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“Those who fast drink the wine of the spirit.” ~Rumi
Water only fasting is arguably the first medicine, dating back at least 50,000 years. Every major religion in the world includes fasting. By stepping out of the way, the body's self healing wisdom can do its work in accordance with the worldwide medical principle “first, do no harm.” In fact, do nothing. By resting the digestive tract, there is a reset of many physiologic functions. The body can shed layers of disease, and fasting is of great value for learning that one's body can heal itself. What is for breakfast? Room temperature water. What is for lunch? Shaken water. What is for dinner? Stirred water. By definition, fasting is the abstinence from all food and drink (except purified water) for an extended period of time in a state of complete rest. Physical changes that happen during a fast include neuroadaptation to reset the autonomic nervous system. Enzymes and hormones of the body recalibrate themselves, decreasing the need for insulin and thyroid hormones. Fasting increases cortisol, growth hormone, glucagon, norepinephrine and melatonin. Immune function improves immensely, increasing macrophage, monocyte, neutrophil, natural killer cell activity, cell-mediated immunity, immunoglobulin levels and bactericidal activity, while simultaneously decreasing complement factors, antigen-antibody complexes and inflammatory cytokine activity. This makes fasting a perfect therapy for immune dysfunctions such as allergies and sensitivities to foods and environmental factors, and autoimmune diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, autoimmune thyroid and Celiac's disease. It can help essential hypertension, insulin resistance and type II diabetes, IBS and IBD, osteoarthritis, psoriasis and eczema, asthma, uterine fibroids, addictions, mild to moderate depression. Cautions and contraindications include fear of fasting. Someone who is not educated about fasting or prepared for it should not fast. Pregnant or lactating females and children should not fast. Because of cachexia, people battling cancer should not fast. People with eating disorders shouldn't fast. Individuals with type I diabetes mellitus, various renal pathologies, severe anemia, porphyrias or advanced malnutrition should not fast. While there are individual variations, average weight loss is 0.5 to 1.0 pounds per day, and basal metabolic rate decreases by 1% per day until it stabilizes at 75% of pre-fasting baseline. In the heart, pulse slows, blood pressure decreases, and ECG changes occur. Potassium slowly declines, and should be monitored. Break the fast if serum potassium drops below 3.2. Ketones should be +4, otherwise a person is getting calorie-rich food somewhere. Urinalysis will show RBCs, WBCs, bilirubin, protein and urobilinogen, while the blood will see decreases in serum protein, lipase, amylase. Blood work will show increases in AST ALT, triglycerides, LDL and uric acid. How long to fast? “As brief as possible, as long as necessary.” -Dr. Goldhammer. At a medical fasting center, a person can fast up to 30 days. On one's own, a fast should be kept to 5 days or less. There should be no soap, dishwashing, toothpaste, exercise, enemas or colonics. Water only. Distilled, deionied and reverse osmosis water are recommended. Fizzy water can cure nausea. Since the basal metabolic rate slows, be ready to feel cold. Have a hot water bottle, blankets and space heater close by. Common complications include:
If you would like medical supervision, we are here for you. We can monitor your weight, height, blood pressure, pulse, temperature, oxygen saturation. We can order your comprehensive metabolic profile (watch your potassium and other electrolyte levels), complete blood count, urinalysis and ECG pre and post fast. Urinalysis can be done daily, and if you are wanting to fast more than one week, a weekly comprehensive metabolic profile can be done.
