Massive energy; the "Do Nothing" Strategy?

The Human Growth Hormone (HGH) is a hormone that plays a huge role in the normal development of children and adolescents as the name implies. However, it also plays a role in adults.

HGH deficiency in adults typically leads to

• Higher levels of body fat,
• Lower lean body mass, and
• Decreased bone mass (osteopenia).
• HGH only lasts a few minutes in the bloodstream. It goes to the liver for metabolism, where it is converted into a number of other growth factors, the most important of which is Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1 (IGF1).

Scientists first harvested HGH from cadavers in the 1950s, but only synthesized it in labs in the early 1980s. Soon afterward, it became a popular performance-enhancing drug. Normal levels of HGH peak in puberty (as you might expect) and gradually decrease thereafter.

Growth hormone is typically secreted during sleep and is one of the so-called counter-regulatory hormones. HGH along with cortisol and adrenalin tell the body to increase the availability of glucose – so it counters the effect of insulin. High doses of HGH, (or cortisol) will produce higher blood sugars. These hormones are typically secreted in a pulse just before waking (4 am or so) during the ‘counter-regulatory surge’.

What HGH Injections Did Over a 6-month Testing Period

In a study done by increasing HGH exogenously (injections), lean body mass improved substantially. Compared to the control, the HGH group packed on 3.7 kg (8.8%) more lean mass. That’s 8 pounds of lean muscle mass! Fat mass decreased an extra 2.4 kg (5.3 pounds)! That’s a decrease of 14.2%. Even the skin thickness improved. That’s serious anti-aging! Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2355952

Wow, you might be saying as you rush out to get an HGH injection. While these are great results there are also harmful side effects.

According to Dr. Jason Fung, MD regarding the side effects, “There was an increase in blood sugars. This makes sense since HGH is a counter-regulatory hormone. Pre-diabetes also significantly increased. There was an increase in fluid retention as well as an increase in blood pressure, too. Over the long term, there is also a theoretical risk of increased prostate cancer and heart problems (enlarged heart). So, that’s not very good news."

"Artificial injections of HGH are out.”

The All-Natural FREE Method of Increasing HGH

In 1982, Kerndt et al published a study of a single patient who decided to undergo a 40 day fast for religious purposes. They measure numerous metabolic indices over that forty days to see what happened. There is a wealth of data here, but several notable things. Blood pressure slightly decreased. Glucose goes down. From 96 initially, it drops to 56. Insulin goes way, way down. Starting at 13.5, it quickly drops to 2.91 and stays down. That is almost an 80% drop!

Glucagon goes from 139 to a peak of 727 or a 423% increase.

But our concern here is HGH. It starts at 0.73 and peaks at 9.86. That is a 1350% increase in growth hormone. Even with a relatively short 5 day fast, we are talking about 300% increase. All this HGH increases without drugs.

What about the potential side effects?

➕Increased glucose? Nope.

➕Increased blood pressure? Nope.

➕Higher risk of cancer? Nope.

In 1988, Ho KY et al studied fasting and HGH. On the control day, meals (marked M) very effectively suppress HGH secretion. This is to be expected. Like cortisol, HGH increases glucose and thus is suppressed during feeding. Fasting is a great stimulus.

During fasting, there is the spike in the early morning, but there is regular secretion throughout the day as well. Hartman et al also showed a 500% fold increase in HGH in response to a 2 day fast.

"This HGH is crucial for the maintenance of lean mass – both muscle and bone. One of the major concerns about fasting is the loss of lean mass. This does not occur. In fact, the opposite happens – there is likely an increase in lean mass."

Dr. Jason Fung, MD

Think about this for a second.

Let’s imagine that we are living in Paleolithic times. During the summer of plenty, we eat lots of food and store some of that as fat on our body. Now it is winter, and there is nothing to eat. What do you suppose our body does? Should we start burning our precious muscle while preserving our stored food (fat)? Doesn’t that sound pretty idiotic?

It’s as if you store firewood for a wood-burning oven. You pack lots of firewood away in your storage unit. In fact, you have so much, it is spilling out all over your house and you don’t even have enough room for all the wood you’ve stored. But when the time comes to start up the oven, you immediately chop up your sofa and throw that into the oven. Pretty stupid right? Why would we assume our body is also so stupid?

The logical thing to do is to start burning the stored wood. In the case of the body, we start to burn the stored food (fat stores) instead of burning precious muscle.

This has enormous implications for athletes. While studies are few, it is possible that the elevated HGH stimulated by fasting will increase muscle mass as seen in the earlier studies on HGH administration. This would be an important advantage in elite level athletes, and we are seeing more and more interest in doing this exact sort of protocol.

The recovery from hard workouts would similarly be improved. The increased adrenalin during fasting will also allow you to perform a more intense workout. It will make workouts easier and recovery faster.

See next week's vlog results of my own Athlete Alternate Day Fasting Strategy

It is not by accident that many of the early proponents of training in the fasted state are bodybuilders. This is a sport that demands, in particular, high-intensity training and extremely low body fat for definition.

For example, Brad Pilon, who wrote the fantastic book “Eat, Stop, Eat” is a bodybuilder, as is Martin Berkhan, who popularized the ‘lean gains’ method of fasting. Somehow, I don’t think that fasting for these two fellows was ‘eating’ their muscle.

So, for all those people who thought that fasting would make you tired, or that you could not exercise during fasting, well, you’re just wrong. Fasting does not ‘burn’ muscle. There is no ‘starvation’ mode from fasting where you shrivel up into the fetal position on your couch.

"Rather, fasting has the potential to unleash the anti-aging properties of HGH without any of the problems of excessive HGH (prostate cancer, increased blood sugar, increased blood pressure)."

Michael Lantz

For those interested in athletic performance, the benefits are even greater.

Additional Evidence

Now new evidence from cardiac researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute demonstrates that routine periodic fasting is also good for your health and your heart.

This recent study also confirmed earlier findings of the effects of fasting on human growth hormone (HGH), a metabolic protein. HGH works to protect lean muscle and metabolic balance, a response triggered and accelerated by fasting. During the 24-hour fasting periods, HGH increased an average of 1,300 percent in women, and nearly 2,000 percent in men.

Source: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-04/imc-sfr033111.php

In an article titled, Reverse the Aging Process Naturally, we learn that fasting substantially promotes healthy aging by slowing down the telomere shortening process.

Source: https://www.naturalnews.com/029298_aging_industry.html

Final Note

 Let’s review what we now know.

• Train harder ✅
• Lose Weight ✅
• Faster recovery ✅
• Decrease insulin and insulin resistance ✅
• Decrease sugars ✅

All of these benefits are achieved without drugs, supplements or cost. Yes, like all the best things in life, it’s free. So why is everybody so against it?

Courtesy of Dr. Jason Fung, MD.