This is a continuation from Part I...
We had just left off with me deciding that I was going to have to take my health into my own hands as I was after a cure and not simply a treatment that would require life long use...
Desperate times call for desperate measures!
A few weeks later through all of my researching online, I stumbled upon something people were swearing by. It was called a Water Fast. They were claiming all kinds of amazing transformations and healing from doing this simple fast. Basically all it required was that you do nothing but drink water for a period of time to help flush toxins from your body and give your body a chance to heal itself.
What kinds of things were people saying a Water Fast may cure you might ask?
- chronic fatigue
- fibromyalgia
- certain digestive issues
- IBS
- Ulcerative colitis
- Crohn's disease
- certain tumors
- and even certain types of cancers
- among others...
The basic premise behind the Water Fast idea is that your body spends a good amount of energy each day digesting food that you eat and then disposing of it. What could your body do if instead of spending energy performing those tasks, it could use that energy for healing and restoration of other parts of your body?
It was an interesting theory and one I was willing to give a try at this point in my journey of getting my body back to it's optimal health.
The Water Fast begins!
I started my Water Fast for healing hoping that it would somehow fix whatever was wrong with me.
The first day wasn't so bad. I just drank water any time I felt hungry. The second and third days were a little worse. I got very hungry and it took all my will power not to eat something. I had no idea how people could do this fast for weeks and some even a month.
Those hunger pains basically went away as the 4th day rolled around. I guess at that point your body decides it is not going to be getting food any longer and goes into starvation mode, where it basically starts nourishing itself with nutrients your body has stored up. This is where you have to get to before you will see any kind of healing according to the papers I had read.
Days 4-7 basically rolled by without a hitch. I wasn't really hungry but I definitely was sleepy a lot and had very little energy. I did this at a time when I didn't have many physical requirements so I was able to rest and stay home during most of it. It did present a problem though when I went out to dinner for my Mom's birthday and all I could "eat" was a glass of water, while the rest of the family made quick work of steaks. That wasn't much fun.
With each day that went by my family got more and more worried wondering how much longer I was going to go without food. The entire time they kept telling me that is not healthy, you are going to kill yourself before you heal yourself.
Finally after 8 days of "eating" nothing but water I came off the Water Fast, mostly to calm my family members down and ease their concerns. I really wasn't all that hungry and am positive I could have gone longer if I had wanted to.
Results of the Fast
The first thing I noticed is that my skin was no longer oily. My skin has always been very oily and while I was on the Water Fast, it was like the oil glands were shut off. My skin is often an oil slick at the end of the day but during the Water Fast I could have probably gone days between face washing's. Food must play some role in oil production.
Other than less oil, unfortunately I didn't really notice anything else. I went back to eating slowly to let my body readjust and I tried to incorporate a healthier diet as well but the same aches and pains and all the other symptoms still remained. They were mostly there while I was on the Fast and were still there when I ended it. Perhaps it is possible that the Fast may have worked had I done it longer?
Conclusions of the Fast
Overall, it is tough for me to say if the Water Fast would have really healed me or not as I didn't give it a long enough time most likely. However, it is hard to continue with something when everyone around you is telling you not to, especially when it relates to your health.
The higher your body fat percentage is when you do the Fast the longer you are able to go before it starts really negatively effecting you. Women are often able to Fast for longer periods of time because of their higher body fat percentages.
If you start the Fast and you are already very thin, you won't be able to do the Fast very long before all of your reserves are used up and it starts to negatively effect you.
Back to the Drawing Board
After spending all this time with supplements and Water Fasts it was time to go back to the doctor and see if he had any other ideas before we went on a life long medication for Fibromyalgia.
He said he had been doing some thinking and wanted to try a newer test that measured testosterone levels that had just come out in the past few months. In his opinion a lot of my symptoms could be explained by those levels being off. So, we ran the test.
Viola!
When the results came back we finally had our first test that was outside the normal range.
Finally, some answers?
My testosterone was significantly low. Finally I had a realistic answer as to what was causing the majority of my symptoms!
The doctor told me to try a couple specific supplements, and a sleep regimen combined with stretching and exercise plans that he believed might be able to boost the levels naturally. He believed that a combination of those might be able to boost the levels without resorting to medication which has side effects.
It was nice to finally have some answers as to what was causing all these strange and seemingly unrelated symptoms. Low testosterone is strange in that it affects everyone differently. I had no idea how much that hormone effected so many different aspects of the male body. Now I just had to go about getting those levels up...
The only lingering question in my mind has been, why was it low?
To this day I am not really sure but I do know that if I don't follow those exercises, eat right, get enough sleep, and take those supplements the levels begin to drop again and many of those symptoms return. Such is life I guess.
Thank you for reading and live well my friends!
Image Sources:
http://www.hayleycamille.com/2017/01/31/an-invisibility-cloak-for-your-brain/
http://goqii.com/blog/benefits-and-tricks-of-24-hours-water-only-fast/
https://listaka.com/water-fasting-and-10-things-you-should-know-about-it/
https://vossworld.wordpress.com/
https://www.healthable.org/how-to-figure-out-about-low-testosterone-levels/
https://www.consumerhealthdigest.com/health-conditions/low-testosterone.html
