Movie about fasting on Amazon Prime: Science of Fasting

(Donna ) #1

I watched Science of Fasting last night on Amazon Prime. It was very interesting!

Watch it and let me know what you think! :smiley:

(Georgia) #2

I just added it to my watchlist. I’ll watch it as soon as I finish the series I’m binging on Netflix.

(Retta Stephenson) #3

Thanks for mentioning this. Just finished it, and it was a great motivator. Much was familiar, but I really enjoyed hearing about the research out of Russia and Germany. A great overview, tying it all together.

Just what I needed as a kick in the pants to get back to fasting. Thanks!

(Mike Glasbrener) #4

I just watched it. It’s pretty good about lightly touching on a number of benefits of fasting. It also reinforces the fact that fasting is nothing new and there’s been research and data available for decades. It would be great for a western institution to mine, organize and analyze that data also.

(*Rusty* Instagram: @Rustyk61) #5

I’m watching it now. Couldn’t help but think of this thread. This documentary solidifies everything I have read about fasting.

(Donna ) #6

Me, too. I’m kinda irked that all the benefits have been known by the medical community (at least, in Russia and Germany) for so LONG, and I just learned about it a month ago. Ugh! Oh, well. Just so glad I found out about fasting, so I can quit spinning my wheels.

(*Rusty* Instagram: @Rustyk61) #7

I’m like you. It really pisses me off that the science is out there and kept from us. Makes me feel like someone wants me to die early.

(Donna ) #8

No, they just want you to buy their $$$ drugs for the rest of your life. :neutral_face:

It’s all about money.

(KCKO, KCFO) #9

I liked it a lot Was amazing to hear about how the Russians have done so much research around fasting. They were doing protocols with people via the public health program, so guidance was free. Also the Germany info was new stuff.

I had heard about the mice in California before, but it went more in depth about it. If I ever do get cancer, I’m fasting before they inject any chemo into me. I might not be a mouse, but the results were stunning. All most all the fasting mice died, ones still alive were sickly and had no energy, the fasted mice all lived and were active. Sound good to me.

I agree we don’t hear about this stuff because fasting is free, med$ not $o much.

(Keto in Katy) #10

I just came across this last night while browsing movie titles, watched it immediately.

It inspired me to get back to fasting more often. I liked how they showed the graphics about how glucose is quickly depleted, and then fat is mobilized, creating ketone bodies for energy while muscle mass is preserved. Understanding these mechanisms is so important and shows the amazing intelligence of the human body to heal itself and maximize health.

I highly recommend it.

P.S. It’s nice to have the Amazon Prime app on the Apple TV now. It was just released recently so if you have the Apple TV you can download it and get to all of your Prime content right there.

(Doug) #11

While I’m very glad about finding out about ketogenic eating and fasting, the truth of what you say there, Donna, is overwhelming and ever-present. Somewhere in childhood I got the idea that governments and the medical community are on our side, working for our betterment, but it sure is not always that way.

(Jeff Hovel) #12

I just watched the program. Interesting research from UCLA.

(Jeff Hovel) #13

Pr Valrer D. Longo is the Biogerontologist from USC

(Bunny) #14

I like this guys review (awesome)!

Hard Scientific & Empirical Cross Validation?

(Dan Dan) #15




:wink:
(Marie Dantoni) #16

Also on Amazon and worth a watch: “Why are We Fat”

(Melanie Phelps) #17

I have watched it twice now!! A+

(Michael ) #19

I loved this and set off on a journey for more information on the Soviet fasting studies. Unfortunately I found it hard to find a lot of good information on the Soviet or german vast library of knowledge. This is either due to the fact that i only speak English and Japanese, i don’t know how to use the internet, or the American pharmaceutical industry has buried it

(Breathless Mahoney) #20

This film is written and produced by two film makers from France. It consists of gathering information and interviews and is presented to the public. It is not a presentation of a scientific study with hard data, facts, and accountability. No mention made of evidence-based findings.

While I fasted for 3, 5, and 10 days 5-8 times personally in the late 80’s and can verify the process they describe through personal experience, I was very disappointed in the first 20 minutes of the showing for the lack of hard data and verification through naming studies to which one can refer.

