Immune Health

Fasting as an Alternative Therapy for Managing Infectious Virus Attacks

According to scientists, “Fasting may be a complementary therapy to vaccination that could provide immune support and hyperinflammation control.”

Purpose of the Post

I have written numerous articles about the benefits of fasting, highlighting the value of ketosis for cellular, mitochondrial, metabolic, immune, endocrine, neurological, and mental health. I also touched on the anti-inflammatory benefits of ketosis.

In one of my recent posts, I prompted What If We Can Package Fasting as a Therapeutic Tool. And I explained the numerous benefits of fasting for health and overall well-being. These stories inspired many readers.

In this post, I’d like to briefly introduce a study published on BMJ titled “Association of periodic fasting with lower severity of COVID-19 outcomes in the SARS-CoV-2 prevaccine era: an observational cohort from the INSPIRE registry.”

I also introduce a few relevant studies and briefly share my personal experience with COVID to highlight the value of fasting in improving immune health and dealing with infectious diseases.

Summary of the Paper

This study in BMJ’s Nutrition, Prevention, and Health Journal evaluated associations of periodic fasting with COVID-19 severity and, secondarily, initial infection by SARS-CoV-2.

Researchers hypothesized that “Intermittent fasting boosts some host defense mechanisms while modulating the inflammatory response. Lower-frequency fasting is associated with greater survival and lower risk from COVID-19-related comorbidities.”

The research setting was a single-center secondary care facility in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, with follow-up across a 24-hospital integrated healthcare system.

They studied patients enrolled in the INSPIRE registry in 2013–2020 for the primary outcome if they tested positive for COVID from March 2020 to February 2021 or, for the secondary outcome, if they had any COVID test results.

They asked around 1500 patients about their personal history of routine periodic fasting across their lifespan. The composite outcome of the population occurred in 11% of periodic fasters and 28.8% of non-fasters

Researchers found that routine periodic fasting was associated with a lower risk of hospitalization or mortality in patients with COVID-19.

Therefore they concluded, “fasting may be a complementary therapy to vaccination that could provide immune support and hyperinflammation control during and beyond the pandemic.”

The study is indicative; however, other studies about the health benefits of fasting and patient anecdotes make the case compelling. I’d like to briefly share my recent experience to support the findings of this study.

My Experience of Fasting During COVID Infection

I also got exposed to Covid despite my precautions earlier this year. As it affected my entire family, I got it from them before their diagnosis. All symptoms manifested, but the effects were much lower for me than other family members, even though they were younger than me.

Gratefully, we were all fully vaccinated at the time. However, a year ago, when my wife had it after her first vaccination, her symptoms were extremely severe. Therefore, we had to hospitalize her. The second time, she recovered faster.

Thanks to the contributions of fasting during that time, I recovered in six days. I documented my experience in a story titled Here’s How I Recovered from the Covid Virus Quickly with Five Lifestyle Steps. I also believe intense meditation and mindful stress reduction expedited recovery.

I have been intermittently fasting for decades, eating on a one-meal-a-day. This regimen provided me with many health and well-being benefits besides improving my immune system.

One of the benefits of intermittent fasting was to improve my defense system and activate self-healing mechanisms of the body, such as autophagy and mitophagy processes that reduce the number of pathogens in the body.

During that challenging time, all I needed was to increase fasting windows. I extended my fasting window from 22 to 46 hours. It worked very well for me.

Inspired by me, one family member also chose to fast as his symptoms were severe. Interestingly, he recovered faster than other members who did not fast.

Key Mechanisms of Fasting to Protect from Viruses and Their Effects

During the fasting process, the body makes significant biochemical changes like reducing insulin secretion, increasing growth hormone, optimizing neurotransmitters, initiating autophagy, mobilizing stem cells, boosting immunity, and improving gut bacteria.

The most significant benefit of fasting, from my reviews and experience, is lowering inflammation through the ketosis process.

