Inspired by her mother’s passion for fasting, Lily Earle tried her hand at activated autophagy, in the hope it might provide relief from chronic migraine. Here, she shares her experience.
During my quest for relief, a fasting clinic in the forests of Germany was the last place I expected to find myself. For five years my life had been ruled by an autoimmune condition that caused unrelenting, daily and debilitating migraine attacks and body-wide chronic pain.
About a year before I ventured into fasting, my mother returned from her fasting retreat, feeling energised, refreshed and excited to tell me that they had enormous success with treating many chronic health conditions with fasting, including migraine.
Cue eye rolls and much protesting from me. A key part of managing migraine disease is keeping blood sugar levels as stable as possible, as drops and spikes in blood sugar can trigger an attack. This had been drilled into me by the many specialists I’d seen. I was resolute that fasting was not for me.
After months of loving badgering from my mother I reluctantly agreed. The tipping point came when I was curled up on the kitchen floor sobbing while enduring yet another blinding migraine attack. Unable to move from the pain, I reached a point of total desperation. What did I have to lose?
My time at Buchinger Wilhelmi was not easy or straightforward. Prior to going I had been warned that the initial drop in blood sugar could trigger a bad attack at the beginning of the fast, however once my body was in ketosis everything would stabilise. This is exactly what happened and I was very unwell for the first three days of the ten day programme. The team there were professional and caring, and looked after me brilliantly, so I was able to hunker down and ride it out.
Towards the end of my programme I was able to enjoy the facilities and treatments on offer. I did my firs
