Anti-aging protocol

 

This is something I've ended up discussing a good bit over the past few years, one of many subjects I've become interested in.  My fasting practice ties to an interest in this, even though it started as a result of a chance contact saying that it would bring about spiritual practice benefits (and maybe it did?  hard to say, since that is hard to track).

I'm no expert on avoiding aging effects, but I am a good example of how it can work out.  I'm 56 now and could pass for 40, or maybe even 30-something, and I am active to say the least.  I've just switched my runs back to 12 km per outing, not quite at 3 times per week, but it will level off to at least 30 km / 20 miles per week.  It's hard to justify that I'm more active in general, or more flexible related to being open to new experiences and learning, the less explicit themes related to aging.  It seems so, to me, but it's hard to support that.

56 compared to 16, but I think his genetic potential might be even better

It's strange using yourself as an example like that.  The same general theme came up related to discussing intelligence on Quora before, a favorite topic earlier on.  I'll skip passing on an IQ stat but mine has been tested at significantly higher than the 130 cut-off for grade-school gifted program participation.  People there--Quora--would always claim "intelligent people are less socially oriented," or something such, prone to whatever other malaise, but to me a lot of that ends up being hearsay patterns that don't necessarily hold up in most cases.  Intelligence is like any other aptitude; it can couple with a broad range of personal characters or other aptitudes and weaknesses.  

The nerd or geek persona is separate from intelligence; the two themes may tend to correspond, but they are not tightly causally connected.  Maybe people embracing those character or self-identification themes tend to be above average in intelligence, but it's not as if one is a sign of the other, or that intelligence leads directly to preference of those forms of experience (an interest in sci-fi or computers, etc.).  Somehow it all naturally groups together, that people with certain capacities tend to explore using them in similar ways, but there is no necessary connection.  Plenty of people with sports aptitude are couch potatoes, and plenty of people with very limited athletic potential are still active in sports anyway, they just couldn't excel at the highest levels of competition.

Back to the aging theme; I was responding to this question on Reddit:

If you are aging, what if any supplements did you take in order that you thought might reverse aging or made you feel decades younger again? I mean do you have a sip of certain juice a day or take something to make yourself feel decades younger?

Who isn't aging?  Of course people there recommended diet and exercise, as I did.  But I added some less standard thoughts and practices.

Nothing like that [referring to the magic bullet / take a pill potential], but I can suggest things I know work, for sure, and a couple that might help that are less certain:

exercise: you should try to get at least 3 hours of medium intensity exercise per week. If you want to use weightlifting as this input, to double up on improving muscle conditioning and joint health, you can just increase overall intensity by rushing the sets. Some input should be cardio though; intense beyond walking pace input.

sleep: 8 hours per day is an absolute minimum, unless you somehow don't need much sleep. Coupling a bit of extra sleep with bumping up exercise input will change everything, along with diet change.

diet: cut out processed foods, sugar, junk foods, fast food, unhealthy snacks, etc. Eat natural foods, meats, vegetables and fruits, some whole-grain starch input. Nuts and beans can help with keeping protein intake up, which is important for exercise recovery. You probably don't need to supplement much if your diet is great, but taking a multivitamin couldn't hurt, and some basics like extra magnesium and D.

drugs, cigarettes, alcohol: get away from ingesting any.

tea (onto less certain input): I drink lots of varied tea, of good quality, and that may make a difference (I'm holding up great for being 56). Lots of the polyphenols are probably helpful, along with mineral input. People claim green tea is best for heart health (cardiovascular health), but I think drinking diverse versions would be better, black, green, oolong, sheng pu'er, some hei cha, etc.

goji berry: I eat a little of this daily, re-hydrated dried versions soaked in hot water for some minutes. The extra vitamin A (beta carotine) and xeaxanthin might be most helpful. It's probably good for eye health to also take in a good bit of lutein, but eating leafy green vegetables would cover that.

fasting: this should probably be back in the "certain" grouping. Fasting for 3 to 5 days at a time, at least 4 times per year, could change everything related to aging experience. I think my greying hair reversed mainly because of this input; it had been partly grey, and now isn't. Brain health seems to also improve, mental clarity and memory, which is difficult to achieve.

from 2024, but I don't have many clear photos of myself

Expanding on that:

What about new types of supplements anti-aging gurus promote?  Maybe those could work.  I wouldn't know, since I'm not on any.  I've not even had my hormone levels checked, a far earlier and more basic starting point than taking up hormone inputs or exotic supplements.

What about specific exercise inputs, adjusted sleep forms, less developed supplementation (taking zinc or turmeric / curcumin), specific diet forms (towards keto, Mediterranean, etc.)?  Sure, lots of approaches or inputs might be positive.  Per my understanding being quite active is the main helpful input, walking a lot, doing lots of low intensity activities, like laundry, cutting firewood, walking and hiking, swimming, and so on.  Even gardening, doing lots of very low intensity tasks, supports maintaining flexibility, by forcing you to move in different ways, with significant exposure level.

Getting some sun alone could be helpful.  It could be hard separating causes and effects, related to an input like that.  If someone were to swap out lying motionless while watching streamed video content for walking in the sun they'd never know which input helped most, the sun, the walking, or just not lying motionless.

I think diet alone has the most potential for change, especially if someone is on the standard American diet.  I've been moving back and forth between Bangkok and Honolulu and it takes a lot more focus to maintain a decent diet here (I'm in Hawaii just now).  In Bangkok fresh fruit is sold everywhere, exotic and delicious tropical versions, and even street foods can be relatively healthy, those literally sold from carts out on the sidewalks.  And inexpensive; it costs $20 for just about any meal in Hawaii, and probably over $30 if it's actually healthy.  

