Talk:Water fasting

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Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 12:42, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Citation for dangers of water fasting?

I don't think we need a citation for this. The requirements of human food for energy and brain activity are well documented and accepted. If anything, a citation should be provided showing someone operating in average strains of daily activity on nothing but water for a while to see how it goes. Can we please remove this? Tyciol 05:22, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

It depends on the time the fast lasts. Most people go hours each day without eating.

Aren't the dangers of water fasting more specific than those of non-compliance with the documented requirements of human food for energy and brain activity? For example, mental confusion resulting from electrolyte disturbance (particularly in the case of distilled water fasting)?

There are no dangers to it. All animals are adopted to going without food for some time.

I'm not a medical professional nor a dietician, but I have experienced this personally and had to counter the highly unpleasant effects by drinking commercially available sporting drinks known to address electrolyte disturbances. (please see the wikipedia entries on mental confusion and electrolyte disturbance). I think a citation or at least more detail on the matter would be useful, especially considering the type of medical emergencies that could result from ignorant attempts at distilled water fasting.

(Water?) Fasting and Judaism

I don't think the little blurb at the end is called for. It doesn't deal specifically with water fasting, and Judaism's use of fasting in general is detailed much more comprehensively in the article on fasting. Well-intentioned, perhaps, but this information is being presented neither encyclopedically, nor in the appropriate location, nor, I'm afraid the reader might feel, substantially impartially. Thrashbarg 04:53, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Re: Citation for dangers of water fasting?

"I don't think we need a citation for this. The requirements of human food for energy and brain activity are well documented and accepted. If anything, a citation should be provided showing someone operating in average strains of daily activity on nothing but water for a while to see how it goes. Can we please remove this?"

Why would you want to deprive the public of information? We are talking about censorship from what appears to be a biased opinion. Have you read any publications on fasting? Joel Fuhrman in his books has over 2,000 references to various medical publications to support his research. And btw, I have operated in average strains in daily activity on nothing but water. Further more, you have to remeber that humans have not always had food in such bountiful amounts. We are made to survive periods without food. Evolution and all.

As an FYI, after 54 hours for women, and 72 hours from men, the body switches fuel. The brain which primarily operates on glucose switches to ketones which is stored in the fat, and the body switches to burn mostly fast as opposed to an undesired amount of musicle. Human brain activity survives this just fine. Please reference your sources that are well documented and accepted to the contrary. Eydaimon (talk • contribs) 03:03, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Political

Water fasting is often used in political protest. I am suprised that there is no section (or comment) mentioning this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.62.160.172 (talk) 17:02, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

citations needed

I've added citation needed tags to the lead because, well, because it needs citations! Also, while including the citations please remove the word "supposedly", which is a weasle word and underhandedly detracts from the credibility of the ensuing statement. Either it does have health effects (according to studies) or it doesn't (according to studies) or some specific group of proponents claim it does (according to published sources)...etc etc. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.246.77.14 (talk) 05:29, 19 August 2016 (UTC)

I keep on trying to improve this article and people keep deleting all my work. This is very frustrating. Please can those deleting all my work engage to improve the article rather than deleting everything? I put in good references from journals and people keep deleting them. --Jwslubbock (talk) 15:16, 26 December 2016 (UTC)

Please ensure any WP:Biomedical information in this article is sourced to WP:MEDRS, and is explicitly about "water fasting". Thank you. Alexbrn (talk) 15:42, 26 December 2016 (UTC)

I used a source from the Canadian Medical Association Journal, which is explicitly mentioned as a reliable source in WP:MEDRS - please explain why you keep deleting this reference. I have so far been offered no explanation as to why my edits keep being deleted beyond reference to WP:MEDRS, and since the CMAJ is explicitly referred to there, I believe you need to explain further why you have deleted this reference. --Jwslubbock (talk) 16:04, 26 December 2016 (UTC)

It's a news piece (so not good per WP:MEDASSESS) but more to the point it doesn't even mention water fasting. Alexbrn (talk) 16:09, 26 December 2016 (UTC)

Thank you for finally explaining your edits to me. That's all you had to do to help me understand. So what about this journal article - would you accept that as a reference if I could get access to it and include its research? --Jwslubbock (talk) 16:15, 26 December 2016 (UTC)

I found the full text here - will you accept this reference? --Jwslubbock (talk) 16:18, 26 December 2016 (UTC)

No it's a case report. Alexbrn (talk) 16:50, 26 December 2016 (UTC)

Ok, then I don't understand what is allowed. Can you explain to me what sort of thing you wouldn't delete? This is quite complex and you have not really assisted me to understand it, which is quite disappointing. This is one of the biggest barriers which puts off new editors from contributing to the site, and I think that experienced editors (which I assume you are) should assist those who have less experience more than this. --Jwslubbock (talk) 11:43, 27 December 2016 (UTC)

I have pointed at WP:MEDRS. It's quite rich, but then it's a fairly complex topic area. I can't really do more than that: you need to have absorbed MEDRS to understand how Wikipedia sources health content: for example, it explicitly refers to case reports. The essay WP:WHYMEDRS gives some useful background info which you may find helpful if MEDRS seems opaque. Alexbrn (talk) 11:53, 27 December 2016 (UTC)

Yes, I find it very opaque. I'll look at this other summary, but if I can't cite case reports, summaries of case reports in journals, or articles by doctors in places which aren't journals, I really don't know what else is left to cite. --Jwslubbock (talk) 11:24, 28 December 2016 (UTC)

Perhaps instead of writing something then trying to find citations to support what you want to say, see what the reliable sources say, and then write that. Much better. Roxy the dog. bark 11:28, 28 December 2016 (UTC)

Indeed, part of the trouble is that "water fasting" isn't really much of a topic in RS, since most "fasting" permits water (since without water, you're gonna die pretty quick). I suspect it might be better to merge this into the main fasting article where a brief mention of fasting with and without liquids might be placed? Alexbrn (talk) 12:10, 28 December 2016 (UTC)

Water fasting and detoxification

I would like to disagree with the following quotation from the article: "While there is no scientific evidence that any detoxification occurs because of water fasting" Here's a study published in the National Health Institute website: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3748731/ Pay attention to the following from the "Discussion" section: "Fasting for a certain period of time can eliminate body waste, diminish gastrointestinal irritation, and refresh digestive and respiratory organs. In particular, inhibition of gastrointestinal irritation helps repair the mucous membrane and blocks any supply of unwholesome food, which can be allergens, for a certain period of time [11]."

I think this should be corrected.Svetoslav80 (talk) 17:33, 20 July 2017 (UTC)

It's an article in Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and so sadly is useless rubbish. Alexbrn (talk) 17:53, 20 July 2017 (UTC)

To add to what Alex said, this "One of the founding editors, Professor Edzard Ernst, has described the journal as "useless rubbish", primarily due to ineffective peer review" is from the article on the journal, Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. --jae (talk) 03:46, 19 August 2017 (UTC) (forgot to sign on the previous edit)