Fasting Journal : Fasting Center International

A QUINTET OF REPRESENTATIVE M.D.'S DISCUSS WHY THEY CHOSE FCI'S PROGRAM & RECOMMEND IT TO PATIENTS, COLLEAGUES & FRIENDS!

      [NOTE: Fasting Center International, Inc., which has developed our world's largest, nonresidential fasting clientele over the past 35 years--with clients continuously on all major continents and in all times zone, representing 210 nations--has been blessed with literally thousands of testimonials from enthusiastic clients, globally, a representative sampling of whose very impressive comments today grace our extensive website (including those of M.D.s, psychiatrists, D.O.s, D.D.S.s and Ph.D.s in a variety of fields).
      However, what some do not yet understand is that here in the U.S., for instance, as scientific fasting has never been taught in any of America's 127 medical schools, allopaths--schooled exclusively to deal with only symptoms, versus the causes which prolonged, therapeutic fasting addresses--are completely unqualified to supervise fasts, or even to give qualified opinions, one way or the other. Most, in fact, have either forgotten or never knew that all three Fathers of Western Medicine practiced and prescribed prolonged fasting.
      As just five, representative examples of clients' appreciation among the M.D.'s educating themselves by doing FCI's scientific Programs year in and decade out, the following comments are from a California pediatrician of 13 years, 49, who went back to medical school and became a psychiatrist (child, adult and family), and did his 50-day detoxification with a U.C.colleague (a doctor of clinical psychology) while in training for the Western States Ultramarathon(where they'd run 100 miles while climbing 32,000 feet), in case you were wondering about 'energy'; a California new surgeon, 31, doing his Program with a friend he referred; an Australian family practitioner, 46, who'd delivered over 2000 babies in Africa before returning home to set up practice; a New York oncologist, 45, and a former physician and former Buddhist monk from Australia, 61, who is now an editor and publisher of Buddhist texts for free distribution.
      The first two--both physicians in the University of California system--have requested that FCI keep their identify confidential, because U.C.hospitals market competing weight-loss 'diets' (although neither recommends nor supports those, now steering colleagues, patients and friends to FCI). The third, Australian John Green, M.D., did his 73-day Total Detoxification Program (TDP) coupled with a 50-year-old patient (77-day TDP) who'd suffered chronic fatigue for 12 years and "tied everything else, to no avail." Kathryn MacKenzie, M.D., 45, is a New York oncologist suffering fibroid tumors, and Nick Ribush, 61, is the former Aussie physician and Buddhist monk. First, the U.C.psychiatrist/pediatrician:
      "Dennis: This is just to say a very big thank you! I really appreciate the commitment you are to the health of others, through this wonderful Program. I am feeling GREAT. . .incredibly great! I am beginning to see the incredible efforts I have gone to in my life to attempt to achieve exactly that which FCI's fasting program has provided for me; for example, doing incredible amounts of exercise in order to detoxify, lose weight, etc. . . .different crazy diets, sports bars, the Zone Diet,all that stuff.
      "This whole experience has been fabulous for me, not unlike the challenge of taking on a 100-mile race! Perspectives are so very important in everything we do. So, I am having fun with this. Thanks! I received a phone call this p.m. from a very dear friend of mine who would very much like to do the Program soon. He will do very well, and deserves it, in my opinion. His name is [confidential], and he will email you. Also, as you know, a colleague here at U.C.[Ph.D in clinical psychology)] has already signed on. Otherwise, all sorts of other colleagues, patients and friends are very interested in doing the Program, too. That's it for now, my friend. Enjoy life! Your friend and associate, [confidential], M.D."