"Juicing" has lots of potential; drinking a bit of mixed vegetable juice every day, as the kind of extra bump the original question was asking about.  I practiced that at two different times in my life, probably over a period of at least a half dozen years, or maybe closer to a decade.  I was also a vegetarian for 17 years; maybe that helped?  Often with special diets the inclination to avoid some inputs, like over-eating, or junk foods, might be more important than what you actually consume.  A vegetarian and keto or carnivore diet might end up providing similar benefits for similar reasons, for those limitations, even though the apparent diet input is completely opposite.  Maintaining moderate body weight could be the overall main factor, in limiting aging, and eating a good diet and exercising could help lead to this, but from different directions.

Of course exercise inputs have plenty of potential too.  My health radically improved when I took up running, back at 50, and it improved again when I conditioned enough to ramp up training intensity and volume.  Swimming here in Hawaii has seemed to improve my muscle tone and flexibility quite a bit.  Doing yoga when I was 50 to 52 made a lot of difference, but Covid closed our local favorite yoga studio, so I let that go.

I swim in a swim lane between coral reefs not far from here

Fasting practice is especially promising.  It's too long a subject to add much more about why I think it helps (in a word, autophagy), or approaches that might be best.

I can't really place tea as a positive input either.  Research evidence of tea being quite healthy is very mixed in forms and results.  It probably is, but it's not the simplest thing to test for, and there is limited academic interest in reviewing that, since there is limited corporate commercial interest in leveraging tea sales as a health input.  In the US health care of sick people is far more profitable than preventing illness, especially through inexpensive food inputs.  There's a lot one might consider in relation to Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective on how tea is healthy, and in what optimum forms, which would vary by individual related to best fit or best overall balance.  I drank a lot of tisanes from the age of 22 up to 40; it's not just "real tea" that would have a lot of potential. 

Health risks related to tea are a potential concern, but there isn't a lot to look out for.  Caffeine intake should only go so far, and fluoride input is something to think through.  If you drink high quality tea (less mass-produced, chemical supported growth versions) risks from pesticides and heavy metal inputs are probably quite limited.  There are outliers claiming there are more significant, common risks to avoid, but in my opinion as long as you don't take a "more is better" approach to input tea is very safe.  Consuming up to 20 grams per day of it should be fine.  

You can offset any potential risks by varying types and sources.  You could maximize those risks in the opposite way, buying a kilogram of the most inexpensive, questionable tea you can find from an Indian or Chinese market source, maximizing your contact with those somewhat rare inputs by concentrating the same exposure form.  I don't necessarily trust all the "wild origin" claims I hear, but if half of the tea I consume really is of that form that seems positive, and at this point most of what I drink is represented as such.

One might wonder what all of this is based on, beyond my own personal experience, and where it ends, what aging is likely to be like in one's 70s or 80s, if all goes well.  My parents have observed many of these practices, and are in great health at nearly 80.  Many of my family members lived healthy lives well into their 90s (which of course introduces a potential genetic input).  My Thai mother-in-law is from a family where people tend to not experience much of their 60s and she is holding up well at over 80 now.  Activity seemed to make a difference, and decent diet.  Her sleep regimen is awful, and she never does significant cardio stress exercise; one might get away with letting one of these positive inputs drop.  Her mobility is severely limited now; any gap may come at a price.

I hope that some of this is helpful to others.  There's more I could add about perspective shift that might help, about meditation as an input, for example, but I'll get back to that kind of thing more later.

my wife Eye also holds up pretty well in spite of only experiencing some of these themes

Trying out a 7 day fast, settling for 5 days

 

I'd meant to fast again before Eye and the kids come back for Christmas, and weighing 2 kg more than normal when I last checked that encouraged me to try longer.  I thought that I might have been able to stabilize my weight back a bit lower, 72 or 73 kg instead of the normal 74, if I return to a lighter diet the first week.  I haven't weighed myself in the past 7 days (there is no scale at the house); I'll never know how it changed.

It didn't work, adding two extra days.  Nothing too unusual came up, but I think I didn't get electrolyte supplementation right, which I'll say more about here.  I started not feeling well 4 days in, then worse on day 5, and quit.

Again it was about potential health benefits, more than losing weight.  I just saw a news story about Dana White, the UFC (fighting) president claiming fasting reduces cancer risk by 70%.  I'm not sure about that but it may reduce risk.  There's a chance that I'm experiencing reduced aging effects related to fasting for 26 days in the last year (30 after this, really in just over 12 months).  My hair seems to be less grey, down from Keo counting 8 hairs to seemingly even less, and I may be gaining hair back in a pronounced bald spot.  The aesthetics makes no difference to me but related to general better health that would be relevant.

I had been using an easy, familiar cycle of fasting Thursday to Monday, related to the first day being easy, and that only including Friday as a work-day where I'm a bit hungry.  Days 4 and 5 were always easy.  I planned a whole work-week a bit off this time, M to F, then to see how days 6 and 7 go on the weekend.  Day by day notes tell the story.

Day 1:  almost no hunger this time, but mental clarity was a bit off.  In the evening I walked 45 minutes to go get the cats special food they're now hooked on, with the oldest basically living on fish, and ran 40 minutes as well, a 4+ mile route at the usual 6 minutes per km.  It's odd mixing those two units; my phone app is on km, and it seemed like most readers might relate to "freedom units."

The theory was to spend out glycogen reserves, so instead of doing the ketosis transition between day 2 and 3 to get that over with on day 2.  Oddly running feels about the same, with or without eating; my "metabolic flexibility" is pretty good.  That's true for days into fasting now too.

