Occasional Fasting Associated With Lower Heart Disease Rates

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American Heart Association (2007, November 6).

Occasional Fasting Associated With Lower Heart Disease

Rates. ScienceDaily.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071106092013.htm

Occasional Fasting Associated With Lower Heart Disease

Rates

ScienceDaily (Nov. 6, 2007) — Foregoing food for a day

each month stood out among other religious practices

in members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day

Saints (LDS or Mormons), who have lower rates of heart

disease than other Americans, researchers reported at

the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions

2007.

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" 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 D. Horne, Ph.D., M.P.H.,

study author and 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.

In the 1970s, scientists recognized that Latter-Day

Saints (LDS) in Utah are less likely to die of heart

disease than other Utah residents and Americans

overall. The religious prohibition against tobacco use

is usually credited for the health benefit, but

researchers wondered whether other religious teachings

also may be important.

Researchers first examined the records of the

Intermountain Heart Collaborative Study registry

comprised of patients who had undergone coronary

angiography, an X-ray examination of the blood vessels

of the heart to look for blockages, between 1994 and

2002. Of those patients, 4,629 men and women, average

age 64, could clearly be diagnosed either with

coronary artery disease (CAD) -- which is at least 70

percent narrowing or blockage detected in at least one

artery, or as free of significant CAD -- less than 10

percent narrowing or blockage. As expected, CAD was

less prevalent in patients who identified their

religious preference as LDS than those who stated

another or no religious preference. Sixty-one percent

of LDS members had CAD versus 66 percent of others.

" 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, " Horne

said. " We thought this was very interesting, so we

devised a survey about other behaviors associated with

LDS that might bring a health benefit. "

In the second part of the study, 515 patients (average

age 64) who underwent coronary angiography between

2004 and 2006, completed a survey that included

religious preference as well as several specific

practices encouraged by the LDS church: not smoking;

fasting (abstaining from food and drink for two

consecutive meals); not drinking tea, coffee or

alcohol; observing a weekly day of rest; attending

worship services; and donating time, goods or money to

charity.

Of this group, those who fasted were significantly

less likely to be diagnosed with CAD (59 percent had

70 percent or greater blockage) than those who did not

fast (67 percent had 70 percent or greater blockage).

" Fasting was the strongest predictor of lower heart

disease risk in the people we surveyed. About 8

percent of the people who fasted did not express an

LDS religious preference, and they also had less

coronary disease, " Horne said.

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, Horne

noted.

Fasting was associated with lower odds of being

diagnosed with CAD by 39 percent. When the researchers

compared only those diagnosed with CAD with those who

had minimal or no coronary disease (less than 10

percent blockage), the impact of fasting was even more

striking, with the odds of a CAD diagnosis being lower

by 45 percent.

While this doesn't prove that fasting is the cause of

having healthier arteries, it does suggest that it is

an important, and new, hypothesis.

Horne said 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, " he said. " 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. "

The researchers looked separately at people with

diabetes, who are not encouraged to skip meals, and

found the same association of fasting and healthier

arteries in both those with diabetes and those without

diabetes. However, this is not sufficient information

to suggest that diabetics should skip meals.

" 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, " Horne said.

" However, it's important to state that this study does

not provide evidence diabetics should skip meals. "

The study is limited because it is not a randomized or

controlled trial, and it only includes people who had

sufficient symptoms to undergo coronary angiography,

the gold standard assessment for CAD. Also, there

could be other factors associated with fasting that

are the actual causes of the reduced degree of

coronary stenosis seen in this study.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute partly

funded the study.

Adapted from materials provided by American Heart

Association.