Eat, stop, repeat

Intermittent fasting may sound like another diet fad but researchers have conclusively found that the practice of routinely not eating and drinking for short periods of time resulted in longer life in heart patients.  

In the study by Intermountain Healthcare Heart Institute in Salt Lake City, Utah, researchers found that heart patients who practiced regular intermittent fasting lived longer than patients who don’t. In addition, they found that patients who practice intermittent fasting are less likely to be diagnosed with heart failure.  

 “It’s another example of how we’re finding that regularly fasting can lead to better health outcomes and longer lives,” said Benjamin Horne, principal investigator of the study. While the study does not show that fasting is the causal effect for better survival, these real-world outcomes in a large population do suggest that fasting may be having an effect and urge continued study of the behaviour.  

In the study, researchers asked 2,001 Intermountain patients undergoing cardiac catheterization from 2013 to 2015 a series of lifestyle questions, including whether or not they practiced routine intermittent fasting. Researchers then followed up with those patients 4.5 years later and found that routine fasters had greater survival rate than those who did not.  

Fasting affects a person’s levels of haemoglobin, red blood cell count, human growth hormone, and lowers sodium and bicarbonate levels, while also activating ketosis and autophagy — all factors that lead to better heart health and specifically reduce risk of heart failure and coronary heart disease.    —IANS