Neurobiologische Effekte und psychische Auswirkungen des Fastens

Journal/Book: Erfahrungsheilkunde. 2001; 50/8: 468-471.

Abstract: Temporary, voluntary limitations of the food intake, so-called fasting periods, have been used for ever by people of various cultures, to generate a feeling of inner harmony and increased sensibility in order to reduce fear and to be able, to put oneself in the position of other people and of other ideas. Fasting is especially used within the framework of religious or spiritual rituals, in order to make it easier to reach transcendental states of consciousness. Even such a long tradition, like our religious customs of a fasting period immediately before Easter, seems to be based an the intuitive experiencing of the psychic effects of fasting caused by food restriction.Results of experiments with animals offer an explanation for the psychological effects, which are caused by a fasting period of several days.When the experimental animals receive only 50 % of their normal daily food intake, changes can be determined in their brain after a few days, which have been observed so far only after the administration of specific psychoactive, consciousness-altering drugs. During fasting, there is an increased production and release of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which resembles the situation after the intake of substituted amphetamines. Additionally, the reabtake of the released serotonin is reduced by regulating down the density of serotonin carriers, and this causes a similar effect as it is the case alter the intake of the serotonin reabsorption inhibitors which are propagated as "happiness pills". Both effects together lead to a "flooding" of the brain with serotonin and therefore to an intensification of the effects of this widely branched transmitter system. This system is in a special way involved in the globalization and harmonization of the activities, which are generated in the physically separated, local neuronal networks and which therefore plays a central role in the regulation of moods and affections.It takes about 2 days, until these changes of the serotonergic system are fully developed. They can more easily be triggered in young animals than in older animals and are accompanied by an "anorexia induced by fasting" as well as by a general activation of behavior. Presumably, these central nervous effects lead in addition to the known metabolic and endocrinal changes, which are induced by fasting, to an improvement of the regulatory potenc of the organism, and therefore they contribute to the pre servation of health and prolongation of the span of life not only of experimental animals.

Keyword(s): Fasten

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