this purpose, our liver breakdown our stored fat into ketones for use as energy source for our cells. 

The health benefits of such switch in energy source are (a) Reduced obesity and its associated health problems (see Section 2), (b) excess fat inside many cells in our body and clogging up the pancreas are the root cause of insulin resistance and of diabetes. Burning off the excess fat inside these cells and in pancreas eliminates the root cause and enables reversing and curing the Type II diabetic disease, and (c) Fat/Ketone is a cleaner energy source as compared to glucose/carbohydrate as energy source. In other words, burning glucose to get the necessary energy produces much more waste and free radicals than burning fat/ketone to get the same energy. More waste and more free radicals from burning glucose mean more damages to our body and it requires more energy to clean up and to repair. 

For people with Type 2 diabetes, losing enough weight allows them to drain excess fat out of the pancreas and to restore insulin sensitivity to regulate blood glucose level properly.

4.2.2. Long Fasting Hours To Activate Autophagy To Heal The Damaged Cells

The second purpose of skipping two meals every day is to provide enough fasting hours (>18 hours) to activate autophagy (to be explained later in Section 6) to do its important rejuvenation work on each and every cell in my body. Without the heavy burden of digestion of the two skipped meals in the long fasting hours per day, autophagy has more time and energy to focus on its important rejuvenation work on my body. I do not eat any solid food or snack (not even vegetables or fruits) during the long fasting hours (more than than 20 hours every day) to avoid interfering with the important healing function of autophagy. 

Long fasting hours everyday will drain the excess fat, unclog stubborn fat in the pancreas and autophagy will jumpstart the pancreas back to its normal function. This is a natural way to reverse Type 2 Diabetes and pre-diabetes conditions.

4.2.3. Some People Eat Several Times per Day of Small Meals

Some people are unaware of the great benefits of Autophagy and mis-understand that the benefits of Intermittent Fasting come solely from restricted calorie intake.  So, they eat 3 or more meals per day with very small meals hoping to achieve the same benefits of Intermittent Fasting. However, eating several meals per day essentially suppress the healing function of autophagy such that  the Type 2 Diabetes disease cannot be reversed and cannot be cured. 

Autophagy kicks in into high gear only after about 18 hours or more of fasting. So, eating several meals everyday does not provide enough fasting hours for autophagy to kick in into high gear.

In fact, for hardcore  full brown Type II diabetes patients who have been diabetic for many years, the specialized doctor with good experience on Intermittent Fasting may have to use extended fasting period of multiple days with no solid food on such hardcore patients so that autophagy has enough time to do the heavy duty rejuvenating work to reverse and to cure such hardcore diabetes disease.

4.3. Regular Exercise as Part of My Weight Loss Program

When the weather is good, I do about one hour of outdoor walking exercise twice everyday, once in the morning and the second time in late afternoon. One of my hobbies is photography. So, I often carry my compact super-zoom camera with me while I am doing walking exercise. In this way, I got some very nice photos of spectacular sunset views, beautiful spring flowers, or wildlife in actions, such as birds, wild turkeys, deer, coyote, etc.

But if it is a raining day or too cold outdoor, then I do indoor Work-Out exercise following the "Tae Bo - Basics Work-Out" by Billy Blanks which is available on YouTube website at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY74yNqslNE

I use a PC to access this YouTube video on Internet for me to follow in doing the exercise. It is also possible to use Google Chromecast to cast YouTube video on the PC screen onto a large screen TV for me to follow to do the indoor exercise.

5. My Motivation and Will Power for Intermittent Fasting

5.1. Good Medical References on Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

My strong motivation and will power for doing Intermittent Fasting seriously come from the two important medical references on important health benefits of Intermittent Fasting by Dr. Jason Fung, MD who has many years of extensive clinical experience, many success stories and data:

A. "How to renew your body: Fasting and Autophagy" by Dr. Jason Fung, MD, at the following website:

https://www.dietdoctor.com/renew-body-fasting-autophagy

B. The 300-page book entitled "The Complete Guide to Fasting" by Dr. Jason Fung, MD, and Jimmy Moore. This book can be ordered from Amazon website.

5.2. Additional Motivation Driven by Concern on Potentially Fatal Complications of Obesity

Another strong driving force for doing Intermittent Fasting is the concern on the potentially fatal complications of obesity as described in Section 2.

6. Health Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

6. .1. Nobel Prize for Discovery of Autophagy

Professor Yoshinori Ohsumi (大隅良典 ) received Nobel Prize in 2016 for his important discovery of Autophagy (有自我修復身體的憯能) which is the Holy Grail to achieving good health.  Many medical researchers have also been doing intensive research and publishing many medical papers every year on autophagy.

The best explanation for autophagy is by Dr.  Jason Fung in the Article A listed in Section 5.1.  

Autophagy is our intrinsic mechanism in our body to detox, to heal and to rejuvenate our sick cells at sub-cellular level so that sick cells can become healthy cells again and our sick organs can become healthy and normal organs again.  We thank God for this the precious Nobel prized  gift of autophagy of self healing power within each of us. 

More details on my understanding of the benefits and mechanism of autophagy are described in my companion website here.

However, it takes 18 or more hours of continuous fasting in order to activate/kick autophagy into high gear in our body.

