Is dry fasting all it's cracked up to be or will it just crack your skin?

Summary

In this video, Pottenger's Human discusses the controversial topic of dry fasting and addresses the misconceptions and potential dangers associated with it. Unlike water fasting, dry fasting is less studied and possibly poses significant health risks. The speaker explains that most purported benefits of dry fasting are unproven and often misleadingly borrowed from water fasting without scientific backing. They emphasize the importance of evidence-based practices, cautioning against taking dry fasting's claims at face value, especially for prolonged periods.

Highlights

• The speaker criticizes the surge in promotion of dry fasting by newcomers and pseudoscience advocates. 🙄
• Misleading claims such as enhanced fat burning and metabolic water generation during dry fasting are debunked as unsubstantiated. ❌
• Caution is advised against longer dry fasts due to the severe stress and potential damage to the body. 🔍
• The science behind fasting shows water fasting has well-documented benefits, but these are often falsely credited to dry fasting. 🤷‍♂️
• The dangerous risks of dehydration and organ damage with dry fasting are underlined, urging cautious navigation through health trends. 🛑

Key Takeaways

• Dry fasting lacks substantial scientific evidence for most of its claimed health benefits compared to water fasting. 🚫
• Many benefits attributed to dry fasting are either speculative or actually proven to be benefits of water fasting only. 🤔
• Prolonged dry fasting can be dangerous, with historical accounts of fatalities due to dehydration within as little as 10 days. ⚠️
• Growth hormone release is one of the few benefits of dry fasting with some scientific backing, but risks still overshadow it. 📈
• The discussion highlights the importance of distinguishing between proven science and speculation, advocating for critical skepticism in health practices. 🕵️‍♀️

Overview

Starting a conversation on dry fasting, the creator addresses the influx of comments and misinformation surrounding this practice. They highlight that many claims regarding dry fasting's superiority are unfounded and caution viewers against blindly following unverified health trends. 😳

Asserting that most dry fasting benefits reportedly echo those of water fasting, the video methodically debunks these through the lens of scientific inquiry. The creator underscores the importance of evidence-based approaches in health and emphasizes that such rigorous testing refutes the dry fasting proponents' claims. 📚

With potential health hazards in mind, particularly dehydration and nutrient deficiencies, the creator strongly advises against long-term dry fasting. They point out the lack of solid research on its safety and efficacy, advocating for informed decision-making based on acknowledged scientific principles rather than enticing promises of accelerated health benefits. ⚠️

Chapters

• 00:00 - 03:00: Introduction to Dry Fasting The author receives numerous comments promoting dry fasting and specific dry fasting gurus, often from first-time commenters or those unfamiliar with the channel. This persistent influx of comments has prompted the author to address their stance on dry fasting directly, clarifying why they do not endorse it over other methods like water fasting.
• 03:00 - 05:00: Misleading Claims and Lack of Scientific Evidence The chapter titled 'Misleading Claims and Lack of Scientific Evidence' discusses the speaker's stance on a certain idea, which they believe is misguided. Despite its lack of popularity, the speaker maintains their belief, emphasizing that they are not concerned about winning popularity contests. The conversation suggests the speaker is not highly regarded in terms of popularity, as confirmed humorously during an exchange with others.
• 05:00 - 09:00: Concerns About Dry Fasting Safety The speaker addresses the issue of people making false or misleading claims about dry fasting and other health practices, such as veganism. They emphasize that while individuals have the freedom to follow their own diets and health routines, promoting misinformation to others is unacceptable. The speaker is firm in their stance against allowing misleading information to spread on their platform, indicating they would immediately ban those who promote lies. The topic of fasting is particularly noted as being rife with such misleading claims, as highlighted by frequent comments made by alternative health advocates on the speaker's channel.
• 09:00 - 15:00: Metabolic Effects of Fasting The chapter discusses the topic of dry fasting and addresses the misconceptions surrounding its benefits. It emphasizes that many claims made about dry fasting are misleading because the benefits attributed to it are actually derived from water fasting instead. The speaker explains their reluctance to discuss dry fasting, noting the prevalence of misinformation and the confusion it causes.
• 15:00 - 20:00: Limitations and Risks of Dry Fasting The chapter discusses the limitations and risks associated with dry fasting compared to water fasting and ketogenic diets. It highlights that certain benefits often attributed to dry fasting, such as cell release and stem cell pool lengthening, have only been tested in water fasting. Additionally, it notes that ketones, which are dyum free, are more readily and easily obtained through water fasting or a ketogenic diet rather than dry fasting. This suggests that if one is aiming to increase ketone levels, water fasting or a ketogenic diet might be more effective and safer methods than dry fasting.
• 20:00 - 24:00: Comparison with Water Fasting This chapter explores the topic of dry fasting and its comparison to water fasting. It highlights that while there is some information being promoted about the benefits of dry fasting, much of the claims are based on the benefits associated with water fasting, suggesting that the research specific to dry fasting is limited. The chapter concludes that most claims about dry fasting are essentially extensions of the known effects of water fasting.
• 24:00 - 28:00: Conclusion and Caution Against Dry Fasting The chapter titled 'Conclusion and Caution Against Dry Fasting' addresses the misconceptions surrounding dry fasting. It emphasizes that the claimed benefits of dry fasting are largely unproven and lack scientific support. The chapter argues that most theories about dry fasting are often debunked after rigorous scientific testing. It cautions readers to be skeptical of prominent proponents, especially those with questionable or extreme theories, such as predictions about the world ending.
• 28:00 - 30:00: Final Remarks on Dry Fasting Advocacy The chapter discusses the mentality and risks associated with speculative and untested science, particularly focusing on the numerous doomsday theories and their frequent failures to materialize. It draws a parallel to the Seventh Day Adventist cult's repeated predictions of the apocalypse, highlighting that all these foretold 'certain days' have passed without incident.

