Fasting & Research

Scientific documentation of Buchinger Wilhelmi therapeutic fasting

Buchinger Wilhelmi actively contributes towards international research on fasting and “real-food” nutrition: The research department led by Dr. Françoise Wilhelmi de Toledo and coordinated by scientific project manager Franziska Grundler is currently working on several major studies.

Periodic fasting according to the Buchinger Wilhelmi programme reduces fat accumulation in the liver (fatty liver) and can thus prevent liver cirrhosis

The pathological accumulation of fat in the liver and is a major cause of a worldwide increase in chronic liver disease and can lead to cirrhosis. Periodic fasting over 8.5 days on average lowers the fatty liver index (FLI), a risk parameter for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. A fatty liver significantly promotes the development of type 2 diabetes and is exacerbated by overeating and lack of exercise.
A study entitled “Effects of Periodic Fasting on Fatty Liver Index – A Prospective Observational Study” published in the journal Nutrients in October surveyed 697 people who fasted at the Clinic Buchinger Wilhelmi on Lake Constance. Among the participants were 38 subjects with type 2 diabetes. At the beginning of the study, a fatty liver was diagnosed in 264 cases: the FLI was ≥ 60, indicating the presence of a fatty liver; 160 were at the permitted limit.

The study demonstrated the following:

• Periodic fasting in this study significantly reduced the FLI by 14.02 ± 11.67 points, with diabetic subjects benefiting even more (-19.15 ± 11.0 points).
• Almost half of the patients assigned to the highest risk category (FLI ≥ 60) were able to switch to a lower-risk category.
• Significant weight loss of 4.37 ± 2.42 kg and an abdominal circumference reduction of 5.39 ± 3.27 cm were also documented in all patients. Subjects exhibited lower blood glucose and HbA1c levels, and their liver enzymes and blood lipids also decreased.
• Fasting over a longer period, higher weight loss and a greater reduction in abdominal circumference improved the FLI considerably. In addition, male patients who initially had higher FLI, GOT (an important liver enzyme) and cholesterol levels benefited particularly from fasting.
• A calculation model showed that each additional day fasting increases the chance of transforming a manifest fatty liver into a lower risk category by 40 %.

Periodic fasting according to the Buchinger Wilhelmi programme took place in an environment that provided medical care, rest and mindfulness, and was well tolerated in the study. It consists of a daily average intake of 250 kcal of organic fruit juices and broths. The participants rarely felt hungry, and the results clearly show that periodic fasting reduces a fatty liver in diabetic and non-diabetic patients.

World’s largest scientific human study on the effects of Buchinger fasting published

The largest scientific study on the effects of Buchinger therapeutic fasting carried out to date has now been published. It was conducted at Buchinger Wilhelmi, a well-established fasting clinic, by a team led by Dr. Françoise Wilhelmi de Toledo in cooperation with Prof. Andreas Michalsen from Charité University Hospital in Berlin and with the support of many of our guests and patients. The study collected and evaluated data from 1,422 subjects (41 % male, 59 % female), who completed the Buchinger Wilhelmi fasting programme over a period of 5, 10, 15 or 20 days in 2016. Under the title “Safety, health improvement and well-being during a 4 to 21-day fasting period in an observational study including 1422 subjects”, the study shows that Buchinger therapeutic fasting is safe and therapeutically effective. It also promotes emotional and physical well-being. The results of the study were published online on January 2, 2019 in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE.

The study provided detailed evidence that:

• Fasting mobilizes the energy stored in the fatty tissue of the human body. The metabolism switches from glucose to fat and ketone consumption, causing many beneficial effects. The metabolic change was documented in the study by the permanent presence of ketone bodies in the urine.
• Fasting leads to significant weight loss, a reduced abdominal circumference, and lower cholesterol and blood lipid levels.
• Fasting also normalized blood pressure and improved diabetes parameters such as blood sugar and HbA1c, thus improving many factors that contribute to a healthy cardiovascular system.
• Furthermore, in 84 % of cases, serious health conditions such as arthritis, type 2 diabetes as well as fatty liver and hypercholesterolemia, high blood pressure and fatigue improved through fasting.
• 93 % of the subjects did not feel hungry during fasting, which contributed to their emotional and physical well-being.
• Medically supervised fasting had only very few side-effects, which could be treated easily and without interruptions to fasting. In individual cases, subjects experienced restless sleep, headaches, tiredness or lumbar spine complaints during the first three days.

Fasting and muscle function

Another study carried out by Dr. Françoise Wilhelmi de Toledo and Dr. Franziska Grundler of Buchinger Wilhelmi with their research team, together with Dr. Yvon Le Maho and Dr. Stéphane Blanc and their team from the CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research) in Strasbourg, documents the effect of the Buchinger Wilhelmi fasting programme on muscular performance and muscle metabolism in 16 healthy, non-obese men. As well as fasting for 10 days following the Buchinger Wilhelmi method, the subjects underwent a three-hour moderate exercise programme every day.

The study showed that the muscles are less involved than was long feared, and that muscles regenerate after fasting in the same way as other organ tissues. No decrease in muscle performance was observed; on the contrary, the performance of the muscles in the lower extremities improved significantly after fasting, while that of the remaining muscles was not affected.

Protein breakdown, documented by the negative nitrogen balance, decreased from day to day due to the activation of protein sparing mechanisms. Similarly, 3-methylhistidine, a marker of muscle breakdown, decreased after day 5 of fasting. Other proteolysis markers such as GOT and creatinine confirm this observation. When food was reintroduced after fasting, myostatin decreased significantly, promoting the regeneration of muscle mass.

You can find the results here.

Bibliography

The following list provides an overview of publications from our clinics. Further interesting videos can be found on our  YouTube Channel.