The Science of Dry Fasting

How Abstaining from Food and Water for 9 Days Lets the “Good Cells” Win

Greetings from Day 7. It’s been a week since I had a drop of water or a nosh of anything. Last night I literally dreamt about drinking water.

So… before I start seeing mirages, let’s take a moment to remember why I’m voluntarily doing this. It’s science time.

In her amazing book, Starving to Heal in Siberia, Michelle Slater starts her chapter on the science of dry fasting by quoting Hippocrates—the father of modern medicine.

“Everyone has a physician inside him or her; we just have to help it in its work. The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well… But to eat when you are sick is to feed your sickness.”

Translation? Your body knows how to fix itself—if you get out of the way and stop stuffing it with snacks.

So, what actually happens when you stop eating? That would be a little miracle called autophagy.

Autophagy happens when your body gets rid of diseased tissues, broken cells, and other cellular junk that “f”s you up. It’s when the good cells eat the bad cells. Or, as I like to think of it, when Hans Solo and Luke Skywalker take out all Darth Vader’s storm troopers.

But why dry fasting and not just regular water fasting? Because water fasting cleanses the body with water—but dry fasting forces the body to use its own water reserves, squeezing toxins out of fat stores like a sponge.

And, as it turns out, a lot of bad stuff hides in our fat. When you dry fast, your body burns through glucose and protein first—then it moves on to that fat, attacking abnormal cells (a.k.a. the ones causing inflammation, disease, and misery).

Dr. Filinov, a Russian dry fasting expert and the leader of my retreat, explains it like this: “During dry fasting, each cell, in the absence of an external water supply, turns into a mini-furnace—or thermonuclear device—so the strongest, healthiest cells survive.”

A mini-furnace? Thermonuclear device? Yay. Go, body!!

Of course, the real key word when discussing any autoimmune condition is inflammation. Dr. Filinov believes the fastest way to eliminate the fire of inflammation is to deprive it of the thing it needs most: water.

Without water, bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens literally shrivel up and die. Which, honestly, is kind of satisfying to imagine (and what I’m actually imagining right now to take my mind of my dry mouth and cracked lips.)

Why do people choose to dry fast? Is it only for people with Lyme disease? No. Out of my group of 30, 80% have Lyme disease or another chronic automimmune condition like Long Covid, fibromyalgia or Lupus. The other 20% have cancer. They also all have other issues like mold toxicity, histamine intolerance, chemical sensitivity, etc.

Here’s the deal: We’re all swimming in a sea of toxins: plastics in our food and water, mold in our walls, pesticides, fluoride, toxic paint, cleaning supplies, toxic make up and body lotions, toxic ingredients in processed food. There’s pollution from cars, buses, planes. There’s Botox. And hair dye. And, of course, there’s all the mercury from sushi. Truth be told, I have personally eaten enough tuna tartare to glow in the dark.

Toxins are everywhere, lurking. My family tested positive for dangerously high levels of—get this— arsenic. Turns out, the water in our neighborhood (Bel Air, no less!) is laced with toxic levels of it! We also tested positive for a gasoline bi-product that came from the ground water in East Hampton! Which just goes to show you, toxins don’t come with warning signs on them. They just infiltrate your body and then you wonder why you can’t think straight or why it takes you so long to get over your cold.

So yes, our livers become overwhelmed. And when they can’t keep up, toxins build up and wreak havoc. We get depressed. We can’t sleep or all we do is sleep. We eat a pint of ice cream. We cry ourselves to sleep. Our conventional doctor gives us sleep meds, concentration meds, anti-depressants, antibiotics, Metformin, thyroid meds, hormones. You fill in the blank.

Or, we go to an awesome functional medicine doctor whose office smells like bergamot and lime—and we start taking supplements, and tinctures, and powders. We get IVs. (My kitchen has more supplements on its counters right now than a Whole Foods stockroom. Zero exaggeration. When people come over, they get scared.)

This is what lead me to dry fasting. I couldn’t get poked by one more needle. Or swallow one more pill. Or get one more I.V.. Or buy one more supplement. I needed to find an alternative.

Which is why I was so excited to learn that there was an option with a scientific basis that could release me from the tyranny (and uninsured cost) of it all.

Turns out, when you go multiple days without food and water, your body goes full-Predator mode. Check this out:

• Phagocytes (a.k.a. cellular hitmen) start hunting down bacteria, cancer cells, and viruses like it’s an all-you-can-eat buffet.

• Then, B-lymphocytes mobilize from the small intestine and obliterate parasites, infections, and the kinds of invaders that laugh in the face of antibiotics.

• By Day 7 or 8, enzymes and phagocytes are turbocharged by acidosis—which means they start digesting every foreign invader they can find.

And there you have it: the reason I’m doing a 9-day fast instead of wimping out at, say, Day 3.

There are other nice perks to doing a long dry-fast. According to Dr. Filinov, by the end of a long dry fast: red blood cells, white blood cells, hemoglobin, and platelets increase. The immune system gets a massive upgrade. Stem cells regenerate. It’s like hitting Control + Alt + Delete on a broken body.

And the best part? The biggest immune reboot happens during the rehydration phase. Which means in a few days, when I finally drink water again, my body will go into overdrive healing itself.

A few final thoughts before I crawl into bed:

Am I saying dry fasting is the answer to everything? No. Do I think pharmaceutical drugs have their place? Absolutely. But I also think we’ve become so dependent on drugs, supplements, and endless medical interventions that we forget our bodies actually know how to heal themselves.

Pertinent Side note: My 16-year-old child was on 20 supplements daily, and when his doctor noticed that my child currently has elevated liver enzymes, her solution was to prescribe even more supplements and antibiotics.

Meanwhile, Dr. Filinov’s advice? Have my kid do a liver cleanse, then take everything away. Let the body reset.

And honestly? After 7 days of nothing, I’m starting to believe Dr. Filinov is onto something. Because I haven’t had one symptom since this whole journey began. Not one.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go dream about water.