- Pat and Wendy, intermittentfasting may be the hot new

way Hollywood celebrities lose weight,

but this ancient disciplinethat's practiced in the Bible

has other health benefits.

As our Lorie Johnson showsus, scientists have found

remarkable health improvementsthat go way beyond

the red carpet.

- The Bible tells us fasting is good

for our spiritual health,but new research shows

it benefits our physical health too.

The latest weight-loss crazeis intermittent fasting,

which meas going withoutfood for a long period

of time each day.

Many people choose tofast up to 18 hours a day

and only eat within afour to six hour window.

- What's great aboutintermittent fasting is that

you can do it some of thetime or most of the time

and still stand to reap great benefits.

- [Lorie] Celebrities,like Jennifer Lopez,

Kourtney Kardashian, SelenaGomez, Beyonce, and Hugh Jackman

reportedly choose intermittentfasting to lose weight.

But researchers at theUniversity of California

and elsewhere say the benefitsgo beyond looking good.

- There are 10 years ofreally interesting data

and very compelling research studies

on intermittent fasting,preventing atherosclerosis,

there may be cancer prevention benefits.

- [Lorie] And protection againstAlzheimer's, heart disease,

even aging while boostingthe immune system.

Fasting triggers the releaseof old, inefficient cells,

making way for newhealthy ones, doctors say.

- Even though we wouldstill recommend a healthy,

balanced diet, we're notas focused on what you eat,

rather when you eat.

- So while ancient scripturetells us forgiveness,

letting go of worry, andfasting bless the soul,

modern medicine tellsus these practices also

benefit the body.

- Well, the Bible says it again, Pat.

- Well, Lorie's here to join us to talk

about intermittent fasting.

Apparently when we fast,our body wants to mobilize

its strength to fight offstarvation and it's that

that is the health benefit.

What is released when that happens?

- Well, it's true.

Our bodies turn into alean, mean, fightin' machine

when we go into fasting,and we've known that fasting

is something that healthpractitioners have been

recommending for thousands of years.

Hippocrates, the father ofmedicine, recommended it

400 years before Christ inancient Chinese medicine.

But as far as Western medicine,they need scientific proof,

and now they have it.

The results are in and fastingis good for almost every area

of the body, and they now know why,

and it's a little thing called autophagy.

It looks like auto-fay-gee,I've got a graphic here.

Basically what this meansis, auto means self,

fay-gee means consume, and whathappens is within our cells,

our cells consume damagedparticles and portions

in our cells and then regenerates them.

So it's wonderful for all of our cells,

including cancer cells.

I mean, this is something thatgoes on, but when we fast,

it accelerates it.

- Well, you know, some peoplethink well, there's gotta be

a seven-day fast or a 30-day fast.

Actually they're talkingabout half a day or one day

of fasting and it doesn'thave to be too long, does it?

- Ideally, what you want to do when you're

intermittent fasting, andyou can do this every day

of the week for every day of the year,

is you go 16 hours without food.

Actually 18 is even better,which basically means you have

a six-hour window of eating.

I do it all the time.

It's not that bad.

I'll eat between 12 noon and six p.m.

So basically you'rejust skipping breakfast,

but it's something that thisis what a lot of the health

practitioners are recommending.

Of course, it's notrecommended for some people

like pregnant women, and peoplewhose doctors have told them

to eat a certain way.

So for generally healthy people,

this is what you're talking about.

- Once a week, you don'thave to do it all the time.

- You don't have to do it all the time.

Some people choose to have thisas their regular lifestyle,

some people only do itevery once in awhile.

Science has shown us thatwhen we do fast like this,

when we go for 18 hourswithout food or longer,

that we have mental clarity.

And we know from the Biblethat a lot of times people will

fast just so that theywill hear from the Lord,

that they're seeking the Lordfor direction in their lives.

And also we know from the Biblethat the enemy of our soul

creates confusion, and thatin the Bible we're told that

when we fast, we can drive out demons.

This helps, fasting, we know drives out

this spirit of confusion.

So once again, scienceand the Bible link up,

and I'm like, I coulda told you that.

Why'd you need to spendall this money on research?

- Is there a book or a pamphletor anything about this,

by the way?

- There's a lot ofinformation on the internet.

We have wonderfulinformation on our website,

CBNNew.com, but this hasbeen shown to really affect

intermittent fasting is reallywonderful for our hormones.

It increases the humangrowth hormone that makes us

young and vibrant.

It also helps reduce heart disease

and reduces our risk for diabetes.

And you know, just whenyou think about it, again,

getting back to the Bible,we're told to rest for one day.

Well, our bodies need rest too.

When our bodies aren'tbusy digesting food,

they can self-cleanse.

They can detox.

So we're talking about ourliver, our kidneys, our lungs,

our colon, all detox when we're fasting.

- Fabulous, now we weretalking about epigenetics

by the way.

Does fasting haveanything to do with that?

- You're so good.

