Manual osteopath, Dr Shawn Pourgol, MBA, DC, DO, PhD offers his personal opinion to explain how intermittent fasting may help prevent Coronavirus (COVID-19) infection and help people recover faster if they indeed do get sick.
Dr Pourgol has started intermittent fasting since December 2019. He is on the OMAD system of IF (one meal a day). He eats a full meal only once per day at 4PM for 30 minutes. He drinks water, herbal tea, decaf coffee and any other non-caloric beverages the rest of the day.
Dr Pourgol’s meals usually consist of protein such as sardines, fresh cheese and eggs, healthy fat such as avocado and extra virgin olive oil, and complex carbohydrates such as lentil, black bean, and chickpeas as well as Lots of veggies like kale and spinach, fermented products such as kimchi, sauerkraut, kefir, and yogurt, lots of berries, specially blueberries and blackberries, some fruits specially citrus fruits and a small portion of mixed nuts such as almonds, pistachio, Brazilian nut, cashew and walnuts as desert.
There are a few different types of IF. The most common types of IF are the 16-8, meaning you can eat 8 hours per day while fasting for 16 hours and the worrier (20-4) which means you eat only 4 hours per day. Dr Pourgol these two but liked the OMAD (one meal a day) the best.
Research has shown IF has tons of benefits from keeping you younger to decreasing chances of getting Alzheimer’s, diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. Preventing Alzheimer’s disease was the reason Dr Pourgol started IF diet. To get maximum benefit of IF, you should do it for 2 months if fit to do so medically and approved by your family physician.
IF is not for everyone. Pregnant and children should not do it. You should consult with your family physician or general practitioner prior to starting intermittent fasting.
Intermittent fasting has many research proven benefits such as improved immunity. Autophagy is one of its main benefits. Autophagy means body eating itself. Once you are in the fasting stage your body gets into repair and healing stage. It devours injured, damaged, mutated white blood cells as well as wastes and garbage accumulated in brain and elsewhere (removing waste from the brain is one reason it helps prevent Alzheimer’s). Once you eat your meal and body gets into fed state, it uses the protein and other materials to rebuilt the white blood cells and your immune system.
This ensures your immune system remains young and strong. As a result the immune system is less likely to make mistake and causing auto immune disorders by attacking your body due. This also lowers risk of cancer as cells that are older have more chances of making mistakes that may end in them becoming cancer cells.
Overall from inside out IF causes your organs and cells to get younger and healthier.
Weight loss is also a by product of IF. Unlike traditional low caloric diets that cause a decrease in your metabolism, IF keeps your metabolism high. In January 2020 after doing one month of OMAD IF, Dr Pourgol lost 26 pounds.
Dr Pourgol highly recommends IF to all manual osteopaths and his students. He wanted to do the IF just for one week but fell in love with it and it is now over three months that he is eating one meal per day. He plans to continue OMAD IF permanently.
Those who are 50 years of age or older benefit greatly from IF. This diet is a great way to stay healthy, stay in shape and avoid major health conditions, Dr Pourgol explains in this video.
Dr Shawn Pourgol is the founder and president of:
1) National Academy of Osteopathy Canada (since 2010)
2) National University of Medical Sciences Spain (since 2012)
3) National University of Medical Sciences USA (since 2016)
HTTP://www.numss.us (This is the first and only school of manual osteopathy in the United States of America)
4) Osteopathy Chronic Pain Clinics of Canada (since 2017)
HTTP://www.osteopathypainclinics.com (329 clinics in 30 countries)
5) Canadian Union of Osteopathic manual Practitioners (since 2013)
HTTP://www.fb.com/osteopathyunion
Dr Pourgol can be reached at: www.fb.com/DrPourgol.