Molecular mechanisms and clinical applications of fasting were well-documented in the Cell Metabolism in 2014. There was a specific mention of inflammation reduction in the body during the fasting period.

The paper informed that “the adaptive cellular responses from fasting can reduce oxidative damage and inflammation, optimize energy metabolism, and bolster cellular protection.”

Furthermore, “in lower eukaryotes, chronic fasting extends longevity by reprogramming metabolic and stress resistance pathways. In rodents, intermittent or periodic fasting protects against diabetes, cancers, heart disease, and neurodegeneration, while in humans, it helps reduce obesity, hypertension, asthma, and rheumatoid arthritis.”

Researchers concluded that “fasting has the potential to delay aging and help prevent and treat diseases while minimizing the side effects caused by chronic dietary interventions.”

As fasting significantly lowers glucose and protein levels in the bloodstream, it creates an anti-inflammatory effect on the cells. COVID virus causes severe inflammation in the body, breaking homeostasis.

For example, a 2019 study published in Cell informed that “Caloric restriction is known to improve inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. However, the mechanisms by which reduced caloric intake modulates inflammation are poorly understood.”

The authors of this study showed that “short-term fasting reduced monocyte metabolic and inflammatory activity and drastically reduced the number of circulating monocytes. Regulation of peripheral monocyte numbers depended on dietary glucose and protein levels.”

During fasting, the body switches from using glucose to ketones as an energy source. Ketone bodies, especially BHP (β-Hydroxybutyrate), have an anti-inflammatory effect on the cells.

Furthermore, almost three decades ago, scientists confirmed that “fasting has been reported to quantitatively increase linoleic and arachidonic acids in liver triacylglycerols.”

Literature indicates that “fatty acids belong to a group of compounds already acknowledged for their broad antiviral efficacy. However, little is yet known about their effect on the replication of human coronaviruses.”

Therefore, a recent study in 2022 published in Nature investigated these fatty acids. The paper’s title is “Linoleic acid binds to SARS-CoV-2 RdRp and represses replication of seasonal human coronavirus OC43.”

Based on the results, researchers concluded that this study provides a new understanding of the antiviral properties of fatty acids against human coronaviruses, including the SARS-CoV-2 strain.

Researchers mentioned that linoleic acid’s RdRp-inhibitory activity is a candidate for further studies. My understanding from this research is that linoleic acid suppresses the virus and prevents its dissemination into cells and tissues.

Until 2020, no review was available proposing intermittent fasting as an encouraging strategy in the prevention of COVID virus.

Therefore a group of scientists conducted a comprehensive review to highlight the beneficial role of fasting in immunity and autophagy that underlie the possible defense against COVID infection. The paper was published in the Immunology Letters in 2020.

These researchers outlined the COVID-19 pathogenesis and its impact on the host immune response. They aimed to revisit the immunomodulatory potential of intermittent fasting that may constitute a promising preventive approach against COVID-19.

The review paper highlighted that intermittent fasting might prime the host immune system. It can activate autophagy, a cell surveillance system that boosts immunity. Therefore, intermittent fasting may constitute a promising preventive strategy against COVID-19.

In the conclusion section of the paper, reviewers also commented that along with observing intermittent fasting, other health-benefiting practices such as exercise and meditation that help improve immunity are also highly recommended.

As I documented the autophagy and mitophagy benefits of fasting for pathogens, I will not repeat them. Interested readers might review my perspectives in the linked articles.

Conclusions and Takeaways

Fasting has been used as a therapeutic tool for centuries, as I documented in an article titled Here’s Why Spiritual People Are Adamant About Fasting.

Fasting has been a common practice in many cultures and major religions, such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Taoism. They use different protocols.

Due to noticeable benefits, scientists also had a great interest in understanding the mechanisms behind the fasting process.