- Oh yeah. (laughs)

- Yes, when I wasresearching this, I thought,

Pat's gonna love thisbecause, yes, it's been shown

that when we fast, itturns on the good genes,

and turns off the bad ones.

And that's what epigeneticsis, for folks who aren't

up to speed on it.

- A question, by the way, that came in.

I wanna throw it to you.

This guy said, okay, we'vedone this gut flora thing.

How do you know if yourgut flora is good or bad?

- That's a great question,and they're working on a test.

They're working on atest, but you just have

to do your best.

There isn't, as we know, atest that accurately shows

what your gut flora is,except there is one--

- Fecal.- There ya go.

- Now you can talk aboutthat on national TV,

because remember, peopleare eating right now.

- I don't wanna ruin their food,

but that's the only test there is.

- Right, a fecal test.

For people who know what that means, yeah,

they can examine it and theyreally do find all kinds

of information about what kindof bacteria, good and bad,

you have in your intestines.

And then they're doingthe fecal transplants,

which is a whole nother thing.

But that is actually very, very effective.

- Amen, well I think we'vehelped a lot of people with that

because they're overweight,and the thing that people

didn't realize, that in theirgut, there are little bugs

that are causing them to overeatand they're taking control

of their brain.

These things actually affectyour brain, don't they?

- There's a thing calledthe gut brain access.

And the bacteria in our gutdirectly affects our brain,

even to the point whereit influences things

like Alzheimer's and dementia.

And we hear so much thesedays about the rise in suicide

and depression, and one hasto wonder if that's associated

with poor gut microbiome.

Because our gut microbiomeis destroyed by antibiotics,

processed food, sugar,and artificial sweeteners.

And people are eating thisfood in greater quantities

than ever before.

- They're suckin' down thesediet drinks thinking that

somehow that's gonna make 'em thin,

it actually makes 'em fat.

- It has the reverse effect, you're right.

The diet sodas have been shown in studies

to actually cause weight gain.

- I think that's your Christmas present.

We start fasting right away?

- You can fast in very many ways.

Intermittent fasting, whichis the new, big craze,

and it does lead to weight loss,

but so many other health benefits.

That is typically, youfast for 18 hours a day,

which means you just eatwithin a six-hour window,

which really means youjust skip breakfast.

And a lot of people, like, ohno, I have to have breakfast.

Okay, then just skip dinner.

Eat between six in the morning and noon.

Just whatever six hours you choose.

But of course there arelots of other ways to fast,

and the Bible doesn'treally specify how to fast.

You can fast for one or twodays, or have just a teeny tiny

little bit of food for a week, you know,

500 or 600 calories a day.

There are lots of different ways to do it.

- We were in New York when somebody said,

well we will have a fast.

What kind of fast?

It was said, no pleasant bread.

And so what does that mean?

They said, means you'renot gonna eat dessert.

We said we haven't been havin'dessert anyhow. (laughs)

- That's not much of a fast.

- No pleasant bread,that was a Daniel fast.

Well, Lorie, thank you so much.

You're always up-to-date on these.

Ladies and gentlemen, she's bringing you

cutting-edge epigenetics, thegut flora, this whole thing

about intermittent fasting.

This is cutting-edge medicinethat is gonna make people

healthy and especially withstuff like Parkinson's,

which is so prevalent these days.

- And you know we're notflat out victims anymore.

There are so many thingswe can do to prevent these

neurodegenerative diseases likeParkinson's and Alzheimer's.

As far as a cure, not so much,because these brain cells

are already dead, but we cando lots of things to keep them

from dying in the first place.

And speaking of brain issues,I'm gonna be back on Monday

on the 700 Club to talk abouta very serious situation,

CTE, the brain diseasethat we know has affected

football players, but nowwe're talking about people

in the military, people whoare victims of spousal abuse,

anybody who gets hit inthe head, and guess what?

Concussions do not cause it anymore.

It's hits to the head.

So you can get CTE withoutever having a concussion.

So this is a must-watch forfolks, especially parents

who want their boys to play football.

Momma, don't let your babiesgrow up to be football players.

- Amen.

You know, I've got a grandson

who's a terrific footballplayer, had a scholarship.

He goes into practice andhe gets kicked in the head

and he gets a serious concussion.

I said, will you quit that?

He said, yeah I'll finally quit.

I said, well, I would'vechosen stop before,

because who cares aboutwhether you are a star in some

second-rate football team.

What matters is what'sgoing on with your brain,

and if you had your brainaddled, it's not gonna help you.

- And CTE is so horrible.

It really just robs youof your personality.

This is another thing thatcauses suicide to go up,

and I also have a son who played football,

and I had a false sense ofsecurity as I'm sure a lot

of parents do.

I thought, oh well, he's neverhad a concussion, he's fine.

Not true, it's not aboutconcussion, it's about getting hit

in the head.

And they say that thesefootball players, in practice

and in games, in just oneseason, they'll get hit

in the head violently hundreds of times.

- Plus girls playing soccerhit the ball with their head

over and over and over again.

- That's Monday.