Although I do not myself suffer from Peyronies Disease, this excellent thread has prompted me to register and write a comment. I must say that I am impressed by the generally very high level of discussion, civility, intellectual curiosity and, above all, the positive spirit and indeed pesonal heroism that can be found in this forum. All this is in evidence here, despite the pain and loss of confidence which this nasty disease confronts those who suffer from it with. Thus, I count myself extremely fortunate to have come across this forum and especially this thread, in which nobel prize winning research has been referenced, discussed and put to the test in practice.
As a sufferer of Lichen Sclerosus, I am curious to see whether fasting may have a positive impact in the longer run on the progression of the disease that I was - at long last - diagnosed with about 1.5 years ago. As Peyronies Disease (please correct me if I am wrong), LS is officially deemed incurable at this point in time, the causes are "not yet fully understood"; those affected are recommended to apply cortisone locally or undergo circumcision. In recent years, a few doctors have started working with and offering
PRP treatments. Like the skeptics in this forum, I do not understand what makes it so difficult for those who market such services to go and talk to their succesful cases and present a series of convincing "before & after" photos. As a matter of fact, I have yet to see such a collection of photos, and until this happens, I tend to remain doubtful of this approach, especially since relatively frequent repetition is required, and there are question marks IMHO about nerve damage and micro scarring, as well as the odds of having to deal with an infection over the course of many years of a hypothetical
PRP treatment "career".
Intuitively, I am tempted to say that even if this partiuclar aspect of my health will not benefit from fasting, I have very little doubt that my system as a whole will greatly profit from the experience that I understand was an everyday occurrence during the lives of our ancestors thousands and indeed tens of thousands of years ago. Our body is hardwired to go through periods of food shortage and indeed, as the research seems to point out, it requires such periods to function optimally. Though this may of course be a pure coincidence, when looking at photos of male LS sufferers online, it struck me that most seemed to have a nice layer of fat around their wasteline or lower digestive tract. This is also the reality in my case, even though most people would say I am very slim and tall and have nothing to worry about. As a matter of fact, there is a stubborn fat depot in my stomach and bowel area that tends to grow very fast if I do not strictly control my appetite and which concerns me beyond purely cosmetical considerations. My LS developed over many years during which my waistline reached a historic maximum also due to work-related stress. Though I never came across as fat, those who knew me must have been well aware that I could have shed well in excess of five kilos at that time.
Fat and especially belly fat is known to promote inflammatory conditions in the system as a whole, and though I understand that men above 35 years of age tend to have a harder time getting rid of it, I am now becoming much more self-critical in this regard than ever. I have noticed that my mouth and my bowels are communicating different messages: The former can never get enough, especially of pasta, bread and sugar (all of which I have cut out of my diet since about one year), the latter, meanwhile, signals that it is full most of the time. While I do not quite understand what this means, I hope that fasting can help me get a better sense of these perceptions. Speaking of fat and
inflammation, a couple of days ago, I came across several website that look into a phenomenon dubbed
NICO (acronym) by certain dental specialists - a condition whereby the jawbone locally degenerates into a less solid and fatty mass, which those who subscribe to this theory say acts as a(n often silent) potentially far-reaching source of
inflammation in the body. I am planning to look into this later this year and see whether I, too, am affected by this.
Finally, as someone who is trying to take a radical 360 degree perspective in regard to the matter in hand, I have zoomed in on the subject of electrosmog and wondered whether there could be a (common) connection to the illnesses which we are suffering from. Like in other autoimmune diseases,
oxidative stress seems to play in the etiology of LS. Electrosmog, including high-frequency electromagnetic radiation below the thermal threshold, has been shown to cause (increased levels of) oxidative cell stress, mutagenic changes and programmed cell death, among many other things, including high blood pressure and behavioural changes. Research into this field and the effects of radar dates at least as far back as the early 1960s and has been commissioned by the US military, NASA and the Soviets, inter alia. The claim frequently made by the industry that the effects of (non-thermal) high frequency electromagnetic radiation are "not understood" and that more research is needed, looks increasingly fragile in light of the considerable and growing body of data and literature that suggests otherwise.
Microwave radiation emitted by mobile phones, cell phone masts, wi-fi has literally exploded over the last 25 years or so. In places where we would have received readings as low as 0.05 volt or less per meter, it is now not uncommon to get readings ten or even a hundred times higher. In select neighbourhoods where previously only the air traffic control radar used to be the sole source of constant microwave radiation there are now dozens of sources impacting each inhabitant 24/7. In
"A New Era of Chronic Disease in America and what's behind it" (2017), Prof. Richard Lear outlines how the indicence of dozens and especially 1) inflammatory, 2)
auto-immune, 3) metabolic and 4) neurological diseases has ratcheted up in the US between 1990 and 2015. Electrosmog is one of the factors he considers as a possible if not likely external cause, alongside dietary variables (corn fructose syrup) and pesticides. The systemic factor within the body seems to be rather uncontroversial according to Lear and can be traced to the presence of a molecule named peroxynitride, which "operates at the heart of more than forty fast-growing
chronic diseases and conditions in the US. This fast-acting anion creates more than 130 biochemical disruptions in vivo...".
To cut a long story short, for obvious reasons, I have switched off my wi-fi at home in favour of a cable connection and I am trying to keep my mobile phone in flight mode as often as possible or, when this is not feasible, place it in a reasonably safe distance.
To conclude, I hope this post will not be deleted or otherwise sanctioned because of its speculative digression into a different field of interest of mine in the last paragraph or due to the fact that I am not affected by Peyronies Disease.
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Topic: Water fasting. (Read 26688 times)
October 07, 2012, 12:56:30 PM