I love Thomas DeLauer’s tips in this video for strengthening our immune system! He has achieved amazing results in his body by following and applying, primarily, the precepts of a ketogenic diet. So I feel like I can trust what he says.
He is also a big fan of utilizing IF (Intermittent Fasting) to achieve fat burning and his results speak for themselves. I mean, just look at those abs!
The other thing I love about Thomas, though, is that he really does his homework to make sure his information is reliable and based on science. He does what I do myself, that is, he tests things out in his own body to discover what his the true results will be.
PERSONAL EXPERIMENTATION IS KEY
You can listen to all the conflicting diet advice out there but you will only know what works in your own body if and when you try it for yourself.
Have you tried Intermittent Fasting? The very idea used to scare me. But I’ve come a long way since those days, Baby! I’ve fasted for multiple days at a time and I know, from first-hand experience, the benefits of restricted eating.
In this video Thomas talks about cell regeneration and it’s benefits to the immune system. He mentions a study from USC that shows prolonged fasting (2-3 days) can actually reset and regenerate the immune system. This results in the depletion of white blood cells and triggers stem cell-based regeneration of new immune system cells. Which is incredible!
He also discusses fasting and insulin – noting that when you fast for an extended period of time, fat deposits that have accumulated in your body become available as a food-source to cells that need it to function properly. As a result, the size of excess fat droplets gets smaller over time. And as the size of the lipid droplets in the muscle and liver cells decrease, those cells then become more responsive to insulin – resulting in autophagy. WIN!
Thomas goes into much more informed detail than I’ll mention here.
You’ll have to watch the video for yourself. But basically, he says that autophagy is a natural process where your body removes toxins and recycles damaged cell parts. You can learn more about autophagy HERE. But in association with his discussion of autophagy, he mentions a study that looked at liver cells and found that the number of autophagosomes (beneficial properties) increased by 300% after just 24 hours of fasting. WOW!
He also discusses the production of ketones and their effect on inflammation in the body. Thomas says that, on average, the body begins burning ketones after around 24-48 hours of fasting. He also goes on to mention BHB (Beta HydroxyButyrate) saying that this compound has been found to benefit the immune system. Thomas references a study from the Yale School of Medicine which found that exposing human immune cells to BHB after 2 days of fasting resulted in a reduced inflammatory response. Try one of THESE SMOOTHIE RECIPES and include a scoop or two of Exogenous Ketones to increase the production of ketone bodies. A tasty way to add potential benefit of reduction of inflammation in the body.
Lastly, in this video Thomas also addresses the fact that fasting offers your digestive tract a sort of “digestive reset” by giving it a rest from the work of breaking down and absorbing food. A whopping 65% of the body’s energy is used to digest food following a meal. So fasting reduces intestinal inflammation and leads to better nutrient absorption and improved bowel movement.
All good things for improving and strengthening your immune system.
References:
1) Fasting triggers stem cell regeneration of damaged, old immune system | USC News. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://news.usc.edu/63669/fasting-tri…
2) Short-term fasting induces profound neuronal autophagy. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti…
3) The Profound Benefits of Fasting (and Autophagy) | Synchro. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://besynchro.com/blogs/blog/the-…
4) Short-term fasting induces profound neuronal autophagy: Autophagy: Vol 6, No 6. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/1…
5) The ketone metabolite β-hydroxybutyrate blocks NLRP3 inflammasome-mediated inflammatory disease. – PubMed – NCBI. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2…
6) Can Fasting Fight the Flu or Common Cold? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/…