Reading through these posts really does highlight the need for good research in the area. I cant help but wonder if some of the positive effects in regards to inflammation and joint pain are due at least in part to just the change in diet alone. For instance, although I love fish, before I began fasting my consumption of it was somewhat sporadic. I now eat it as least twice a week as it is great on fast days. The increase in omega 3s in my diet may therefore account for the fact that I am experiencing less joint pain- rather than the fasting itself. I dont want do diminish the positive effect that fasting can have, just point out that these positive effects may be due to primary (due to fasting itself) or secondary effects (improved awareness of diet, increased intake of fresh foods, or the effect weight loss in reducing pain)

Im just writing to report something quite incredible.

Im new to the 5:2 style of eating, (3 weeks into it) and have lost 3 kilos. Not a significant weight loss but steady.

However, what is incredible is that my old ankle injury from 4 years ago (torn ligament) has completely subsided. I have been jogging, walking, doing pilates and yoga, playing intense cardio sports (volley and tennis) without a single hint of pain. Ordinarily I would have had aching for a day after a simple walk (and this has been soemthing that has hindered a return to exercise). For me, this is remarkable. After four years of consistent (dull) pain triggered clearly from exercise, this is becoming evident that exercise no longer causes the ache.

I am greatly interersted in understanding the link between fasting and inflammation. But I can certainly ascribe to the notion that … something good is going on! Thank you and wish the best to you all!

I’m delighted to comment that at the end of my third week I do not have any inflammation around my knee which I had ACL surgery on nearly 30 years ago. While I am keenly interested in the scientific research behind this decrease, I am simply enjoying the increased ability to move about with less pain after countless years of feeling like the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz before he was oiled up by Dorothy and the Scarecrow. This experiment and experience I am on with the Fastdiet is truly fascinating as I regain an awareness with my body and my being that is making getting older more of a joy than a sorrow. I am grateful for finding the Horizon show online and to Micheal Mosley and by extension to Mimi Spencer for co-authoring the book. Thanks!

I have an elevated CRP and ANA my doctor says there is inflammation somewhere in my body. I have started the diet and have just finished my second fast day with a loss of 2kg. Very happy with the first result. I am due to have blood tests in September to see if the markers are still high. Will keep you posted.

Hi everyone, I am a newbie, just thought I would post as I suffer from ulcerative colitis and haven’t seen much written about this in connection with fasting.
I have suffered from UC for 6 years, diagnosed 3 years ago and had flare ups of varying degrees during that time, despite regular prescriptions of steroids, immunosuppressants and anti inflamatories. Currently on 100mg per day of Azathioprine which is an immunosuppressant and mostly keeps my symptoms at bay although I still get flare ups every couple of months. Worst side effect of the meds has been chronic headaches daily for about the past year (I get through about a box of paracetamol a week which my consultant says is fine?!!).
Anyway, since starting the 5:2 diet 2 months ago I have noticed a dramatic improvement in every aspect of my health. No diarrhoea, no headaches AT ALL and I’ve lost the 10lbs that I stacked on from taking the steroids 2 years ago.
I really thought this diet would be detrimental to people with bowel conditions, but am thrilled to have discovered it is quite the opposite.

Hi Michael, I am very interested in reducing inflammation for my SLE so that I can continue with my job, support my adult daughter and not be in pain every day. Mostly I would like to stop taking the anti-inflammatory drugs entirely. I control a lot of the pain with food but not enough. Every now and then the Lupus gets out its big guns and mows me down for a few days.I feel my eyesight is diminishing as well Could be the Plaquenil I guess.
Also my daughter is now on the last funded biologic drug for the various Psoriasis she has, so there is nowhere to go if it fails. I am thinking if we can reduce our inflammation then the various medications we take will be more effective,

Hi all, I have had ulcerated colitis for 20 years the drugs I’m on now manly control it, I only started today with a fast day for weight loss but i’m really interested in the comments about inflammation is there any food groups I should avoid as my consultant says that food does not affect this condition anything that would help would be great

Hello Old Derek – excellent news about the improvements in your skin and knees. My knees are a bit twingy after years of hill-walking but I think are a bit improved. I find that I can make a fist with both hands throughout the day whereas 7 months ago before I began fasting, the right hand was an issue well into the morning. I think 27 years of mouse use in the office made some contribution to that.

May I ask if you are a long-time jogger? I have made a modest return to jogging in my sixties after decades when I only walked, so your improving times are inspiring.

I have been on the forum since the beginning of February. I have not noticed that Michael posts here at all.

Thank you Old Derek. Ironically I live out in the wilds so no nice grass for me, it’s either rough pasture or country tarmac. 44 years! Here’s to your 50th.