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Sometimes, surgery is necessary. To help you get through it a little easier and speed up your healing time, we have some suggestions that have worked time and time again, based on research and years of clinical experience.  Dr. Justin Pollack, ND However many times a day you eat, you have an opportunity to focus on what you are eating, and put aside the “troubles of mind” that follow us wherever we go. In doing so, you make a profound shift in your physiology. A rare and beautiful parasympathetic “rest and digest” shift happens to your nervous system. This parasympathetic shift only occurs when we sleep, or when we truly relax and find gratitude for the gifts set before us. Every food set on your plate, or in your bowl, represents a relationship that was formed between the Sun and the Earth, when chloroplasts that came to live symbiotically inside many plants, learned to capture the electromagnetic energy of the sun. That energy is used to transform gas (carbon dioxide) and water into starches/sugars, amino acids/proteins, and lipids/fats that the rest of us can enjoy. It is a gift. If we are eating the flesh of another animal that once ate those leaves, fruits, grains, seeds, nuts, roots and vegetables, it is even more of a gift. In whatever spiritual tradition you find yourself, even if it is none, there is a way to give thanks for that gift, and by setting your mind on that course, you have set the parasympathetic wheels of digestion in motion. Gratitude A good goal in any part of your life is to find thankfulness for what you have. When you are thankful, you see things more as they are, instead of in a positive or negative light. If you cannot find something to be grateful for, start with a tree. Remember that the trees, grasses, even the smallest phytoplankton and “pond scum” are recycling our CO2 into the oxygen that we need to live. Each tree is giving us life. Each time we look at a tree, we can be thankful. Thich Nhat Hahn says, “Eating a meal in mindfulness is an important practice. We turn off the TV, put down our newspaper, and work together setting the table. After breathing we smile. Then, we look at each person as we breathe in and out in order to be in touch with ourselves and everyone at the table. After breathing and smiling, we look down at the food in a way that allows the food to become real. This food reveals our connection with the Earth. Each bite contains the life of the Sun and the Earth. We can see and taste the whole Universe in a piece of bread! …When I hold a bowl of rice or a piece of bread, I know that I am fortunate, and I feel compassion for all those who have no food to eat and are without friends or family.” Encountering the present moment. “There are so many exercises we can do to help us breathe consciously. We can recite four lines silently as we breathe in and out: Breathing in, I calm my body. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in this present moment, I know this is a wonderful moment. Just breathing and smiling can make us very happy, because when we breathe consciously, we recover ourselves completely and encounter life in the present moment.” – Thich Nhat Hahn Eating nutritiously When we eat mindfully, taking time with our food, and the friends or family gathered with us, it is easier to notice if there is a distasteful morsel headed toward our mouth. It is easier to make choices about how nutritiously we want to eat, perhaps setting down things that we grew up with, which are not so nutritious for us. Take a look at the “Bastyr Healthy Plate” and Harvard’s “Healthy Eating Plate.” Be mindful and choose your food wisely. While there is no sugar, no bacon, no ice cream, no beer or wine on that plate, there is always a little room for Michael Pollen’s quote: “Treat treats as treats.”  While "physician" is title protected for use only by MD and DO doctors in Colorado, the following is an amazing overview and summary of naturopathic medicine written by our national organization, which uses the term physician. "The Institute for Natural Medicine and the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians recently announced its joint publication of a white paper designed to raise awareness of the principles of naturopathic medicine and reaffirm the profession’s commitment to a collaborative model of clinical care. The paper, Naturopathic Physicians as Whole Health Specialists, The Future is Whole Person Health Care, provides supporting evidence for the profession’s significant contributions to preventive, whole-person care while citing effective models of integrative practice that have called on the expertise of naturopathic physicians in both primary and specialty care environments. This paper comes at a time where policy makers are scrambling to expand the healthcare workforce, improve patient outcomes, and lower health costs. It aims to provide the framework for how naturopathic medicine has the research behind it for cost effectiveness and patient outcomes and reveals a clear roadmap for how collaboration among naturopathic doctors and other healthcare providers can be maximized in clinical, hospital, and academic settings." 