      SECONDLY. . .a new M.D., 31, produced by the University of Californiasystem where he finished his surgical residency. . .here on fasting day 22 of his 40-day Program to lose 20 lbs. and "get back to not feeling bad after eating":
      "Dear Dennis: Today is F-day 22, and I am down to 181.5 lbs. and 18% body-fat, from 205 and 26%. I feel great, and look terrific! I just finished another night on-call, where we had five, full-trauma resuscitations in two hours. In other words, we had two motor vehicle accidents--one severely-burned patient who was on fire, running away from his crashed truck, when the paramedics found him; one man who walked out of his burning house, and one man hit by an auto. . .all in two hours. Only later did we get the woman with metastaic breast cancer who fell and fractured her cervical spine and compressed her spinal cord, plus another woman with spinal tuberculosis who required an operation late at night. All in all, an easy night. I even got three hours of sleep. My energy level is great!
      "I look forward to completing this program in 8 more days. I will feel very proud and satisfied. I must say that I already look around me and see people who are grossly overweight, whom I know must have tried all kinds of diets--diets that simply cannot work. And, I know how poor their body self-image must be, and how frustrated they must feel to not be able to lose weight. Of course, for politeness's sake, I can't say anything. But I can tell you, if anyone ever asks me about how to lose weight, I will tell them that there is only one way--scientific juice-fasting; nothing else works reliably.
      "For me, at least, hardship is fairly easy to endure, as long as there is a pre-determined endpoint. For instance, when I rowed heavyweight crew at Dartmouth University,races were excruciating. Each of us would go heavily into oxygen debt at the start of the race, and would have to pull at 100% without faltering for the whole race, all the time feeling the heavy effects of massive lactic-acid buildup from the anaerobic activity. It is not uncommon to see rowers vomit at the end of a race, and anyone who has ever watched crew can tell you how completely exhausted we are at the end of a race. How, then, can one do it? Simple. The pain only lasts eight minutes. I can pretty much endure anything, as long as I know it's going to last only 8 minutes. Or 38 hours [one of his on-call shifts in surgical residency]. Or 30 days. It all depends on the amount of suffering involved.
      "Fasting for 30 days is not easy, but at least it has a definite time limit, a foreseeable end. Dieting does not. There is no way I could limit my intake and be constantly hungry for an indefinite length of time. How long would the diet have to last? At the 'recommended' two lbs. per week, it would take me at least 13 weeks to lose the 26 lbs. I needed to lose. That's more than three months of being hungry.; that is, if everything were to go well. Who knows how long it would really take?
      "No way. I couldn't do it. But, I sure can do this fast for 30 days. And the results are dramatic! I have lost 24 lbs. in 26 days (22 days of juice-fasting). Need I say more? Remember, that this comes from a guy who is into General Surgery (a field known for its appropriate conservatism), with a career in organ transplantation down the road. I have also done much research on my own into the 'placebo effect,' in order to clarify that while therapies such as acupuncture and homeopathy 'work' (i.e., produce beneficial results), they mostly do not work for the reasons given by their practitioners. The interplay between symbols (putting a needle in someone, having major surgery done), the brain, and the body's immunologic and wound-healing systems are much more complex than that. The simple explanations given by many are inadequate.
      "Anyway, there is at least one therapy that I do not find at all controversial: Juice-fasting, with supervision, works, pure and simple. And, it works fast! I just wish that everyone who wanted to lose weight or cleanse their systems would try it. All my best, Dennis. Sincerely, (confidential), M.D.
      "P.S. Once again, you may, if you wish, make my comments (at least the non-inflammatory ones!) public, if you wish. Feel free to edit to protect the sensibilities of your gentle readers. :)"