Hi. I mainly lurk but did introduce myself on another thread a few months ago. I just came across this thread and wanted to add my two cents worth to the conversation as someone who has been doing the 5:2 for just over 12 months. I have occasionally over the past few years taken the odd anti-inflammatory (Mobic) for a painful ankle and sometimes knee, exacerbated over the years from a hereditary disorder called Charcot Marie Tooth Disease (CMT for short).

I started 5:2 as a way of shifting 5-7 kg that had crept on as I’d approached 50 (now just on the other side) and I liked the sound of the health benefits. What I didn’t expect, and wondered initially whether it was some sort of placebo effect, (I am a sceptic by nature) was the total elimination of the dull ache in my ankle and knees that I had been used to living with for years.

I would only take a Mobic when pain got too much (mainly in Winter). However I have not taken any medication since strating 5:2 in April 2013 and except for a very rare twinge, that only serves to remind me of what I once was regularly putting up with, I have been painfree since.
I mainly do 6:1 for maintenance now as I do not want to lose anymore weight but do want the health benefits and so far so good. This really has slotted perfectly into my life and as a self confessed foodie I couldn’t be happier.

Lizzy, carpel tunnel manifestsdas a dead hand, particularly at night, caused by pressure on the nerves in the wrist. It is not painful. Arthritis and trigger thumb and trigger finger are.
I have experienced and had successful operations for carpel tunnel and trigger thumb. Also used to have arthritis pain in my hands. Since 5:2 over 18 months, this is the first winter in many years that I have not suffered. Coincidence? I don’t know! PVE

Good idea. Lizzy. Let her think it was her idea! Good luck. PVE

Hi everyone, I have been on the fast diet for two weeks and three days. I started the diet because I have an ankle injury that has not healed as well as I would have hoped. My weight ballooned and caused more problems for me. My job requires 15 km of walking a night. So far, my ankle feels good, again I’m not sure if it is the weight coming off or not but I will let you know how my overall health is in week 8 for contrast. At the moment there is a noticeable difference between both legs. When I stand still, I feel the difference and when I walk I notice a slight pain in my left ankle only. If I walk for long periods, the pain increases but only in my left ankle.
My measurements before the fastdiet:
Weight: 97kg
Bust: 104cm
Waist: 101cm
Hips: 120cm
I will post again in 6 weeks time to see if it improves.

I am extremely interested in anti-inflammatory results and information.
I have insulin resistance and testing 10 years ago showed very strong insulin response during glucose tolerance test that showed Diabetes Mellitus.

I lost 20k weight on Optifast (regained it) lost 20k on Dukan (high protein low fat) and achieved a healthy weight, also regained that…BUT (huge but for me) have had high crp for more than a year and no one I’ve consulted has been able to suggest how to reduce it, nor what was causing it…have not located a cause despite extensive testing/scans and joining a lot of research programs for exercise etc.So, I have introduced a healthy fat regime for myself cause I thought maybe all the focus on low fat dieting (medically supervised) had caused the inflammation for me. So, I have gained a lot of weight.
Found my way to 5:2 via the documentary and am excited at the information I may be able to reduce my weight helthily and now also to learn possibly reduce my CRP numbers because I am very conscious of the disease connection and alarmed at where I may head if not arrested.

Saw my GP yesterday and got the go ahead and her support for the 5:2 and my intention is to transition off my metformin as I lose weight on this “diet” because my intention is to keep it up. So far, not being very successful as I tend to succumb to hunger at about 7 pm on my fast days. For a long time my blood sugars have been controlled by diet, however, I now suspect I have had raging insulin undetected. Have kept up the metformin as my GP advised it was pancreas protective for me, didn’t need it for the blood sugar control, have got that with removing simple carbs.

Thanks hugely for all the information! I am very grateful. 🙂

Thank you so much simcoeluv!

Great to get this from a doctor.

I am sending this link to my GP, who is very receptive and helpful.

I think we are finally making some progress…for me the last few years have been like bashing up against a brick wall over and over and doing the reading all by myself.

Feel like I can just relax and get on with it now and won’t need to continue ploughing through all these books!

Thanks again for the link simcoeluv.

Michael…”I will go into the mechanisms around oxidative damage and what he means by cellular stress resistance at a later date if anyone out there is interested.”

Yes please. 🙂

So many plus points, it is such a pity that our medical experts are not so wel informed. Often prescribing drugs instead of encouraging their patients to first try IF.
My son has just been diagnosed with Whipples disease so Hopefully he’ll also give this a chance.

Hi Brandi,

Your post is filled with so many issues. May I make some suggestions based on my own experience and a background working in Health for decades. Make of this what you will… 🙂

Do please get a medical diagnosis of lupus or not, as it may be. Then you know what you’re working with.

