How it went
Did it last?
- 4 of 33 said the benefit wore off (including the 3 who relapsed).
- 1 of 33 needed to keep doing it to stay well.
Read from what people wrote. A story that ends without a follow-up counts as lasting, so treat these as minimums.
| Outcome described | Accounts | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Full recovery | 3 | 9% |
| Near-full | 3 | 9% |
| Substantial | 5 | 15% |
| Partial | 10 | 30% |
| Relapsed | 3 | 9% |
| No benefit | 9 | 27% |
By how ill people were
| Severity at worst | How it went | n | Recovered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mild | 1 | 0% | |
| Moderate | 6 | 50% | |
| Severe | 8 | 25% |
18 accounts don’t say how ill the person was.
Who published these accounts
Right-hand number: share describing a full or near-full recovery. Pages that sell something, and advocacy sites, tend to publish only the successes.
How often it comes up
Posts that mention Extended water fasting (3+ days), per 1,000 posts each year. Hover a point for the count.
Show as a table
| Year | Posts mentioning it | All posts | Per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 0 | 184 | 0.0 |
| 2010 | 6 | 682 | 8.8 |
| 2011 | 1 | 704 | 1.4 |
| 2012 | 4 | 1,491 | 2.7 |
| 2013 | 0 | 1,708 | 0.0 |
| 2014 | 0 | 2,352 | 0.0 |
| 2015 | 4 | 2,158 | 1.9 |
| 2016 | 2 | 1,431 | 1.4 |
| 2017 | 14 | 3,110 | 4.5 |
| 2018 | 2 | 2,201 | 0.9 |
| 2019 | 1 | 1,075 | 0.9 |
| 2020 | 6 | 2,581 | 2.3 |
| 2021 | 0 | 1,867 | 0.0 |
| 2022 | 0 | 1,166 | 0.0 |
| 2023 | 1 | 1,000 | 1.0 |
| 2024 | 0 | 1,237 | 0.0 |
| 2025 | 8 | 1,019 | 7.9 |
| 2026 (so far) | 1 | 840 | 1.2 |
Posts in the forum threads we archived, 26,806 in all, counted per year. A mention means the post names the treatment, not that the writer took it. These threads all contain a recovery story, so they show what those communities discussed, not everyone with ME/CFS or long COVID. All trends
All 33 accounts
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Long Covid/ME/CFS Patient Goes From Moderate To Remission After Just 4 Days Of A Water Fast
A 4-day water fast, not strictly water-only since it included vegetable broth twice daily alongside bromelain and nicotinamide riboside supplements, is credited with a rapid turnaround. The patient was moderate, bordering on severe, beforehand; exact illness…
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Long COVID/ME-CFS Patient Goes from Moderate to Remission After Just 4 Days of a Water Fast
This moderate-bordering-on-severe long-COVID/ME-CFS patient did a 4-day water fast (not fully strict, with broth and some supplements) and reached near-remission afterward. As of the report, the improvement had been maintained for over two months post-fast,…
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Buchinger fasting
Ten years into post-infectious ME/CFS so severe that cleaning their flat or studying was "unthinkable," ilivewithcfs ran themself through repeated unsupervised Buchinger-style fasts of about 200-250 kcal/day from juice and broth (later a 2-day prep, 7-day…
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Relief of Symptoms Associated with Long COVID After Prolonged Water-Only Fasting: A Case Report
A 73-year-old man with long COVID underwent two separate prolonged water-only fasts with medically supervised refeeding at TrueNorth Health Center; the exact number of days and his pre-treatment symptoms are not given in the available summary. He is reported…
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Dr. Craig on Fasting For Better Health in Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Lowered carbohydrate intake combined with intermittent fasting, progressing after some months to therapeutic fasts of 24 to 72 hours. He had CF/ME-type symptoms for an unstated period until discovering this approach in 2022; severity is not given. After 7 to…
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Healing from Long Covid with water fasting
Eleven months into Long COVID with chest pain, breathlessness, anxiety and depression, Luke did a 28-day water-only fast built around three short dry-fasting stretches of 36, 60 and 84 hours roughly a week apart. Fatigue and brain fog cleared within the…
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Healing from Long Covid with water fasting
About a month after a severe bout of COVID that left her hypoxic (93% oxygen saturation), with high blood pressure, fatty liver and high insulin, Michelle began a water fast intended to run 21 days, with some dry-fasting stretches, under a coach's guidance.…
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Overcoming long Covid by fasting
Michel Falck, a 60-year-old wine dealer from Strasbourg, had lost his sense of taste and smell, could not concentrate enough to read, had not been able to play piano and struggled with language for two and a half months after a COVID infection. At the…
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Sirin Gnadeberg Shares How She Cured Her ME/CFS and POTS
Sirin Gnadeberg added salt to her drinking water starting in April 2016, which significantly improved her POTS symptoms, then took 16 weeks of antibiotics after a Lyme specialist found elevated antibodies to Bartonella, Chlamydia and Mycoplasma (despite…
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Fasting
ChickenBear tried a 3-day modified cleanse of coconut oil and bone broth rather than a strict water fast. It went badly: they developed hair loss, acne and digestive problems and said they felt "like death" afterward, attributing the crash to adrenal and…
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Fasting
ahmo did a 3-day water fast earlier in the year and found it "very helpful for histamines in particular." They subsequently shifted to an alternate-day fasting pattern of roughly 400 calories on fasting days, reporting their body responded well to that…
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Fasting
sillysocks84 did four or five separate 36-to-48-hour water fasts, working toward a full 72 hours, typically getting dizzy on day two and drinking large amounts of water to cope. Refeeding after each fast brought more energy for a while and better tolerance…
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List of ME/CFS Recovery and Improvement Stories
MTGA247 is listed reaching remission from moderate Long Covid after a 4-day water fast, per the compiled list, with no further follow-up given.
