Water Fasting Scientist: Surprising Link Between Fasting & Cancer! Fasting Completely Resets Your Gut Microbiome!
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Podcast Summary
In this fascinating episode, Dr. Alan Goldhamer—a pioneering physician with forty years of experience in medically supervised water fasting—reveals how this ancient healing practice can reverse chronic diseases that modern medicine considers incurable. He shares groundbreaking research showing how (04:24) 174 consecutive patients with high blood pressure normalized without medication, explores the profound physiological changes during extended fasts (06:42), and explains why visceral fat becomes the body's preferred fuel source during therapeutic fasting. From reversing type 2 diabetes to achieving cancer remission (35:32), Dr. Goldhamer presents compelling evidence that our bodies possess remarkable self-healing capabilities when freed from dietary excess and given proper rest.
Speakers
Dr. Alan Goldhamer
Pioneering physician with 40 years in therapeutic fasting, founder of TrueNorth Health Center. Published dozens of peer-reviewed papers including groundbreaking hypertension studies (174 consecutive patients achieved normal blood pressure without medication), and cancer research featured in the British Medical Journal.
Steven Bartlett (Host)
Entrepreneur and host of The Diary of a CEO podcast. As mentioned in the episode, his show has achieved significant reach and recognition, interviewing leading experts across health, business, and personal development for ambitious professionals worldwide.
Key Takeaways
Fast for the Golden Reset
Consider a medically supervised fast once yearly for one week—it's a physiological and psychological reset that recalibrates your palate, reboots your gut microbiome, and forces introspection. (45:02) The psychological impact rivals the physical: suddenly you realize skipping meals isn't catastrophic, and your taste sensitivity to natural foods dramatically increases.
Guard the 12-Hour Fast Daily
Stop eating 3-4 hours before bed and delay breakfast by exercising in the morning—this creates a 12-16 hour feeding window restriction that minimizes emotional/boredom eating and helps preferentially burn fat. Most "hungry" late-night eating is actually tiredness masquerading as hunger. (16:57)
Target Visceral Fat Aggressively
That belly fat isn't cosmetic—it's inflammatory tissue acting like a tumor, pumping out compounds that cause heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Water fasting mobilizes 40% of visceral fat while losing only 6% of lean tissue, which fully recovers within 6 weeks. (26:20) Standard dieting can't match this surgical precision on the most dangerous fat.
Escape the Salt-Oil-Sugar Trap
These aren't foods—they're hyper-concentrated chemicals that hijack your dopamine pathways and override satiety signals. (15:18) Remove SOS from your diet and whole plant foods will actually start tasting good. Your brain evolved in scarcity; these chemicals exploit evolutionary wiring designed for survival, not abundance.
Treat Fasting as Medical Intervention
This isn't a lifestyle hack—it's the most effective treatment ever shown for hypertension, with 174 consecutive patients achieving normal blood pressure without medication. (24:22) But it requires medical supervision, proper refeeding (half the fast length), and commitment to sustained dietary changes. The fast is easy; living healthfully in a world designed to make you sick is the real challenge.
Statistics & Facts
- 76% of people are overweight or obese, with the extra fat containing pro-inflammatory visceral fat that acts like a tumor and causes heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. (10:07)
- 174 consecutive patients with high blood pressure normalized their blood pressure without medication after medically supervised water fasting at Dr. Goldhamer's clinic, leading to published peer-reviewed research.
- A 2024 study found that after a seven-day water-only fast, levels of harmful fusobacteria dropped by more than 80% and the gut microbiome shifted to a healthier balance. (33:23)
