GYC Conference 2022: Break Forth

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

The How and Why of God's Sanctioned Fasts

Dan Augsburger

01 Is It Time?

02 Count the Ways

03 Zeal, But Not According To Knowledge

04 Only by Prayer and Fasting

05 The True Spirit of Fasting

My name is Dan Augsburger, and this is the session on fasting, the second session entitled Count the Ways.

He can tell more about himself, But I have great respect for him.

And he gives some suggestions online on what to do about that.

And I have recommended what he shares with other people many times.

I used to be the president and medical director at Uchee Pines Institute.

And so I spent about close to a decade working in the Lifestyle Center with intensive residential lifestyle management of individuals' different health problems and health challenges, helping individuals to get either reduced or off their medication, reversing their diseases, and helping them to live healthy and productive lives.

And so before I begin, I'm going to begin with a word of prayer, since we haven't done that for this section.

And then we'll get into some health components or health aspects of fasting before Dan continues in the series as you saw from last time.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your blessings.

Thank you for your wonderful mercies to us and we thank you for this time that we can have together at this time and that we still have the freedom to do so.

And Lord we ask for you to be with us now and to share what you know we need to understand and That you might move mightily even at this time.

Amen All right fasting At with the with the experience in a lifestyle center and Having patients and taking care of patients in the lifestyle center with different kinds of health conditions.

I have come to Understand by experience that fasting is a very big key when it comes to helping individuals with all sorts of different health conditions.

Of course, 1 of the obvious things that you would look at is potentially obesity or overweight or obesity.

And fasting, of course, you can understand would have a benefit because you help to decrease the amount of calories that an individual is consuming.

And if you have individuals that are on a regular schedule of fasting, like once a week or twice a week, where they are decreasing the calorie intake that they have by that fasting process, then you can decrease the amount of calories that an individual is consuming.

And The research also shows that with fasting, it increases metabolism.

So your metabolic rate actually goes up when an individual is practicing fasting on a regular basis.

And so with fewer calories that you're taking in and increased metabolism, then weight loss tends to be the result of having that.

And so, if you have an individual that's looking at losing weight, then having them fast once a week or twice a week can be something that's beneficial to help with that process.

Now we also know that there are all sorts of other diseases that are related to overweight and obesity as well.

So we know that there are a number of different cancers that are more likely to present in an individual that has overweight and obesity.

We know that heart disease is related to it as well.

Degenerative arthritis is related to it as well, and so on.

There's a lot of different health conditions that are associated with overweight and obesity, and so fasting can have a positive impact on those different conditions.

Now, I'm gonna go over a number of different conditions and what we have seen in regards to fasting and the benefits associated with those conditions and then we'll talk about maybe different types of fasting that some individuals will encounter in that process.

Now 1 of the conditions that responds really well to fasting is diabetes, type 2, right?

So type 2 diabetes responds very well to fasting.

So if you have an individual that has diabetes, now I will say this caveat, when an individual is fasting, you've got to pay attention to the medication.

If somebody is on medication, then you want to talk with your healthcare provider about whether fasting and this medication are going to go together.

Because especially if somebody is a diabetic, and they're on anti-diabetes medication, or if you have an individual that has like an autoimmune condition and they're on steroids, or there's a certain, there's a few other classes of medications that if they're fasting and you're taking the medication at the same time it can be a really bad combination right I've had I've had somebody bleed out in front of me because of the steroids and it eating away the the stomach when I was in the mission field and working in 1 of our hospitals internationally because the individuals on steroids, but then wasn't being wasn't having a lot of food intake and so on and then basically they had an ulcer that ate into a blood vessel, and then a young guy, and he bled out in front of me.

Another thing is if you're diabetic and you're on anti-diabetes medications, certain of those medications, if you're not eating while you're taking the medication, it's going to drop your blood sugar levels too low, and you can end up with dangerous hypoglycemia, and that could kill you as well.

So if you're on medication, check with your health care provider and whether you can continue that medication with fasting or not.

If it's antihypertensives, so you've got high blood pressure and so on, then you're usually OK with fasting and continuing that medication.

And there are other classes that are fine, but you want to check on that.

So with diabetes, with diabetes, 1 of the ways that you can check to see how well an individual's pancreas is still functioning in producing insulin compared to the insulin resistance that they have is a period of fasting and just water fasting.

So what we would typically do is we'd take an individual that's diabetic and we would stop their diabetes medication the day before and then start the fast the day after.

And so, then they're going to be drinking water, maybe with a little bit of salt in it, so that they don't become hyponatremic, so that their sodium levels don't go too low.

So just like a pinch of salt in each cup of water that they drink, and then continuing with the water for the next few days.

Now, let's say that an individual starts with a blood sugar level that's at, let's say, 180 or something like that.

Ideally, you want your blood sugar levels below 90.

