My Ture Story: 16 & Starved: My Unexpected Rheumatism Cure and Taekwondo Fasting Tale
I was sixteen that year. I joined the Taekwondo club with a classmate. He had earned his black belt before me, so he was constantly asking me to spar with him, and I always lost because he was much better. Because of his martial arts practice, he suffered from several internal injuries. He found a book called The Fasting Cure or The Fasting Therapy (The book was written entirely in Traditional Chinese.) which he thought was amazing. The book claimed that fasting could cure all diseases, and he was eager to try it out. But he didn’t dare to fast alone, so he invited me to try it with him. I didn’t see any harm in it at the time, so I agreed. Just like that, the two of us decided to fast together during the winter break that year.
Before we started, we read the entire book together, paying close attention to the guidelines for before, during, and after the fast. When winter break began, we each went home and secretly started our fast, hiding it from our parents. Once I started, I carefully compared my physical symptoms with what the book described. The book mentioned various symptoms during the fast, such as bad breath, dark stools, weight loss, and reduced sleep without feeling tired… I experienced all of these. Since my symptoms perfectly matched the book’s description, I felt completely at ease and continued the fast. It lasted until the fifth day, when my older brother offered me an apple, which broke my fast and brought it to an end.
What was completely unexpected was this: Before the fast, I had suffered from rheumatoid arthritis. I had tried Chinese medicine acupuncture and herbal remedies multiple times without much success. But after this one fast, one day when the weather changed, I suddenly realized I didn’t feel any joint pain. I was astonished—the rheumatism was gone! For the forty-plus years since then, I have never ever experienced joint pain problems again.
Following that initial successful experience, after finishing my military service and starting work, I began practicing intermittent fasting whenever the timing allowed. Depending on the schedule, the fasts ranged from a minimum of one day to a maximum of three to five days. However, I have never fasted for more than five days. The frequency was usually one to two times a month. Since retiring, I’ve been fasting more frequently. Without the interruption of work, I can concentrate fully on the fast.
A five-day fast can drop my weight from 55 kilograms to 48 kilograms, making my pants literally fall down. This also stands as the longest fast I’ve ever completed. In fact, during the fast, with an empty stomach, I feel exceptionally light and burden-free all over. I don’t feel hungry at all, and I don’t even crave food when I see it.
Oh! Right! I remember during my earliest fasts, I didn’t consume anything except water. And the water I drank was the well water from my family’s home—groundwater, I guess you would call it? What’s hard to believe is that the water was completely never unboiled. Can you imagine that?
ANNOUNCEMENT & WARNING
I must first declare: This uncle is trained!
I neither encourage nor recommend that you use fasting to restore your health, as I have done.
When you are sick, I still strongly recommend that you seek medical treatment and convalesce through normal channels to avoid delaying treatment.
Got that? Good!!
