I occasionally do 48 - 72 hour fasts. During those fasts I lose a lot of water weight, mainly because I do not consume enough water, but also because I use caffeine during the fast, which is a diuretic. Towards the end of the fast and after it I get temporary symptom improvement. Now this could be for hundreds of different reasons. Fasting has profound effects on the functionining of many body systems, so it is very difficult to determine how and why those improvements happen.
However, it is possible that that the improvements are due to the dehydration and not due to the other fasting effects. I know this sounds very counter-intuitive, but I have a simple hypothesis to explain this:
Dehydration usually leads to reduction in brain and / or spinal chord volume [1]. If there is spinal chord compression (e.g. spinal stenosis) or brain stem compression (e.g. CCI, AAI, etc.) , this reduction in volume could reduce the severity of the compression, thus providing slight symptom relief.
I've heard people report back pain symptom relief after going to the sauna. Could this again be, because dehydration leads to reduction in spinal chord volume?
sources:
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16037892
However, it is possible that that the improvements are due to the dehydration and not due to the other fasting effects. I know this sounds very counter-intuitive, but I have a simple hypothesis to explain this:
Dehydration usually leads to reduction in brain and / or spinal chord volume [1]. If there is spinal chord compression (e.g. spinal stenosis) or brain stem compression (e.g. CCI, AAI, etc.) , this reduction in volume could reduce the severity of the compression, thus providing slight symptom relief.
I've heard people report back pain symptom relief after going to the sauna. Could this again be, because dehydration leads to reduction in spinal chord volume?
sources:
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16037892