Now, Some probably say, there's different recommendations.

You have the American Diabetes Association and others that say, OK, well, it should be below 100, or it should be below 110.

Our experience is, if you really want the diabetes to reverse, you want to keep your fasting blood sugar levels below 90.

And so what you're aiming for is you're aiming for 90, but now you're starting at 180.

So as an individual fasts, then what you're going to see is their blood sugar levels coming down.

And we would usually check blood sugar levels on a morning by morning basis.

So we'd check the blood sugar level that morning.

We'd check another blood sugar level the next morning, and then the next morning, and so on, and just a regular finger stick so that you could monitor it at home.

And how fast the blood sugar levels come down while an individual is fasting gives you an indication of how bad the insulin resistance is or how good the pancreas production of insulin still is in the context of their diabetes.

So if you started out with an individual that, let's say, we stopped their medication yesterday, this morning, they're going to start their fast, and their blood sugar is 180, and they fast for the day, and tomorrow it's like 110, well, we know that it's gonna go pretty well, and we could get them off of medication, and we could keep them off of medication, and we could just manage the diabetes with exercise and diet and you know lifestyle factors.

If it was 180 and they came off their medication and they fasted and the next day it's like 180 well it's probably not gonna go very well and you know and then another day it's 178 well then we know that that individual has a significant amount of insulin resistance, because their blood sugar levels aren't even coming down when they're fasting.

And if that's the case, then we're gonna have to do a combination of medication plus lifestyle interventions for them in order to decrease the amount of medication that they need to have, but still need the medication on board, at least for a while, while their insulin resistance is coming down.

But we would typically start with about 3 days of fasting, depending on an individual's tolerance.

And if you have an individual that is off medication, right, they're off medication and they're fasting, we have never seen a life-threatening, low blood sugar level in an individual that's off medication and fasting, right?

Now, we've seen levels down around 37, 35 or so, and most of the clinicians that understand those numbers would be like, ah, ah.

But they're up, they're walking around, they're, you know, They feel a little bit weak and whatever, but what I found is if you just leave them alone for about half an hour, their glucagon production will kick in, and their blood sugar levels will start recovering, and they'll end up doing OK.

Everybody's experience in fasting tends to be a little bit different.

Once you hit day number 2, That's where some people really start having some difficulties with the fasting, headaches, maybe weakness, and so on.

Some people can't sleep very well when they're fasting, and so on.

Other people, it's day number 3 that they hit.

And that tends to be the really hard day with the fasting.

And my personal experience, once you push through day 2 and day number 3, once you start getting into day number 4 and day number 5, it starts to actually level out and gets fairly easy after that point.

But it's usually day 2 and day 3 that are difficult ones to, you know, kind of get through.

And it helps to be in a lifestyle center where you have all sorts of other things going on People are taking care of you.

You're you're in classes and and that kind of stuff So and then there's a group of individuals that are doing it at the same time and so it gives kind of that group dynamic as well.

Now it's not just diabetes and it's not just obesity or overweight that's benefit that gets benefit from this.

Autoimmune disease gets a really benefit from from fasting as well.

Let's see, we have had a number of individuals that have come with, like, lupus.

And lupus can have crises, where you have significant amounts of pain, You've got significant inflammation that's going on that is, you know, and there's joint issues, there's end organ damage and so on that's happening.

And if you have an individual that does not want to continue taking the steroids or the other immune modulators and so on, 1 of the strongest things that we've found from a lifestyle standpoint is fasting.

And so if you've got an individual that's in an autoimmune crisis of that nature, then fast them.

And sometimes it takes 5 days, 6 days, 7 days, or so on.

And it's 1 of the strongest things that we've found in order to get somebody through a strong autoimmune crisis.

Series

The How and Why of God's Sanctioned Fasts

02 Count the Ways

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

The How and Why of God's Sanctioned Fasts

05 The True Spirit of Fasting

55m

Knees, Keys, and Please!

5. Victory in the Final Conflict

1h 4m

The How and Why of God's Sanctioned Fasts

03 Zeal, But Not According To Knowledge

52m

Knees, Keys, and Please!

2. Encountering God

1h 5m

The How and Why of God's Sanctioned Fasts

04 Only by Prayer and Fasting

59m

GYC 2011 Seminar: Reaching the Heart of a Broken World

Living on E

1h 57m

Knees, Keys, and Please!

1. To Know Christ

1h

Distinct Advent Message- A1

A Moment or A Millenium?

2h

GYC 2013 Seminar: The Gay Puzzle: Loving Gays to Christ

06-Turn Around: Q&A

1h 16m

Evening Devotional

The Practical Nature of Scripture

1h 34m

Christ our Righteousness

Christ Our Righteousness - Part 5: In these Last Days

1h 2m

Devotions For Decisions

1. Devotions, or Just the Motions?

1h 2m

Sound Doctrine