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- Hey, welcome. You'rewatching "The 700 Club."

We've done some fabulous things for you

and one's coming up right now.

A strong immune system.

That's the key to a long, healthy life

and the best way tobattle the coronavirus.

So what can you do tosupercharge your immune system?

Now our medical reporter, Lorie Johnson,

has got that answer.

Here's Lorie.

- That's right, Pat.

Most of us know that eating healthy foods

helps to build a healthy immune system.

But did you know thatit's not just what you eat

but when you eat that's important?

Take a look.

Who doesn't love wakingup to bacon and eggs,

indulging in late night popcorn,

or even raiding the fridgein the middle of the night?

These days, it's normal for people to eat

nearly every waking moment.

Problem is it's terrible

for our health accordingto a growing number

of health experts like Dr. Josh Axe,

who has the number onenatural health website.

He says God created us to go without food

for certain periods oftime for our own good.

In his book, "Essential Fasting:

12 Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

and Other Fasting Plans forAccelerating Weight Loss,

Crushing Cravings and Reversing Aging,"

he says when the body takes a break

from the work of digesting,

it can focus on strengtheningthe immune system.

Dr. Josh Axe joins us now.

Welcome back to the show, Josh.

- Hey, thanks for having me, Lorie.

- Well, I read your new book,loved it, and one of the ways

you suggest people fastis to have an early dinner

and then a late breakfast thenext day, no food in between.

How does that help your immune system?

- Yeah, so this is calledintermittent fasting

and there's so much research on this.

What it does is itallows your body to rest

and your organs to cleanse.

And so when you're noteating, your digestive system

actually gets to rest, itgets to create certain enzymes

and certain nutrients thatstrengthen your immune system.

But remember this, 70%of your immune system

lives in your gut, so ifyou can heal your gut,

you're actually strengtheningyour immune system.

So what fasting does is it rests your gut,

it can better heal and regenerate itself,

which then strengthens your immune system.

- Well Josh, we know that 2/3of Americans are overweight.

Many of them are obese.

A lot of these people arediabetic and insulin-resistant.

How can fasting help them?

- Well, so what fasting does

is it really helpsrebalance your metabolism

and helps strengthen your metabolism.

You know, there's alot of hormones, Lorie,

that you and I are you and I are aware of

like leptin and ghrelin.

It's known as the hunger hormoneor the weight loss hormone.

When you fast, your body starts

to balance out these hormoneslike leptin and ghrelin,

so your body will actuallystart burning more fat.

Also, your liver and gallbladder

and your colon will startto detoxify and cleanse.

So the big benefits of fastingis when you're not eating,

your organ systems arebetter able to cleanse,

as well as it helps balanceout some of those hormones,

which gives you those food cravings

that sometimes causes us to overeat.

Those hormones start to balance out

so we have less of those cravings.

- Well, you know, it seemslike going without food

would make a person really grouchy,

but can you tell us why you say

it actually improves your mood?

- Yeah, you know, forthe first day or two,

sometimes people will notice,

"Okay, I'm a little hungry now."

Your body starts to get over it.

And so what happens is,is you'll start to notice

is that your blood sugar balances out,

and so much of this, Lorie,

is about balancingsomething called insulin.

Insulin is a hormone that isresponsible for getting sugar

inside your cells, andso insulin is important

for actually fighting conditions too,

like Alzheimer's disease,hormone imbalance

in women like PCOS, andof course, diabetes,

and so we need to keepblood sugar balanced.

But that's the whole key there,

is your body will startgetting in a mild state

of something called ketosis,

where when your body doesn'thave all these carbohydrates

or other foods, yourbody will start burning

some of it's own fat for energy,so that's another benefit

and another reason whyfasting is so great.

It helps balance out blood sugar levels,

which increases energy, mental clarity,

and reduces inflammation.

- Well, can you talk a little bit more

about how fasting impactsthe way our brain works?

Can it help us think moreclearly and, as you say,

even prevent Alzheimer's disease?

- You know, it can.

So there's actually newmedical research out

showing that, if you dosome form of fasting,

and specifically alsointermittent fasting,

it can reduce your risk of Alzheimer's

and other forms of dementia.

And so what happens is,as I mentioned earlier,

a lot of times when we're eating,

your body's having to go through,

there's a lot of energy involved there.

And all of us have had this happen, right?

It's like two or three in the afternoon,

maybe you're at work,maybe you're at home,

and you ate lunch and it's two o'clock

and you kind of get inthat two o'clock food coma.

You know, you're like readyto go to bed at that time

already in the day.

And when you intermittent fast,

your body has not eaten fora longer period of time,

so when you eat, your bodyis saying, "Okay, wow.

I haven't eaten in a while."

It can better use all of those calories

that you're consuming,and so what happens is,

as well as your body has moretime to cleanse, balance,

and regenerate itself.

But for mental clarity, absolutely,

intermittent fastingis a great thing to do

and also, again, your bodystarts burning fat for energy,

your body can start producing

something that work called ketones

which your brain loves burning for energy.

So there's a little benefitketosis in there as well.

- Obviously, so many people are concerned

about COVID-19 these days.

How does fasting helpprevent serious problems

if we get infected with that virus?

- Yeah, so fasting is great, and in fact,

the ancient physician Hippocrates said,

when you are sick, he said,don't eat or eat very little.

So he says when you're sick,you should just be doing things

like chicken broth and herbal tea

and really not overeatingwhen you're sick,

and the reason being is

your body has to do alot of work to digest.

You want your body working instead

to activate your immune system,

you want your cells workingso I think that makes sense.

So think about this, is yourbody can only do so much work.

If your body is having to work to digest

and do other things, your body isn't able

at that same time to do extra work

to create immune cells to kill off viruses

and bacteria and other foreign invaders.

And so the big thing is,when you can rest your body

and not have it work with digestion,

your body takes that energywould typically use for that

and instead, bolsters your immune system,

creating more immune cells.

- Well, Josh, we onlyhave a 30 seconds left,

but I wanted to ask you quickly,

what have you heard aboutthis study that said

intermittent fastingreally isn't beneficial?

- Well, I think it really dependsupon the person, you know.

Studies are always coming outsaying this thing is good,

this thing isn't good, and so I would say

there are far more studies,probably well over 10,

showing all the benefitsof intermittent fasting

where one said, "Ah, we'renot sure if it works or not."

So I would say, hey, go withthe 10 or many more studies

than just the one randomstudy that came out.

- Well, once again, the book is called

"Essential Fasting: 12 Benefitsof Intermittent Fasting

and Other Fasting Plans forAccelerating Weight Loss,

Crushing Cravings and Reversing Aging."

Dr. Josh Axe, great to see you.

Thanks for being here.

- Thanks for having me, Lorie.