Dr. Jason Fung has cured thousands of Type 2 diabetic patients by using Intermittent Fasting with intrinsic autophagy healing power. His many years of extensive clinical experience, success stories and associated medical data are described in his 300-page book listed in Reference B in Section 5.1. above. After being cured, the healed person does not have to take diabetic medication any more, thank God for the precious Nobel Prized gift of self-healing power of autophagy, The Power to Heal from Within. 

According to Ayurveda (India) - Fasting is the highest medicine. Ayurveda has a long tradition of utilizing fasting as a vital practice for maintaining and regaining health. 

Aside from maintaining your cell’s youth, research has shown that intermittent Fasting promotes greater energy, increased fat-burning and decreases the risk of diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, all due to its ability to activate/kick  autophagy into high gear. 

More explanation for Autophagy and Fasting by Dr. Boz [Annette Bosworth, MD] can be seen in the following YouTube website:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDzIbkyr5QQ

More good explanation of autophagy and its health benefits can be seen at the following websites:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl8k2ncIQMc 

https://primalsourcenews.com/the-benefits-of-autophagy/?cid=Con-Autophagy-12122018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl8k2ncIQMc

6.2. Problems of Eating Three or More Meals Per Day

As a contrast, if we eat three meals or more meals every day, then our body is constantly and busily using lots of energy to digest those extra foods and to convert and to store those excess foods as unwanted fat in our obese body. If we are constantly eating, it doesn’t give our cells a chance to repair and to clean up the waste and toxins they have accumulated. The bad consequence is that (I) autophagy does not get enough energy and enough time to do its important rejuvenation work on our body, (II) pushing more unwanted fat into many cells in our body just intensifies the root cause of insulin resistance and diabetes and (III) eating junk food frequently even in small amount will trigger pancreas to release insulin into our blood stream frequently. Insulin prevents fat burning such that we cannot lose excess weight. This means that our obesity problem, diabetes problem and their associated health problems will be getting worse and worse if we keep on eating frequently and do not do suitable Intermittent Fasting to give autophagy a chance to do its important healing job. With muted autophagy comes accelerated aging and disease. This is why 42.4% of American adults are obese and the percentage has been increasing steadily year by year. We need Intermittent Fasting with autophagy to break this bad downward spiral of obesity and its associated fatal complications.

6.3. Longer and Healthier Life

Recent Harvard study published in the journal Cell Metabolism   and the research results from Professor Valter Longo , Professor of Gerontology and Biological Sciences and Director of the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California, consistently confirm that Intermittent Fasting with Autophagy can lead to longer and healthier life.

6.4. Even More Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

A more detailed description of 23 benefits of One Meal A Day (OMAD)  Intermittent Fasting is presented by Dr. Eric Berg, DC, is in the following YouTube website:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7RuGvMJndg

Intermittent Fasting is also very beneficial to boost the brain health as described by Dr. Mike VanDerschelden, DC, in the following YouTube video presentation:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl8Wgrrjrto&from=groupmessage&isappinstalled=0&app=desktop

6.5. My Personal Experience on my Waist Line

Over last 15 years, my body weight and my waist line were increasing steadily such that I have about 10 old long pants which became unusable because they became too tight for my obese body. But those old long pants are still in very good condition and have been laying idling in my home. 

Now I have reduced my body weight by more than 30 lbs. and have also reduced my waist line substantially. Then, all those old long pants become usable again. 

I also had to go to a Shoe Repair Shop to ask the handyman to punch two more holes on my belt with a cost of two dollars because I am running out of the holes on my belt as I tighten my belt to fit my shrinking waist line. 

By skipping two meals every day, I find myself having more time to do many other interesting and productive activities. My cost of buying foods in supermarkets also goes down substantially. 

Why do we want to spend extra money to buy and to eat those unnecessary  extra foods to become unwanted extra fat stored in our obese body?

7. Variations in Intermittent Fasting Program

It is noted that there are many variations in the program of Intermittent Fasting.  

For example, if you go with 16/8, you'll fast for 16 hours, then eat all your daily foods in an eight-hour window; with 5/2, you get five days of unrestricted eating followed by two days of consuming only 500 calories each day. 

8. Issues of Hunger or Food Cravings or Ill Feeling During Intermittent Fasting

About 38 % of beginners of Intermittent Fasting (IF) program dropout because they do not know how to overcome the problem of hunger or food cravings or ill feeling during IF.

On the other hand, thousands of people have been doing IF successfully for many years with good experience on how to overcome the problems of hunger or food craving or ill feeling during IF. Several specialized doctors have also accumulated lots of knowledge and valuable experience on how to overcome problems of hunger or food craving or ill feeling during IF based on their interactions with large number of their patients.

The good solutions to overcome these problems are described in the following:

8.1. Effective Methods to handle Hunger and Food Cravings During Intermittent Fasting

8.1.1. Solution 1 is to switch from High Carb Low-Fat Diet to Low-Carb High-Fat Diet (i.e. ketogenic diet).  

It is very effective to eliminate the problems of hunger and food cravings if  you reduce or eliminate carbohydrate and sugary sweets from your food and replace them by good and healthy fats/oils, plant-based protein, animal-based protein and suitable vegetables and fruits. 

8.1.1.1. Problems of High Carbohydrate Diet with Sugary Sweets

Some examples of carbohydrate to avoid are:  no starch food, no bread, no rice, no cereal, no pasta, no noodle, no potato, no corn, no French fries, no crackers, no chips, no pizza, no pretzel, no cheetos, no doritos, etc.

