Extended Fasting: An Effective Intervention for Long Covid? | The Rationale and the Science

*Important note*
Social media is abound with stories of long haulers who have crashed hard when attempting to fast. Don’t be one of them: consult your doctor first if you want to try it. Or do it under medical supervision at an expert clinic (like I did).
*lecture over*

In this video, the first of two (or possibly even three), I introduce the subject of extended fasting, after discovering it has made a huge positive impact on my symptoms. I discuss the various types of fasting, the rationale for why it might work, and the published science we’ve got that supports it. In the next video I’m going to discuss my own personal experience after two extended fasts, which symptoms have improved, which haven’t, and what I think the lessons are for everyone watching.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 Introduction
1:36 Types of Fasting
3:23 Rationale for LC
5:27 Physiological Effects
6:13 What Does AI Think?
7:18 The Science
8:20 Conclusion

LINKS:
Pathomechanisms and possible interventions in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) – [source of diagram used.] Fluge, Tronstad & Mella.
https://www.jci.org/articles/view/150377

Measurement of circulating viral antigens post-SARS-CoV-2 infection in a multicohort study. [The one with the 43% and 21%], Swank et al:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/10/241009122346.htm
https://www.clinicalmicrobiologyandinfection.com/article/S1198-743X(24)00432-4/abstract

Improvements during long-term fasting in patients with long COVID – a case series and literature review. Grundler et al:
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2023.1195270/full

FastCoV: Study on the potential benefits of fasting for long Covid treatment:

FastCoV: Study on the potential benefits of fasting for long Covid treatment

Exploring autophagy in treating SARS-CoV-2 spike protein-related pathology, Halma, Marik and Saleeby:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666396124000074

VIDEOS:
How Intermittent Fasting Might Help Dysautonomia and MCAS:

The Latest Research on Mitochondrial Dysfunction, with Prof Klaus Wirth:

There’s absolutely tonnes of research on fasting and chronic inflammatory conditions – just google anything you like, with ‘scholarly article’ on the end of the search and you’ll find swamps of the stuff.