Do not give up too many things at once because then you can’t isolate what is affecting you. My strong view is that sugar is a demon!!!! Give that away first and have a bit of fruit. Since I stopped sugar binges, my skin rashes have gone, my weight is 20 Kg less, and my blood pressure has improved. Headaches, fatigue, listlessness all come with sugar addiction.

5:2 is a great thing for me for nearly a year now, but works best in company with plenty of vegies. I don’t want sugar these days – I take care not to start because it’s so hard to stop and I NEVER eat it at night because it keeps me awake. Then I’m tired!

Dairy might be a problem but give A2 milk and organic yoghurt a go first. Milk gets messed with as much as any supermarket food. Reduce your bread in-take rather than go gluten free. In case you not gluten intolerant but you CHOOSE go off it for a long period, then it’s likely that you will BECOME gluten intolerant and for many people, it’s not reversible. For many, it’s the chemical crap that is put into commercial bread that causes bad reactions. I make our bread from my own sour-dough or else buy it from a local organic bakery.

I suggest you knock off the sugar first!!! Hope this is of interest to you.

Take care,
Ros.

Hi Ros:

I’m not sure what terminology you are using and am curious.

If a person that has been using increasing amounts of insulin for over a decade finds him or herself with normal blood sugar levels without using any medications of any kind, is that how you define ‘reverse the progress’?

Yep. That sounds like a great reversal to me. I am very cautious about claiming someone talking about ‘cures’ in forums like this. There are so many things that could be going on and we, the readers have no idea what they might be.

If I am picky about my own post, I should have said, “I.F. has been shown to ASSIST with reversing Type 2 diabetes.” When the diet is radically changed, the symptoms may well disappear but that doesn’t mean one is not disposed to a return if the bad old diet comes back. Thus my preference for the word ‘reversal’.

My caution is just about the ethics and etiquette of forum discussion rather than anything relating to the experience you described. I can see very clearly, that these changes are magnificent.

Please understand that my comment has to do with hesitating to talk about things like ‘proof’ or ‘cure’ when we are all enjoying these posts but we don’t really know each other and don’t know all the determining factors.

I hope this makes kindly sense to you.
Ros.

Hi Ros
I agree. Your terminology ‘reverse’ diabetes is probably accurate. Unless the weight loss and regular fasting is maintained the diabetic problems will return.
Regarding the relationship of sugar and skin rashes…you have said to give up sugar but to have fruit instead. So, which sugars did you remove from your diet? Cane sugar? Not fructose?
Purple

Thanks Ros
A dear friend is having skin issues. I’ll suggest a sucrose free diet. Purple

Hi Simcoe and Ros
Unfortunately some people seem to forget this is just a support forum of anecdotes. None of us are representing ourselves as professional medicos and merely sharing life experiences. Everything said on this forum has to be taken as personal opinion and utilised by the reader if they so choose.
It is this ‘layman’s’ sharing that makes the forum so powerful. Keep up the good work posting ideas for us all to read. Cheers PVE 😆

David Gillespie is an Australian lawyer who was alarmed when his wife told him she was expecting twins because they already had a few young children and he was worried about how he would manage to keep up with their care as his energy levels were low and he was overweight.

Sweet Poison is the result of his research into how he could lose weight and keep it off. The book is dedicated to Lizzie, Anthony, James,Gwendolen, Adam, Elizabeth and Finlayson. His father in law is a doctor and he is clearly a very, very bright man. Every claim is referenced and it a book worth reading for anyone who has difficulty controlling appetite around sugar and for the references which make it possible to follow through if you wish and he recommends Harpers Illustrated Biochemistry (McGraw Hill) to aid in coming to grips with the biochemistry 101 chapter in the book. You can skip that chapter and just absorb the other info if it is relevant to your own health. As a diagnosed type 2 diabetic, it was very relevant to mine…and I must say, entirely different to what I was told by a slew of dietitians working in the diabetes field who kept insisting I could eat sugar (as if it was an essential food group).

It was most helpful to me and the owner of my local coffee shop who was a type 1 diabetic who drank about ten small bottles of apple juice a day when I first started reading the book in his coffee shop. He stopped that when I was about a day into the book. 🙂

The next book Gillespie wrote was about polyunsaturated fats.
He is not a medical researcher (he describes himself as a recovering corporate lawyer) however, the book is infiormative for anyone with inflammation issues and particularly for anyone with fluctuating blood sugar levels or who describes them self as addicted to sugar.

Gillespie lost his weight and is now healthy and full of energy, enjoying the young family he has. I have no idea if he is known outside of Australia.

He is one of my super-heroes because ploughing through the medical literature is really difficult for a non-medico and making it intelligible to other non-science graduates such as myself is even harder. He does it well.