Day 2:  again not much for hunger, although the general off feeling started in.  I tried out drinking an aged sheng to see if that would work (a 19 year old version), related to someone commenting about that specific tea I also owned online.  It's not like drinking young sheng, which would be painful on an empty stomach, but it's not a good idea.  I'll stick to shu pu'er and aged white, maybe adding a roasted Wuyi Yancha when I want to mix it up, but that's pushing it too.

People discussing fasting mention an experience of greater mental clarity; I don't get that.  Usually by day 4 I'm back to normal, maybe even slightly clearer, but for me days 1 to 3 are a bit off.  On day 2 that relates to hunger, and on day 3 typically energy level fluctuation.

I'll see if that plan to rush the energy source change-over shifts more issues from day 3 to day 2 and tomorrow I'm fine.  I'm not hungry at all today; it's strange.  If I see food it sounds ok but it's not like before, when I would crave it.  I didn't hide anything from myself, so I'm walking past peanuts and raisins, and see yogurt in the refrigerator, where I keep the cup I drink water from.

I did a bit of laundry; my energy level isn't too far off.  Even if I feel somewhat normal I want take it easy for a few days to get the most out of the extra rest.

Day 3:  That energy level disruption really did seem to kick in yesterday, and I'm not back to normal early today either.  Hunger hasn't been bad at all; I don't think about not eating much.  I think that if I can stay a bit busy today and tomorrow I'll notice it less, and then it should just seem normal, probably shifting to less impactful tomorrow.  

I've drank tisanes twice already, more than I typically do for the 5 days, mixing some chrysanthemum into a late round of the shu I had with breakfast on the first day, then drinking some mixed gooseberry, lemongrass, and monkfruit seed tisane yesterday evening.  I wrote these notes before I got to it but I drank rosemary brewed as a tisane later in day 3.

Mentally the idea of fasting for an entire week, including an entire work-week, feels a little more daunting.  That time-span includes the US Thanksgiving--tomorrow--but I probably wasn't going to observe that anyway, living alone, with less access to turkey to make it myself, living in Bangkok where it's a normal work-day.  Maybe I'll do some sort of make-up meal next week.

Day 4:  the end of day 3 was a bit rough yesterday, and today I feel much better.  I went to work on-site, which is slightly more demanding, doing a commute, then being there in-person, and walking by quite a bit of food.  It's funny how your sense of smell for food increases so much when you are fasting; I swear that I could smell the neighbors eating McDonald's yesterday.  In prior fasts the smell of most foods wasn't as bad as food versions that I ended up craving, but I'm feeling the gap now, and seeing or smelling any food reminds me of the fasting status.  I suppose that's still an improvement, that I don't think of it unless something reminds me.

It's Thanksgiving today, back in the US.  I told two Thai co-workers that and they had no idea what that means.  You can try to find turkey dinners but you won't just walk by a place serving that, so it's not something anyone would notice.  For living alone now I wasn't going to try to cook all that anyway.  It was a little extreme just drinking salt water instead of eating anything.

I'm sick of the salt water.  Even for closing in on 30 days of fasting, in just over a year, that only ever seems so natural, and I keep adjusting how much I drink in relation to plain water, or the timing, or to an extent even the dosage.  Per a r/fasting Reddit sub reference you should be ingesting something like 3 grams of both sodium chloride and potassium chloride, which is a lot.  There's no way to know if that's way too much or the right amount.  It's impossible to know how fasting changes normal daily intake requirements for electrolytes.  Per some references being in ketosis increases sodium demands, which are ordinarily around 1500 mg per day, so going up to 2 or 3 grams might make sense.

I'm not feeling mental pressure about the fast, too much, but the extended planned time does seem to add extra weight.  At least hunger isn't so bad, or energy and mental clarity, which is all normal for day 4.  I don't feel close to energetic enough to go for a run.

Day 5:  I feel fine as of the morning; energy level might be a little lower than usual but otherwise quite normal.  Hunger experience isn't an issue at all; all that seems to drop off after day 3, unless you go to where food is, like I did yesterday.  I visited a mall to pick up protein powder for later and walked by lots of grilled foods, ice cream, bakeries, Thai snacks, Japanese restaurants; on and on.  It wasn't so bad but it does trigger extra hunger.

The 5 day routine had felt really normalized, by the 4th time doing it.  This doesn't.  Oddly electrolyte replacement doesn't go as well as the last two trials.  A slightly increased amount seemed like way too much two days ago, as if I couldn't keep up with water input, and I've had trouble getting a balance back.  I'm not certain that the Reddit fasting sub's recommendation page for inputs isn't too high; they recommend about 3 grams each of sodium and potassium, at the middle of the range they specify.  

Maybe you really do need a ton of salts to continue with ketosis energy processing, or maybe not nearly that much.  Drinking a lot of water is probably a good thing, to help your body sort out whatever conditions you put it through, but I couldn't seem to get thirst and indirect effect of drinking salt water to balance.  I cut it back to less than usual yesterday (well under 3 grams of each, closer to 2) and that might be an ok maintenance level.  Magnesium is easier; I take two tablets / capsules of 400 mg per day, since only taking one seems to result in negative effects, mostly sleep disruption.

Day 5 update (evening):  I wasn't feeling well and ended the fast.  A mild sore throat yesterday continued on to today, and energy level issues got worse throughout the day.  Something seemed off related to electrolyte intake; it was getting harder and harder to force myself to drink any of that salt-water mix, even though I went lighter on it yesterday, and only made it through half of a pre-measured amount in the evening today.  

I tried going out for a walk after work, and that went ok, so it wasn't energy availability that was an issue, just feeling a bit off.  More than seemed appropriate, I guess; someone should feel unusual after not eating for 5 days, but since this was a 5th time doing that the range is somewhat familiar.

I'll cover what I think happened in conclusions, but maybe I'll never really know.  It feels a little disappointing quitting early, but 5 days is a lot, and with things seemingly going worse and worse the next two days were likely to just be enduring more and more.

