The oldest cure in the world : adventures in the art and science of fasting /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A journalist takes readers into the science and history of intermittent fasting, an ancient practice in the middle of a red-hot resurgence, exploring the body's power to heal itselfOne in ten American adults tried intermittent fasting last year, and they may be on to something. The latest research shows that fasting repairs cellular damage, improves the outcomes for chemotherapy patients, and helps with keeping a healthy weight--leading to fasting's resurgence in recent years.Journalist Steve Hendricks's The Oldest Cure in the World tells the history of fasting--from the ancient world (Jesus treated an epileptic with fasting) to its rediscovery centuries later, thanks in part to a heartbroken doctor who resolved to starve himself to death only to find renewed vigor and become a media celebrity in the process. Hendricks introduces us to the people who are reviving this long-lost remedy, including open-minded doctors who have explored and practiced fasting despite the medical establishment's resistance over the centuries and everyday people eager for a cure to what ails them.The Oldest Cure in the World is a smart, narrative look at a very hot topic, offering a fascinating look at the science behind the counterintuitive concept of going without food for our health, and chronicling the author's own illuminating and entertaining forays into fasting.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Prologue Criminal Quackery (p. 1)
• Fasting for a cure
• Chapter 1 Tanner's Folly (p. 9)
• The birth of modern fasting
• Chapter 2 "I forget I have four limbs" (p. 27)
• Prehistory and the ancient East
• Chapter 3 Christ's Athletes (p. 42)
• The ancient West
• Chapter 4 A Lesser Me (p. 69)
• I fast to slim
• Chapter 5 "The most complicated cage" (p. 85)
• The Middle Ages and Renaissance
• Chapter 6 "This cheap, simple, and vulgar remedy" (p. 107)
• American doctors find the lost cure
• Chapter 7 Arresting My Decline (p. 126)
• I fast to heal
• Chapter 8 "Refuse to be an invalid!" (p. 140)
• Fasting blooms in America
• Chapter 9 "Truth though the heavens fall" (p. 164)
• America's foremost fasting doctor
• Chapter 10 A Gentle Deprivation, 1 (p. 175)
• I fast at a German clinic
• Chapter 11 "What's considered too difficult?" (p. 204)
• The starts and stops of fasting research
• Chapter 12 "A crazy idea with no relevance" (p. 226)
• Fasting against cancer
• Chapter 13 A Gentle Deprivation, 2 (p. 253)
• My German fast, continued
• Chapter 14 What the Soviets Knew (p. 283)
• The psychotherapeutic fast
• Chapter 15 A Wine Country Abstention, 1 (p. 307)
• I fast at a California clinic
• Chapter 16 You Are When You Eat (p. 326)
• The how of time-restricted eating
• Chapter 17 Wine Country Abstention, 2 (p. 356)
• My California fast, continued
• Epilogue Moral Malpractice (p. 377)
• Toward a future less benighted
• Acknowledgments (p. 381)
• Sources on Diet (p. 383)
• Notes (p. 385)
• Index (p. 429)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Fasting, long regarded as being "on the wrong side of respectability," deserves serious consideration as a medical treatment, argues journalist Hendricks (The Unquiet Grave) in this thought-provoking survey. Hendricks writes that the practice has been shown to help with illnesses as varied as asthma, psoriasis, irritable bowel syndrome, and migraines. But it's "simply too counterintuitive to think not eating could make you healthier," and the medical community has yet to embrace it. That's a mistake, Hendricks insists: it's cheaper than drugs and has fewer side effects, and he touts it as an "astoundingly and variously useful" method that's been hiding in plain sight for millennia. The author weaves a fascinating personal narrative (fasting helped his idiopathic hypersomnia) with a comprehensive history of the practice, from prehistoric humans who fasted from necessity up to modern-day clinics that use it. While enthusiastic, Hendricks is careful not to oversell fasting's benefits (there's much it "cannot do, no matter how many incautious boosters say otherwise"), and he pulls no punches when highlighting flaws in research, as with studies that emphasize "profit rather than health." His levelheaded, irreverent approach and sharp reporting set the book apart. The result is a winning mix of captivating storytelling and fascinating science. Agent: Max Sinsheimer, Sinsheimer Literary. (Sept.)

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Steve Hendricks is a freelance reporter and the author of two previous books, one of which, The Unquiet Grave: The FBI and the Struggle for the Soul of Indian Country , made several best-of-the-year lists. He has written for Harper's , Outside , Slate , and the Washington Post and lives in Boulder, Colorado, with his wife, a professor of family law, and his dog, a border collie cross.