Dr. Justin Pollack, ND We all owe a debt of gratitude to the scientists, study volunteers, and millions of individuals who have stepped up to be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2. Because of this unprecedented collaboration and rapid response, our world is opening up to commerce and normalcy. That said, there is solid evidence emerging to back the view that vaccination is not the only answer. As a doctor and professor of science, as an individual who is up-to-date on many vaccinations for international travel and medical volunteering, I am also a strong proponent of medical choice when it comes to any person's health care decision, including the COVID-19 vaccine. Here is a small sample of peer-reviewed science to discourage vaccine mandates. 1. There are many avenues to immunity. Established science gives us many avenues to immunity. Our immune systems have innate non-specific immunity, such as mounting a fever to cook and inactivate viruses inside our cells and accelerate our immune system's response to infection. We are being told that vaccination is the only way to end the COVID-19 pandemic, but our bodies can acquire adaptive immunity to SARS-CoV-2 passively or actively from vaccination or the antibodies produced through natural exposure. 1  2. Vaccinated individuals can infect others. It is becoming clear that vaccinated people can contract new variants of COVID, harbor the virus and transmit it to others.2,3,4 Countries such as Iceland with the highest vaccination rates (80-90% vaccination) are still experiencing crippling epidemic waves with their highest morbidity since the onset of the pandemic.5 While the message continues to spread that “this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated”6, the truth remains that unvaccinated individuals do not cause the pandemic to continue. Peer-reviewed science is consistently emerging that vaccinated people are contracting and spreading SARS-CoV-2. 3. COVID-19 vaccines do not protect people as well as originally reported. Effectiveness of mRNA vaccines against infection from variations of SARS-CoV-2 virus is dropping fast. The New England Journal of Medicine published a peer-reviewed study in September that showed a drop to 65% vaccine effectiveness against the Delta variant.7 We still need to respect and protect the most vulnerable individuals in our population, because the risk of COVID-19 infection is often lethal for those who have grown too old to have robust immune response, or who have underlying conditions that can be exploited by the virus. mRNA vaccines have shown that they are effective at reducing hospitalizations and death, especially among the elderly.8 That is a good reason encourage vaccines, but no reason to mandate them, especially among healthy populations and those with the lowest risk of death from COVID. 4. Among healthy populations, SARS-CoV-2 infection confers robust immunity, and is rarely fatal. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) data is revealing that this is less a pandemic of the unvaccinated, and more a pandemic of the vulnerable. “There were co-morbidities or other conditions listed on the death certificate for as many as 95% of all COVID-19 deaths.”9 In Summit County, there was only one death attributable to COVID-19 in 2020 according to the Coroner's report,10 at a time when the pandemic was at its height and no vaccines were available to the general public. In a place like Summit County, where we have one of the lowest death rates per capita at 0.00026%11 people could continue to rely on naturally acquired adaptive immunity, non-vaccine prevention and treatment. 