Fasting May Cut Risk Of Diabetes: Study

BANGALORE: Diabetes is a disease in which the sugar level in blood increases till the extent of unfavorable symptoms either because insulin production is inadequate, or because the body's cells do not respond properly to insulin. In 2013, according to International Diabetes Federation, an estimated 381 million people had diabetes. The incident is increasing rapidly and by 2030, this number is estimated to almost double.

The Intermountain Heart Institute at Intermountain Medical Center in Utah has arrived at a conclusion about fasting: It might help people who struggle with diabetes. The researchers found that fasting helped prediabetic people reduce their levels of cholesterol, especially if they fasted over an extended period of time — and at 10 to 12 hours at a time. During this time, the body begins to remove bad cholesterol from fat cells to be used as energy.

Benjamin Horne, director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute and lead author of the study, said in a press release, “Fasting has the potential to become an important diabetes intervention.” He also added that "When we studied the effects of fasting in apparently healthy people, cholesterol levels increased during the one-time 24-hour fast. The changes that were most interesting or unexpected were all related to metabolic health and diabetes risk. Together with our prior studies that showed decades of routine fasting were associated with a lower risk of diabetes and coronary artery disease, this led us to think that fasting is most impactful for reducing the risk of diabetes and related metabolic problems."

The researchers found that during actual fasting days, cholesterol went up slightly but they noticed that over a six-week period cholesterol levels decreased by about 12 percent in addition to the weight loss. They believed that fasting use cholesterol as energy and can lead to the lowered level of cholesterol they found that it could be an effective intervention for diabetes.

Dr. Horne said that more in-depth study is needed, but the findings lay the groundwork for the other future study. He also stated that, “we are still examining and we should not forget the side effects of fasting.”