      THIRDLY. . .Australian John Green, M.D., 46, on fasting day five of his 73-day Total Detox. Program (TDP), coupled with a 50-year-old patient (77-day TDP) who'd suffered chronic fatigue for 12 years, having "tied everything else, to no avail":
      "Dennis: When I first considered the idea of fasting a few weeks ago, it caught me right in my centre. There was no way I could let go of the idea; like a dog with a bone, I had to study the idea myself, and I spent many hours online researching the subject, going through dozens and dozens of sites, probably about 150. With respect to the many fasting facilities around, I could not help but come back to FCI's site. And, the more I got into your site, the more I realised I had found a home for me and maybe others like me needing help, in the sense that I did not need to look anywhere else. Then, integrating fasting into my life started to become a realistic option on a personal level.
      "I very quickly began to consider the idea of fasting as an option for my patients, and how I might be able to integrate this option into the range of options I offer patients, BUT, in no way as something I supervise. My rule of thumb in medicine is never try to play with people's lives. If I am out of my depth, I ask someone for help. That makes helping people so much easier and more satisfying, and results more likely. When I am out of my depth, I suggest to people what options I see, and try to help the person make the best choice/s for themselves. So, what I mean by integrating is just that, but I will be referring people to FCI, in a way as I would to another health professional. . .with an obvious twist; usually, I write a professional referral letter to the person to whom I refer a patient. It is a matter of medical ethics.
      "This is a first for me, in my professional and personal experience; I want to be good at this, and I sense now a need to be good at this. . .for myself, for my practice of healing and medicine. However, this fasting process is not something I pretend to undertake to become an expert; I am happy just to be a novice on a learning curve, and leave the expertise to you. It is nice to be able to take the doctor hat off for awhile, and leave that to another.
      "When I made up my mind to do your program, a little voice inside said: 'Right, if this is fine for you to discover, offer fasting to those in your work, if and where appropriate.' The first person who came along was [the patient mentioned above who'd suffered chronic fatigue 12 years and "tried everything else, to no avail"]. She can tell you how I put it to her. I hope her delighful story will speak for itself.
      "Fasting is a step I can only suggest for people to consider; from there, they must take it for themselves. I am not in the business of trying to shove people hither and thither. I like to work with the best; nothing less will do for me. And, when I meet the best in the business, you can smell it all over them. That's you. It comes through loudly and clearly. So, when I say I am in the business of integrating medicine, I mean integrating the best of all medicines (food inclusive, food first, and perhaps foremost) towards structuring a better medicine for people.
      "But, I cannot, for one second, imagine being more than a referral point for people needing and ready for that better medicine, when it comes to fasting. It is better to let experts do what they do best. That's why I chose to do your program. I could not be an expert in fasting; that's your gift, and I am privileged to have finally foundÊyou. Again, when I use the phrase 'integrate' fasting, I mean at a personal level, as well as being able to offer fasting to people as an option, provided that they consider only FCI's fasting program.
      "What prescription could be easier to write than one with your URL (http://www.fasting.com) on it. Ask [the abovementioned patient he's fasting with]. I have written that prescription a few times now, since then, and it seems to get easier to write each time. So, I do want to explore this and get my head around it, moving towards integrating a better medicine, most especially for the people I care most about. I am off for a swim, and I can't wait to hear from you. I'm hoping we can work together through this and more."
      This same avant-garde physician, 20 days into his 73-day Program, would add: "Dennis: I also wanted to thank you for (http://www.fasting.com/anderson.html) the "Bulimia" letter . . .extra-ordinary work! Consider yourself (please, if you will) the first truly great teacher I have found in Cyberspace.
      On his Program's 41st day, he noted: "Dear Dennis: I am sleeping well, and have been experiencing a very substantial increase in general energy and vitality since day one. I'm also contemplating quietly, meditating and praying better, hungry for that peace which passeth all understanding. . .working on it. Sincerely, John Green, M.D."
      [Five and a half years after completing FCI's 73-day Total Detox. Program, John would email FCI to say]: "Among, Dennis, the five people I still average referring daily to Fasting.com, hardly a day goes by where I do not share with some suffering soul how you would have to be among the great fasting instructors of all time, I know that, but the challenge is bringing other people round to discovering for themselves this amazing skill you have crafted. I have been practising the skill you taught me, regularly and often, and my wife is also right into it, since doing her own Program. It is wonderful! Always a pleasure, Dennis. Blessing, John
      [My response]: THANK YOU, JOHN, for your infinite kindness. One by one, we'll hopefully awaken sufficient souls to create the critical mass necessary for the quantum leap required to save this particular spec in the Megaverse from ourselves, particularly now that for the first time in history, humanity is faced with a global ecological collapse. In the Healing Arts, just yesterday in a "L.A. Times" interview, Harvard-trained botanist and M.D., Andrew Weil, stated: 'I think we're going to see a collapse of the healthcare system in America. And, as that happens, I think the wisdom of integrative medicine will become more and more apparent. It offers the promise of bringing lower-cost treatments into the mainstream.' Cheers, mate; your longtime friend and fasting therapist, Dennis