5. Natural immunity is the most durable and lasting. In previous influenza epidemics, it was shown that naturally acquired antibody immunity was more protective than immunity by other means12,13 and that the flu shot was capable of lowering immunity against other viral infectons.14 With the SARS-CoV-2 virus, immunity conferred by natural exposure protects against more possible variations to the spike protein on the viral capsid.15 It has come to light that the decay of immunity from our new mRNA vaccines is fairly rapid.16 That means vaccianted individuals will need boosters to their immunity on a regular basis, while the vast majority of people who have had a mild to moderate COVID-19 infection will develop lasting immunity that will protect them for a long time from many different variants of corona virus.17 “The moment we have scientific dogma is the moment science dies.” Zach Bush, MD We must remember, even in the midst of a global pandemic, that science is an ongoing process of questions, hypotheses, and searching for answers. A vaccine-fits-all approach to a novel corona virus goes against the very foundations of what we already know about immunity and what current studies demonstrate. Despite the imperfect nature of VAERS (the Vaccine Adverse Effects Reporting system), including low reporting by hospitals and medical clinics, COVID vaccines have injured or killed more people than all other vaccines on the market combined.18 Mandates for this vaccine could be considered unethical until we have more long-term safety data. For whatever reason, many evidence-based and effective treatments for COVID-19 are being ignored, or actively suppressed. As I write this, molnupiravir (Merck), several other anti-viral medications and monoclonal antibody treatments are being reviewed for emergency-use-authorization, which could effectively end the pandemic for all of us. 1. Seeley's Anatomy and Physiology, 12th Edition. McGraw Hill. ISBN: 9781264229505 (shared with permission from McGraw-Hill publishers) 2. Walensky, R. Director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Fully Vaccinated People Who Get A COVID-19 Breakthrough Infection Can Transmit The Virus. CNN reporting, August 6, 2021. www.cnn.com/2021/08/05/health/us-coronavirus-thursday/index.html 3. Ioannou P, Karakonstantis S, Astrinaki E, Saplamidou S, Vitsaxaki E, Hamilos G, Sourvinos G, Kofteridis DP. Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.1.7 among vaccinated health care workers. Infect Dis (Lond). 2021 Nov;53(11):876-879. doi: 10.1080/23744235.2021.1945139. Epub 2021 Jun 26. PMID: 34176397. 4. Kasen K. Riemersma, Brittany E. Grogan, Amanda Kita-Yarbro, Peter J. Halfmann, Hannah E. Segaloff, Anna Kocharian, Kelsey R. Florek, Ryan Westergaard, Allen Bateman, Gunnar E. Jeppson, Yoshihiro Kawaoka, David H. O’Connor, Thomas C. Friedrich, Katarina M. Grande. Shedding of Infectious SARS-CoV-2 Despite Vaccination. medRxiv 2021.07.31.21261387; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.31.21261387 5. Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/covid-cases 6. “This remains a pandemic of the unvaccinated and that threatens our freedom - your freedom to receive routine or lifesaving medical care like cancer treatment. Until more unvaccinated people do the right thing to protect themselves and our economy - Coloradans should wear masks, get the booster, and get tested if you have symptoms.” Colorado Governor Jared Polis update September 28, 2021. 7. Keehner J, Horton LE, Binkin NJ, Laurent LC, Pride D, Longhurst CA, Abeles SR, Torriani FJ. Resurgence of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in a Highly Vaccinated Health System Workforce. N Engl J Med. 2021 Sep 1. doi: 10.1056/NEJMc2112981. PMID: 34469645. “Vaccine effectiveness exceeded 90% from March through June but fell to 65.5% in July.”  8. Moghadas SM, Vilches TN, Zhang K, Wells CR, Shoukat A, Singer BH, Meyers LA, Neuzil KM, Langley JM, Fitzpatrick MC, Galvani AP. The impact of vaccination on COVID-19 outbreaks in the United States. medRxiv [Preprint]. 