Some examples of sugary sweets to avoid are: sugar, pastry,  sugary drinks, sodas, juices, puddings, cupcakes, doughnuts, muffins, maple syrup, corn syrup, molasses, sucrose, fructose, desserts, cookies,  brownies, candy, cakes, pies, ice cream, sugary additives in many foods, cheap chocolate bars with lots of added sugar, canned fruits with lots of added sugar, etc.

Eating high carbohydrate diet with sugary sweets will drive up insulin level in the blood and increase the fat stored in the body. More stored fat will produce more leptin which will signal the brain to stop eating. But higher level of insulin blocks the brain from seeing the signal from leptin. So, the high carb eater and high sugar eater will feel still very hungry and want to eat more. High carb and sugar diet drives up insulin level and high insulin levels destroy satiety mechanisms (Leptin not seen by the brain). So, you are often very hungry on high-carb high-sugar diet! It is a vicious cycle to make you very fat and sick.

Doesn’t it feel so sinfully good when you dig into a bag of your favorite guilty-pleasure “treats” after a long, stressful day? Once you started, you often couldn’t stop. Deep down you KNEW you needed to stop eating like this... but you couldn’t control yourself.

8.1.1.2. Benefits of High Fat Diet with Protein and Vegetables

Some examples of good and healthy fats/oils are avocado, real butter, olive oil, fatty fish, coconut oil, MCT (medium-chain triglycerides) oil, some nuts, tofu, egg, etc.  

According to Dr. Steven Gundry, MD and Cardiology Surgeon, olive oil is the most important contributor to the great health benefits of the famous Mediterranean diet. Good olive oil is a fat fighter. Good olive oil helps your body lose weight in addition to providing several other important health benefits. Dr. Gundry encourages people to use more olive oil on their diet.

Eating good and healthy fat will not increase the insulin level. Without blocking effect of high insulin level, the brain can easily receive the leptin signal from the fat to stop eating. So, good fat eater feels full more easily and will not be driven by the crazy hunger and food cravings.

In addition to supplying your body with essential fatty acids, these good and healthy fats and oils make you feel full longer as well as make junk food cravings disappear. 

Your feeling when you switch from low-fat high-carb diet to keto generic diet: 

With traditional low-fat high-carb diet, I am feeling hungry all day long and food is constantly in my mind. 

The ketogenic diet has completely eliminated this hungry problem, I actuary never feel hungry in this way of eating! 

My excess body weight is literally melting off my body. 

It is actually amazing watching my body transform into something I am actually proud of rather than something I have always tried to cover up. 

Some examples of animal-based protein are many kinds of meat, many kinds of fish/seafood, chicken, turkey, duck, goose, etc.

Some examples of plant-based protein are nuts, black bean, flaxseed, Hemp seed, Tofu, Tempeh, peanut butter, lentil, chickpea, most varieties of beans, Edamame, green peas, Spirulina, soymilk, etc.

So, there are many kinds of delicious foods, vegetables and fruits that you can enjoy even after you eliminate all carbohydrate and sugary sweets.

More details on the benefits of switching from Low-Fat High-Carb diet to ketogenic diet are in Section 10 below and from several highly experienced doctors in IF field as described in the following presentations: 

"Starving & Extremely Hungry on Intermittent Fasting?" by Dr. Eric Berg  DC,

"7 Great Benefits of the Ketogenic Diet" by Dr.  Ken D. Berry, MD,

"Conquer Hunger & Cravings" by Professor Susan Peirce Thompson, Ph.D. ,

"ProPlant: Plant based Protein" by Dr. Steven Gundry MD. 

Dr. Amy Lee , MD, also provided detailed description of many health benefits of eating healthy saturated fat.

8.1.1.3. Motivation to Switch Diet

Some people may feel that such switch of diet from Low-Fat High-Carb diet to High-Fat Low-Carb diet is too drastic just for the purpose of overcoming the problem of hunger. With such feeling, some people may not be willing to switch their diet. These people need to know that some doctors have been using such switch of diet to reverse and to cure the diabetes disease of their patients successfully as described in here, here, and here. Therefore, such switch of diet is good not only for overcoming problem of hunger but is also an effective and powerful method to cure or to prevent diabetes and many other diseases associated with diabetes. 

Such switch of diet goes hand-in-hand with Intermittent Fasting to work synergistically to cure diabetes disease very effectively.

8.1.2. Solution 2 is to Improve Your Gut Health to Eliminate Crazy Food Craving

(Source: https://www.ascent2health.com/blog/are-gut-bacteria-to-blame-for-food-cravings)

According to Dr. Steven Gundry, MD, over growth of bad bacteria in your gut can drive up your craving for junk foods. More details can be seen here . The suggested solutions are to improve your gut health by improving balanced diversity of various kinds of bacteria in the gut.  This can be achieved by (1) eating good source of probiotic frequently such as raw sauerkraut, Kimchi, or drink Kombucha tea, (2) Taking good broad spectrum probiotics supplement may help increase the microbial diversity of your gut, leading to decreased food cravings. and (3) Taking pre-biotic supplement to feed the good bacteria and to suppress the bad bacteria in the gut. Once the gut bacteria (microbiome) is balanced by Probiotic and pre-biotic, the craving for junk foods will disappear as explained in the following.