Is dry fasting all it's cracked up to be or will it just crack your skin? Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 since I opened the channel I've got tons of people trying to promote dry fasting and trying to promote a specific dry fasting Guru or they ask me about dry fasting or say I should do dry fasting instead of water fasting and on and on most of them are firsttime commenters who may just be alts or they're just someone that doesn't watch the channel at all and any rate since I read and respond to all the comments I've grown tired of this and I've decided to address why I don't promote dry fasting
• 00:30 - 01:00 and why I don't think it's really that good of an idea even if it doesn't make me popular well I'm not here to win any popularity contests oh you haven't you haven't oh no far from it far from it yes as a matter of fact I believe yes yes you are dead last on my popularity list [Music]
• 01:00 - 01:30 people can do whatever they want for all of me but what I won't allow is people making false or misleading claims you want to be a highly deficient vegan that's fine by me but don't promote lies to convince people or you'll be immediately banned at least from my channel unfortunately this is very very common this also happens with the topic of fasting and as with the vegans I get a lot of Alt spaming the channel talking
• 01:30 - 02:00 about nothing but dry fasting I didn't want to make this video but the problem is there are so many people who take these misleading claims as truth that a lot of people talking to me really just don't know why I wouldn't ever do this or at least why I don't really do it much the misleading claims are that dry fasting does XYZ which is actually something that has only been tested in water fasting or which also happens in water fasting Stem
• 02:00 - 02:30 Cell release that's only tested in water fasting telr lengthening of the stem cell pool that's also only tested in water fasting ketones being dyum free guess what all ketones are always dyum free and it's a lot easier to water fast to get them than to dry fast and it's even easier to get them with a keto diet and that's the reason that diet exists so that's what you're really after just
• 02:30 - 03:00 go on the keto diet or just buy some and take them I have looked into it as best as I could but there's little or nothing to support dry fasting there's a list made up by one of the main guys promoting it with a few dry fasting specific topics but keep in mind these are the only areas of dry fasting studied at all every other claim rides on the back of water fasting but it's presented as if it were only related to
• 03:00 - 03:30 dry fasting in all of these videos not only is that untrue but there's no proof that any of this actually works in dry fasting until it's actually tested directly and measured scientifically at least 90% of the time when a theory is tested it's proven wrong keep in mind one of the biggest proponents is a guy with a theory that the world is going to end in 20 years or something like that or at least that's going to have this major
• 03:30 - 04:00 catastrophe that shows the mentality of this kind of over speculative and very untested science there's a million doomsday theories and like the Seventh Day Adventist cult that stood out in the cold waiting for the apocalypse over and over again cuz they were sure the Rapture was coming on a certain day so far every one of these theories every one of these certain days have all passed by with absolutely nothing of not
• 04:00 - 04:30 happening I as blank as a fart every supplement I recommend has been heavily tested for safety and most of them you could take very large amounts without any worries at all though you could have issues with nyin and vitamin D if you went too high but then that's actually true of all vitamins in fact every single supplement requires some fairly thorough safety testing to even be sold at all people
• 04:30 - 05:00 ask me why I don't sell certain compounds and the answer is even though it would be perfectly safe you can't it's illegal and they throw me in jail even so I constantly get people trying to claim that they're unsafe such as the wacky claims about glycine lately fasting has also been exhaustively tested for safety many many people were tested by kahill's fasting Clinic he was an Irish fys position who moved to
• 05:00 - 05:30 Florida and promoted very long fasts of 30 or even 60 days thousands of people did these fast and most of them had no problems at all even so a few did die and due to a specific cause that has specific relevance to drive fasting which I'm going to reveal later this is not true of dry fasting at all aside from Ramadan fasting which has been done for centuries