2021 Jan 2:2020.11.27.20240051. doi: 10.1101/2020.11.27.20240051. Update in: Clin Infect Dis. 2021 Jan 30;: PMID: 33269359 “Vaccination markedly reduced adverse outcomes especially among individuals aged 65 and older, with non-ICU hospitalizations, ICU hospitalizations, and deaths decreasing by 63.5%." 9. National Center for Health Statistics. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There were co-morbidities or other conditions listed on the death certificate for as many as 95% of all COVID-19 deaths. Data as of 9-5-2021. www.cdc.gov/nchs/covid19/mortality-overview.htm 10. Wood R. Coroner, Summit County Colorado. 1 death from COVID-19, among a total of 78 deaths in Summit County in 2020. www.summitcountyco.gov/DocumentCenter/View/32583/Summit-County-Coroner-2020-Annual-Report-pdf 11. Summit Daily News, June 2, 2021 12. Kreijtz JH, Bodewes R, van Amerongen G, Kuiken T, Fouchier RA, Osterhaus AD, Rimmelzwaan GF. Primary influenza A virus infection induces cross-protective immunity against a lethal infection with a heterosubtypic virus strain in mice. Vaccine. 2007 Jan 8;25(4):612-20. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2006.08.036. Epub 2006 Sep 7. PMID: 17005299. 13. Laurie KL, Carolan LA, Middleton D, Lowther S, Kelso A, Barr IG. Multiple infections with seasonal influenza A virus induce cross-protective immunity against A(H1N1) pandemic influenza virus in a ferret model. J Infect Dis. 2010 Oct 1;202(7):1011-20. doi: 10.1086/656188. PMID: 20715930. 14. Rogier Bodewes, et al. Annual Vaccination against Influenza Virus Hampers Development of Virus-Specific CD8+ T Cell Immunity in Children. J. Virol. November 2011 vol. 85 no. 22 11995-12000 15. William N. Voss, Yixuan J. Hou, Nicole V. Johnson, George Delidakis, Jin Eyun Kim, Kamyab Javanmardi, Andrew P. Horton, Foteini Bartzoka, Chelsea J. Paresi, Yuri Tanno, Chia-Wei Chou, Shawn A. Abbasi, Whitney Pickens, Katia George, Daniel R. Boutz, Dalton M. Towers, Jonathan R. McDaniel, Daniel Billick, Jule Goike, Lori Rowe, Dhwani Batra, Jan Pohl, Justin Lee, Shivaprakash Gangappa, Suryaprakash Sambhara, Michelle Gadush, Nianshuang Wang, Maria D. Person, Brent L. Iverson, Jimmy D. Gollihar, John Dye, Andrew Herbert, Ilya J. Finkelstein, Ralph S. Baric, Jason S. McLellan, George Georgiou, Jason J. Lavinder, Gregory C. Ippolito. Prevalent, protective, and convergent IgG recognition of SARS-CoV-2 non-RBD spike epitopes. Science, 2021. “Blood plasma samples from four people who recovered from SARS-CoV-2 infections, the researchers found that most of the antibodies circulating in the blood -- on average, about 84% -- target areas of the viral spike protein outside the RBD (receptor binding domain).” 16. Israel A, Shenhar Y, Green I, Merzon E, Golan-Cohen A, Schäffer AA, Ruppin E, Vinker S, Magen E. Large-scale study of antibody titer decay following BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine or SARS-CoV-2 infection. medRxiv [Preprint]. 2021 Aug 21:2021.08.19.21262111. doi: 10.1101/2021.08.19.21262111. PMID: 34462761 “Initial levels of antibody are much higher in vaccinated patients, but decrease faster (than in people with naturally acquired immunity).” 17. Kojima N, Shrestha NK, Klausner JD. A Systematic Review of the Protective Effect of Prior SARS-CoV-2 Infection on Repeat Infection. Eval Health Prof. 2021 Sep 30:1632787211047932. doi: 10.1177/01632787211047932. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34592838. 18. https://vaersanalysis.info/2021/09/24/vaers-summary-for-covid-19-vaccines-through-9-17-2021  The American Association of Naturopathic Doctors (AANP) is the national professional association representing licensed and licenseable naturopathic doctors (NDs) in the US.
