72-Hour Colostrum & Water Fast
– You Can Benefit –

Dr. Al Danenberg ● Nutritional Periodontist

January 9, 2022

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I just completed another experiment on myself. I’m starting to feel like a lab rat. But my results can benefit you as well as me.  I’ll summarize your benefits in the last section, Your Takeaway.

On 11/21/21, I wrote about my Bovine Colostrum Experiment and the many health benefits of this whole food when eaten daily. In that blog, I cited 10 recent medical articles about Bovine Colostrum’s effects on the human body.

And on 4/11/21, I wrote about my 72-hour water-only fast. This was one way to put me into a high level of optimum ketosis.

But this time, my goal is different. I wanted to continue to gain potentially reparative benefits by eating bovine colostrum daily, AND at the same time I wanted to maintain optimal dietary ketosis for my metabolic flexibility. This experiment allowed me to focus only on colostrum’s unique nutrients while still metabolizing fat as my primary fuel source and benefiting from my liver’s creation of ketones.

But I shouldn’t call this a “fast”. This is not a true “fast”. Colostrum has fat, carbs, and protein. So, the body is not really “fasting”.  Some people might call this a “detox protocol”. But I’m not fond of the term “detox protocol”. Here’s why …

 

I’m Not a Fan of the Term “Detox Protocol”

“Detox protocol” mostly refers to short-duration processes that are touted to be a way of removing toxic substances from the body. But short-term programs might not really work.[1] In addition, many of the detox products contain emulsifiers and additives which have been shown to damage the gut microbiome.[2] The fact is that the body naturally detoxifies daily through the kidneys, liver, and skin. Remember, your body has evolved for thousands and thousands of years learning what it needs to do to function at peak performance. Why do you think we need to put processed concoctions into the body to make it work better? Instead, we should be concentrating on giving our body what it requires and avoiding anything that is potentially toxic to our body – 24/7. And I already eat a healthy diet based on my Better Belly Blueprint.

So, I don’t like the concept of “detox protocols”.

 

My 72-hour Colostrum & Water Fast

I’m not doing this fast to detoxify my body during this 72-hour period.

This fast is relevant for me on two specific fronts:

  1. Bovine colostrum has the potential to assist many of the body’s pathways to heal. I wrote about it on 11/21/21. This fast only includes Bovine Colostrum as a nutrient source, and it may benefit my current cancer therapy. I receive a monthly injection of a human-based monoclonal antibody (Darzalex) to assist my immune system in killing malignant plasma cells. The Darzalex effects may be enhanced with a colostrum and water fast starting the morning of and ending two days after the immunotherapy. Some of my future monthly blood work might show improvement with this protocol. I’m looking forward to evaluating future monthly lab results as is my oncologist.
  2. I want to be metabolically flexible, which I wrote about HERE and HERE. It is important for me to be in ketosis and cycle out of ketosis regularly. This helps enhance my immune system. So, this 72-hour colostrum & water fast will show me how my metabolism can enter and stay in ketosis even though I eat colostrum. If I were unable to be in ketosis while eating colostrum daily, I would need to either reduce my daily intake of colostrum or eliminate it entirely. As you will see, I was able to enter a significant level of dietary ketosis during this fast.

Colostrum is a whole food, and my choice in a commercially produced product must have nothing added or removed from this whole-food source except the water. I have tried several colostrum products, but I’ve settled on Colostrum-6 powder as the best. It is obtained within 6 hours of calving but only after calves have consumed their fill. Here is an independent analysis of the components of Colostrum-6.

 

Below is a chart summarizing the percentage of macronutrients contained in my daily dose of 6 tablespoons of Colostrum-6:

 

 

I needed to understand how a 72-hour fast including only water and colostrum would affect my ketones levels. To do this, I began monitoring my ketones frequently each day of the fast using the BioSense Breath Ketone Monitor.