Conclusions:

I think a main problem related to electrolyte input variations.  This part is a little awkward to share, me getting that wrong, but communicating about the experiences doesn't work with covering all of it.

Before I was sort of carefully measuring out relatively specific amounts of sodium and potassium based on recommendations from that Reddit fasting sub I keep mentioning, making a mix with water to drink periodically throughout the day.  I don't remember exactly where I tried to be in that recommended range every time in the past; somewhere in the middle, not on the low or high side, but I was probably varying it some since I didn't log it, or any such thing.

In the past I was "measuring" teaspoon amounts using a non-standard measuring spoon, since I've been doing these fasts when my wife is in Honolulu, planning them around that, and I didn't think we had measuring spoons.  We don't bake; they don't in Thailand, and we've only ever had a toaster oven, and that's the only time you tend to use those.  I found where she kept them though, and I think earlier estimates of amounts were lower than measured amounts.  I was going for between 2.5 gram and 3 grams of both sodium and potassium per day, at the lower end of what that reference recommended.

Still sounds like a lot, doesn't it?  It seems that 1.5 grams of sodium is standard for a normal diet, and then ketosis adds extra requirements (maybe; so it seems).  Standard daily requirement for potassium is either 3.6 grams or 4.7, depending on the reference you use.  Surely no one is getting anywhere near that from a typical diet; on the high side that's eating a dozen bananas.  No need to go too far with details here but it's clear from several experiences that if you ingest a lot of sodium and potassium at one time that will have a laxative effect, not only the magnesium input, which is better known.  It's counterintuitive that your digestive system would contain enough for a laxative to work 2 or 3 days after eating, but it does, I guess an odd mix of bile, stomach acid, and whatever other digestive fluids.

It seemed like I ingested more salts than I tolerated well in the middle of that week, and couldn't get back to an equilibrium.  I had been drinking tisanes in the evenings the first couple of days, and adding quite a bit of extra water intake may have made a difference.  I drank plenty of plain water with the salt water, again not measuring total daily intake though, but at some point it seemed to not balance, and I developed an aversion to the taste of it, beyond it normally seeming gross.

Shifting to attempt 7 days made a lot more difference than I expected.  Mentally it seemed a lot harder; days 2 or 3 just weren't that close to it all coming to an end, not halfway through yet.  Fasting for one whole work-week is a lot.  It was much easier doing Thursday and Friday before, then during a weekend, with the first day not impacted at all.  Hunger wasn't an issue, and energy level and mental clarity really weren't problematic either, so it wasn't really so bad for work output disruption, but it adds a limited extra degree of mental stress.

Related to the electrolytes the first and last day of a fast matter less, because you carry over a decent balance on day 1, and plan to get that from food in a meal at the end of the day the last, so for a 5 day span it needs to balance well for only 3 days.  I suppose that's why I probably had moved from the lower side of that recommended range to their recommended middle, to not accidentally fall behind (that was their lower limit threshold; I mean before I stayed in the "minimal" range).  I had ran a couple of times during the last fast, which would reduce salts in your body a lot, along with the hotter weather then drawing them out.

I wanted to have the experience of a longer fast version, a week, as a reference for the broader understanding of the process, but I might just stick to 5 days and call it good, probably not trying it again until next year anyway.

Water fasting for 5 days

 

More to report on fasting experience, after trying out a 3 1/2 day trial earlier.  I didn't get electrolyte supplement right that first time, and felt a bit off during the night after the third day.  This time I bought the other supplements they recommended in a Reddit fasting subforum, or an equivalent of that.  

They say that you need to supplement sodium (oddly recommended there on a wiki page as both salt and baking soda, which is nasty to drink mixed in), potassium, and magnesium.  I couldn't find the food grade epsom salt so I bought a magnesium supplement.  It turns out that salt substitute products tend to be made from a potassium salt; easy.  Unfortunately the version I found was mixed real salt (sodium chloride) and potassium chloride, so I had to do some estimation in amounts, since I was too lazy to really write down and calculate it all out.  A friend mentioned that he thought that calcium might be an issue, related to how it interacts with other mineral use, so I took some of a calcium supplement at the house, and an occasional multivitamin.  And that's it; that's all I ingested for 5 days, in addition to water.

This writing will work in two parts.  The first is about the actual experience, since I went a day and a half longer than the last trial, and hoped that it would be easier since I last tried this experience a month ago, and changed supplementation.  The second part is about effects, hopefully positive effects, which I'll need to wait at least a couple of days to write it.  I'm writing a draft of the take on the experience just before I end the fast, to get to experience this written communication while I'm still doing it.

Before that just a few related details.  I had considered what else I could ingest and still consider the experience to be fasting, like coffee (not that I normally drink that), tea, tisanes (herb teas), or adding lemon or lime to water.  I opted to omit any of that; I think for a progressed fasting habit adding what works for you would be better, just being careful about things making you hungry or impacting your stomach, but for initial trials it's better to leave it all out.  The fast was really for something like 4 days and 22 hours; I started and stopped on dinner 5 days apart but will [/ did] eat earlier at the end.  I had meant to do the extra night, so 5 1/2 days, if I had slept well the night before, and if it seemed easy and symptom free, but it wasn't exactly like that.  And I don't [/ didn't] want to be recovering on Monday, as would occur if I eat in the morning.

I have a slight sore throat today, on day 5, which I actually had for 2 or 3 days prior to fasting, but had shaken.  Maybe a cold?  I thought then maybe it was a mold or dust issue from leaving our house vacant for two months not so long ago, maybe resolved because I cleaned the AC filters and had that bedroom unit professionally cleaned.  Of course I'm considering if I might not have some serious medical condition, but I doubt it.

