Fasting and Depression

mega man

Fasting is said to relieve symtoms of depression. Has anyone ever tried fasting, its suppose to leave you with feelings of clarity and sharpen the senses.

JuliusCaesar

mega man wrote: »

Fasting is said to relieve symtoms of depression. Has anyone ever tried fasting, its suppose to leave you with feelings of clarity and sharpen the senses.

It leaves me feeling very hungry and obsessed with thoughts of food.....



but it's only ever happened involuntarily

Hunger makes me really really angry and irrational.
I honestly can't imagine it benefiting depression.

mega man

fasting has helped cure schizophrenia in russia..maybe it has additional benefits.
most religions are advocates of fasting
and they swear by its health benefits. there are also some guys on you tube who have fasted for 21 days.
heres a link to one of them

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dgie_vLk888

JuliusCaesar

mega man wrote: »

fasting has helped cure schizophrenia in russia..

Evidence?

mega man

here

http://www.geocities.co.jp/Beautycare-Venus/2032/english/paper.html

eth0_

Oh yes, Geocities webpages, they are renowned for their good reputation in the scientific community......NOT.

I have a friend with schizophrenia and he finds fasting for a couple of days "helps", and makes his mind sharper (he doesn't take medication anymore), but it's more likely that his mind is sharper because evolution programs us to have sharper senses when we are starving so that we can identify "prey". And as for "helping" - starvation is most likely taking your mind off the voices and paranoid thoughts.

The problem with fasting is that schizophrenics can often take it way too far. My friend has ended up in hospital on a drip after fasting for weeks when he has been ill.

mega man

There is a vast difference between fasting and starving. During the absence of food, the body will systematically cleanse itself of everything except vital tissue. It continually readjusts to make minimum demands on reserves. Starvation will occur only when the body is forced to use vital tissue to survive

eth0_

Your body will go into starvation mode when the food remaining in your body has been exhausted, i.e. within 36-48 hours.

It is PHYSICALLY DANGEROUS to fast/starve for lengthy periods of time.

Also, please provide evidence of fasting being helpful for mental illness. Sorry, but some random writing on a Geocities page doesn't cut it.

JuliusCaesar

mega man wrote: »

There is a vast difference between fasting and starving. During the absence of food, the body will systematically cleanse itself of everything except vital tissue. It continually readjusts to make minimum demands on reserves. Starvation will occur only when the body is forced to use vital tissue to survive

Cleanse itself or eat itself?

eth0_

megaman are you going to provide scientific evidence for your claims or can I assume I was correct and you are trolling?

old boy

well it never helped me. also my counceller has advised me never to go hungry, and i am a fat fcuker into the bargain.

Torakx

mega man wrote: »

Fasting is said to relieve symtoms of depression. Has anyone ever tried fasting, its suppose to leave you with feelings of clarity and sharpen the senses.

well alot of parasites and bacteria if sustained can get into your bloodstream and cause depression.
when i fasted for my candida diet i noticed a major difference.
if your feeling confused,depressed,groggy,memory loss
i would look into your physical health for sure.
and going to a doctor i found does not help in this situation as they rarely even consider candida or things like this when they can send you to do loads and loads of inconclusives tests.

ps my diet was not fasting. but more a controlled diet to the extreme.
carbs,sugar,yeast,refined anything was out.
so while i felt i was hungry alot of the time it was mainly to do with the yeast dying inside my body craving for food(sugar/carbs whatever will keep it alive)
it does not mean you have to starve yourself at all. just certain foods help certain bacteria parasites fungus etc to grow and survive in a body with a lowered or weak immune system.
once i cut those foods out i could eat whatever was left (wasnt alot of choice!) and after a couple months my body was nearly clear of toxins.

at the moment i no longer have any depression or groggyness and have been studying psychology for myself to cover any other issues left with me.

so i guess the short answer is yes starving can cure depression but will damage your body in other ways.
however a proper diet and a good insight into oneself could save lives

JuliusCaesar

Torakx wrote: »

well alot of parasites and bacteria if sustained can get into your bloodstream and cause depression.

Evidence?

Torakx wrote: »

when i fasted for my candida diet i noticed a major difference.

Did you have candida albicans? Or are you talking about the 'alternative medicine' "diagnosis" of candida?

Torakx wrote: »

if your feeling confused,depressed,groggy,memory loss
i would look into your physical health for sure.
and going to a doctor i found does not help in this situation as they rarely even consider candida or things like this when they can send you to do loads and loads of inconclusives tests.

If you have candida albicans the signs and symptoms are very noticable and the investigations and treatment is clear.

Torakx wrote: »

so while i felt i was hungry alot of the time it was mainly to do with the yeast dying inside my body craving for food(sugar/carbs whatever will keep it alive)

The yeast was hungry??? Causing you to be hungry????