The prevalence of neurons in our gastrointestinal (GI) tract has led to its nickname, the “second brain.” The gut and the brain in your skull are connected by the gut-brain axis. This axis is a bi-directional communication system that links the nervous system of the gut with the nervous system of your brain.  The biochemical substances produced by gut bacteria may influence eating behavior in the host by affecting the host’s appetite, satiety, and food cravings.

8.1.3. Solution 3 is to Improve Gut Health by Avoiding the problems of Lectins

According to Dr. Steven Gundry, MD, some plant-based foods contain lectins which can cause "leaky gut" to damage your gut health.  The leaky gut can then lead to many health problems including the crazy food craving described in Section 8.1.2. above. For example, one of the lectins is the well known gluten which can cause very serious allergic reaction on some people. In essence, some plants do not want to be eaten. As a self-defense, they produce lectin to discourage animals from eating them. Eating lectin may kill some small insects immediately. However, eating lectin will not kill a human being immediately, but can cause leaky gut leading into many health problems.

The solutions to lectin problem are (1) to avoid eating those plant foods that contain lectins, (2) to cook those plant food in pressure cooker to destroy some lectins or (3) to take "Lectin Shield Supplement" or its equivalent to neutralize the bad effects of lectin. More information can be seen in the following website:

"Health Problems Caused by Toxic Lectins in Plant Food" by Dr. Steven Gundry MD. 

8.1.4. Solution for My Long Term Problems of Unhealthy Gut

I had been suffering from the problems of unhealthy gut for more than 20 years. I went to see doctors for my gut problems and was told that I had Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). I asked doctors about the root cause of IBS and was told that the root cause for IBS is not well understood. 

A few years ago, I was very happy to know that the medical researchers have made tremendous progress in recent few years in the science on the  Microbiome in our gut,  root causes of leaky gut and health benefits of probiotics on our gut. Such fantastic progress in medical science produced the very effective solutions in Sections 8.1.2 and 8.1.3. which eliminated my long term suffering of IBS. Therefore, I have been doing the solutions in Sections 8.1.2 and 8.1.3. for several years to avoid the problems of IBS. I have been doing solutions in Sections 8.1.2. and 8.1.3. several years before I started my Intermittent Fasting program.

It turns out that when I started my Intermittent Fasting program  in 2007/2008 time frame, I did not run into serious problem of hunger probably  because I have already been doing solutions 8.1.2. and 8.1.3. for two or three years and am continuing such solutions now and into future.

In other words, solutions 8.1.2. and 8.1.3. are good not only for the purpose of overcoming the problems of hunger in IF program, but also for healthy gut which is important for good health in general because leaky gut and IBS can lead into many other nasty health problems.

8.1.5. Increase Fasting Hours Slowly and Gradually to Give Your Body More Time To Adapt and Adjust

Some people are healthy, have no insulin resistance, are metabolically healthy, have metabolic flexibility to switch easily between glucose burning mode and fat burning mode. These people can cut out breakfast or dinner or both breakfast and dinner easily and abruptly without ill feeling because when glucose is not available in their blood stream, these healthy people can switch to fat burning mode easily to burn the fat stored in their bodies for the necessary energy.

On the other hand, some people are not healthy, have insulin resistance, lack metabolic flexibility and cannot switch easily between glucose burning mode and fat burning mode. The excess insulin in their blood stream shuts off the fat burning mode. These unhealthy people have addicted to high-carb diet for many years, have been using glucose burning mode for many years and have left their fat burning to become very weak for many years. So, when glucose is not available in the long fasting hours, these unhealthy people cannot switch to fat burning mode easily to get the necessary energy by burning the fat stored in their bodies. Their weak fat burning mode have been idled for too many years and cannot get up to speed quickly to provide the necessary energy by burning fat stored in their bodies. 

These unhealthy people need more time for their unhealthy body to adapt and adjust to increase fasting hours gradually. So, for such unhealthy people as the beginners of Intermittent Fasting, do not cut out breakfast or dinner abruptly. The key words for such unhealthy people is to increase their fasting hours slowly and gradually. Give their unhealthy body more time to adept and adjust gradually. 

For example, if their first goal is to eliminate breakfast, instead of cutting out breakfast abruptly, they can move their breakfast time from 8 AM to 9 AM to increase the fasting hours by one hour. Do such 9 AM breakfast for a few weeks until their body adjusted well and felt comfortable. Then move their breakfast time to 10 AM for a few weeks. Then move the breakfast time to 11 AM. Eventually, the breakfast time and the lunch time merged effectively cutting out the breakfast through several months of gradual adjustment. 

Similarly, these people can also cut out the dinner by moving the dinner time through several months of gradual adjustments. In this way, the unhealthy people may be able to cut out both breakfast and dinner and eating only One Meal A Day (OMAD) through several months of increasing the fasting hours slowly and gradually.  

8.1.6.  Solution to Improve Quality of Your Sleep

According to Dr.  Eric Berg. DC, poor sleep can alter blood sugars and increase hunger, food cravings and body weight. So, improving quality of your sleep can reduce your hunger. The recommendation on how to improve the quality and length of your sleep by Dr. Eric Berg is in the following YouTube presentation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=mfgpEVroBPU

8.1.7. More Tips

If you have implemented solutions described in Sections 8.1.1 to 8.1.5, then the problems will be greatly diminished and the following additional tips may also be useful:

Green tea catechins also help to regulate ghrelin, otherwise known as the hunger hormone (13).  If you struggle with fasting because of hunger pangs, green tea can reduce those pangs and help make your fast more successful.

