Hi, everybody,

I am a "universal reactr", meaning that I am allergic to everything I eat or drink. Everything - even distilled water and supplements like enzymes, probiotics, aloe vera, green drinks, angstrom minerals and fulvic acid - causes an outbreak of a variety of harrowing, debilitating symptoms. Sometimes it's seizures, sometimes it is narcolepsy or paralysis, sometimes it is severe asthma, almost always it is urinary urgency, cluster headaches, hives and welts and rashes, and itching all over, frequently it is severe belching and hiccuping, dizziness, joint pain, tingly feet and hands; there's other stuff that happens, too.

I believe that the best thing to do would be to follow a leaky gut repair program for six months - my version of one would be to go on a green-juice fast for that length of time, with supplements like liquid spirulina and AFA to keep up minerals, EFAs, and protein. But I cannot leap into that at present, because I have terrible reactions to such concentrated forms of nutrients.

I am hoping to do some pre-program Water Fasting and possibly urine fasting (at som point after the water fasting), and hoping that the preliminary fasting could calm down my overactive immune system and over-inflammation enough to enable me to do the longer "green fast" I mentioned. Make it bearable.

The thing is, I have never fasted on distilled water alone for longer than 5 days (though I have done a urine and distilled Water Fast for 12 days), and I am a little bit nervous. I would not be nervous if left to my own devices, but people who run impossibly inconvenient supervised-fasting retreats like Sabatino, Goldhamer, and Lockwood have been adamant about the dangers of fasting at home without experienced supervision (and Fuhrman is as well), so I have definitely absorbed their dire warnings that I shouldn't be doing this. On the other hand, a "safe" easy short home fast of 5 days just isn't going to begin to change my situation; I know it's going to have to be a fast of at least 10 days and even that is extremely optimistic. Fuhrman, Lockwood, and Sabatino all seem to suggest that at least 14 days would be needed to begin to correct this sort of hyper-sensitive, auto-immune disorder.

So I am going for something like 14-16 days this first time, with a re-feeding time of about 4-6 days, which is really conservative for the likes of me (I have never bothered to be careful with refeeding after a juice, water or urine fast). I have ordered a blood-pressure monitor, which makes me feel psychologically better (my BP tends to be lower than normal, because of my chronic Lyme Disease and hypothyroidism).

So from CureZone I'd love any company, if someone wants to do some fasting alongside of me, but also advice as symptoms come up, since I do not want to break the fast unnecessarily out of panic (nor proceed with the fasting if it would be ill-advised to do so).

On question I have straight off is about water intake. I know that many are opposed to Water Fasting on distilled water, because they feel that spring water provides the body with minerals and alkalinity, but I do not agree that the body can derive minerals from water (in that sense, I stick to a Natural Hygiene/Sheltonian line) and, besides, I react way too unbearably to any water except distilled water. That said, I react pretty terribly to distilled water too - maybe not to the pure part of it, but to whatever contaminants are still in the water after my counter-top distiller has run it through. So my general practice is t avoid drinking water, just because of the pain, discomfort, and turmoil it creates (asthma, severe itching of every orifice, joint pain, rashes and hives all over, exctreme headaches, etc.). I want to be as careful and safe on my fast as possible, so may I solicit people's opinions on whether I can keep to a small amount of water every day, or whether I should be aiming for a quart or more of water, even if I have to force myself? I am already, as you can imagine, very dehydrated in terms of my total body water content - something like 47% - but perhaps that will start to shift if I lose body fat and free up water in that way.

In short, to drink water is agonizing and very stressful for me, but I do want to do what I can to ensure that I will be able to do this fast, and as safely and smoothly as possible! What do you think I should plan to do?

Please, anyone, let me know if you want to fast with me, even for a short portion of the ride. Thanks, Rowan