The doctor spoke about the dangers to the body during therapeutic fasting

Scientific studies have not confirmed the benefits that therapeutic fasting can bring, but they have revealed that it can cause serious harm to the body. This was announced on April 23 by Oksana Mikhaleva, an endocrinologist, nutritionist at SM Clinic, Candidate of Medical Sciences.

She clarified that fasting can be long-term or short-term. In the first case, it should last at least four days, in the second — less than three.

According to her, this practice can reduce body weight by about 2%-10% and improve glucose and insulin levels. She noted that after a person completed fasting, all metabolic parameters were restored. And two-thirds of the weight lost consisted of muscle mass.

"Loss of muscle mass (sarcopenia) can be accompanied by the development of osteoporosis, sarcopenic obesity, insulin resistance and other health-threatening conditions. The problem is that from the age of 30, a person already has a decrease in muscle mass. And after 50 years, it is almost impossible to restore it," the doctor said in an interview with the newspaper.Ru».

Therapeutic fasting can also cause metabolic acidosis or ketosis, as the body begins to attempt to obtain energy from ketone cells, which are toxic and damage the gastrointestinal tract. According to the expert, people who are on hunger strike, it is because of this that they experience headaches and fall into apathy or depression.

She clarified that this practice is not recommended in the presence of chronic diseases, because it can cause their exacerbation. In addition, children and the elderly should not go hungry.

Mikhaleva said that starving people can also get deep vein thromboembolism due to dehydration, even if they drink enough fluids. Problems with the water balance are caused by protein deficiency, which appears just in connection with starvation.

"As a rule, people who are hungry tend to detox, that is, cleanse the body. However, by doing this, they, on the contrary, violate their health, since they do not consume foods with useful substances for a long time. Accordingly, their reserves are rapidly depleted, which increases oxidative stress and increases the risk of developing various diseases," the doctor noted.

She added that enemas used for cleansing during fasting are also not beneficial. They flush out beneficial microbiota from the body, which increases the risk of intestinal diseases.

On April 9, Ksenia Zabaturina, a psychologist on eating disorders and an expert in the Grow Food ready-to-eat healthy food service, told Izvestia what compulsive overeating is and how to stop "seizing" emotions. She reported that compulsive overeating is characterized by consuming excessive amounts of food without physical hunger, mainly under the influence of emotional factors.