So far, scientific studies indicate that during the fasting process, the body makes significant biochemical changes such as:

reducing oxidative stress,

lowering inflammation,

initiating autophagy,

strengthening the defense system,

mobilizing stem cells,

balancing hormones and neurotransmitters,

substantially increasing growth hormone

lowering glucose and proteins

reducing insulin secretion,

and improving gut bacteria.

If we can package these benefits, fasting might be a powerful therapeutic tool to defeat infectious diseases. It costs nothing. And fasting comes with fewer side effects than drugs.

In addition to the viral conditions that I discussed in this article, fasting might improve health conditions like metabolic syndrome, type II diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, some cancers, and neurodegenerative disorders. I summarized them in an article titled What If We Can Package Fasting as a Therapeutic Tool.

Fasting is easy for some people but very difficult for others. As I have been fasting for decades, it has been second nature. It requires adaptation to stored fat utilization.

Fasting can be challenging until we gain metabolic flexibility, such as switching from glucose to fat-burning metabolism. Once we make our body fat-adapted, it can be enjoyable. Even long-term fasting is achievable and valuable for some people and as a therapeutic tool for practitioners.

However, fasting is not for everyone, as it can put the body under significant stress. Therefore, people with underlying health conditions need supervision by qualified healthcare professionals.

Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.

If you are a new reader and find this article valuable, you might check my holistic health and well-being stories reflecting on my reviews, observations, and decades of sensible experiments.

Sample Health Improvement Articles for New Readers

I write about various hormones and neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, GABA, acetylcholine, norepinephrine, adrenaline, glutamate, and histamine.

One of my goals as a writer is to raise awareness about the causes and risk factors of prevalent diseases that can lead to suffering and death for a large portion of the population.

To raise awareness about health issues, I have written several articles that present my holistic health findings from research, personal observations, and unique experiences. Below are links to these articles for easy access.

Metabolic Syndrome, Type II Diabetes, Fatty Liver Disease, Heart Disease, Strokes, Obesity, Liver Cancer, Autoimmune Disorders, Homocysteine, Lungs Health, Pancreas Health, Kidneys Health, NCDs, Infectious Diseases, Brain Health, Dementia, Depression, Brain Atrophy, Neonatal Disorders, Skin Health, Dental Health, Bone Health, Leaky Gut, Leaky Brain, Brain Fog, Chronic Inflammation, Insulin Resistance, Elevated Cortisol, Leptin Resistance, Anabolic Resistance, Cholesterol, High Triglycerides, Metabolic Disorders, Gastrointestinal Disorders, Thyroid Disorder, and Major Diseases.

I also wrote about valuable nutrients. Here are the links for easy access:

Lutein/Zeaxanthin, Phosphatidylserine, Boron, Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, PQQ, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, zinc, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine, Cod Liver Oil, and other nutrients to improve metabolism and mental health.

Disclaimer: Please note that my posts do not include professional or health advice. I document my reviews, observations, experience, and perspectives only to provide information and create awareness.

I publish my lifestyle, health, and well-being stories on EUPHORIA. My focus is on metabolic, cellular, mitochondrial, and mental health. Here is my collection of Insightful Life Lessons from Personal Stories.

If you enjoy writing and storytelling, you can join Medium, NewsBreak, and Vocal as a creator to find your voice, reach out to a broad audience, and monetize your content.

You may also check my blog posts about my articles and articles of other writers contributing to my publications on Medium. I share them on my website digitalmehmet.com. Here is my professional bio. You can contact me via weblink.

As a writer, blogger, content developer, and reader, you might join Medium, Vocal Media, NewsBreak, Medium Writing Superstars, Writing Paychecks, WordPress, and Thinkers360 with my referral links. These affiliate links will not cost you extra to join the services.

You might join my six publications on Medium as a writer by sending a request via this link. 20K+ writers contribute to my publications. You might find more information about my professional background.

If you enjoy reading, you may join Medium with my referral link for limitless access to my stories and other writers.