Apple cider vinegar (ACV) is also shown to be useful in making you feel fuller for longer and reducing your appetite.  Diluting 1-2 tbsp of ACV in water and drinking it before meals. 

Put a pinch of salt under your tongue.

Drink salt water, or lemon water. Sometimes I use pink Himalaya salt which contains not only salt but also some other trace minerals which may be also essential for good health.

Turmeric has the unique ability to boost a Nobel-prize winning molecule called Nerve Growth Factor.

When you’re stressed the body increases a hunger receptor known as 2-AG.

This is what triggers you to crave certain foods and sugary sweets.

But nerve growth factor in turmeric BLOCKS 2-AG...

So you can control your hunger, emotional eating and sugar craving even when you’re stressed by using turmeric. Hunger and cravings subside. 

Even if you’re suffering from a lack of sleep. 

In the morning, some people drink bulletproof coffee or Keto Coffee to silence the food craving during Intermittent Fasting.   The bulletproof coffee has no sugar, no cream, no carbohydrate, but has small amount of real butter or MCT oil or coconut oil. In multiple studies, 4 cups of coffee a day has proven to cut the risk of diabetes by as much as 56%. The real butter in bulletproof coffee provide the health benefits described in the paragraphs above.

8.2. Good Feeling of Hunger

Some friends asked me if I feel hungry during the long fasting hours when I am doing Intermittent Fasting by eating only One Meal A Day (OMAD). My answer is yes, I do feel hungry and I feel very good about it because it is a good reminder that Autophagy is doing its important rejuvenation work inside each and every cell in my body, and the glycogen and the excess fat in many cells in my body are being burned off to eliminate the root cause of insulin resistance and of diabetes. All these good things during fasting and hungry hours are protecting me from obesity, from diabetes and from all the potentially deadly complications of obesity and diabetes. So, I feel very good about the hungry feeling during the long fasting hours (> 20 hours) each day. With such hungry feeling, I look forward to enjoy very much that one very delicious meal every day. 

However, it is noted that I have been doing solutions described in Sections 8.1.1, 8.1.2 and 8.1.3. which diminish the problems of hunger and food craving greatly such that I am able to feel good about the remaining tolerable small problem of hunger and food craving by my will power.

People who are experienced in Intermittent Fasting know that the feeling of hungry is NOT constant. It may be very strong initially. But after couple hours, the intensity of hungry feeling gradually subsides. Especially after the Phase I warm up training program in 2017, my body has adapted and becomes used to the long hours of fasting. The hungry feeling is no longer that strong anymore. Chinese has a saying for such experience "餓過頭了，就不再那麼餓。"

The methods described in Section 8.1 are indeed very effective to eliminate the problems of hunger and food cravings such that I have been doing Intermittent Fasting for 4 years now and am still continuing my Intermittent Fasting program.

8.3. Some People Eat Many Small Meals Per Day - The Wrong Solution

Some people do not know good solution(s) to overcome the problem of hunger in IF program, drop out of the IF program and choose to eat a small meal whenever they feel hungry such that they eat several small meals per day. They thought that as long as their total intake of calories from their multiple meals per day is lower than that of OMAD (One Meal A Day) of IF program, they are doing equivalent IF program with the advantage of elimination of hunger problem.

The negative effects in such method of eating multiple small meals per day are the following: (1) These people usually start with the health problems of obesity, diabetes or pre-diabetes, and insulin resistance and are trying to use either IF program or calorie restriction to reduce those health problems. (2) When they eat multiple times every day, they are stimulating their pancreas to produce and to release excessive insulin into their blood stream multiple times every day. (3) Since they already have insulin resistant problem, their pancreas will pump lots of insulin into blood stream to try to force the glucose of digested small meals from the blood stream into various insulin-resistance cells in their body. (4) Eating many times per day plus insulin resistant means that lots of glucose and lots of insulin are circulating in blood stream for many hours every day. (5) Circulating glucose and excessive insulin in the blood stream for many hours every day is: 

(5A) inflammatory to the blood vessels and various internal organs for many hours every day and can lead into damages to the blood vessels and many internal organs. 

(5B) Excessive insulin is fat promotor inhibiting fat burning and promoting fat storage such that they cannot lose weight, cannot reduce their obesity problem,  cannot reduce diabetes problem and many more follow on diseases caused by diabetes.

(5C) Excess insulin blocks the satiation signal of leptin to reach the brain such that the person feel hungry all the time leading into overeating to compound the problems of diabetes.

(5D) Insulin is cancer promotor and excessive insulin can increase risk of cancer substantially.

In other words, eating multiple small meals per day is NOT a healthy solution to eliminate the problems of hunger in IF program and can lead to many health problems in (5A), (5B), (5C) and (5D). 

Furthermore, such method of multiple small meals per day blocks the amazing healing power of Nobel Prized autophagy in IF Program as described in Sections 3 to 6 because it takes 18 hours or longer of fasting  to activate autophagy and to enjoy the great health benefits of autophagy.