• 05:30 - 06:00 which is a 12-hour dry fast during the daylight hours followed by eating and drinking at sundown there's never been any real safety testing in humans at all in fact there's been almost no human study of Drive fasting longer than 12 hours either and there's not likely to be since there are many health concerns and it's unlikely to make it through an Ethics review board the board of regions has decided to terminate your Grant you are to vacate these premises immediately
• 06:00 - 06:30 your theories are the worst kind of popular tripe your methods are sloppy and your conclusions are Highly Questionable you are a poor scientist Dr I mentioned earlier that a few people on very long water fast died the issue they had was intestinal blockage they started the fast constipated and the feces in their body dried out and hardened over time and this led to a blockage which is actually very dangerous I know that because I had one myself due to hernia
• 06:30 - 07:00 long before I started fasting and it was complete nightmare thankfully the hernia eventually went away after I started fasting thankfully it is easy to avoid this issue by taking small amounts of salt water on these very long fasts vinegar also seems to help me a great deal it's also not a concern for the fast that I promote which are mainly only 36 to 96 hour fast you can do longer fast but that is when you start
• 07:00 - 07:30 to have to worry about things like metabolic slowdown refeeding syndrome intestinal blockage and so on I feel it's much better to just do the shorter fasts more often rather than doing the extremely long fast and you can just eat a meal and turn right back around into a new fast now if I had cancer or a very serious injury then I might consider them but for General Health purposes and I'm able to walk and have all my limbs
• 07:30 - 08:00 and everything and especially just for weight loss they're really just not needed now what about intestinal blockage in dry fasting is that something you need to worry about as I said before this is completely untested so who knows if it's a rare issue like water fasting that only crops up after dry fasting for a very long time then that's one thing but the only way way to
• 08:00 - 08:30 know is to try it out under controlled conditions and see what happens science is 100% based on testing the hypothesis stage is easy for anyone to do but when we actually test the hypothesis we find out it's wrong at least 90% of the time even if you're a super smart guy like lonus pulling I've seen people pass away from this problem and it's not pretty so don't take this danger lightly at
• 08:30 - 09:00 all oh excuse me I shaking my booty all fat that you burn in the body produces metabolic water and in spite of what exercise science says the main fuel of the body is fatty acids this provides about 85% of the body's energy during normal times and about 5% is
• 09:00 - 09:30 fermentation of carbs and the rest is oxidative phosphorilation of carbs when in ketosis which we're born in by the way the brain also Burns mainly fat and this percentage goes even higher so at that point you're not going to be burning much carbs at all except for in hypoxic niches such as where your stem cells are the only time this goes lower is during intensive exercise or when there is massive mitochondrial damage
• 09:30 - 10:00 such as in post viral syndrome and you just don't have the mitochondria to burn that fat anymore and of course during cancer since you constantly burn fat you also constantly produce metabolic water this sounds really Nifty and dry fasting Advocates go on about it endlessly but is that enough that is do you make enough metabolic water to keep from being dehydrated well most of the claim about dry fasting have never been tested
• 10:00 - 10:30 this one actually has unfortunately the answer is a strong and resounding no no you don't make enough metabolic water to keep from being dehydrated which you could probably realize simply from the fact that you're making it all the time anyway but you still have to drink water but we really know this is true because hunger strikes are very common in prisons and sometimes there's also water strik in prisons from
• 10:30 - 11:00 time to time no one ever dies in these hunger strikes or at least it's very rare the few who do only pass away after very very long periods water fasting for very long periods is very safe so long as the person is not malnourished when they start and many of you have no doubt heard of Angus Barbary who water fasted for over a year straight though it should be noted he also supplemented vitamins especially vitam B though
• 11:00 - 11:30 interestingly he did not supplement vitamin C but was perfectly fine if this claim were true and your body can make all the metabolic water it needs you should be able to dry fast for months at a time just like you can water fast for that period in reality most people expire from dry fasting in just 10 to 11 days and the alltime longest Survivor was 17 days he was a prisoner in an Italian prison in the early 20th
