Khaberni - When mentioning fasting, the first thing that usually comes to mind is "Ramadan", but in fact, fasting linguistically means "abstinence". Hence, there are various types of fasting, including those that follow religious rules and others that are part of a health regimen or therapeutic protocol.
Stories mention that the Virgin Mary vowed to fast from speaking, which clarifies that fasting isn't limited to merely abstaining from food and drink.
But what does science say today about dietary fasting and its different types? And are all forms of fasting equally beneficial, or are there controls that enhance its benefits and reduce its risks?
Recent studies indicate that fasting may have a potentially positive effect on reducing chronic inflammation, which explains the growing scientific interest in it.
Do I suffer from chronic inflammation?
To know the answer to this question, you first need to understand the definition of chronic inflammation, which is simply a process that accelerates your arrival at biological aging, and is a response of the immune system that is triggered with repeated exposure to bacterial or viral infections or as cells are exposed to injuries like bruises and cuts, and also as a result of internal factors such as obesity, stress, and autoimmune diseases.
When cells are damaged, they release alarm signals, and white blood cells intervene and secrete substances called "cytokines" to fight inflammation. The problem arises when this activity continues for a long period; chronic high blood sugar and the accumulation of visceral fat keep the immune system in a constant state of alert.
Over time, this causes damage to cell components, especially the mitochondria responsible for energy production, and leads to the accumulation of damaged proteins inside the cells, weakening the natural self-cleaning mechanism known as "autophagy".
With the disruption of this mechanism, the cellular cleaning system fails, resulting in the accumulation of waste inside them, which increases inflammations, paving the way for heart diseases, diabetes, immune disorders, and others.
How does fasting fix what inflammation has damaged?
Fasting involves specific abstention, at a specific time, with a specific intention, and assuming that fasting is done in a proper manner as explained by scientists, by reducing the caloric intake by individuals, as a study published in the journal "Cell" in early 2024 by a research group from the University of Cambridge confirms the link between fasting and decreased inflammations, but understanding how this occurs is what scientists are trying to determine.
Intermittent Fasting
A systematic review of over 80 studies on human subjects published by "The Journal of Nutrition" found that intermittent fasting protocols allowing an eating window of 8 hours followed by a fasting of 16 hours can enhance insulin sensitivity and improve lipid profiles and blood pressure, although most of these trials are short-term and require longer studies to precisely understand the inflammatory effects.
One meal a day fasting
This was the focus of a study at Queen's College, University of Cambridge, published in January 2024, where a group of 21 volunteers consumed a single meal containing 500 calories, then abstained from food for 24 hours only.
Researchers noticed an increase in levels of a type of fat known as "arachidonic acid", which plays important roles in the body, such as energy storage and signaling between cells. They also observed it also reduces the activity of an inflammatory compound known as "NLRP3 inflammasome".
Water Fasting
It relies on complete abstention from food for a period ranging from 24 hours to up to 10 days, and in a study published in the journal "Clinical & Translational Medicine", researchers conducted an experiment involving 48 healthy adults undergoing water fasting for 5 consecutive days, monitoring important biometric and immune indicators.
Researchers observed a decrease in blood pressure, body weight, changes in immune cells, and a reduction in inflammation indicators among some participants. However, they also noticed that the indicators returned to their previous state after gradually reintroducing food, and there was a loss of a portion of muscle mass.
Dry Fasting
This is what Muslims practice as part of their religious rites, and it is also the least subjected to scientific studies. One of these few studies published by the "Elsevier" scientific journal, addressed the developments in biometric indicators for 14 men and women affected who underwent dry fasting from sunrise to sunset for 29 days during Ramadan.
This time, the sample had metabolic syndrome or metabolic disorders, which is a group of conditions that occur together, such as high blood pressure, high blood sugar levels, excess body fat around the waist, and elevated triglyceride levels, increasing the risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.
The study revealed protein changes in white blood cells indicating reduced inflammation signals related to blood vessels and an increase in certain proteins associated with cell protection.
In another study published in 2021 involving a group of volunteers from the Bahá'í community, following a dry fast similar to Islamic dry fasting for several hours during the day, the sample included 34 healthy participants, the study noted no significant negative effects on hydration in healthy participants, and observed improvements in fat metabolism performance, without detecting effects on inflammations.
Media focus and few studies
Despite the promising initial results and testimonies from doctors like Dr. Pradeep Jamnadas, a cardiologist and director of the cardiac catheterization lab at "Orlando Health" in the United States, about the impact of different types of fasting on giving the body a chance to switch from "storage mode" to "repair mode", where insulin levels decrease, and inflammatory pathways recede, research in this field is still limited and needs more trials on larger samples.
Dr. Mark Mattson, head of the neuroscience lab at the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health in the United States, and one of the prominent researchers who studied the relationship between fasting, metabolism, and brain health, believes that fasting may activate cellular stress resistance pathways and reduce some inflammatory indicators, but he emphasizes that most evidence related to the autophagy system and its protective effect came from animal models or short-term studies on healthy humans.
Meanwhile, Dr. Valter Longo, director of the Longevity Institute at "University of Southern California", links the benefits of fasting to what he calls "structured therapeutic fasting", which is done under medical supervision as part of a treatment protocol or health system, and not as a general practice suitable for everyone.
However, as it is clear, everyone agrees on the presence of promising biological signals about fasting, but more research is needed to include fasting as part of general health recommendations.
