Fasting reduces risk of diabetes and heart disease

DDN Correspondent
Posted on 16 Jun, 2014

A new research has found that fasting can lower rate of heart disease and diabetes. The study is done by researchers at Intermountain Heart Institute at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah.

Lead author Benjamin Horne wrote in a news release: "There are a lot of books out there recommending that people fast for two or three days a week,? he added, ?but there are risks with fasting and little evidence that these diets are safe."

The researchers reported that 10-12 hours of hunger prompts the body to initiate the search for food and the body then starts utilizing the stored amounts of bad cholesterol, LDL, which is found in fat cells of the body.

The researchers claimed that this mechanism influences people suffering from diabetes directly. Horne noted that fasting can become an important diabetes intervention in the future.

"Though we've studied fasting and it's health benefits for years, we didn't know why fasting could provide the health benefits we observed related to the risk of diabetes," Horne noted.

The study reported that after six week of fasting, the cholesterol level decreases by around 12 percent. Horne said that since we expect that the cholesterol was used for energy during the fasting episodes and likely came from fat cells, this shows that fasting can prove an effective diabetes intervention.