Torakx wrote: »

just certain foods help certain bacteria parasites fungus etc to grow and survive in a body with a lowered or weak immune system.

I quote: In rare instances, when body resistance is low as in leukemia or AIDS, candida albicans can enter the bloodstream and causes serious infection of vital organs.

Torakx wrote: »

once i cut those foods out i could eat whatever was left (wasnt alot of choice!) and after a couple months my body was nearly clear of toxins.

Toxins is one of those words that makes the hair stand up on my neck. What toxins? And what toxins that aren't already dealt with by your liver?

Torakx wrote: »

at the moment i no longer have any depression or groggyness and have been studying psychology for myself to cover any other issues left with me.

Well, I guess you're not studying psychology at university then. Otherwise you'd know more about the psychophysiology of hunger, and the necessity for evidence.

Torakx wrote: »

so i guess the short answer is yes starving can cure depression but will damage your body in other ways.

Yes, well, death is the cure for all disorders in that case.


Maybe this thread should move over to Biology & Medicine for learned opinions?

Torakx

sorry your last qoyte is spot on that was a misstype as i dont attribute bad diet and health only to depression
i must have forgot to clearly state it is only in certain cases that dieting can help if done in the right way.

and yes i do have candida albacans.its quite clear when i have nearly all the symptoms and when treated with the right diet starts to clear up.
therefore there is no doubt in my mind i had it.the FACT that 2 doctors and a professor were of absolutly no help to me just gave me the impression that i was better off doing it myself.and i have been very sucessful.it isnt all cleared,but man do i feel on top of the world!

as to from where it came from,i can only presume the use of anti depressants,and anti-biotics as a child and teenager lowered my immune system.i hope it isnt aids or cancer!(candida has been linked to cancer) i have many bloodtests at the docs but dont remember askign to be specifically tested.do they do a test for aids when checking your blood sugars/iron levels?

while researchigng candida i found out alot about it and how it works. i dont profess to be a doctor but hell i found i had candida using the internet something 120 euro and a trip to a hospital couldtnt do.

another question you had about hunger.
i dont know why it makes you hungry.im told its cravings for sugar which is linked with candida.i used to get soo"hungry" even straight after eating dinner and would have to have a sugary cup of tea and some chocolate.(i never put on weight during this time either)this was my initial reason for thinking i had parasites like worms or something

apologies i am guilty of using speak i am not 100% with.
i presumed toxins were anything foriegn and harmful to the body.

another interesting thing you said. that the hunger i had was all in my head?
my girlfriend actually used to accuse me of this because the doctors couldnt find anything wrong with me.
why is it then that after trying different other treatments the hunger came back again along with the other symptoms yet when i carry out a specific diet to combat candida that hunger goes away?
i no longer get so hungery i think i will faint.
i used to get so bad i would be curled up on my bed.i can now go outside again.

one last point from what i read. when you have a yeast overload(candida)
it is exactly what it says.
it grows and grows feeding off sugar/carbs/starch etc your liver and other organs cant process all these toxins and it then makes its way into the bloodstream causing many other nasty symptoms.

i am not trying to push candida as the root of depression i am aware after alot of reading that depression can have many roots.
i am definetly saying ONE of those roots which happens to be a common ailment is candida.

so i believe this thread is relevant to this forum indeed.
i am a strong believer in looking at all sides to answer a question.
and i would like to think if i had gone to a psychologist they would at least in a small way be aware of alot of medical issues that can cause depression rather than jumping to conclusions with your past and present life when something as easy to diagnose as candida could be the key factor.considering my first doctor needed a referal and the second couldnt find anything i would say this is a good topic for psychologists to happen across.

Cinful

Fasting is a problematic treatment. Cure claims have often been confounded with other treatments; i.e., without adequate controls, you may not be able to isolate its effects.

Fasting should be separated from proper nutrition and diet as treatment modalities. Sometimes these are confounded to where the source of cure cannot be identified.

Often support for its use is found in non-scholarly media; e.g., Psychology Today, info-mercials, popular crazes, entrepreneural exploitation, and the self-help genre that is not informed by rigourous research.

r3nu4l

Cinful wrote: »

Often support for its use is found in non-scholarly media; e.g., Psychology Today, info-mercials, popular crazes, entrepreneural exploitation, and the self-help genre that is not informed by rigourous research.

Exactly!

Now, there's been a lot of claims posted here with absolutely NO scientific evidence to back it up.

This thread is now locked. The Psychology Mod may open this thread at his leisure but until then it stays closed.

If it is opened I suggest that several posts be deleted and the thread be a lot more rigorous in it's application of scientific evidence.

Finally, if you have a problem with a post, hit the report post button and someone will have a look at it for you
/thread.