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Fasting
Creekside attempted a 5-day fast and found it unpleasant to get through. No significant benefit resulted, and no protocol details beyond the five-day length are given.
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Fasting - specifically practically with ME/CFS and methylation treatment
snowathlete, the thread's starter, did a 34-hour water fast after checking with their GP. They described it as "fine health wise" though "hard mentally," felt they could have continued longer, and were pleased simply to have completed it, without reporting…
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Fasting - specifically practically with ME/CFS and methylation treatment
baccarat tried a water-only fast and woke on the third day with a heart rate over 150 bpm and buzzing in their ears. They broke the fast with honey and bread and symptoms gradually resolved, but no illness benefit is reported.
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3 day fasting to reset immune system
Not severely affected by his ME/CFS, borko2100 does 2-to-3-day fasts a few times a year and tolerates them well, getting some short-term relief each time. He doubts fasting offers any real long-term benefit for the illness itself.
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3 day fasting to reset immune system
Cinders66 went three days without food involuntarily rather than as a planned therapeutic fast, more a case of being too unwell to eat than a chosen protocol. No benefit to the underlying illness is reported from it.
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3 day fasting to reset immune system
Before getting ME, andypants had done several 3-to-10-day fasts and felt refreshed by them; the first attempts after falling ill, at up to 44 hours, instead left their muscles "really achey" with mild PEM and seemed to make things worse. Scaling back to a…
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3 day fasting to reset immune system
sb4 went 7 days completely dry, no food or water, then continued 23 more days taking only one or two glasses of water a day, 30 days in total. They felt "horribly sick for the majority of the fast," with nausea, pins and needles, heart palpitations and…
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2 enlightening fasting experiences
taniaaust1 described a history of long water fasts, including one lasting up to 64 days and a separate month-long fast, undertaken partly for spiritual reasons. She reports feeling better while fasting, with only brief hypoglycemia in the first three days…
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2 enlightening fasting experiences
alex3619 described unintentional 2-to-3-day fasts that happened when they could not afford groceries, rather than a chosen therapeutic protocol. Going without food that long gave them a temporary burst of energy to get to the shop, but also brought…
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2 enlightening fasting experiences
cigana, the thread's starter, did two separate 2-day water-only fasts, the second followed by three days eating under 800 kcal. Once ketosis set in their hunger disappeared, energy rose and they said they felt "almost normal," though stomach bloating and…
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2 enlightening fasting experiences
With severe ME/CFS and food intolerances that left her able to eat little beyond rice cakes and vegetables, Countrygirl used repeated 3-day fasts during periods when her illness was worsening. Each fast moved her from bedbound up to being able to sit in an…
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Water fasting - Can I take my meds?
Before starting this thread, stolpioni had completed a 96-hour water fast that "went well," though walking brought on dizziness; the fast ended for unrelated obligations rather than intolerance, with more duration apparently still possible. They then planned…
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Water fasting - Can I take my meds?
JES attempted a water fast that was easy for the first 24 hours, then brought on heart palpitations; by the 40th hour they "felt so weak I could hardly work or do anything meaningful" and stopped. No symptom benefit is reported, only the adverse reaction…
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Water fasting - Can I take my meds?
pamojja had fasted 21 days without problems at age 20, before becoming ill, but a 7-day water fast attempted after developing ME/CFS in their 40s went badly. It left them prediabetic and triggered a severe magnesium deficiency, with painful muscle cramps…
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Fasting - specifically practically with ME/CFS and methylation treatment
parabola did a 3-day water-only fast as a hospital inpatient, with temperature, blood pressure and blood glucose monitored throughout. They "felt much better" while fasting, but experienced an emotional crash once the fast ended, and no lasting symptom…
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Fasting - specifically practically with ME/CFS and methylation treatment
jengonwin had already tried a 5-day water fast that made their CFS worse and a 14-day juice fast that did nothing before attempting an 11-day Buchinger-style fast on about 250 kcal/day of juice and broth. By days 13-14 they described "the strongest spiritual…
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Fasting - full water only variety - has anyone here tried it?
GreenEdge, posting as a recovered ME/CFS patient, combined repeated extended water fasts with a very strict Lion Diet (carnivore). They describe three distinct recoveries, crediting two of them specifically to periods of fasting 5 or more days, during which…
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Fasting - full water only variety - has anyone here tried it?
Eddy M, who has an atypical ME/CFS with debilitating muscular fatigue, neuropathic symptoms and PEM, tried a planned 7-day water fast but abandoned a second attempt after only 8-10 hours. Rather than helping, the fast made things worse: fatigue gradually…
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Fasting - full water only variety - has anyone here tried it?
After six years chasing relief from ME/CFS by cycling between keto and carnivore diets, Bassaur tried a doctor-recommended 3-day water fast with a couple of cups of bone broth. Partway through they reported feeling unexpectedly good: mind clear, emotions…
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Fasting - full water only variety - has anyone here tried it?
Hufsamor did a 10-day water-only fast (with a teaspoon of Himalayan salt per liter) under a doctor's supervision as part of a small group of four ME/CFS patients the doctor was treating with repeated fasts. They were "very, very sick throughout the fasting"…