Why This Cardiologist Recommends Fasting with Dr Pradip Jamnadas (re-release) #513
Dr. Pradip Jamnadas, a consultant cardiologist, discusses the profound physiological and psychological benefits of fasting, including reversing type 2 diabetes, lowering blood pressure, and improving cholesterol. He outlines a gradual fasting protocol and emphasizes empowering patients to take control of their health through lifestyle changes.
Deep Dive Analysis
17 Topic Outline
Dr. Jamnadas's Journey to Fasting and Patient Benefits
Why Fasting is Not Widely Adopted by Physicians
Fasting as a Tool for Patient Empowerment and Addiction
The Biochemistry of Fasting: Insulin, Glucose, and Fat Burning
High Insulin's Role in Atherosclerosis and Hypertension
Beyond Physical: Fasting's Impact on Mood, Energy, and Inflammation
Activating the Body's Natural Defense Systems Through Fasting
Gradual Protocol for Introducing Fasting to Patients
Understanding Coronary Calcium Score and Atherosclerosis
Metabolic Syndrome and its Link to High Insulin
Holistic Approach to Health: Beyond Heart Disease
Addressing Challenges: Fasting Withdrawal and Women's Health
Longer Fasting Protocols: 36-Hour and 3-Day Water Fasts
Fasting, Eating Disorders, and the Addiction Landscape
Fasting as a Unifier Across Different Dietary Approaches
Psychological Freedom and Self-Confidence from Fasting
Top Tips for Better Health and Living More
8 Key Concepts
Insulin Resistance
When the body is constantly exposed to high insulin levels due to frequent eating, cells become less sensitive to insulin. This means more insulin is needed to process the same amount of sugar, leading to chronically high insulin and further metabolic dysfunction.
Atherosclerosis
The buildup of plaque, often containing calcium, in the walls of arteries. This process can narrow arteries, reduce blood flow, and lead to conditions like ischemic heart disease, heart attacks, and strokes.
Essential Hypertension
A medical term used when the cause of high blood pressure is unknown (idiopathic). Dr. Jamnadas argues it's often linked to high insulin levels, which cause blood vessels to constrict by reducing nitric oxide.
Ketogenesis
The process where the body starts burning fat for energy, producing ketones. This occurs when glucose and glycogen stores are depleted, typically after 18-20 hours of fasting, and is associated with increased mental clarity and energy.
Autophagy
A cellular process where cells recycle their own dysfunctional components to become more efficient. This reparative process is significantly enhanced during fasting states, contributing to cellular rejuvenation and longevity.
Mitophagy
A specific type of autophagy that focuses on recycling and repairing mitochondria, the powerhouses of the cell. Like autophagy, it is activated during fasting, improving cellular energy production and efficiency.
Coronary Calcium Score
A CT scan that measures the amount of calcium buildup in the coronary arteries, indicating the presence and extent of atherosclerosis. It's a powerful predictor of future heart attacks and overall mortality, even in asymptomatic individuals.
Metabolic Syndrome
A cluster of conditions including overweight/obesity (especially abdominal fat), low HDL cholesterol, high triglycerides, and borderline high blood pressure. These are all linked by underlying insulin resistance and increased inflammation.
10 Questions Answered
Fasting can lead to weight loss, reversal of type 2 diabetes, lower blood pressure, improved cholesterol profiles, reduced progression of coronary artery disease, better mental well-being, stronger muscles, and reduced inflammation.
Fasting is a 'tough sell' that takes time and requires a deep dive into a patient's lifestyle and beliefs, rather than just prescribing a pill. Doctors are often too busy treating disease rather than focusing on prevention and lifestyle changes.
When fasting, the body first burns stored glucose, then glycogen from the liver and muscles. After about 18-20 hours, it starts burning fat, producing ketones for energy. This process allows the body to utilize its fat stores and engage reparative processes.
Chronically high insulin levels, often due to frequent eating, lead to insulin resistance. This high insulin promotes hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis), increases blood pressure by reducing nitric oxide, and causes fat storage, particularly visceral fat, contributing to metabolic syndrome.
Fasting can lead to increased self-confidence, a sense of empowerment, and freedom from food dependency. Patients often report improved mood, better sleep, and mental clarity, realizing they are in control beyond their cravings.
Yes, fasting is highly effective in lowering blood pressure by reducing insulin levels, which in turn increases nitric oxide and allows blood vessels to dilate. It can also reverse type 2 diabetes by significantly lowering insulin levels and improving insulin sensitivity.