• 11:30 - 12:00 century since these people passed on due to dehydration that also means they were doing damage before that point possibly permanent organ damage and almost certainly doing a lot of damage to their skin long before that point in fact it could happen immediately when you start doing it for all we know when does this kick in though again nobody knows since people expired after only 10 days I would guess they were doing damage long before then possibly even after just a
• 12:00 - 12:30 couple of days no one really knows how safe it is to dry fast or for how long and in fact 6:30 a.m. is the most common time for a heart attack which is when people are at their most dehydrated point due to dry fasting in their sleep like exercise all fasting is a stress on the body but dry fasting is a much bigger stress like sprinting compared to a light jog that's pretty alarm ing when you realize that dry fast Links of 7
• 12:30 - 13:00 days are very commonly promoted anyone promoting that is really asking you to take an awful lot on faith you sure you know what you're doing hey oh you said you knew what you were doing no I just said hey if You' let me finish the whole sentence it would have been hey no I don't with water fasting you can Evin do literally everything you
• 13:00 - 13:30 can do while eating normally there's a guy in Israel who does long bike races while fasted there's a few marathon runners in America who have run marathons fasted and I'll go on bike rides and Hikes while fast it all the time and really it's not a big deal once you're used to it I do all the normal things that I do while I'm fasting and then I work out with weights right before I break the fast and this works really really well for me this does take
• 13:30 - 14:00 some getting used to but there's no danger at all I try to bike ride while dry fasting for a few days and I literally thought I was going to die it took days for me to fully recover with dry fasting you can't really do much of anything except sit around all day and that's exactly what most of the people who promote it recommend that you do if you work on a computer you can probably do that just fine but if you have an active job or even and talk on the phone a lot you can probably just forget it I
• 14:00 - 14:30 can't keep up this pace forever even so that is not what stops me from doing any dry fasting though I would definitely never do a 7day dry fast which is completely insane the issue is the effects on stem cells and telr which are unknown now the guys who promote this stuff go on and on about stem cells and telr the truth is this is only proven to work in water fasting and
• 14:30 - 15:00 everything else is pure speculation while they seem to believe dry fasting is a magic process that works several times better than water fasting and will burn three times as much fat there's just no proof at all that this is true in water fasting not only do you release stem cells but you also replenish the stem cell pool to replace the ones that you use which doesn't always happen when they deploy you also increase the telor length of
• 15:00 - 15:30 the stem cell pool at the same time so this is very encouraging and it's probably the best mechanism of human life extension that we have confirmed or work to date even so it's not proven to actually extend life but it's extremely promising unfortunately we don't know what happens with dry fast I do believe stem cells will be released but you have to realize this is not always a good thing it's possible for them to release
• 15:30 - 16:00 without regenerating it's also possible that the tel miror links reduce as well dehydration is an extreme stress and it could do more harm than good sauna is very popular and is shown to have a lot of benefits but at the same time it's shown to reduce telr length this is a cause for concern not only for sauna but perhaps even a bigger one for dry fasting because it shares many of the same mechanisms as sauna but is much
• 16:00 - 16:30 harder on you than the sauna is your body reacts to stress by stimulating its repair mechanisms if there's too much stress it simply can't repair the damage and that's why I don't recommend Resveratrol and a few other supplements that other people do and that's why sprinting and walking are great for your health but marathons are simply awful for your health I know a guy who passed away due to a heart attack while running a 10k race and when you talk to Runners
• 16:30 - 17:00 and serious cyclists at my age they all seem to have one thing in common and that's heart attacks not to mention bad knees which is the reason that I stopped jogging now it's possible that dry fasting has the same results as water fasting in the same period when it comes to stem cells or it could be that it works even faster and it has more results but it could also be that it works faster but then causes damage
• 17:00 - 17:30 after a certain point and it's even possible that it doesn't do anything at all though I doubt this last case is going to be what happens well science isn't about intuition and logic it's about testing the truth and the truth is we just don't know no matter how smart we think we are so you smart huh you know I thought your ha would be bigger now obviously the people who promote dry
