14 DAY TRIAL // You may be fasting for religious, philosophical, or health reasons or just because you're bored, but this can indeed prolong life by protecting the heart. A new research found that the Mormons (members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), who fast one day every month, display lower rates of heart disease than other Americans do, as presented by a new research at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2007.
"People who fast seem to receive a heart-protective benefit, and this appeared to also hold true in non-LDS people who fast as part of a health-conscious lifestyle," said author Dr. Benjamin D. Horne, director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology at Intermountain Medical Center and adjunct assistant professor of biomedical informatics at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
Mormons were known since the 1970s to have lower rates of death by heart disease than other Utah and US residents overall. This was put just on the religious ban to tobacco smoking. The team analyzed data of the Intermountain Heart Collaborative Study registry on patients who had undergone coronary angiography (X-ray examination of the blood vessels of the heart) between 1994 and 2002.
The 4,629 subjects, men and women, aged on average 64, were diagnosed either for coronary artery disease (CAD) (over 70 % narrowing in at least one artery), or with light CAD (below 10 % narrowing). CAD was less common in Mormon patients (61 % compared to 66 % of the Non-Mormon patients). "When we adjusted for smoking, or looked just at the nonsmokers, we still found a lower rate of CAD in people having an LDS religious preference. We thought this was very interesting, so we devised a survey about other behaviors associated with LDS that might bring a health benefit.", said Horne.
515 subjects (average age 64) examined for coronary angiography between 2004 and 2006, completed a questionnaire about religious affiliation and practices requested by the LDS cult: not smoking; fasting (abstaining from food and drink for two consecutive meals); not drinking tea, coffee or alcohol; attending worship services; and donating time, goods or money to charity. The fasting group was much less likely to display CAD (59 %) than the non-fasting group (67 %).
"Fasting was the strongest predictor of lower heart disease risk in the people we surveyed. About 8 % of the people who fasted did not express an LDS religious preference, and they also had less coronary disease. Patients who did not drink tea were also less likely to be diagnosed with CAD, but once fasting was considered the finding wasn't significant," said Horne.
People who fasted had a 39 % lower chance of developing CAD; they had a 45 % chance of being diagnosed rather with minimal or no coronary disease than CAD. The findings are not conclusive and doesn't really prove that fasting is a factor in having healthier arteries, but it is a clue.
"This association between fasting and healthy arteries could be due to timing. When you abstain from food for 24 hours or so, it reduces the constant exposure of the body to foods and glucose. One of the major problems in the development of the metabolic syndrome and the pathway to diabetes is that the insulin-producing beta cells become desensitized. Routine fasting may allow them to resensitize - to reset to a baseline level so they work better.", said Horne.
The team also focused on people with diabetes, who are not advised to fast, and encountered (in their case, too) the same connection for healthier arteries. "One exciting thing is that the study could be replicated in the general population and in other locations in the United States, including people without an LDS preference who fast for various philosophical or health reasons. However, it's important to state that this study does not provide evidence diabetics should skip meals.", said Horne.
The study has its weak points, as it is not a randomized or controlled trial, comprising just people with heart issues undergoing coronary angiography and fasting could be also associated with other factors for inducing these effects.