About weight loss, I'm not exactly doing this for that, and since we don't have a scale at the house I never weighed myself.  It would be nice if I lost a couple of kilos / 4 or 5 pounds, but it won't change much for me whether I do or don't.  I'll never know, since I won't weigh myself soon after and didn't before.  I've crept up to 165 pounds (74 kilos), when I had been around 160 / 71 for most of the last 15 years, so I would like to drop back down.  Some of that is probably muscle tissue gain, because I've been running for four years, and swam a lot in Hawaii for two months recently.  Still, being slightly leaner would be fine, and that would have all my pants fitting well, versus the tighter ones not as comfortable.

just "after," I didn't take a before.  I do look like a dad.

I ran across a couple of decent but not ideal video references about fasting, this one by Dr. Berg (which gets electrolyte supplementation completely wrong, assuming that sea salt would contain enough other minerals besides sodium, which it wouldn't), and an experiential account.  That "doctor" is a chiropractor, who makes multiple videos a week about popular health subjects, far too many to research any in any significant depth.  I see his input as no more than a collection of internet hearsay, and it's no surprise that he didn't get the only practical detail right, about supplementing electrolytes.  

There would be better references out there, but Youtube is almost entirely populated by these sorts of light content sources.  One is about actual research on fasting delaying Alzheimer's development in genetically inclined mice; maybe that highlights a good reason to take up fasting or maybe it doesn't carry over directly to humans.  Fasting seems to be the only thing that extends test animals' lifespans, or at least suppressed calorie intake does, so there probably are multiple benefits to it, it would just be hard to sort out.

The fasting experience

Was it easier?  It's not as if having prior exposure and dialing in electrolytes made it a lot easier.  I was still really hungry for the first three days, but the mental haziness and radically shifting energy level was reduced.  Level of hunger might have backed off a little, or maybe it was that I was just as hungry, for just as long (3 days), but that it seemed more normal to me, so it didn't bother me quite as much.  Again instead of avoiding all exposure to food on the first day I went to a grocery store (it was a street market the first time), to buy pumpkin seeds and cashews for after the fast, to start back on food with low carb and stomach friendly inputs.  Kind of off topic, I also bought some American style white cheddar, which isn't commonly available here in Bangkok.  

It wasn't bad being in that store, around food, because I used a lunch break at work to go there, and the real hunger only kicked in later in the day.  I guess that had been worse the first time, because I had visited a market in the evening with my wife.

visiting a street festival selling food; it wasn't so bad, being around it while fasting

Lots of references mention how through prior experience you can speed up the switch into ketosis, only processing fat energy, in this case that from your body, not food, versus carbohydrate energy use.  Two ways to do that:  eat almost no carbs the day before, or do light exercise the first day to cycle through existing glycogen reserves (I think that's how they put that).  I didn't attempt that at all, eating a large dinner of Isaan sausage and corn the night before, with pineapple, banana, and orange for desert.  A lot of carbs!  The reasoning was to boost nutrient intake, and to not worry about the carbs.  Maybe a long walk to that store on day one speeded up draining energy reserves, but it had just worked out like that, I wasn't intentionally exercising.

About electrolyte experience:  it's hard to say how much difference this made, but I didn't experience exactly the same heart palpitations that I had the first time (or at least thought that I did).  Learning in mid-fast that I wasn't properly supplementing electrolyte input probably didn't help with confidence related to experience any body changes.  Maybe that practical improvement this time did help with keeping energy level more stable.  I didn't push it by doing exercise, but I did sweep leaves in the driveway and do laundry and such, and visited a temple and another market on day 4 (again my wife wanted to do that, and hunger wasn't so bad then anyway).

That salt and water mixture was disgusting.  I thought that if I could dilute it more than they recommended it would be better, but it turned out best to drink it at about that strength and then drink plain water after to resolve the reaction from it.  I mixed it at double the strength they mentioned and then added cold water to drink it cool, but otherwise I was consuming a variation of that Reddit sub information wiki's "snake juice" recipe, with magnesium added twice a day in the form of those fizzy dissolvable tablets.  On day 5 I was considering dropping the baking soda sodium input, just bumping the salt, but by then it was near the end anyway.

Side effects, hunger and other:  I was quite hungry the first three days, and then that resolved on day 4.  On day 5--as I write this initial draft--I'm not hungry but energy level and clarity isn't great.  I didn't sleep well last night, or most nights, only getting a solid 9 hour nights' sleep on one exception (after day 2?).  I felt like I was always dialing in how much of that vile salt mixture and regular water I had been drinking, and that's what kept waking me up.  Just a guess from my experience, but I think drinking 2 liters of that and one liter of water might work well.  3 liters is a decent amount of water to drink in one day, but I think adding a bit beyond a generally recommended 2 to make allowance for body processes being atypical and no food input containing any water makes sense.  Drinking more yet might pull out more of other minerals and vitamins, but a five day fast isn't really pushing it for risk from nutrient deficits (per my understanding; who knows really), especially when adding a few vitamin supplements.

I never really felt normal, or good.  Even though hunger seemed slightly less of an issue processing all that salt water threw off my digestive system a little.  I didn't have diarrhea, that time, but my stomach kept churning for the first 2 1/2 days.  It wasn't really so uncomfortable, so I didn't mind much, but I could imagine someone finding that off-putting.  At a couple instances on day 4 and 5 I felt a little dizzy standing up quickly; my equilibrium wasn't normal.  Waking in the night I felt more off than during the day, but drinking water resolved that (again I didn't get hydration and electrolyte supplementation completely dialed in).   

