Friday, October 18, 2024
Observations with Respect to the Effects of Fasting on Laryngeal Dystonia
On the 17th of September, 2024, I broke a fast which had lasted 28 days. During that time, I subsisted on nothing but water, coffee, herbal tea, orange juice, a tablespoon of olive oil and a teaspoon of honey per day (both of those after 14 days into the fast), and a carefully selected assortment of supplements primarily designed to keep electrolyte levels up and to detoxify.
This had a dramatically positive effect on my voice condition, laryngeal dystonia, and knowing from experience how fasting has helped it, it really is the only reason I have fasted for as long as I have. I should add that I don’t find it difficult at all to fast, and in fact I experience no ill effects that would otherwise cause me to break it. In fact, I have more energy, feel more alert, clear headed, and best of all, free of the aches and pains that we believe are inevitable as we get old. As full disclosure, I have to note that the only effect of which I had to be wary was in bending down and getting up too quickly and feeling faint, but it was never to the point where I couldn’t handle it. I have fasted three times over the past three years, each time at the end of the summer (I try to start at the beginning of each summer, but somehow, it ends up happening in September each year). In 2022, I fasted for 25 days, and I noticed a dramatic improvement in my speech quality, starting after about 14 days into the fast. It actually surprised me at one point when I realized that I had just spoken quite clearly and effortlessly with someone for several minutes. After breaking the fast, there was a gradual degradation in quality; however, there appeared to be a small degree of improvement that persisted.
In 2023, I fasted for 24 days, and there was similar improvement; however, I was fighting a cold (possibly COVID) toward the end of the fast. While it never manifested as a full-blown cold or worse thanks to an optimal immune system and a zinc supplement, it seemed to derail speech improvement, at least to the degree achieved the previous year. As previously mentioned, this past September of 2024 was when I broke my fast of 28 days. Here are some observations since that time with regard to my laryngeal dystonia.
Fasting seems to take care of the physical component that I feel is half responsible for laryngeal dystonia. The elimination of mucus that results from fasting seems to allow for more effortless physical expression in vocalizing. Then there is the psychological component that I feel is just as responsible for the condition, and I feel that there would be even more improvement in speech quality if I didn’t half expect my voice to sound bad. As they say, “old habits die hard,” and this I feel is the case with me.
This leads to another observation, that my voice appears to be best when I believe my brain has deferred to its default mode network. I had mentioned my being surprised at how good my voice was at one point. It’s as if I’m not aware of speaking at the time I’m speaking when that occurs, not much different from driving on the highway for miles and then realizing that your mind has been somewhere else where you’ve been driving on automatic pilot for miles.
Yes, most of the time I think about what I’m about to say, and if I didn’t do that, I believe it would go a long way in laying this condition to rest. That is why I believe that when I’m passionate about a subject and “in the zone” talking about it, my voice can sound great. While it may not sound exactly great, it’s also been clear and strong when I’ve been very angry (let it be known that I am hardly prone to anger). I’ve recently read of the brain’s default mode network, and what a wonderful job it does quietly in the background. I believe the same network is partly responsible for some of the “ninja moves” my friends and I experience when playing a fast game of paddle ball. When close to the wall, there is absolutely no time to think of what to do within the few milliseconds you have in which to react, but react you do, for your body knows exactly what it needs to do. No brain required. In fact, my friends and I always half joke that “it wasn’t me” when making a fantastic shot in that manner. We speak of the lizard brain (actually reptilian, but we like lizard). One of my paddle ball buddies remarked to me that my voice sounded as if my brain was thinking faster than my voice could handle, and that certainly seems to be part of it.
That also seems to tie in with another observation of mine, that my voice seems to want to vocalize in a higher register than what is really natural for it. It should be deeper than it is. If I force my voice to be lower in pitch, voice quality is good, but I have to think even more about speaking than I already do to do that (hey, could that in fact override the usual thinking about speaking that I do? hmmm…). As researchers know, forcing oneself to speak in a higher pitch will also result in the simultaneous reduction in voice tremors. I daresay that effecting any sort of conscious change in how one speaks, as in feigning a foreign accent or imitating a celebrity or cartoon character, will result in such an improvement. At least this is what I have observed with myself.
A further observation with respect to the psychological component of this condition is that it involves–at least to me–a trepidation, if you will, one in which it results in a rapid-fire sort of go/no-go back and forth that manifests as vocal tremors. Or so it seems to me. The fact that I found it terrifying and exceedingly difficult to speak to even a small group of people in a formal situation for many years would seem to support my feeling this way. In fact, not long after I was first diagnosed, the irony occurred to me that this was some sort of karmic lesson for me to learn, for I said little for so many years, and then when I finally decide that I have something to say, my voice fails me! Consider too that my voice in the early 1990s was such that it caused someone to remark it was so good that I should consider a career in broadcasting. Now, veering away from laryngeal dystonia, I would like to add yet another observation that I believe is highly significant and bears further investigation. It involves other manifestations of dystonia in general. It bears providing some background in order to understand what I’ve been experiencing.
