Aldosterone: The Fasting Saboteur

The Hormone They Don’t Tell You About

In every discussion of dry fasting physiology, you’ll hear about ketones, autophagy, and growth hormone. These are the “good guys”—the beneficial adaptations that make fasting valuable.

But there’s a hormone that gets almost no attention in fasting literature. A hormone that, left unchecked, will sabotage your entire fast by day 4.

Aldosterone.

Understanding aldosterone is the key to understanding why the “acidosis crisis” happens—and why it’s completely preventable.

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What Is Aldosterone?

Aldosterone is a steroid hormone produced by the adrenal cortex. It’s the final effector of the Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone System (RAAS)—your body’s emergency blood pressure maintenance system.

Primary function: Regulate blood pressure by controlling sodium and potassium balance.

How it works:

• Increases sodium reabsorption in the kidneys
• Increases potassium excretion
• Net effect: Water follows sodium → blood volume maintained

When it activates: Whenever blood volume drops—dehydration, blood loss, or severe sweating.

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Aldosterone During Dry Fasting: The Numbers

Peer-reviewed research on 5-day dry fasts documented the hormonal cascade:

Hormone	Change
Vasopressin (ADH)	↑60%
Renin	↑315%
Angiotensin II	↑74%
Aldosterone	↑61%

This isn’t subtle. By day 3-5, aldosterone is elevated to levels typically seen in pathological conditions.

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The Brutal Side Effect: Mineral Dumping

Aldosterone’s job is sodium retention and potassium excretion. That’s what it evolved to do. That’s what the textbooks describe.

But aldosterone has a brutal side effect that gets far less attention:

It forces your kidneys to dump magnesium and calcium at markedly accelerated rates.

The Mechanism

Research by Zia & Kamalov (2010) and Kamalov & Weber (2006) documented this mechanism in detail:

Aldosterone acts on the kidney’s distal tubules and collecting ducts. While increasing sodium reabsorption, it simultaneously:

• Increases magnesium excretion through marked urinary and fecal losses
• Increases calcium excretion through similar mechanisms

This isn’t passive diffusion. It’s active transport dysregulation that worsens as long as aldosterone stays elevated.

The Timeline

Day	Aldosterone Status	Magnesium Loss
1-2	Mild elevation	Minimal
3-4	Plateau at 2-3× normal	Marked acceleration
5+	Sustained high	Severe cumulative depletion

By day 4-5 of an unsupplemented dry fast, your circulating magnesium is tanking—not because you’re “detoxing” it, but because aldosterone is forcing your kidneys to piss it out.

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Why This Matters: The Stress-Magnesium Vicious Circle

Magnesium isn’t just another mineral. It’s a critical node in stress regulation.

Magnesium’s role:

• NMDA receptor blockade → Prevents excitatory overactivity
• GABA receptor enhancement → Increases calming signals
• HPA axis regulation → Controls cortisol release
• Catecholamine modulation → Regulates adrenaline

When aldosterone dumps your magnesium, your stress regulation system fails.

The Vicious Circle

Aldosterone ↑ → Mg²⁺ wasting → Stress ↑ → Cortisol ↑ → More Mg²⁺ wasting
                     ↑                                        |
                     └────────────────────────────────────────┘

This is the trap. Once you enter the magnesium-stress vicious circle (typically day 3-4), you can’t escape without external magnesium supplementation.

Observable symptoms:

• Heart rate climbing (often ↑30-50% from baseline)
• Stress scores maxing out on wearables
• HRV collapsing
• Anxiety, irritability, insomnia
• The classic “acidosis crisis”

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The Traditional Interpretation vs. Reality

What Filonov Says

“This is the healing crisis. The body is detoxifying. Endure it.”

What’s Actually Happening

Your nervous system is in failure mode. Your kidneys are dumping essential minerals. Your heart is straining against depleted electrolytes. Autophagy is arresting due to cellular acidosis.

You’re not “healing.” You’re experiencing aldosterone-driven metabolic crisis.

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The Solution: Block the Downstream Effects

You can’t stop aldosterone from rising during a dry fast. That’s a physiological response to blood volume decline. It’s doing its job.

But you can prevent the downstream damage by replacing the minerals it’s wasting.

Magnesium Citrate

Magnesium citrate addresses both problems:

1. Magnesium²⁺ → Replaces what aldosterone is dumping
2. Citrate³⁻ → Provides alkalizing buffer to maintain cellular pH

The Result

• Stress-magnesium vicious circle broken
• Heart rate stays baseline
• HRV maintained
• Autophagy continues (pH buffered)
• Crisis prevented

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Case Study Evidence

165-hour (6.9-day) dry fast with responsive magnesium dosing:

Metric	Without Magnesium	With Magnesium
Aldosterone	↑61%	↑61% (same)
RHR	↑30-50%	Baseline
Stress score	Maximum	Low
Subjective state	Crisis	Clear, functional

The aldosterone elevation is identical. The difference is whether you’re replacing the minerals it’s wasting.

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Key Takeaways

1. Aldosterone is the hidden driver of the “acidosis crisis”
2. Mineral dumping is the mechanism, not “detoxification”
3. The vicious circle is predictable and preventable
4. Magnesium supplementation blocks the downstream damage
5. You can’t stop aldosterone, but you can compensate for its effects

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The Question

The question isn’t: “Can I endure high aldosterone?”

The question is: “Why would I let aldosterone sabotage my fast when the solution is a magnesium capsule?”

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For the complete aldosterone-compensating protocol, see The Death of the Acidosis Crisis.

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