I started the fast on Monday, 12/27/21 upon waking and ended it when I went to bed on Wednesday, 12/30/21. I’m an old guy who is almost 75. So, I go to bed early. You’ll see that I ended my fast at 9 PM and said, “Goodnight!”

Here is a summary of what I did for my 3-day fast …

  1. Recorded my ketone levels at the start of the fast on Monday morning, 12/27/21 and continued every several hours until bedtime for the entire fast
  2. Drank SOLE hydrating water first thing in the morning
  3. Continued to drink natural spring water replete with trace minerals when thirsty for all 3 days
  4. At 9 AM, 2PM, and 7PM, I ate 2 tablespoons of Colostrum-6 Powder mixed in a little spring water daily
  5. On Tuesday, 1/4/22, I had my monthly CBC (complete blood count) and CMP (comprehensive metabolic panel) blood tests performed during my regular oncologist appointment. I also had serum protein electrophoresis (SPEP) and immunofixation blood work performed that day, which is repeated every 2-3 months.

 

Details of the Fast

As I said, I measure my ketone levels with the BioSense Monitor. These levels are reported in ACEs.

“ACEs” are BioSense’s scoring system for breath acetones. Essentially, if you divide ACEs by 10, you will get an accurate interpretation of blood ketones. Blood ketones are reported in mmol/L units. For example, a score of “28 ACES” is equal to a “blood ketone level of 2.8 mmol/L”.)

The following Table explains the interpretation of breath acetone levels measured in ACEs.

 

 

Below is a graph showing the optimal blood ketone levels that the body can use as clean-burning fuel:

 

 

Day 1:

My morning ketone level at 8:20 AM was “0 ACEs” measured on the BioSense Breath Ketone Monitor. I had no appreciable ketones in my blood.

The first day of the fast was the most difficult for me because I felt hungry and wanted to eat. But I didn’t give into the hunger, which most likely was psychological. I also felt that my energy level was not as good as it was before the fast.

In the graph below, you can see most of my liver glycogen was depleted by 4PM when my ketones began to rise above 5 ACEs

 

Day 2:

Hunger was not a problem on the second day of the fast. I still felt my energy level was not as high as I expected it would be, but it was improving.

In the graph below, my ketone levels rose rapidly after the liver glycogen stores essentially were depleted. For the entire day, these levels rose from 15 ACEs to 24 ACEs. Obviously, the colostrum never kept me from easily moving into optimal dietary ketosis. That was my goal. I was pleasantly surprised!

 

Day 3:

My energy level was excellent, and I had no hunger whatsoever. I felt terrific, and I knew I could continue the fast for additional days if I wanted. However, I ended the fast that evening.

The graph also showed my ketone levels were at the upper end of optimal. All day I was well above 25 ACEs.

 

My Takeaway

I recorded my body weight and percentage of body fat using the Eat Smart Precision GetFit Bathroom Scale. At the start of this fast, I weighted 151 pounds and my body fat was 15.0%. At the end of the fast, my weight dropped to 148 pounds and body fat dropped to 14.3%. I took these measurements at the same times – 7 AM on the first day of the fast and 7 AM on the morning after the third day of the fast.

Metabolically, as insulin levels drop from the start of a fast and you enter dietary ketosis, the body is becoming increasingly insulin sensitive. In addition, ketosis has been shown to upregulate autophagy, extend longevity, improve memory, and create a poor environment for cancer cells to grow. [3],[4],[5],[6],[7] Ketones also reduce excessive free radicals, increase glutathione production, and improve mitochondrial function.[8],[9] All these benefits are vitally important to me.

So, this 72-hour colostrum and water fast has confirmed to me that while I’m assisting my body with the unique nutritional benefits from eating 6 tablespoons of Colostrum-6 daily, I am able to maintain optimal dietary ketosis.

 

Your Takeaway

You might benefit from a 72-hour colostrum and water fast as I have.

