What are the psychological benefits of a fasting retreat? Interview with Damien Carbonnier

These retreats can be a source of well-being.

A trend nowadays is to go on a weekend retreat to disconnect from the city, the rush, the hustle and bustle and other stressors.

Attentive to this healthy fashion, there is a great variety of offers for these getaways, but few as interesting from the point of view of physical and psychological well-being as the one proposed by Damien Carbonnier with his company MiAyuno.es.

• Recommended article: "5 keys to rediscover fasting".

Interview with Damien Carbonnier, director of MiAyuno.

To deepen in the advantages of fasting retreats, nothing better than talking to Damien Carbonnier, who will update us on how one of these retreats works, and what the person who decides to embark on this introspective adventure will experience.

Xavier Molina: When people talk about fasting, the focus is usually on the benefits it has for physical health. Does it also have psychological benefits?

Damien Carbonnier: The mental and psychological benefits are the physiological and therefore inevitable consequence of the benefits that fasting has at the digestive level. Today, studies are being carried out that demonstrate the benefits of fasting for the intestine, both at the functional level and for the intestinal flora or microbiome. The gut rules over the brain. Well-being is not what you think but what you feel.

Our brain produces energy on a daily basis mainly from glucose, but during a fast, the first 2 days, we consume most of our glucose reserves. Thus, from the third day, the body is forced to activate the physiological mechanisms that transform our fat reserves into energy, this process takes place in the liver and from this process derive molecules known as ketone bodies that among other functions serve as a source of energy for the brain, which ensures that the brain has enough energy during fasting.

As demonstrated in the early 2000s by Dr. Dominique Lanzman Petithory, these ketone bodies represent a real alternative, as a source of energy, to glucose and explains in part the reason for mental clarity during fasting (an energetic brain is an optimistic brain).

In recent years, neuroscientists such as Mark Mattson have published work on Parkinson's and Alzheimer's related to caloric restriction (fasting) and intermittent fasting and their benefits to the brain.

People who fast experience at the end of the process and during the weeks or months that follow a sense of calm and serenity that allows them to be more connected with themselves and their environment, and therefore live "more present and in the now" which for many is synonymous with happiness.

Gandhi, who fasted several times in his life, summed up fasting in the following way: the eyes serve to look at the outside world, fasting to see the inner world....

Can everyone notice these benefits, or are they significant only for a part of the population?

As we have said before, wellness is the physiological consequence of fasting, so we dare to answer yes and although any person who presents a good state of health and if not being supported by a doctor, who knows in depth the physiology during fasting (as is the case in Miayuno.es) will notice these benefits.

From our experience we can say that our clients when they come for the first time come looking for the benefits on a physical level (lose weight, reduce Pain and inflammation, improve digestive discomfort, ...) while repeat clients usually come more looking for that sense of wellbeing and emotional or mental calm that is experienced at the end of the retreats and during the following months.

While it is true that there are not many, there are situations that contraindicate fasting:

• Pregnant women or during breastfeeding
• Minors (it is preferable not to fast before the age of 16 years)
• People with eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia, etc.).
• Some serious diseases, depending on their stage of evolution
• Insulin-dependent diabetic patients

In Mi Ayuno you organize fasting programs in contact with nature. Why do you consider that these two elements, fasting and natural environments, fit well together?

Because basically one can contemplate reconnecting with oneself when one gets away from the day-to-day, the city, the stress, the family and professional environment. RE-CONNECTING with oneself requires, for the human being to reconnect with its origins and these are found in nature. That is why during a retreat our clients walk, breathe fresh air, relax and reconnect.

At Miayuno we don't just offer fasting, we offer Fasting Retreats. We consider the word Retreats as important as the word Fasting.

And how are fasting and physical exercise combined?

During the MiAyuno retreats we combine fasting solids with aerobic physical exercise, which allows us to:

• Consume fat reserves
• Protect muscle

We all remember seeing a movie with the army running and singing at the same time. Physiologically it is explained because when we practice aerobic sport (it allows us to continue talking normally or even singing), fat can be used as an energy reserve which does not happen when we do an anaerobic physical activity, in which we can only use glucose as a source of energy. For this reason, during retreats we propose a gentle but prolonged physical activity (up to 3-4 hours).

What measures should be taken to ensure that fasting is not detrimental due to lack of control or experience?

The best measure would be to go to a professional at least the first few times we intend to do it. The second measure would be to get serious information, the third would be to organize a week of low intensity where we try to get away momentarily from family and work.

How do you professionally supervise someone who is fasting?

More than supervising, we accompany, fasting carries very few risks, the human being has always fasted. It is also controlled, talking to the person and giving him/her guidelines so that he/she can feel better and be encouraged to do some physical activity (not necessarily every day) to slow down the detoxification. Possible dizziness is controlled with honey or bicarbonate depending on the type of dizziness, headaches are minimized by cleansing the intestine on the first day and with natural balms until entering the fast on the third day.

Nothing to worry about, but the few risks involved must be known and above all it must be possible to act quickly to avoid any problems, so the assistance of a professional is important. I insist that fasting is natural and ancestral, all religions talk about fasting, today fasting is recognized internationally. In our current society of sub-abundance, we continue fasting every night, that is why the first meal of the day is called "breakfast" after fasting. Although it makes less and less sense to have dinner so late and breakfast so early because we don't really let the body go into fasting.

Finally... Can fasting be more than just a habit performed with some frequency, and become a philosophy of life?

Of course, in fact at Miayuno we have 1 out of 2 clients who repeat year after year and take it as an annual health guideline.

Apart from this, it is best to be able to practice intermittent fasting so that it can be combined throughout the year. There are several types of intermittent fasting. We recommend starting with the 12/12 in which we will leave 12 hours of fasting between dinner and breakfast but the most scientifically studied is the 16/8 in which you eat 2 times a day with 16 hours of fasting per day. The idea is to start with the 12/12 and let it flow to gradually move towards a 13/11 or 14/10 and go assessing how the body responds on a daily basis.

It should be noted that this practice of intermittent fasting is much easier to perform once you have lived a fast of several days as we have designed it in Miayuno centers in Spain.