While some data suggests women may not benefit as much as men, Dr. Jamnadas observes that women, including South Asian women who have a higher incidence of coronary artery disease, generally benefit just as much from fasting. Individualized approaches are crucial, addressing underlying issues like stress or sleep apnea.
Fasting highlights how eating patterns can be an addiction, similar to digital, alcohol, or sugar addictions, all of which prime the brain's reward centers. Addressing food addiction often requires looking at other addictive patterns and lifestyle factors.
The coronary calcium score is a CT scan that directly measures calcium buildup in heart arteries, indicating existing atherosclerosis. It's a more accurate predictor of future heart attacks and mortality than traditional risk factors and serves as a powerful motivator for patients to make lifestyle changes.
Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions including overweight/obesity (especially abdominal fat), low HDL, high triglycerides, and borderline high blood pressure. All these features are commonly linked to underlying insulin resistance, where high insulin drives fat storage and inflammation.
20 Actionable Insights
1. Embrace Self-Empowerment & Freedom
Realize you are separate from your hunger, cravings, and habits, giving you control over your eating. This mindset shift fosters self-confidence and can positively impact all areas of your life, from work to relationships.
2. Prioritize Whole, Natural Foods
Before attempting fasting, eliminate all artificial sugars, processed foods (anything in a factory, with a barcode, pulverized, or powdered), and refined products from your diet for two to three weeks. Focus on eating natural, whole foods that you can recognize, such as grass-finished meat, organic chicken/eggs, and vegetables, to prepare your body and reduce withdrawal symptoms.
3. Eat Only When Truly Hungry
Adopt the practice of eating infrequently and only when you experience genuine hunger, rather than eating out of habit or at set times. This helps retrain your body’s natural hunger signals and reduces constant insulin stimulation.
4. Avoid Frequent Small Meals
Disregard the outdated advice of cutting calories by eating small, frequent meals or nibbling throughout the day, as clinical experience shows this approach is ineffective for long-term weight loss and can lead to misery and constant hunger.
5. Gradually Introduce Meal Skipping
After two to three weeks of eating only whole foods, begin skipping meals randomly. For example, skip breakfast if not hungry, or skip lunch another day, to gradually accustom your body to periods without food.
6. Implement 18-Hour Daily Fasting
For two weeks, five days a week, consume only two meals within a six-hour eating window, ensuring 18 hours of no caloric intake. During the 18-hour fast, only drink water, black tea, or black coffee. On weekends, allow three meals but no snacks.
7. Progress to One Meal a Day
After two weeks of 18-hour fasting, transition to eating only one meal a day on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for the next two weeks. On other weekdays, maintain two meals, and on weekends, allow three meals.
8. Practice Weekly 36-Hour Fasts
For two consecutive weeks, incorporate one 36-hour fast per week by skipping your usual single meal (e.g., evening meal) and then having breakfast the next day. This prepares your body for longer fasts and encourages ketogenesis.
9. Consider a Three-Day Water Fast
For those who have gradually adapted to shorter fasts, are metabolically deranged, or have reached a weight loss plateau, a three-day water fast can be beneficial. If cramps occur, drink a glass of water with a pinch of salt.
10. Monitor Blood Pressure & Sugar
If on blood pressure medication, monitor your blood pressure twice daily, as medication dosages may need reduction based on readings. If on oral blood sugar agents, continue them during 18-24 hour fasts while monitoring blood sugars.
11. Adjust Insulin During Fasting
If taking insulin, reduce the dosage by half for 24-hour fasts and monitor blood sugars closely. For fasts longer than 24 hours, discontinue insulin completely to prevent hypoglycemia, while still monitoring blood sugars.
12. Manage Hunger Cravings
When hunger strikes, understand that ghrelin levels (hunger hormones) typically peak for about an hour before subsiding. Drink a glass of water and keep your mind busy with chores or activities to help the time pass until the craving subsides.
13. Get At Least Seven Hours Sleep
Ensure you get at least seven hours of sleep daily, as adequate rest is crucial for overall health, energy levels, and willpower, which supports adherence to dietary and fasting protocols.
14. Find Pleasure & Happiness
Actively seek and find pleasure in your life and daily activities to avoid metabolizing negative physiology from bad habits. Cultivating happiness and pleasure contributes significantly to overall well-being and health outcomes.
