research found on fasting

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Interesting article that most of you know intuitively is true.

Tim Swanson

 

 

 

The Associated Press: December 15, 2007

 

Monthly Fasting May Tune the Ticker

 

 

By Marilynn Marchionne

 

Mormons have less heart disease—something doctors have long chalked up

to their religion’s ban on smoking. New research suggests that another of their

“clean living” habits also may be helping their hearts: fasting for one day each

month.

 

A study in Utah, where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

is based, found that people who skipped meals once a month were about 40 percent

less likely to be diagnosed with clogged arteries than those who did not

regularly fast.

 

People did not have to “get religion” to benefit: non-Mormons who

regularly took breaks from food also were less likely to have clogged arteries,

scientists found.

 

They concede that their study is far from proof that periodic fasting

is good for anyone, but said the benefit they observed poses a theory that

deserves further testing.

 

“It might suggest these are people who just control eating habits

better”, and that this discipline extends to other areas of their lives that

improves their health, said Benjamin Horne, a heart disease researcher from

Intermountain Medical Center and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

 

He led the study and reported results at a recent American Heart

Association conference. The research was partly funded by the National Heart,

Lung, and Blood Institute.

 

Roughly 70 percent of Utah residents are Mormons, whose religion

advises abstaining from food on the first Sunday of each month, Horne said.

 

Researchers got the idea to study fasting after analyzing medical

records of patients who had X-ray exams to check for blocked heart arteries

between 1994 and 2002 in the Intermountain Health Collaborative Study, a health

registry. Of these patients, 4,629 could be diagnosed as clearly having or

lacking heart disease—an artery at least 70 percent clogged.

 

Researchers saw a typical pattern: only 61 percent of Mormons had

heart disease compared to 66 percent of non-Mormons. They thought tobacco use

probably accounted for the difference. But after taking smoking into account,

they still saw a lower rate of heart disease among Mormons and designed a survey

to explore why.

 

It asked about Mormons’ religious practices: monthly fasting; avoiding

tea, coffee, and alcohol; taking a weekly day of rest; going to church, and

donating time or money to charity.

 

Among the 515 people surveyed, only fasting made a significant

difference in heart risks: 59 percent of periodic meal skippers were diagnosed

with heart disease versus 67 percent of the others.

 

The difference persisted even when researchers took weight, age, and

conditions like diabetes or high cholesterol or blood pressure into account.

About 8 percent of those surveyed were not Mormons, and those who regularly

fasted had lower rates of heart disease, too.

 

Horne speculated that when people take a break from food, it forces

the body to dip into fat reserves to burn calories. It also keeps the body from

being constantly exposed to sugar and having to make insulin to metabolize it.

When people develop diabetes, insulin-producing cells become less sensitive to

cues from eating, so fasting may provide brief rests that resensitize these

cells and make them work better, he said.

 

But he and other doctors cautioned that skipping meals is not advised

for diabetics—it could cause dangerous swings in blood sugar.

 

Also for dieters, “the news is not as good as you might think” on

fasting, said Dr. Raymond Gibbons of the Mayo Clinic, a former heart association

president.

 

“Fasting resets the metabolic rate”, slowing it down to adjust to less

food and forcing the body to store calories as soon as people resume eating,

Gibbons said.

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