• 17:30 - 18:00 fasting believe it's better or they just wouldn't be doing it one area it's shown to be better is getting into ketosis faster in animal studies which should also be true for humans the thing is I don't really care about ketones much it's largely irrelevant to your ability to fast and it is completely separate from autophagy and Stem Cell release and all of the other benefits of fasting so really who cares it also doesn't show that you actually reach deeper ketosis
• 18:00 - 18:30 levels just that you reach it more quickly so while ketones have some health benefits since you don't get to a higher value necessarily and since you can just eat a keto diet to get them it's not really that huge of an advantage if it's even an advantage at all you also get much more growth hormone release during the dry fasting a lot more actually this is the most promising benefit of dry fasting and it has actual proof behind it the only one
• 18:30 - 19:00 of note really but it is a good one the studies people often quote about fasting raising growth hormone 1,00% or 2,000% or whatever it is those are actually from one of the few dry fasting studies that are performed in humans which is a Ramadan fasting study which seems to be the only type we really see this is a big Advantage but it also leads me to be cautious stress at AEL level releases
• 19:00 - 19:30 growth hormone and this is a gigantic stress even compared to water fasting which is no surprise since most people perish from dry fasting after around 10 days while you can water fast for months on in so there's definitely something to these shorter dry fast but how far can you safely take it and when does this process max out is it 18 hours is it 24 hours is it 36 hours is it 48 hours is
• 19:30 - 20:00 it 72 hours nobody knows for sure but I would say that 7 days is extremely optimistic to say the least a unique aspect of dry fasting is that the lack of water is also hard on the bacteria in your gut this sounds great but keep in mind your negative gut bacteria and your candida will die off quickly when you deprive them of carbohydrate water fasting already has this effect and it will also leave your
• 20:00 - 20:30 positive gut bacteria largely intact because they can live off the dead bacteria and yeast occasionally people try to scare others away from fasting by talking about a herxheim reaction from bacterial die off in water fasting this is not a big deal because you will still be going to the bathroom while water fasting and this just gets them so they're flushing down the toilet anyway but this doesn't happen in dry fasting and these poisons AKA
• 20:30 - 21:00 lipopolysaccharides have nowhere to go they're actually very damaging to your health and are one of the main drivers of amuno syence and aging in the body so while it seems promising to dry fast for benefits to the microbiome it probably has no benefits over water fasting and it will probably actually have worse results cuz you're just going to kill everything off and that's it everything else they claim Drive fasting does is
• 21:00 - 21:30 actually something water fasting does in fact there's usually no proof that it happens in dry fasting at all so don't fall for the idea it has these endless special benefits almost everything they attribute to it is actually only proven in water fasting alone and this includes burning fat much more quickly but that doesn't seem to keep them from saying it over and over again ah sir phology was dismissed as quacker years ago of course you'd say that you have the brain pan of
• 21:30 - 22:00 a stage coach tilter now dry fasting may have some place for some people especially with shorter fasts but considering a 10 to 11 day fast is usually lethal I would definitely stay away from long dry fast dry fasting is dehydrating over time as proven by its lethality you also make metabolic water when water fasting and in fact all fat burning so you're making it constantly but it's not enough
• 22:00 - 22:30 to replenish your body completely and if it were you wouldn't have to drink in the first place and you'd be able to dry fast basically indefinitely I would also worry that dry fasting is going to have bad effects on the skin and organs especially on the longer fast and it may be hard on the skin just dry fasting at all it just may be something you don't really want to be doing period I also worry that dry fasting for long periods could damage your tele Mir like sauna does if this is
• 22:30 - 23:00 true for stem cells then any anti-aging benefits would be completely undone by this and probably it's going to drive your aging no fasting is proven to really extend life in humans not yet anyway but water fasting is proven to release stem cells regenerate the stem cell pool when it does release them and increase the average telome length of the pool this is very encouraging for human life extension but this has only