It's odd describing what it's like to not feel hungry after not eating for 5 days.  In one sense I'm definitely hungry; if I think about food I crave it, and thinking about how my stomach feels brings up noticing a notable hollow feeling.  Smelling food is even worse; I can smell the neighbors cooking dinner, which I don't really remember doing before.  But oddly I didn't crave food very much at that night market on day 4 evening, even when my wife ate in front of me in two places.  I kept seeing food on the table while working remotely; it probably would've been better to remove those snacks, now consisting of dried strawberries and a Thai crispy rolled crepe / cookie sort of thing.  But the energy issues and general concern about my body experiencing this is worse, and that very minor sore throat.  Better to let it go roughly at the five day mark.

Today is my birthday, one part of why my wife wants us to go out to dinner, preventing me from stopping right at 8 PM, as I had planned.  It's a strange present to myself, to experience the last of starving for 5 days.

right after the fast

Lessons learned / new experiences:  being a little more active this time worked out, and I can see how exercising while fasting might be possible, just in a mild form.  I think if someone practiced fasting more normalizing the experience might be helpful, perhaps not talking much about shared experience in a related forum, not telling many people IRL about it, and trying to include the full range of normal activities.  Not related to how those others would see it, but just in relation to making it seem as normal as possible within your own perspective.  I think going heavy on carbs the day before is probably a bad idea; I probably could've lessened transition impact by not doing that.  

I've read and watched videos a bit more on what it's supposed to bring for benefits, but oddly I'm skeptical of all of that.  It's probably all mostly right, but health claims in general often amount to hearsay knowledge extended from a study that wasn't quite that specific, or worse, general medical care perspective or from the echo-chamber effect of people repeating what they saw claimed somewhere, from unreliable sources.  Maybe that fasting experience just did cure cancer in my body, and offset diabetes risk, reduce insulin resistance, and delayed my later onset of dementia.  Maybe significant autophagy occurred, and lots of damaged cells have been recycled, which should reduce inflammation and resolve all sorts of minor organ health and tissue damage issues I'm barely aware of.

The only noticeable benefit last time, beyond having a different perspective on food, and perhaps a slight boost in mental clarity, was that it seemed like I had a lot more energy when running distance, over 2 or 3 miles (4 or 5 kilometers), up to 8 km (5 miles) on my longer normal route.  That's not really even one of the benefits mentioned in hearsay accounts, so it wasn't confirmation bias that caused noticing that.

Beyond that I don't know.  Maybe I'll add more in a later effects addition to this initial draft.  This took just over a half hour to write, if that's helpful for clarifying how writing just over a page of text would go with potentially diminished mental acuity.  I feel as mentally clear as normal; kind of odd.

Later account, experienced effects 

Breaking the fast:  I ate pumpkin seeds, almonds, and a small bowl of meusli with milk to return to eating.  Of course it all tasted great, especially the almonds.  It was great eating food with salt that matched the food instead of drinking that salty water.  Then we went out to dinner; I had wanted to eat that controlled food type form of small meal first.  A food court burger tasted the best of any burger I've ever eaten, surely only because of the context.  Then I ate a waffle with caramel and ice cream.  Every time I fast I vow that I'm going to eat a very healthy diet afterwards, and that drops out as soon as I see ice cream.  Next we went to a familiar restaurant (MK) where I ate more ice cream cake, offered for free related to it being my birthday.

As to side effects from eating, the first light meal went great, as planned.  I was somewhat full eating what wouldn't overfill a moderate sized cereal bowl.  The burger I ate too fast, and started sweating as a response to the digestive system shock.  Maybe related to a carb spike from the fries?  Probably not; it was right afterwards, and it settled out quite quickly.  After what wouldn't have been a huge meal I felt like I'd eaten a round of Thanksgiving dinner (which I missed, since that Thursday was day 2 of the fast, but they don't "do" Thanksgiving in Thailand anyway).

I did eat that traditional meal, just a bit later on, as a cafe special

Later account of effects:  I'm writing this on Tuesday, after ending the fast on Sunday around 6 PM.  Monday morning it felt like I wasn't completely back to normal.  I didn't really lack energy, or mental clarity, but still felt a much milder form of that odd feeling that had persisted over the fast.  

By Monday afternoon that had resolved, and by evening I felt fantastic.  My wife and I went for a 12 km bike ride at a local park, and that felt like it took absolutely no effort at all, so I went out for a run right afterwards.  That's the fastest I've ever ran that 4 km loop (not that I time it; I'm oddly opposed to that, which I won't go into here).  I usually either run an 8 km milder pace circuit (5 miles or so), or with the shorter 4 km version I include a 1 km (two thirds mile) maximum speed segment at the end, and it was surprising how it felt effortless for the entire run, and that pace was crazy the last kilometer.  It helps to adjust the form and effort by matching stride pace count to breathing pace, automatically  changing both and the relationship at different speeds, and it was hard to get it to push towards a highest speed near-failure point; I could just keep going faster.

anyone visiting Bangkok might check out renting bikes at Rot Fai park; it's so nice there

There is no way that fasting improved my cardio capacity, but it definitely felt like it did.  I think that was because use of fat based (ketogenic?) energy supply was boosted, becoming a much more familiar internal process, so the other sub-processes of lactic acid and carbon dioxide removal and oxygen intake felt more comfortable.  I don't know why.  I'm not sore at all the day after, just a little stiff; that I can't explain either.  It is possible that the 45 minute biking warm up helped out a lot.

Mentally I feel normal, maybe slightly sharper.  My energy level is good.  As I was telling my wife maybe it's all because my baseline of feeling relatively terrible for 5 days makes "back to normal" feel like I'm bright, sharp, and energetic.  

I slept ok for the past two nights, with some interruption last night, but then my sleep hasn't been as consistent since returning from Hawaii, nearly two months ago.  Unusually vivid dreams have been a side effect during fasting, and also an after-effect.  I don't know what to make of that.