      FOURTHLY. . .New York oncologist Kathryn MacKenzie, M.D., 45, three months after completing her 90-day Total Detox. Program (TDP) to help resolve fibroid tumors:
      "Dear Dennis: I finished my first fast almost three months ago, and I'm still not ready for my final testimonial, as my journey to better life is not over yet. I should have written OUR journey, since you are my biggest support. I trust your wisdom.
      "Juice-fasting was such a wonderful experience that I feel like doing it again! My previous, unhealthy lifestyle led me to many problems, including obesity, uterine fibroids, and unhappiness. Fasting under your tactful suprvision changed my life! I became more aware of my spirit, my body, and the world around me.
      "It takes many years of bad habits to develop mental and physical disturbances. They may not be corrected immediately. My fibroid tumors are smaller, but they still exist, and that is one of the reasons why I want to repeat my detoxification.
      "You have no idea, Dennis, how much you have already helped me. I still need more attention. Please charge my new Amex for FCI's 100-day Program. I will start Transitioning-In in two days. Thank you so much. Your friend, Kathryn MacKenzie, M.D."
      "[FCI Note: After her repeat, follow-up fast, she would report: "I can no longer feel my fibroid tumor, which was very easily felt from outside even two months ago. I feel great!"]

      FINALLY. . .Dr. Nick Ribush, a 61-year-old former physician and former Buddhist monk from Melbourne, Australia, who is now an editor and publisher of Buddhist texts for free distribution located in Weston, Massachusetts; his organization is the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archiveat (http://www.LamaYeshe.com):
      "Dear Dennis: Thank you so much for encouraging me to undertake the FCI juice-fast, and for so skillfully guiding me through it. I was feeling fat and sluggish, but more to the point, my doctor wanted me to go on some cholesterol-lowering chemical, which I really did not want to do. I told him I'd diet, exercise and lose weight, so he gave me a six-month reprieve and said he'd re-assess me then. So, I contacted you and, a little wary, undertook the 20-day program with the possibility of extension.
      "As you know, I went 42 days of actual juice-fasting, and would have gone longer had I not been heading off to Australia for a couple of months. After the first 4 or 5 days, I was into the swing of the fast, not feeling hungry and quite enjoying it. I had loads of energy, and did 30-45 minutes of ashtanga yoga and a three-mile run on alternate days, throughout. As a practicing Buddhist, I also took the 24-hour 8 Mahayana Preceptsat 5 every morning for the last five weeks. This, itself, was a wonderful blessing.
      "As a result, I lost 25 lbs. in six weeks (put a few of them back on during the subsequent days, re-filling the colon), and impressed the hell out of my physician with the following results: Total cholesterol, 172 (before, 277; normal, 140-200). Triglycerides, 194 (before, 240; normal, 35-160, still a bit up, I guess). HDL, 49 (before, 52; normal, more than 40, so is okay). LDL, 84 (before, 177; normal, less than 130).
      "Thank you so much for this great program. I must have detoxed a bunch, and am wearing jeans I haven't worn for quite some time. I'm feelin' good, lookin' better, and plan to do it again and again, at least in shorter bursts, if not for the full 52 days.--Dr. Nicholas Ribush"
Please come back soon for new additions to FCI's online, archived FASTING JOURNAL!

Any questions, email or phone FCI. Email: FastMaster@fasting.com; phone: 818-590-2536 (know that the best time to catch Founder/Director Dennis Paulson, himself, with the least interruption, is between 10-4, California time). For the Fasting Center International home page, click here: www.fasting.com