• 23:00 - 23:30 been proven in water fasting we don't know that all of these happen in dry fasting and due to the extreme stress of dry fasting it's very possible that this leads to damage of your stem cell pools and keep in mind your stem cells are already in a very hypoxic stressful condition throughout their whole lives so dry fasting them on top of that could be something very
• 23:30 - 24:00 harmful a case has been made that dry fasting is better for the microbiome than water fasting but that's unproven and there's many reasons to think this would not be the case dry fasting does lead to more growth hormone release than water fasting and that's the only solid and proven benefit for dry fasting over water fasting literally everything else is just speculation this could make shorter fasts worthwhile but long fast have not really been tested for safety and dry
• 24:00 - 24:30 fasting has been tested for very few of the benefits that are known to occur in water fasting for that matter so we can't really say for sure that we get any of this stuff at all in dry fasting except for the growth hormone release really dry fasting Advocates mislead people by claiming all of the benefits of water fasting as if they actually only occur in dry fasting in spite of the fact that most of them are totally unproven in dry fasting many of these
• 24:30 - 25:00 Advocates promote 7day or even greater dry fast in spite of the fact people usually perish around 9 to 10 days very little activity can be performed on a dry fast while you can do all the same things you normally do on a water Fest though you may have to take some time getting used to doing it that way it's claim the body Burns much more fat while dry fasting than water fasting but this is totally unproven people keep saying
• 25:00 - 25:30 it but there's no studies to back it up someone sent me a list to a bunch of links for dry fasting on some Channel I'd read it before but that is sort of what led me to making this video and I was going to go through each of the studies and just try and analyze and see what they said and talk about it I already did go through them all but I'm not going to bother going into all the details cuz most of it is nonsense for example it talks about clotho and dehydration as if dehydration is a good
• 25:30 - 26:00 thing because it downregulates clotho but downregulating clotho is very bad there's another study about dehydration versus fasting with diabetic keto acidosis and the same mistake is made the dehydration group is worse than fasting which is a water fasting group not dry fasting most of the studies are just totally irrelevant or else we're done with water fasting not with dry fasting so a lot of it is just the same studies that I post which are all water
• 26:00 - 26:30 fasting studies whoever assembled it just grabbed anything that said fasting or dehydration and probably never even looked at the original studies either on scub or at the library where you can do it for free there was one where dry fasting Birds appeared to burn more fat than water fasting Birds quite a lot more fat actually but there's some big problems with that first flying animals have very special metabolic needs that
• 26:30 - 27:00 humans don't have because of the incredible stress of flying that's why bats are such ideal incubators for viruses and that's where all of the crazy people trying to do malicious things look for these viruses the paper itself also links to two conflicting studies and these contradict it so while it's possible there's more fat burning during dry fasting than water fasting in humans and I think that probably is true to some extent we just don't have any proof of
• 27:00 - 27:30 that in mammals at all let alone humans and we don't know how big of an effect this might be if it exists at all but we do know you still get dehydrated while fasting with dry fasting otherwise you would be able to do it indefinitely which you obviously can't you can only do it for maybe 10 days before you run into big big problems and you're likely doing damage to yourself long before that in short the benefit of dry fasting are all
• 27:30 - 28:00 speculative and the people who promote it do so in a manner that misleads people into thinking that it has endless special benefits like metabolic water and ketones that have no dyum in them and so on that already exists in all other forms of fasting and even in the just the keto diet in reality almost all of these benefits are just the standard benefits of water fasting or else they're totally unproven claims based on
• 28:00 - 28:30 speculation well they may seem very convincing to the people who have not spent a great deal of time on this subject researching and looking into the actual papers you should be very wary of these claims bsh flim if only we had listened to that boy instead of rolling him up in the abandoned coven [Music] a
• 28:30 - 29:00 [Music]