Greg Lindberg's Prison Breakthrough

Fasting and Regeneration through Hormesis

On his personal website, Greg Lindberg has a page entitled Resources for the Incarcerated with this opening paragraph: “All individuals deserve equitable, just and fair treatment that ensures fairness in sentencing. Having first-hand experience with the shortcomings of the criminal justice system, Greg Lindberg is dedicating his life to fighting for change.”

He explains the 2020 founding of Interrogating Justice, a non-profit organization whose mission is to bring awareness and help advance solutions that hold corrupt government actors accountable. The organization has a four-point focus: Government Accountability, Fairness in Sentencing, Emphasis on Reentry, and Access to Justice for All.

Lindberg’s special passion for justice was emboldened when he was on trial in 2020. Having never had a criminal problem in his life, he saw first-hand how quixotic the legal system could be. Horrified at the thought of how a person of meager resources might fare in fighting for their freedom, he donated one million dollars to the American Civil Liberties Union.

Lindberg was convicted of bribery, and the trial and subsequent appeal cost him millions of dollars. His convictions were overturned in 2022 and he was freed from incarceration at Federal Prison Camp Montgomery in Alabama. In his second book, 633 Days Inside: Lessons on Life and Leadership, he writes about that journey and how he turned abject misfortune to triumphant transformation.

In the fourth of a series of videos on YouTube, Lindberg explains how a deep dive into the science of fasting transformed him personally while “inside.” Fasting, as well as other life-improving principles he taught to fellow inmates, centered on the principle of hormesis.

What too few people know is that we accumulate zombie senescent cells in our body as we age. Not dead, they are simply hanging around and clogging up things. When they are cleaned out, that helps alleviate or reverse disease and bodily impairments. In Lindberg’s case, he was suffering from a major brain problem.

“I was 50 years old when I checked into prison and I would be 56 When I got out,” he says. “I used to take a pretty heavy-duty medication called Mirapex… a dopamine agonist given to patients whose dopamine receptors are worn out... My brain dopamine receptors were worn out because the mitochondria in those dopamine receptors died. [I had an] insufficient number of mitochondria for those dopamine receptors to work.”

Lindberg had a major physical problem. A sleep study found he was kicking his legs all night long, 42 times an hour. This pre-Parkinson's malady known as “periodic limb movement disorder” left him with an inability to control motor movements because of the degradation and degeneration of his dopamine receptors. He regularly suffered from being kept awake throughout the night.

With time to study ways to improve his health in prison, Lindberg settled on the idea of fasting, 90 hours a week. This was in August of 2021. In October, the Bureau of Prisons couldn't figure out how to renew his prescription for Mirapex, which was alarming, since he'd been taking the medication every night. Additionally, he’d found that he had to take increasing amounts of Mirapex to prevent his legs from kicking all night long.

The prison eventually got the prescription refilled, but something astonishing happened. During the time Lindberg went without the medication, he realized he didn't need Mirapex. He was doing well. He didn't kick his legs at night, he slept great, and he had wonderful dreams.

“I woke up one or two times a night,” he says, “which is amazing for me. And after a couple of weeks, I realized that my fasting had completely cured my periodic limb movement disorder, and had rebuilt my brain, regenerated the dopamine receptors. So, I didn't need this heavy-duty brain-altering substance that I was gonna be on for the rest of my life.”

Lindberg has not taken the medication since, and his improvements have been sustained. While emphasizing the importance of consultation with your medical advisor, he now recommends to anyone interested the benefits of one 48-hour fast each week. No food, just water, combined with 30 minutes of daily exercise. This is not just homespun advice; it’s directly in line with cutting-edge science.

In the article “Anti-Aging Approaches” in the September-October 2017 edition of Harvard magazine, professor of genetics David Sinclair said this:

“The interesting thing about calorie restriction is that we used to think the body was in some way slowing down, maybe in the number of heartbeats or production of free radicals. But it turns out that’s wrong….When we’re calorie restricting, what we’re really doing is telling the body that now is not the time to go forth and multiply. It’s time to conserve your resources, repair things better, fight free radicals, and repair broken DNA.”

Greg Lindberg describes what he went through as hormesis, a “what doesn’t kill makes you stronger” situation. While hormesis is frequently associated with toxicology, PubMed.gov says: “Hormesis may be restricted to phenomena that proceed by mechanisms that are broadly generalizable and represent possibly beneficial overcompensation in response to an adverse stimulus.”

Lindberg’s repeated 90-hour fasts might certainly be overcompensation in response to an adverse stimulus, but no one argues about his remarkable results. He explains his health evolution this way:

“I was 50 years old when I checked into prison, and I would be 56 When I got out. So, I resolved to make the best of those years and to make myself better. To become better, not bitter. That's the #1 thing I advised to my fellow inmates. Gotta get better, not bitter. Whatever reason, you're here to get better. And so, I didn't know how I was gonna get better…. I discovered the principle of hormesis, which turned my life entirely around, and finally turned my health around.”

Because he is certain that his methods will help anyone turn their life around and energize life, brain, health, and body, Lindberg is now particularly interested in sharing what he learned and experienced while incarcerated. He says his heart goes out to all his fellow inmates who are still stuck in federal prison, and that he thinks about them every day.

Greg Lindberg is focused on assisting in the rehabilitation of anyone and everyone who wants help, and also in improving a justice system that by anyone’s account needs help. His company, Global Growth, has ongoing prison outreach to share his new book, and there is a company policy of hiring felons who get better, not bitter.

Greg Lindberg on Fasting and Regeneration through Hormesis is the fourth video in his YouTube series. The ebook of 633 Days Inside: Lessons on Life & Leadership can be found on Amazon, GooglePlay, Apple Books and many other major outlets. The paperback is available at Barnes & Noble and, via IngramSpark, around the world. Through his website www.greglindberg.com, he is making digital copies available to any currently incarcerated inmate or their family member.

Listen above to Greg in his own words.