15. Explore Fasting Beyond Food
Extend the concept of fasting beyond just food to include social media fasts, alcohol fasts, or caffeine fasts, as these practices can address other forms of addiction and promote overall well-being.
16. Address Underlying Health Obstacles
If struggling to adhere to a fasting program, investigate underlying issues such as chronic stress, financial problems, dysfunctional relationships, or undiagnosed sleep apnea, as these can significantly impact willpower and health. Addressing these factors (e.g., using a CPAP for sleep apnea) can improve adherence.
17. Monitor Ketone Levels
For those interested in understanding their body’s physiological response to fasting, use keto sticks to test urine and identify when ketone production begins, which indicates the body is burning fat for energy.
18. Incorporate Probiotic & Fermented Foods
Include probiotic and fermented foods in your diet to support a healthy gut microbiome, which plays a crucial role in overall health, even for cardiovascular concerns.
19. Practice Simple Meditation
To manage stress and enhance self-awareness, practice a simple meditation technique: close your eyes, concentrate on your breathing, and let thoughts pass without following them. This practice helps you connect with a deeper sense of self and feel less stressed.
20. Consider Coronary Calcium Score
If concerned about heart disease, especially with risk factors or family history, consider getting a coronary calcium score (a low-level radiation CT scan of the heart) to detect early atherosclerosis, even if asymptomatic, as it is a powerful motivator for lifestyle changes.
8 Key Quotes
You are not your habits. You are not even your body. You are something that can change everything. There's a separate part of you besides your body, even your mind. There's a separateness. There's an awareness inside you. And if I can get into that awareness, then I can empower you.
Dr. Pradip Jamnadas
The body was made to do this. It was not made to just pile on, pile on, pile on all the time. Because that results in increased fat stores, which you'll never break down.
Dr. Pradip Jamnadas
Insulin just is a storage molecule, puts everything in storage. So when the insulin levels come down, the storage padlocks are taken off. So your fat can now be mobilized.
Dr. Pradip Jamnadas
Fasting patients seemed to lose weight in a more beautiful way. They were actually losing fat, but they were also losing the right amount of skin as well.
Dr. Pradip Jamnadas
We are a hormonally modified human being now. We're becoming insulin resistant. And this insulin resistance results in higher and higher insulin levels. And that's the problem I found.
Dr. Pradip Jamnadas
If you really want to come off your current eating habits, we need to look at your whole life as well. Are you addicted to alcohol? Are you addicted to caffeine? Are you addicted to sugar? Are you addicted to even digital media? Because it's just the way we're priming ourselves.
Dr. Pradip Jamnadas
The weight is a side effect of the metabolism that's gone wrong. You fix the metabolism, the weight comes down as a side effect. It's not really a weight loss program. It's a metabolic program.
Dr. Pradip Jamnadas
Fasting forgives you. Fasting, in a sense, forgives you for certain foods that you may then consume.
Dr. Pradip Jamnadas
1 Protocols
Gradual Fasting Introduction Protocol
Dr. Pradip Jamnadas- **Dietary Cleanup (2-3 weeks):** Eliminate all artificial sugars, processed foods (anything made in a factory, with a barcode, pulverized, or powdered). Eat natural, whole foods that are recognizable, including grass-finished meat, organic chicken/eggs, and plenty of vegetables. Eat as much as desired of the right foods.
- **Meal Skipping (2 weeks):** Learn to randomly skip meals. For example, skip breakfast one day, then lunch the next, then dinner. Drink plenty of water during the day.
- **18-Hour Fast (2 weeks):** Five days a week, consume only two meals within a six-hour eating window, resulting in 18 hours of fasting. During the 18-hour fast, only water, black tea, or black coffee are allowed (no calories). On weekends, allow three meals but no snacks.
- **One Meal a Day (2 weeks):** Three days a week (e.g., Monday, Wednesday, Friday), eat only one meal. On the remaining weekdays, continue with two meals in a six-hour window. Weekends still allow three meals.
- **36-Hour Fast (2 weeks):** Once a week, extend the fast to 36 hours. This is typically achieved by skipping the evening meal (the one meal they'd normally have) and then having breakfast the following day.
- **Three-Day Water Fast (as needed):** For patients who are highly motivated, metabolically deranged, or have reached a weight loss plateau, introduce a three-day water fast. Monitor blood pressure twice daily. For patients on insulin, reduce insulin dosage by half for 24-hour fasts and discontinue completely for fasts longer than 24 hours, monitoring blood sugars closely.