Can Intermittent Fasting Give You a Longer, Healthier Life?

Intermittent fasting may sound like another diet fad, but a new study found that the practice of routinely not eating and drinking for short periods resulted in longer life in heart patients.

People who practice intermittent fasting routinely are less likely to be diagnosed with heart failure, reports a new study.

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. "It's another example of how we're finding that regular fasting can lead to better health outcomes and longer lives," said Benjamin Horne, principal investigator of the study.

Intermittent Fasting Associated With Longevity in Cardiac Catheterization Patients
In cardiac catheterization patients, intermittent fasting increases longevity, stated new research.

‘Fasting routinely over a period of years conditions the body to activate the beneficial mechanisms of fasting after a shorter length of time than usual. ’
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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 behavior.

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 a greater survival rate than those who did not.

Intermittent Fasting may Regulate Blood Glucose Even With No Weight Loss
New study has found that intermittent fasting may regulate blood sugar (glucose) levels even when accompanied by little-to-no weight loss.

Fasting affects a person's levels of hemoglobin, 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.

"This study suggests that routine fasting at a low frequency over two-thirds of the lifespan is activating the same biological mechanisms that fasting diets are proposed to activate rapidly," said Dr. Horne.

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Researchers speculate that fasting routinely over a period of years and even decades conditions the body to activate the beneficial mechanisms of fasting after a shorter length of time than usual.

Typically, it takes about 12 hours of fasting for the effects to be activated, but long-term routine fasting may cause that time to be shortened so that each routine faster's daily evening/overnight fasting period between dinner and breakfast produces a small amount of daily benefit, they noted.

Intermittent Fasting may Help Obese Women Lose Weight
Obese women who fasted intermittently and followed a diet in which they ate 70 percent of their required energy intake lost more weight, finds a new study.

Fasting is not for everyone. Researchers cautioned that pregnant and lactating women should not fast, as well as young children and frail older adults.

People diagnosed with chronic diseases - especially those who take medications for diabetes, blood pressure, or heart disease - should not fast unless under the close care and supervision of a physician.

Source-IANS