"hormesis" is the idea that a stressful thing in small amounts can often have a positive effect. http://gettingstronger.org/
is an excellent website on hormesis applied to a bunch of common problems (eg. improving eyesight, eliminating back pain, eliminating allergies, curing insomnia, eliminating obesity, stopping procrastination, overcoming addictions, etc.)
Have there been clinical studies of doing this to correct eyesight? A few years ago I would hear radio ads, which struck several of my snake-oil buttons, and they've totally disappeared from the radio, which presses a few more.
(Because I'm feeling kind I won't even make you groan by asking if the studies were double-blind.)
We all wish. Binge drinking is great if you want to put on some fat :) Sorry, I have some bad news for you.
The evidence here is unfortunately pretty strong - binge drinking causes all sorts of negative effects, upsetting your metabolism and muscle synthesis.
Population studies of alcohol consumption overall show that even minimal drinking habits (1/day) increase your risk of death from various cancers and issues. It's offset by reduction in cardiovascular deaths until a break-even of about 3/day for men.
Most of these studies are self-reported, based off correlation not causation. Health problems lead some to a reduction in drinking. I'm unconvinced the benefits are real. We just enjoy drinking too damn much.
A standard drink is often much less than what we'll consider a drink. A 20oz pint of some strong craft beer can hit 3 standard drinks. Optimal dosages based on a health Canada study were 0.25 drinks for women and 0.5 for men. Enjoy your half-can of beer!
Don't drink for the health benefits. They're at best overstated and, if they do exist, are likely better obtained by doing something we've actually tested for causality.
Actually, you're well off, but not for the reason you think. Let me explain.
Fasting invokes all your counter-regulatory hormones: cortisol, adrenaline, others but they are the big players - because not having easy access to sugar leads to a stress response.
So it isn't gut rest, it's physiological phase change that is causing the stress response
I guess depends on your definition of a stress response; most people would consider it to be a 'stress response' whilst you have high adrenergic/sympathetic activity. Upon activation of the parasympathetic nervous system there will be a gradual decrease in cortisol and a rapid decrease in adrenaline.
Thyroid hormone is also going to be implicated somewhere along with a host of other hormones so I have simplified but suffice to say it's shades of grey on the way in and out
Two days of fasting apparently causes metabolically expensive parts of the immune system to go into low-power mode w/ white blood cell apoptosis. Resuming eating on day three reboots everything and you end up a fresh young army of white blood cells.
Anywhere i can read more about this? low-power mode and reboots are two terms that are used a lot by mommy bloggers selling ebooks promoting fad diets. Is there any published researchers that talks about this?
I'm waiting for the study that shows binge drinking is good :)