It would be nice if I had more experiential input or conclusions to share, but that's pretty much it.  It did seem a good bit easier than the first fast, just still rough enough, so it seems possible that after another round or two it might be much more manageable.  I'm not sure if I'll do it again, but probably that boost in running experience is going to be quite tempting.  I'll do the longer run again later in the week, so I can see if that was a temporary effect, or if I can fly through the routes now, which would seem strange.

kids making colored sand street art at that festival

a better look at more of their work

(off topic) this local mall sells the houses ($45), but not gingerbread men, so strange

The Healing Properties of Chrysanthemum Flower Tea (Tisane), guest post by Doug Crawford

My first-ever guest blog post is about the medical properties of Chrysanthemum, written by Doug Crawford. This post originated from an online discussion about how beneficial properties of herbs, especially tisanes, herbal teas, are never clearly discussed in online references, and that when claims are made there is never substantial background for them.

In one other blog post I'd started into research about such properties related to mulberry leaf tea / tisane, but Doug goes a couple steps further in adding Eastern traditional use description and current Western research of nutritional content and health benefits.  A bit more on him first:


Living in Bangkok, Doug Crawford is an American-trained and -licensed practitioner of acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine. Inspired to help people heal, you can learn more about him at 68meridians.com, or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/wellspringheali….


On to the article then:

The Healing Properties of Herbal Teas: Chrysanthemum Flower  by Doug Crawford, L.Ac.

When most of us think of chrysanthemums, we probably don't think of something we would voluntarily eat. Also known as mums, chrysanthemums are flowering plants of the Aster family. Native to China, they were first cultivated as a flowering herb as far back as 1500 BC. They arrived in Japan in the eighth century AD, at which point the Emperor adopted the chrysanthemum flower as his official seal. By the mid-1600s over 500 varieties had been recorded. They were brought to north America in the late-1700s.

With their many petals and countless colors, chrysanthemums can now be found in gardens worldwide.  They have been depicted in art for centuries, and are renowned as one of the Four Gentlemen in Chinese and East Asian art. They're not only pretty to look at, chrysanthemums are indeed edible, and they have been used as both food and medicine for at least 2000 years.

Uses In The Kitchen

Chrysanthemum greens, meaning leaves, are quite popular in Asian cuisines—Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Southeast Asian—during the spring to autumn seasons. The young leaves are eaten raw or used in salads, while the older leaves can be steamed, boiled, or wok fried with the addition of various flavorings.

For those of us in the West, though we may occasionally see chrysanthemum flowers used in salads, they're usually consumed as tea. Made from dried yellow or white flowers of either Chrysanthemum morifolium or Chrysanthemum indicum, the flavor is mild and flowery, similar to chamomile. Tea made from yellow flowers has a distinct golden hue, while that made from white flowers has very little color.

Nutritional Content

In Asia, particularly Southeast Asia, chrysanthemum tea is consumed for its cooling properties.  Chrysanthemum flowers contains no caffeine, so if you're looking for a stimulant buzz, they're probably not for you. But if you're sensitive to the effects of caffeine, or you're just not into the anxiety, tension, or irritability that list among its side-effects, chrysanthemum tea may be just the ticket. And if you don't add any sugar, there are essentially zero calories.

Chrysanthemums are notable for their content of vitamin K,  beta carotene, and Folate. Just under an ounce of chrysanthemum flowers, way more than you would use for tea, contain over 100% of the daily requirement of Vitamin K. Vitamin K is important for blood clotting, and for binding calcium to bones and other tissues. They also contain about 10% of the daily requirement of beta carotene, and Folate. Beta carotene is the red-orange plant pigment, seen in carrots and the like, that is converted to vitamin A in the liver. It's important for vision, healthy skin, immune function, longevity, and growth. Folate is a B vitamin, sometimes called B9. It's important for the production of healthy red blood cells, the prevention of anemia, and for DNA synthesis.

As for minerals, chrysanthemums are a significant source of the manganese, a mineral absolutely necessary for development, metabolism, and the antioxidant system in humans. They also contain small amounts of calcium, iron, magnesium, and potassium. Calcium is important for the development of teeth and bones, iron for the transport of oxygen in the blood, and over 300 enzymes require the presence of magnesium for their catalytic action. Potassium, one of the most common elements in the human body, is an electrolyte we need to build proteins, break down and use carbohydrates, build muscle, maintain normal body growth, and control the electrical activity of the heart.

In spite of the many articles that claim chrysanthemum is a significant source of B and C vitamins, this simply is not true. One would have to consume an entire handful of dried flowers to get just two percent of the recommended daily requirement for these vitamins.

Use In Traditional Chinese Medicine

In Chinese medicine, the chrysanthemum flower is called Ju Hua. The earliest written record of its use comes from the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing, a book of agricultural and medicinal plants dating from around 225AD, where it is listed in the upper, or noble, class of herbs. Noble herbs are considered the safest in the Chinese materia medica. In fact, many of the noble herbs are foods. 

Chinese medicine ascribes to each herb, and food, an energetic flavor, an energetic temperature, and an affinity for specific internal organs. The flavors, each of which has a predictable effect when ingested, include spicy, sweet, bitter, sour, salty, bland, and astringent.  Temperatures range from very cold to hot. Chrysanthemum is spicy, sweet, and bitter. Its temperature is cool to slightly cold. And it has an affinity for the Lung and Liver, although some sources also include an affinity for the Spleen and Kidneys.

Another way Chinese medicine classifies herbs is by function, meaning how they effect the body. An herb's functions and its flavor and temperature properties are closely related. Four primary functions are attributed to Chrysanthemum:

•    Dispels Wind-Heat – Wind-Heat means febrile disorders, including colds and flu, with symptoms such as headache, fever, painful eyes, dry or sore mouth and throat. 

