Can Intermittent
Fasting Improve My Heart Health?
People who fast regularly have greater heart health than non-fasters.
According to two new research, regular fasting is linked to lower heart failure rates and a longer lifespan.
The age-old controversy over how fasting impacts health was the focus of research. Recent research has shown it helps lower blood pressure, “bad” LDL cholesterol, and insulin resistance, which can boost blood sugar levels.
According to a 2017 study, alternate-day fasting is just as efficient for weight loss and maintaining weight loss as daily calorie restriction.
The new research concentrated on information from individuals in Utah and other Rocky Mountain states who were examined for heart disease.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, generally known as Mormons, who typically fast for up to 24 hours on one Sunday every month, were included in the study in their hundreds.
Researchers focused on how fasting affects life span in the first trial. 389 “routine fasters” who had been fasting consistently for at least five years were among the approximately 2,000 patients who had undergone a heart catheterization operation and were monitored for an average of 4.4 years.
The routine fasters were found to have a death rate that was 45% lower than the non-fasters over the follow-up period after accounting for numerous confounders.
“It’s fascinating… it has a stronger impact than we expected, “Dr. Benjamin Horne, a researcher, who just presented the early results at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions, said this.
The second fasting trial, which used the same patient data, also included Horne. It examined the effects of regular fasting on heart failure and heart attacks.
Heart attacks were not significantly different after accounting for numerous variables, however regular fasters had a 71 percent lower rate of developing heart failure than non-fasters.
Director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology at Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, Horne stated, “That’s a tremendous difference, and frankly, it was a bit unexpected.”
Professor Krista Varady, an adjunct nutritionist at the University of Illinois at Chicago, described it as “a significant study that has never been carried out before.
Intermittent fasting has been the subject of numerous short-term clinical research, but we have no long-term human evidence examining whether it can prevent conditions like heart failure.
The majority of the fasters were Latter-day Saints, according to Varady, who was not part in the study, which set limitations on it.
In comparison to the typical American, “they lead a totally different lifestyle,” she remarked. “For instance, they are slightly more physically active and don’t smoke or drink alcohol. They should naturally live longer and have a lesser risk of developing heart disease.”
She stated that “it is very difficult to pull apart the effects of fasting vs an otherwise good lifestyle in this society, despite the application of statistical corrections,” even if researchers took some of those aspects into account.
Many popular diet trends advise people to eat only during certain hours (8 to 12), then fast for the remaining 12 to 16 hours. But throughout the course of an average of 42.2 years, participants in the two new trials fasted for even longer periods of time each day, according to Horne.
We believe that a one-day, once-a-month long-term fast causes the body to engage healthy systems for a few hours each day between dinner and breakfast when it normally wouldn’t. Over time, those hours add up and bring about the advantages, “added he.
Being an observational study that cannot establish cause and effect, the research has limitations, according to Horne.
Future research on why fasting appears to protect against heart failure is something he’d want to see, and he also advocated for a sizable study on the psychological advantages of fasting.
Some folks who have started fasting claim that they unintentionally feel like they can manage their hunger better,” he said.
Possibly, there is a connection between fasting and mental health, which enables people to eat better foods.
Future research should monitor people who restrict their eating in other ways, such as time-restrictive fasters and alternate-day fasters, Varady urged.
This is a good first step, but we need to conduct long-term research on various people engaging in various types of fasting,”