Early on the documentary relies solely upon subjective data which is basically hearsay and unreliable. Case in point I quote from 17:26: “The ministry of health was skeptical and launched a campaign to check the results. This was in 1973. It conferred the task to several well-known doctors. Among them Professor Kokosov and Professor Maximov, both were military doctors. They obeyed orders.” What I found interesting is that there is no institution named “I.P. Pavlov Institute” (refer to http://infran.ru/history_eng.htm) and there is no institution named “Moscow Psychiatric Institute” (refer to http://hekint.org/2017/02/24/gilyarovsky-and-gannushkin-psychiatric-hospitals-in-moscow/) and the “Academy of Sciences” and/or “Academy of Medical Sciences” do not exist in Russia. There is in Timisoara, Romania an “Academy of Medical Sciences”. And too, there is the “Russian Academy of Sciences” and make note the the term “Russian” is in the official title of this institution and should not and ethically would not be referred to without it.

As for the Russian professors? Their names I cannot find in reference to any studies, in spite of my efforts. Dr. Valery Gurvich, Psychiatrist at the “Moscow Psychiatric Institute” could not be found in my search in the Cochrane Library. I ask the creators to please bring hard data to early material of the film. And finally, Google the term “pneumologist” and see what the results that come back. Nothing comes back and there is no connection to titles synonymous.

At 19:53, triglycerids and glycemy are not correct medical terminology. As a matter of fact, they are not recognized as valid terminology in the English language.

As for the posing of patients being “tested” as the narrator speaks? The testing being conducted has no relation to the information being shared. At one point a woman is show receiving an eye exam - with no mention being made to the improvement or decline of eyesight due to fasting and in another, a man is receiving a thoracic xray. These displays come off as “fillers”.

The illustration of how fasting slows the body’s heart and breathing rates at 20:07? Well, each of the “readings” are actually abnormal ECGs. Okay, more than abnormal,they are deadly and are considered “Widow Makers” actually.

After 20 minutes of watching, I had to stop researching the information presented. Or so I thought. I began watching this show 3 hours ago. I could not stop researching because the information presented was a times too vague not to.

Thankfully, shortly after 21:00, the interviews with the Buchinger Wilhelmi Clinic in Germany finally lent accountability and even a thread of objectivity to this presentation.

But, then it dips again with generalizations regarding the similarities between penguins, rats, and human beings in how the body’s three stages of fasting conducts itself. For Emperor Penguins, the glucose burns off we are told in the first 24 hours, then the body’s energy supplies come from 4% protein, 96% fat, and this can go on for 100 days without problems. Then the vague wording comes back when describing the similarities between the Emperor Penguins and “rats”. Well, white rats were show on the screen but were they actually used in the study, whose details were not given? IT goes on to say that the results are “similar, phase 2, saves protein in the same manner as the penguin”. And it is suggested that there was no difference in the two species because a basic fasting mechanism that allows the individual to survive long periods of starvation takes place in both and is therefore a common mechanism. And because it is a common mechanism, we see that man has the same capabilities. Hmmm, the actual percentages and time frames for the three mammals are ignored in these statements. “There is not much of a gap between penguins and man.” What? 100 days for the Emperor Penguin, 40 days for a human are the fasting limits we are told. But similar?

An accurate but still vague statement then follows: “Our bodies are better equipped to adapt to a lack of food than excess.” That, and the introduction of Prof. Valter D. Longo, Biogerontologist, USC finally brought credibility that research validates. He convinced the graduate students to conduct a study to have half a group of mice to fast and the other to be fed regularly. Now, the presentation does state that Prof. Longo gave mice 2-3 times the chemo, but no where does it state that fasting was taking place before, during, and after chemo. Only when they showed the articles on the screen did we get the knowledge that the fasting was 48 hours BEFORE the chemo treatment.

And finally, as I tried to post this reply, I received a message that “new users” can only post two links in their messages. I had five links and chose to delete the one that names the "Russian Academy of Sciences, the one that links to the Cochrane Library and lastly, the one that links to Google.

This documentary was very helpful in that it stimulated my interest in fasting and sharpened my research skills and critical thinking abilities.

Thank you.

(KCKO, KCFO) #21

I have not heard of a restriction on links in our posts. @Carl @Richard is this a new thing?