What psychological benefits does a fasting retreat have?

A trend in current times is to go on a weekend retreat to disconnect from the city, the rush, the hustle and bustle and other stressful factors.

Attentive to this healthy fashion, there is a wide variety of offers for these getaways, but few are as interesting from the point of view of physical and psychological well-being as the one proposed Damien Carbonnier with his company MiAyuno.es.

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Interview with Damien Carbonnier, director of MiAyuno

To delve into the advantages of fasting retreats, nothing better than talking to Damien Carbonnier, who will put us up to date day about how one of these retreats works, and what the person who decides to embark on this adventure will experience introspective.

Xavier Molina: When talking about fasting, the focus is usually on the benefits it has for physical health. Does it also have psychological benefits?

Damien Carbonnier: The mental and psychic benefits are the physiological and therefore inevitable consequence of the benefits that fasting has at the digestive level. Nowadays, studies are being carried out that demonstrate the benefits of fasting for the intestine, both at a functional level and for the intestinal flora or microbiome. The gut rules over the brain. Well-being is not what you think but what you feel.

Our brain produces energy in its day to day mainly from glucose, but during a fast, the first 2 days, we consume most of our glucose reserves. Thus, from the third day, the organism finds itself in need of activating the physiological mechanisms that transform our reserves of fat into energy, this process takes place in the liver and from this process molecules known as ketone bodies are derived among other functions they serve as a source of energy for the brain, which ensures that the brain has enough energy during the fast.

As demonstrated in the early 2000s by Dr. Dominique Lanzman Petithory that these ketone bodies represent a true alternative, as a source of energy, to glucose and he partly explains why mental clarity during a fast (a brain with energy is a brain optimistic).

In recent years, neuroscientists such as mark mattson have published papers on Parkinson's and Alzheimer's in relation to caloric restriction (fasting) and intermittent fasting and their benefits for the brain.

People who fast experience at the end of the process and during the weeks or months that follow a sense of calm and serenity that allows them to be more connected with themselves and with their environment, and therefore live "more present and in the now" which for many is synonymous with happiness.

Gandhi, who fasted several times in his life, summarized fasting as follows: the eyes are used to look at the outside world, fasting to see the inner world...

Can anyone see these benefits, or are they significant only for a part of the population?

As we have said before, well-being is the physiological consequence of a fast, that is why we dare to answer yes and although anyone who presents a good health and if not, being supported by a doctor, who knows in depth the physiology during fasting (as is the case in Miayuno.es) you will notice these benefits.

From our experience we can say that when our clients come for the first time they come looking for the benefits on a physical level. (lose weight, reduce pain and inflammation, improve digestive discomfort,...) while repeat customers tend to come more seeking that feeling of well-being and emotional or mental calm that is experienced at the end of the retreats and during the months following.

Although it is true that there are not many, there are situations that contraindicate fasting:

• Pregnant or lactating women
• Minors (it is preferable not to fast before the age of 16)
• People with eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia...)
• Some serious diseases, according to their stage of evolution
• Insulin dependent diabetic patients

In Mi Ayuno you organize fasting programs in contact with nature. Why do you consider that these two elements, fasting and natural environments, fit together well?

Because basically you can contemplate reconnecting with yourself when you get away from the day, from the city, from stress, from the family and professional environment. RE-CONNECT with oneself requires, for the human being to rediscover his origins and we find them in nature. For this reason, during a retreat our clients walk, breathe fresh air, relax and reconnect.

At Miayuno we don't just offer fasting, we offer Fasting Retreats. We believe that the word Retreats is just as important as Fasting.

And how are fasting and physical exercise combined?

During the MiAyuno retreats we combine fasting from solids with aerobic physical exercise, which allows us to:

• consume fat reserves
• protect muscle

We all remember seeing a movie with the army running and singing at the same time. Physiologically it is explained because when we practice aerobic sports (it allows us to continue speaking normally or even singing), fat can be used as an energy reserve, which does not happen when we do anaerobic physical activity, in which we can only use glucose as a source of energy. For this reason, during the retreats we propose a gentle but prolonged physical activity (up to 3-4 hours).

What measures must be taken so that fasting is not harmful due to lack of control or experience?

The best measure would be to go to a professional at least the first times that we intend to do it. The second measure would be to get serious information, the third to be able to organize a week of low intensity where we try to get away from family and work momentarily.

How is someone who is fasting professionally supervised?

More than supervising, he is accompanied, fasting carries very few risks, human beings have always fasted. It is also controlled, talking to the person and giving them guidelines so that they can feel better, encourage them to do some physical activity (not necessarily every day) to slow down the detoxification. Possible dizziness is controlled with honey or bicarbonate depending on the type of dizziness, headaches are minimized by cleansing the intestine on the first day and with natural balms until fasting on the third day day.

Nothing special, however, the few risks that they entail must be known and, above all, must be be able to act quickly to avoid any problem, so the assistance of a professional is important. I insist that fasting is natural and ancestral, fasting is spoken of in all religions, today fasting is internationally recognized. In our current society of subabundance, we continue to fast every night, therefore, the first meal of the day is called "breakfast" after fasting. Although it makes less and less sense to have dinner so late and have breakfast so early because we don't really let the body go fasting.

Finally... Can fasting be more than a habit performed with a certain frequency, and become a philosophy of life?

Of course, in fact, at Miayuno we have 1 out of 2 clients who repeat year after year and take it as an annual health guideline.

Apart from this, the best thing is to be able to practice intermittent fasting to precisely combine it throughout the year. There are several types of intermittent fasting. We recommend starting with 12/12 in which we will fast for 12 hours between dinner and breakfast. but the most scientifically studied is 16/8 in which you eat 2 times a day with 16 hours of fasting at day. The idea is to start with 12/12 and let it flow gradually towards 11/13 or 10/14 and assess how the body responds on a day-to-day basis.

It should be noted that this practice of intermittent fasting is much easier to do once you have fasted for several days as we have designed it in the Miayuno centers in Spain.