Biblical Fasting

Hello all, my name is Andy Rhodes. I'm a type 2 diabetic on an insulin pump and CGM. I just became a believer about a month ago (today's a month exactly).

But I was wondering about fasting. How can you do a biblical fast with diabetes? My thought is drink milk a couple times a day and do juices & water and just monitor. Any thoughts on doing a fast for a week? Longer than a week?

What are some thoughts or tips on fasting in general and if it's only a day, a meal, or just 2 meals?

Tags: Christian, biblical, fast, fasting

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tim on August 24, 2011 at 2:47pm

I think God can use the situations of illness, and he has with me, to deepen faith. I trust God more now that I did before Diabates. I would never have left a job in IT to return to university to learn more about God.

I hope that my closeness to God is deeper and richer, despite not fasting. I have been on my knee's and God picks me up and shows me new paths, 'thank you Lord'

Fasting is not about curing Diabates, God is about healing deeper ills in our souls and sometimes our struggles bring us closer to him!

Permalink Reply by MossDog on August 24, 2011 at 4:07pm

This is an interesting topic and one I have thought over on many occasions. When I was young and on NPH insulin I was not able to ever fast. Once I got my pump my idea about that has changed. If your pump is set up where the basal rate is covering your actual basal needs you should not need to eat food to prevent low blood glucose.

Andy- if you feel the need to fast I would suggest testing your basal by skipping a meal or two and seeing if your blood sugar drops (or goes higher!). If you can keep stable blood sugars doing this then I think you could do fine fasting (and if not it would probably be helpful for control to have it set so it does keep them stable when fasting). One thing to note: Depending on how your liver works, at some point, you will deplete your glycogen stores (glucose stored by your liver) which could potentially decrease the amount of insulin you need for your basal rates. I would expect it to happen within 1/2 day to 1.5 days (YMMV!). At this point I would just try using a temporary basal and decrease it by 20% or so (if your basal needs do indeed change once glycogen is gone) and monitor. Of course your idea about using milk and/or juice to treat any low blood glucose that happens is a good idea if you so choose to fast. On a one day fast my normal basal rates keep me nice and steady with no need to treat high or low blood glucose. The second day for me gets a bit more dicey and I have to fiddle around a little more. Don't think I need to, but I would just mention doing any of this requires very frequent monitoring and would probably be best talking over with a Doc before you do decide to do it.

Side note(s):
I read a study recently looking at the effect of fasting on health. The researches followed a group of Mormons who all fasted one day every month. Because Mormons are known to not smoke and drink alcohol the researches controlled for this in the control group (I believe they controlled for a few more things but can't recall). They found independent of everything they controlled for, that Mormons who fast once monthly had better health status (can't recall what they measured for health status???????) than did the control group. The researches theorized other factors could play a role but that fasting once monthly seems to improve health status. If anyone is interested in reading more I will see if I can dig the email that has the link to the article.

All theology aside, my personal opinion is that fasting once monthly or even for a full week is NOT damaging to the body and is something I do not consider abusive. You will likely begin to deplete some vitamin and mineral stores after a week but everything else the body needs to sustain itself over a short period of time is already there. Repeatedly doing this without much break in between would eventually lead to some severe side effects that could potentially lead to long term damage but one day once a month or one week every year- I think the body is well suited for, so long as the diabetes can be appropriately managed.

Permalink Reply by Chaplain ET on August 24, 2011 at 4:10pm

Andy; I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon), and we are supposed to fast on the first Sunday of the month, plus donate the amount of money we would spend on those meals as a Fast Offering. When I was diagnosed as a Type II, I asked that same question of my Bishop, and he counseled me that I should carry the feeling of the Fast in my mind, pay the Fast Offering, but that the Church allows those of us with medical conditions like Diabetics, to eat, rather than have a problem. And, that is what I do. If this is the only trial I have to go through (and it's NOT) I'm still not in the same league as Job...
Chaplain ET