The bottom line is that it is worthwhile to implement the solutions 8.1.1. to 8.1.7.  to enjoy the great health benefits of IF program instead of eating multiple small meals per day with problems described in this Section.

8.4. Some People Feel Shaky When They Are Hungry

Some friends told me that they cannot do Intermittent Fasting because they feel very shaky, cold, weak and ill when they are hungry. 

There are two possible reasons for such problems: 

(a) over many years, a lot of accumulated toxin are stored with fat in the body of an obese person. When the person is hungry, the body is burning the stored fat to get the necessary energy. In this process, a lot of stored toxin are also released into the intestine and into the blood stream and are causing the feeling of shaky, cold and ill. The possible solutions are to drink lots of water, or lemon water, or water with sea-salt, or ginger water to help the body to get rid of those toxin. Therefore, doing Intermittent Fasting is also detoxifying our body by helping to flush out lots of toxins that have been accumulated over many years and have been stored with the excess fat in our body.

(b) the body of the beginner of Intermittent Fasting has not adapted well yet to burn fat for energy efficiently.  These people are metabolically sick, lack metabolic flexibility and cannot switch easily between glucose buring mode and fat burning mode. This is known as Carbohydrate Hysteresis. In other words, these people have been addicted to high carb diet.  The body may need several weeks or months of transition training to become an efficient fat burner. In other words, such people should not start on long fasting hours abruptly, and may start with a shorter fasting hours. Then gradually stretches out the fasting hours as suggested by Dr. Eric Berg, DC. and as described in Section 8.1.5.

8.5. Survivors of Cycles of Feast and Famine

In ancient time of hunting and gathering, our ancestors (cavemen) had to endure cycles of feast and famine. Ancient human bodies were forced to adapt to times of famine with food scarcity on a regular basis.  Many weak ones perished in long periods of famine and only strong ones survived long periods of famine. 

In modern days, we are the descendants of those strong ones who survived long periods of famine. We inherited those good genes of survivors. Such survivor gene enables us to store excess nutrients as body fat during periods of feast and to burn off stored fat as necessary energy for survival during periods of famine. As long as drinking enough water (i.e., properly hydrated ), a normal healthy people can survive without eating solid food for many days. For example, Mahatma Gandhi survived 21 days of complete starvation. 

If you look into the literature on Internet on Intermittent Fasting, you will realize that huge number of people have been doing Intermittent Fasting and have been gaining the benefits of healthier and longer life through Intermittent Fasting. For example, on the website of www.fastingforapurpose.com and its associated several Facebook Groups, thousands and thousands of people have been sharing and exchanging their valuable experience and knowledge on the health benefits of Intermittent Fasting. 

Some more serious people have been doing extended fasting program by fasting for multiple days continuously without eating solid food except water.  One of the benefits of such extended fasting program is to gain much greater health benefits of autophagy. In other words, we are not going to die of starvation if we skip one meal or two meals in a day. Don't be afraid of the feeling of hunger when we skip one meal or two meals in a day in doing the Intermittent Fasting.

When the body is not able to effectively regulate blood sugar, the level of blood sugar tends to swing up and down. A spike in blood sugar levels tends to be followed by a crash, causing shakiness, hunger and irritability. This causes cravings for more carbs or sugary foods and many people think this is the best way to relieve their blood sugar crash—by eating more carbs/sugary foods.

This leads into a vicious cycle that can raise blood sugar levels over time.

The best way to stabilize blood sugar and to break the vicious cycle described above is to eat low carbohydrate foods, more protein and more good and healthy fats as described in Section 8.1. This gets rid of the ‘hungries’ and helps to avoid future glucose ups and downs. Some examples of good and healthy fats are olive oil, coconut oil, avocado,  MCT (medium-chain triglyceride) oil, real butter, fish, etc. 

9. Caution for Hardcore Type II Diabetes Patients

However, hardcore full brown Type II diabetes patients, who have been diabetic for many years, may require extended fasting period with multiple days of water fasting (and no solid food for multiple days) so that autophagy have enough time to do its heavy duty rejuvenating work to reverse and to cure such hardcore Type II diabetes. 

However, doing such extended period of multiple-day water fasting safely requires the supervision and monitoring by a specialized doctor who has extensive experience and knowledge in the field of Intermittent Fasting.  As long as it is done properly and safely under the supervision of an experienced doctor, hardcore Type II diabetes can be reversed and cured by Intermittent Fasting as documented in the 300-page book by Dr. Jason Fung, MD.

Some people say that such heavy IF program with multiple days of water fasting is dangerous. It is safe if it is done under medical supervision by highly experienced special doctors in the field of IF. Such heavy duty IF has been done for thousands of patients safely and successfully by several special doctors in several countries for more than 40 years. 

But not everybody is a hardcore diabetes and not every body needs to do such heavy duty IF.

Regular IF with fasting hours less than 24 hours can be done safely by most people if the beginners pay some attention to learn some important good tips such as good solutions to overcome the challenges of hunger and food craving during  fasting hours.

10. Ketogenic Diet and Intermittent Fasting

10.1. Elimination of Sugary Sweets  and Reduced Intake of Carbohydrate

The recent results of rapid progress in medical and nutrition science indicate that regular consumption of ample quantity of sugary sweets  and carbohydrate is very bad for our health for several important reasons:

(1) Regular consumption of ample quantity of sugary sweets  and carbohydrate is a major contributor to our serious health problems of obesity and diabetes which lead to many diseases as described in Section  2. 