I have come up with a novel sort of exercise myself, one that helps with digestion and circulation as far as I can tell. It involves lying prone on a bed (a massage table with a thick cushioned pad would be best), and I go through a motion in which my midsection is moved from side to side, quickly and smoothly, and in quite a wide motion so that I’m essentially undulating at my abdomen. This I do for a few hundred repetitions. It causes a slight ripple effect up the spine and also tingling in the bottom of the feet (more blood flow!). For me, it helps digestion and facilitates having the intestines settle most comfortably (it helps keep the obliques in shape, too!).
There you have the necessary background. I mentioned with regard to the undulating movement that it was smooth; rather, it should be smooth as far as I’m concerned. This typically wasn’t entirely the case, as I would experience the movement smoothly and then it would seem that the inertia of of my body moving on its own would get out of phase with the rhythmic muscular action I exert, much like pushing a swing at the wrong time. This is as best as I can describe it. This would happen on a regular basis, I’d adjust my rhythm to recover and move smoothly, only for it to happen at some point later.
Now here’s what I’ve noticed since my 28-day fast… I never seem to have that out-of-phase condition happen now. The movement is always smooth. I immediately thought that it’s highly likely that fasting can help those with other types of dystonia. But how many would or even could undertake such an extreme fast? Over 100 years ago, Professor Arnold Ehret made the bold claim that fasting could cure all ills. He also recognized that for many, fasting was not an option. For those, he advised adhering to what he called his Mucusless Diet Healing System, one that consisted almost entirely of nothing but fruits and starchless vegetables. I for one endorse his views, and I have to say that after this last fast, my voice hasn’t worsened as much as I feared it would, and I believe that it’s mostly due to me being very strict about following a mucusless diet.
There you have it, my very subjective and personal observations. May you find something in them that proves helpful. Semper pax, amor et lux, John Lolis
23 July 2025 – Day 10 of Fasting
Day 1 – 139 lbs; Day 9 – 129 lbs
I started fasting on the 1st of July, 2025; however, I broke the fast on the third day when I found myself feeling very shaky and uncomfortable in a nervous sort of way. It was a half-hearted break though, as I was only consuming organic nuts I would coat with a spice mixture of my making and then roast. I also had some barley rusks drenched in Calabrian-pepper infused olive oil.
Two weeks later, on Monday the 14th of July, I began my fast anew. I was careful this time and avoided my beloved caffeinated coffee in the morning. I had a much better time of things as the third day rolled by. The first three days to me can be the most trying–or they can be fairly easy to get past. It all depends on one’s starting point when it comes to the gastro-intestinal (GI) tract. It’s advisable to prepare for a fast by cleaning out the gut as much as possible by eating high fiber foods. Magnesium supplements are helpful in this regard.
This fast has been far different from prior fasts. I’ve learned some things I find rather fascinating, the most amazing one being that excessive exposure to the sun on day 6 did not result in a sunburn for me, something I found quite unexpected. A friend who saw me the morning a few hours prior to my exposure also saw me the following day and remarked how I had gotten a nice tan. No burn, straight to tan. I should add that I’m not out in the sun often enough to build up that solar tolerance. As for my ethnic background (which does of course factor in), I’m half Italian, a quarter Irish and a quarter Greek. That being the case, I would venture that I’m about normal when it comes to tolerating the sun. At least under normal circumstances and not when I’m fasting!
As for Sol, fasting has caused me to seek out the sun as much as possible. I feel as if I derive not only energy, but also sustenance from it. I also feel as if it will do me–and my skin–no harm as far as skin cancer goes. I have concluded that skin cancer has more than one triggering factor. It is not the sun alone; otherwise, I wouldn’t be typing this, as our species would have died off for lack of sunscreen.
That on which I Subsist (at least so far)
| Supplement | Frequency |
| Life Extension Two-a-Day Multi | 3 x a day |
| Magnesium Bisglycinate | 350mg 3 x a day |
| Ester-C | 500mg 3 x a day |
| Digest Basic | 3 x a day |
| Doctors’ Best Natto-Serra | 3 x a day |
| Sunflower Lecithin | 3 x a day |
| Cod Liver Oil | 3 x a day |
| Bioflavonoids | 3 x a day |
| N-Acetyl Cysteine | 600mg 1 x a day; discontinued after day 3 |
| Doctors’ Best PQQ | at night |
| Life Extension Resveratrol Elite | at night |
| Solaray Niacin | 500mg at night |
| Solaray L-Theanine | 400mg at night |
| NOW GABA | 500mg at night |
| Coffee! | 20oz – 36oz a day |
| Orange Juice | 16oz a day |
| Organic Greek Olive Oil | 3 tbsps a day |
| Pinch of my fiery spice mixture | 3 pinches a day (in the olive oil) |
| Salt | a dash here and there |
| Water – Gerolsteiner, if possible | as needed |
| Elmhurst Dairy Coconut & Cashew Milk (splash) | with coffee, very sparingly |
