Beneficial or Dangerous? Intermittent Fasting
Beneficial or Dangerous? Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting is a pattern of eating that is based on choosing regular time periods to eat and to fast. Intermittent fasting is not for everyone so to answer the question ‘should you intermittent fast?’ we need to look at a look at a few things.
When you intermittent fast it means that you don’t eat for a period of time so for those who are struggling with adrenal fatigue, diabetes, hypoglycemia, anxiety and stomach ulcers it is not recommended that you intermittent fast.
Your adrenal glands help to maintain your blood sugars in between meals so if you go along time without eating it can put stress on your adrenals which can cause significant problems with your body.
If you are diabetic you don’t want to play around with intermittent fasting. You need to regulate your meals so that you can regulate your blood sugar. It is the same if you are hypoglycemic and that is why intermittent fasting is not a good choice because it can cause your blood sugars to crash.
When you fast you can raise the hormones norepinephrine, cortisol and epinephrine. In a severely anxious person this can worsen their anxiety. With anxiety it’s better to eat between 3 – 5 small meals per day.
If you have stomach ulcers you do not want to intermittent fast. When you go too long without food the stomach will produce acid or digestive juices. If there is no food in your stomach the acid or juices hit the ulcer.
So then, who should intermittent fast?
Hypothyroid cases, liver cases, people with SIBO and those who have inflammation can usually benefit from intermittent fasting.
If you have hypothyroidism your metabolism is running slow so you don’t want to throw fuel into it. If you do intermittent fasting it gives the body time to process the fuel that you have put it and that can be very good for hypothyroidism. 
People with liver issues do very well with intermittent fasting. The liver is the great detoxifier in the body so by fasting you give the liver time to filter out the toxins in the body. 
Those who have SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) can benefit from intermittent fasting. The colonic bacteria in the small intestines can become harmful so by fasting you starve the bad bacteria that is in your small intestine.
People with auto-immune diseases or inflammation can benefit from intermittent fasting. Think of the inflammation as junk in your joints, muscles, tissues and glands of the body. Your body needs time to filter this out. Every time you eat it slows down the filtration process so by fasting it gives your body time to detoxify. 
If you have morning fatigue, not caused by sugar imbalances, intermittent fasting can be beneficial. When you eat, your body has to work at digesting the food. By giving the body a break it gives allows thyroid hormone to be produced and gives the liver time to convert T4 into T3, the active form of thyroid. 
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