(2) Sugary sweets  and carbohydrate are inflammatory which is the root cause of many nasty chronic diseases and fatal diseases.

In this section, sugary sweets  includes all sweet stuff such as sugar, maple syrup, corn syrup, molasses, sucrose/fructose, candies, Lollipops, cakes, brownies, deserts, ice cream, pies, puddings, cupcakes, doughnuts, muffins, honey, etc.

Detailed explanations by Professor David M. Diamond,  Dr. Sarah Hallberg MD , Dr. Ken Berry MD, Dr. Paul Saladino MD, and  Dr. Steven Gundry MD on these health problems associated with sugar and carbohydrate can be seen here, here,  here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Another benefit of reduced intake of carbohydrate is lower risk of cancer. Carbohydrate has high glycemic index (GI) which produces higher insulin level which is a cancer promoter. Too many calories from carbohydrates increase risk for certain types of cancer like breast and colon cancer.  

Sugar and starches are major contributors that oxidize the LDL cholesterol leading to inflammation eventually leading to heart attack, stroke, or cancer after several decades of exposure. 

The 3-year study of 16 obese people by Ohio State University also demonstrated substantial health benefits of reduced intake of carbohydrate. 

According to Dr. Ken D. Berry, ketogenic diet is the most anti-inflammation diet. As is well known that chronic inflammation is the root cause of many nasty chronic diseases. By being most anti-inflammation diet, ketogenic diet can help to eliminate many nasty chronic diseases. 

According to these experts, ketogenic diet  with low carbohydrate and no sugar is also a proven method to lose excess weight and to reverse diabetes.  Therefore, ketogenic diet and Intermittent Fasting go hand in hand, making it much easier to lose excess weight and to reverse diabetes.  

Dr. Ken Berry MD said that Intermittent Fasting and Ketogenic diet together is the ultimate tool to achieve optimal health.

So, beginning in mid-October 2020, I switched my diet to ketogenic diet so that I am  now eating only one meal of ketogenic food per day. In other words, combining both Intermittent Fasting and Ketogenic diet will make it much easier to beat Diabetes and Pre-diabetes conditions, plus many possible associated diseases described in Section 2.

11. My Strong Support in this Intermittent Fasting Program

I thank my girlfriend for her strong support that is necessary for the success of my Intermittent Fasting program. She prepares and cooks very good, nutritious and delicious meal for me every day. She understands the goal of my Intermittent Fasting program and has been doing everything to help me and taking very good care of me. (My late wife passed away 25 years ago due to cancer.) With such support and care from my girlfriend, my health at my senior age of 80 has been getting better and better day by day. She is a very kind lady who has also been doing volunteer charity work in the local Senior Center to help many other senior people.

12. Amazing Work of Dr. Yi Ming Liu, MD, (劉乂鳴 醫生) in Taiwan 

Dr. Yi Ming Liu, MD, in Taiwan has also been using Intermittent Fasting and running exercise to reverse and to cure Type II diabetes for himself and for thousands of patients. Dr. Liu goes beyond Type II diabetes and has been using Intermittent Fasting and running exercise to reverse and to cure other "chronic" diseases for many patients. Some of his presentations of his work are in the following YouTube websites (in Chinese language):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JSH7LN0--k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr9iHgqHtkk

The most dramatic demonstration of self-healing power, The Power to Heal from Within, of a patient inspired by Dr. Yi Ming Liu is in the following YouTube website:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5wEpYmBbfc 

Both kidneys of this patient were removed 9 years ago and this patient requires dialysis every other day to survive with very poor quality of life. However, this patient then inspired by and learned the special method of Dr. Yi Ming Liu to stretch the time period between dialysis from 2 days to 7 days to improve greatly her quality of life. With such extension to 7 days between dialysis, she is now able to enjoy international traveling for sightseeing plus many other interesting activities.

13. Amazing Work on Extended (Prolonged) Fasting in Russia, Germany and California, USA

Please watch this excellent 56-minute Video on YouTube entitled 

"Science of Fasting" at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1b08X-GvRs

It shows that special doctors, special medical institutions and many thousands of patients in Russia and in Germany have more than 40 years of experience and research on using extended fasting (for multiple days) under the supervision of experienced doctor to reverse and to cure several dreadful chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma, gout, allergies, chronic joint pain, arthritis, rheumatism, obesity, depression, mental disorder/illness, cardiac disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, endocrine disorders, digestive disorders, bronchial disorders, skin disorders, etc. Some patients get off all the prescription medications after such medically supervised extended fasting treatment. Some patients happily find that many wrinkles went away after such fasting treatment. Many of them now believe that the body can heal itself.

Then it shows the excellent cancer research of Professor Valter D. Longo in University of Southern California on the effect of fasting on very heavy chemotherapy on mice with cancer. It shows that mice with cancer eating regular normal meals are all dead after the very heavy chemotherapy. But all the mice with cancer that were fasted before the chemotherapy all survived the same very heavy chemotherapy very well. Such experiments and effects were repeated and got the same results.

With the stunning results from the research of Professor Longo, Dr. Tanya Dorff and Professor David Quinn in Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Hospital of University of Southern California in Los Angeles used this method on real people, real cancer patients. The results are fantastic. Fasting can be a good complementary cancer therapy to help cancer patients to fight and to survive cancer.