•    Clears Liver and benefits eyes – In Chinese medicine, pathology of the Liver can manifest in the eyes. This herb clears heat from the Liver and relieves redness, swelling & pain in eyes.

•    Calms Liver Yang – Chinese medicine looks at the balance of Yin (water) and Yang (metabolic heat) within a person. Yang has a natural tendency to rise upward. Pathological symptoms can include hypertension, or dizziness. Chrysanthemum calms rising Yang.

•    Clears heat, eliminates toxins – Pathological heat and/or toxins in the body, whether acquired from food, alcohol or drugs, or the environment, can express through the skin with various types of inflammation, sores or swellings.  Chrysanthemum treats various dermatological conditions, abscesses and ulcerations.

As you can see from both its energetic properties, and its functions, chrysanthemum is definitely a cooling herb. As such, its helpful in clearing heat and cooling the body, as well as calming nerves. And while all of the benefits ascribed to chrysanthemum from the Chinese medicine perspective have yet to be demonstrated by contemporary scientific research, the empirical evidence is extensive. As mentioned previously, the herb has been in use for at least 2000 years. Three varieties are used clinically. They include:

•    Ye Ju Hua – Wild grown. Best for clearing heat and eliminating toxins.

•    Huang Ju Hua – Yellow flowers. Best for febrile illness.

•    Bai Ju Hua – White chrysanthemum. Best for eye problems.

Western Research

Countless medicines have come from plants. The study of chemicals that are derived from plants, called phytochemistry, looks at two basic types of compounds contained in plants. These are volatiles and flavonoids..

Volatiles are responsible for a plant's perfume and flavor. They serve to attract pollinators and seed dispersers, and play a vital role in a plants healthcare system and protection. In a medical context, volatiles have demonstrated anti-microbial and anti-mycobacterial activity, free radical scavenging and anti-oxidant activity, and possible anti-cancer effects.

Favonoids are the pigments responsible for producing a plant's colors. Some of their functions include attracting pollinating insects, participating in UV filtration, nitrogen fixation, and as chemical messengers. As for their benefits to humans, flavonoids are important as anti-oxidants, and have demonstrated anti-viral, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic capabilities.

The Western scientific community has only just begun to research chrysanthemums. In spite of the lack of a large number of studies, numerous individual compounds have been isolated from them, including at least 63 volatiles, and ten flavonoids. So what else have scientists discovered? Let's take a look.

Notable Studies

•    Cardiovascular: A 1987 study concluded that a water extract of Chrysanthemum Indicum directly and uniformly produced coronary and systemic vascular dilation in anesthetized dogs. Vascular dilation reduces blood pressure and improves blood flow. (1)

•    Anti-Microbial: A study from 2005 demonstrated significant anti-microbial potential of the essential oils of Chrysanthemum Indicum. (2)

•    Anti-Oxidant & Anti-Cancer: A 2010 chemical analysis of Chrysanthemum Indicum concluded that the flowers are “a rich source of bioactive phytochemicals.” Among the isolates were types which are known to exhibit anti-microbial and anti-oxidant activity, as well as those which induce the body's natural defense against cancer. (3)

•    Anti-Biotic: In a 2012 study, chrysanthemum demonstrated excellent antibiotic effects on E. coli. (4)

•    Anti-Inflammatory: The results of a study published in 2013 showed a positive anti-inflammatory effectiveness of an extract from the flowers and buds of Chrysanthemum Indicum in four separate animal studies. (5)

While none of these results are definitive, they do align to some degree with the empirical evidence gained from centuries of use in Chinese medicine. It's important to note when using relatively safe herbs such as chrysanthemum as tea that the quantities of active compounds are relatively small and thus relatively slow-acting. As such, unless taken in large quantities, which is definitely not recommended unless under the supervision of a skilled practitioner of Chinese herbal medicine, they need to be used long-term to experience their positive effects.

How To Prepare Chrysanthemum Tea

Chrysanthemum tea is best when prepared from dried flowers, as many of the prepackaged products contain sugars or other additives. Dried chrysanthemum flowers can be found in Asian or health food markets, or Chinese herbal pharmacies.

To prepare chrysanthemum tea, five to eight dried chrysanthemum flowers (approximately one gram) per individual serving are steeped in hot water (90 to 95 degrees Celsius/200 degrees Fahrenheit after cooling from a boil) in either a teapot, cup, or glass for about five minutes. If you want a bit of sweetness, you may add a little honey. Another way to slightly sweeten it is to add three or four goji berries when steeping.

In Chinese tradition, once a pot of chrysanthemum tea has been drunk, hot water is typically added again to the flowers in the pot (producing a tea that is slightly less strong). This process is often repeated several times.

Cautions & Contra-Indications

People who are allergic to ragweed or other plants may want to explore drinking chrysanthemum tea with caution. If you notice any skin irritation or respiratory issues while using, discontinue immediately. When consumed in large quantities, chrysanthemum can interact with various prescription medicines. If you're concerned about interactions, consult with your physician before using. Also, chrysanthemum is cooling, so individuals with digestive weakness, loose stools, lack of appetite, or particularly low energy, as well as individuals who tend to often feel cold should be cautious when considering consuming chrysanthemum.

References:

(1)  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3579429

(2)http://science.naturalnews.com/2005/6213117_Chemical_composition_and_antimicrobial_activity_of_the_essential_oils_of.html

(3)http://www.researchgate.net/publication/228500486_Analysis_of_chemical_composition_of_Chrysanthemum_indicum_flowers_by_GCMS_and_HPLC

(4) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23255247

(5) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3816045/