You can benefit from the nutritional benefits of eating bovine colostrum daily. I cited many articles in previous blogs about the peer-reviewed research, but here is an excellent summary published in 2021.

Also, your immune system will benefit by becoming metabolically flexible.

Metabolic flexibility is where your body can efficiently burn carbohydrates for fuel but can switch to burning fat for fuel seamlessly when appropriate. The facts that you can be in ketosis where your liver is creating ketones to improve many aspects of your biological system and at the same time benefit from the nutrients in colostrum are impressive.

Obtaining unique nutritional support from colostrum, eating a healthy diet as I detail in my Better Belly Blueprint, and cycling in and out of ketosis will help you to create a robust immune system.

And a robust immune system is your ticket to overall wellness.

That’s your takeaway!

 

[1] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/does-science-support-the-claims

[2] https://microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40168-020-00996-6

[3] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0955286321000401?via%3Dihub

[4] https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/fulltext/S1550-4131(17)30490-4?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS1550413117304904%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

[5] https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/fulltext/S1550-4131(17)30489-8?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS1550413117304898%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

[6] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1568163718301478?via%3Dihub

[7] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31399389/

[8] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5981249/pdf/antioxidants-07-00063.pdf

[9] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26661201/

 

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Sore, Inflamed, Sensitive Gums?
– 9 Questions & 2 Solutions –

Dr. Al Danenberg ● Nutritional Periodontist

September 19, 2021

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Barbara is a new patient of a dental colleague I know well. He is a well-trained biological dentist. Barbara was at her wits end, and he was perplexed.

Barbara had sore, inflamed, sensitive gums frequently – especially after she had any dental procedure performed in her mouth. She also had many existing dental restorations.

Interestingly, Barbara had blood tests to determine the compatibility of these dental materials before they were placed. No problems were identified.  Also, her current biological dentist could not find any active periodontal disease, bone infection, or problems with her existing dental work.

Obviously, Barbara was confused and distraught. She wanted to know what was going on. And her dentist was confounded and needed answers too.

 

First Things First

First, her new biologically oriented dentist completed a thorough dental exam. Among other things, he was looking for at least 11 potentially irritating factors that might be in her mouth causing inflammation and infection. Obviously, if any of these were the problem, each must be resolved correctly.

Second, a medical doctor and various specialists were consulted. They were looking for any systemic medical conditions that could be the cause of her gum issues. If any were detected, they would need to be addressed and treated.

For Barbara, it turned out that the cause was not a typical cause that her dentist or medical doctors would generally investigate. But once Barbara’s dentist and she learned the cause, she responded well.

 

9 Questions

Barbara’s dentist called me to describe his dilemma and Barbara’s negative findings. I suggested that he ask Barbara these 9 questions:

  1. Do you avoid eating healthy beef or lamb?
  2. Do you eat bread?
  3. Do you eat processed sugars?
  4. Do you eat any vegetable or seed oils? (Canola, sunflower, safflower, cottonseed, grapeseed, sesame, soybean, peanut, etc.)
  5. Do you eat chicken or pork more than once a week?
  6. Do you have allergies?
  7. Do you have frequent sinus infections?
  8. Do you have frequent skin lesions or rashes?
  9. Have you taken various regimens of systemic antibiotic therapy in the past?

 

If Any Answer is “YES”

Answer these questions for yourself. Are any true?

  • If you avoided eating beef or lamb from nose-to-tail, you could be missing many bioavailable nutrients in their natural state that are required by the body. I wrote about this in my recent Blogs titled, The Case for Meat and 4 Perfect Supplements – 1 Perfect Diet. If you are not eating this way, desiccated organs in capsule form could be included into your diet. Think about them as high-powered, multi-vitamin, multi-mineral whole foods with nothing added and nothing removed except water.
  • If you ate bread and/or processed sugars, they could damage your gut microbiome and the lining of your gut. Try to avoid or eliminate them from your diet.
  • If you regularly ate vegetable and/or seed oils as well as a lot of chicken and/or pork, linoleic acid could be a problem. Linoleic acid is a polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) that can cause weight gain, immune system dysfunction, and mitochondrial damage when consumed in excess. Vegetable and seed oils should be removed completely, while chicken or pork should be eaten only once a week or every other week.
  • If you had a history of allergies, sinus infections, or skin irritations, these issues may be emanating from the same source that could be causing mouth problems.
  • Frequent use of antibiotics in the past could damage the garden of healthy bacteria in the gut as well as in the mouth.