New Peer-Reviewed Research Shows Fasting Mimicking Diets May Enhance Effectiveness of Chemotherapy in Cancer Patients, While Reducing Some Side Effects

Dr. Alan Goldhamer, DC, and his team in TrueNorth Health Center in Santa Rosa, California, USA have also been using extended Water Fasting (for multiple days) for thousands of patients over more than 30 years to reverse and to cure various kinds of chronic diseases as described in the following YouTube website:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl8Y5jV0hN0

The great benefits of Fasting to reverse and to cure many kinds of chronic diseases are also described in the following website:

https://thenutritionwatchdog.com/intermittent-fasting-slows-aging-fights-disease-builds-muscle-and-burns-fat/ 

14.  Details of Amazing Healing Power of Autophagy are described in my companion website here.

 Therefore, the long fasting hours of Intermittent Fasting plays a key role to activate/kick autophagy into high gear to reverse and to cure many kinds of diseases in our body.

15. Conclusion

Many people believe erroneously that a diagnosis of Type II diabetes is a life sentence, that Type II diabetes is irreversible, and that Type II diabetic patients need life time use of medications and insulin injections to control the symptoms of diabetes. 

In reality, Dr. Jason Fung and several other specialized doctors have been using Intermittent Fasting to reverse and to cure Type II diabetes of thousands of patients successfully.  After being cured, these people can go on to enjoy happy and healthy life without the need for those diabetes medications and daily insulin injection anymore.

My personal 4-year experience confirms that Intermittent Fasting is quite effective not only to reverse and to cure obesity and diabetes, but also eliminated my years of severe pain on my left shoulder joint. Thank God for such precious Nobel Prized gift of autophagy healing power within each of us.

By using this method and "The Power to Heal from Within", Dr. Yi Ming Liu, MD, in Taiwan has been reversing and curing not only Type II diabetes but also some other "chronic diseases" for thousands of patients in Taiwan. 

Furthermore, more than 40 years of clinical experience of several special doctors, of special medical institutions and of many thousands of patients in Russia, in Germany and in California, USA also show that Fasting can reverse and cure many dreadful chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma, gout, allergies, chronic joint pain, arthritis, rheumatism, obesity, depression, mental disorder/illness, cardiac disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, endocrine disorders, digestive disorders, bronchial disorders, skin disorders, etc.  

We thank God for such amazing healing power of autophagy within each of us, if we know fasting for 18 hours or longer to activate it. 

The reason for such amazing healing power of autophagy to cure many different kinds of diseases is explained in Section 14.

The recent experiments and research on mice by Professor Valter D. Longo in University of Southern California and preliminary clinical trial on human cancer patients by Dr. Tanya Dorff and Professor David Quinn in Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Hospital of University of Southern California in Los Angeles show that Fasting can be a good complementary cancer therapy to help cancer patients to fight and to survive cancer. 

16. Caution for Beginners of Intermittent Fasting

Hardcore diabetes are patients who have been Type 2 diabetes for many years. Hardcore diabetes may need much longer fasting hours to give autophagy enough time to do its heavy-duty healing work. Hardcore diabetes may need multiple days of water fasting (i.e., no solid food for multiple days continuously) to cure the hardcore disease. To be safe, such heavy-duty Intermittent Fasting (IF) should be done under medical supervision by highly experienced special doctors.

 Some people say such heavy-duty IF for multiple days of fasting (without solid food) is dangerous for diabetes patients. It is safe if it is done under medical supervision by highly experienced special doctors. Such heavy-duty IF has been done for thousands of patients safely and successfully by several special doctors for 40 years in several countries

 But not everybody is a hardcore diabetes, and not everybody needs to do such heavy duty IF. Regular IF with fasting hours shorter than 24 hours can be done safely by most people. However, it is good to have a sufficient transition period of several months for your body to adapt and to adjust from regular state of burning glucose for energy to the IF state of burning fat/ketone for energy. In the transition period of several months, increase your fasting hours gradually and decrease your feeding hours gradually.

If you are not a hardcore diabetes and want to do Intermittent Fasting (IF) on your own, do not jump into an IF program with very long fasting hours abruptly. Give your body a few months of warm up training for transition. If you encounter some challenges and problems in doing IF, the long transition period in the initial more gentle IF gives you more time to look for suitable effective solution(s) to eliminate the problems. Since Intermittent Fasting has been around for many years, there are lots of good information available and many people with extensive experience on IF. 

Start with skipping only one meal and eat only two meals per day. After a few months of eating only two meals per day and you feel comfortable with eating only two meals per day, then your body is ready to go one step further by eating only one meal per day.

 But remember that if you are a hardcore diabetes for many years, you will need a heavy-duty IF program under medical supervision by a special doctor who has extensive experience and knowledge in heavy-duty IF program.

17. Intermittent Fasting is Not for Everybody

Intermittent Fasting is NOT recommended for: pregnant women, people who are very skinny (low body mass index) and frail, children and adolescents in high growth stage, and people who have been hospitalized recently.

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The index of websites of Dr. Sing H. Lin is at:

• Index of Websites of Dr. Sing H. Lin's Research on Science 

Biography of the author of this website is at:

• Biography of Dr. Sing H. Lin