Licensed naturopathic doctors are trained as primary care providers, who emphasize patient-centered, preventive healthcare and are strong proponents of the principles of shared decision making. NDs and the COVID-19 Vaccines With broader eligibility and availability of the vaccine and increased distribution channels, the AANP strongly advocates that naturopathic doctors have access to, and be able to administer, the COVID-19 vaccine where it is within their scope of practice. Fundamental to AANP’s strategic plan is to advocate for NDs to be licensed and recognized to practice to the fullest extent of their education and training throughout the US. Naturopathic Doctors are educated on standards of care for immunization, and vaccines are one of many tools used by naturopathic doctors to protect against infectious diseases as reflected in the Association of Accredited Naturopathic Medical Colleges Core Competencies on Immunization Education. The Role of Licensed Naturopathic Doctors in the Pandemic Public health guidelines such as social distancing, hand washing, and mask wearing have been prioritized in the last year as the nation has struggled to understand the nature of this disease. Despite these measures, morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 continues to be alarmingly high. Certain populations, including individuals with pre-existing chronic disease, those without sufficient access to comprehensive healthcare service, and people of color are disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Even with the new vaccines, there are currently still important unknowns, including whether the vaccine prevents asymptomatic transmission, how long vaccine protection will last, what the impact of the vaccine will be on untested populations such as much older adults, pregnant women and children, and the extent of risk of allergic reaction and adverse events. Because of these unknowns, and the simple fact that there are also populations that are vaccine hesitant or for whom the vaccine is currently not recommended by the CDC, it is of utmost importance to pursue additional pathways to further decrease the spread and the negative consequences of COVID-19. These additional pathways should include: 1. Adding naturopathic doctors to plans to combat COVID-19. Licensed NDs work collaboratively within all medical settings, and in regulated states, NDs are integrated into health systems in both primary and specialty settings. The World Naturopathic Federation outlines how naturopathic doctors can help change the trajectory of this public health crisis. There is an increasing body of research on naturopathic practice, including how care by licensed naturopathic doctors can lead to better outcomes in the conditions that predispose individuals to severe cases of COVID-19, including those patients with diabetes[1],[2],[3],[4],[5],[6],[7],[8],[9], cardiovascular disease[10],[11],[12],[13],[14], obesity[15],[16] and more. 2. Engaging naturopathic doctors to provide education about risk vs. benefit with vaccine-hesitant, vaccine-resistant individuals[17], as well as with other individuals who may not tolerate the current vaccines, or for whom the vaccine is not currently recommended by the CDC due to age or other reasons. These populations often seek care from naturopathic doctors and integrative medicine providers, who can help educate about vaccine safety and provide information related to vaccine ingredients, potential allergens, symptoms that may be representative of a healthy immune response, and potential adverse events. Policy Changes That Need to Happen
In summary, licensed naturopathic doctors play a valuable role as front-line, primary healthcare providers but are limited by lack of licensure in all 50 states. Their patient-centered communication, comprehensive training in prevention-oriented primary care, and unique expertise in evidence-based integrative and natural health, provides effective treatment of chronic diseases and supports immune health in a manner that may be able to lessen the burden of COVID-19 morbidity. Based on research data and 40 collective years of clinical practice, the following briefly summarizes our recommendations for optimizing immune function and avoiding viral illness.
In health, Dr. Kim Nearpass & Dr. Justin Pollack Practice basic safety during a pandemic
 Dr. Justin Pollack, ND
Viruses cause cold and flu, in fact what we call the 'Flu' is short for influenza virus. Over 200 different viruses can initiate a cold, including rhinoviruses, RSV, adenoviruses, and even several inocuous coronaviruses. Many biologists don't consider viruses to be alive, since they require a living cell's 'machinery' to make copies of themselves. They can persist in fluids, like respiratory droplets for varying amounts of time. That said, viruses are fragile and die with simple soap and water when on your hands or exposed surfaces. Antibacterial soaps are overkill. Antibiotics are useless against them, since viruses slip into, and are hidden inside our own cells. If used against a virus, antibiotics can weaken the immune system by damaging digestive flora balance and leaving a person at greater risk for infection. One of the most effective ways our body has to kill virus, is to create a fever of over 101°Fahrenheit to 'cook them out.' Since 2002, there have been three new beta corona viruses that have attached to receptors deep in human lungs / respiratory tracts, triggering inflammatory immune responses. For some, this creates a deadly ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome) response.
Can you get it twice? Probably not, but we won't know for a couple years as scientists and epidemiologists track the effects of COVID-19. Immunity developed to an influenza virus is lifelong. That said, influenza is a sloppy replicator, and every year there are many new "mutations" to influenza virus that could cause a person to get a new flu. Weak “cold-causing” coronavirus immunity lasts about a year. Immunity developed to SARS and MERS lasted several years on average. Prevention
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Dr. Justin Pollack,
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