A “Yes” answer to any of the 9 Questions might indicate a leaky gut. I already suggested some positive changes you might implement.

 

Leaky Gut & Mouth Problems

If you have sore, inflamed, sensitive gum tissues, they may be due to an imbalance of bacteria in your gut and damage to the epithelial barrier that separates the inside of your gut from your blood system and the rest of your body. Damage to the gut could cause improper absorption of nutrients even if you are consuming healthy nutrients. The breakdown of this gut barrier is called a leaky gut.

A leaky gut will cause inflammation coursing throughout your body. This inflammation will affect all organ systems negatively – including the mouth!

My suggestion is to improve the health and diversity of the bacteria in your gut and repair the gut epithelial barrier to help solve your mouth problems. In essence, you need to treat your Leaky Gut.

To do this, I have 2 Solutions that will help repair the gut lining and improve the gut microbiome.

 

2 Solutions

#1. Consume spore-based probiotics

These have been demonstrated in human trials to increase the diversity of the gut microbiome and help repair the gut epithelial barrier.

The two spore-based probiotics I take personally and recommend are …

  1. MegasporeBiotic
  2. TerraFlora Deep Immune

 

#2. Swish and swallow bovine colostrum

When you swish with bovine colostrum, some of its beneficial elements will enter the blood system rapidly because they are absorbed through the soft tissues in your mouth. After you swallow the colostrum, all of it gets into the gut to bind to toxic elements and to help heal the damaged epithelial gut lining.

I personally use and recommend ProColostrum-LD.

If dairy is a problem in any way, colostrum may cause gut discomfort. I suggest taking a very small dose of the ProColostrum-LD and titrate to higher doses over the next week or two. If you cannot tolerate colostrum at any dose, then I recommend MegaIgG 2000 capsules to swallow. MegaIgG 2000 is like colostrum but derived from bovine serum instead. It has the immunoglobulin antibodies IgG, IgM, and IgA as well as transferrin, but it does not have all the other beneficial bioactive elements which bovine colostrum provides.

 

Barbara’s Experience

As I said, Barbara’s biocompatibility blood tests for her existing dental restorations were negative or inconclusive. Also, her medical doctor specializing in allergy medicine was uncertain to the actual cause of her reactions. And additional medical complications were ruled out by other medical specialists.

When Barbara’s dentist finally asked her the previous 9 questions, he discovered that she ate mainly plant-based foods and possibly was missing some very important nutrients.

In addition, Barbara gave a medical history of frequent sinus infections and antibiotic usage.

To solve the puzzle, Barbara’s dentist helped her transition to some animal-based foods – especially the desiccated organs. Also, he had her begin the 2 Solutions I suggested.

Within 45 days, Barbara resolved most of her mouth soreness, inflammation, and sensitivity. Also, she said she felt more energy without any gut disturbances.

 

Final Thoughts

My 2 Solutions are not a cure. But they support the body in healing. What’s fascinating is that every cell in the body communicates with every other cell in the body in some way. And the gut microbiome, which is made up of 38 trillion microbes, has a significant influence in our overall health and wellbeing.

By the way, the human body only has 30 trillion human cells. So, we are more microbial than human! Think about that!

 

Schedule a ”30-Minute Free Consult” with me to answer some of your questions and determine if we are a good fit for a coaching program! CLICK HERE.

 

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