According to various studies undertaken, including one done by the American Heart Association and one undertaken by the Institute of Health Ageing at University College London, fasting occasionally is good for the body and can improve long-term health. A link between lower rates of heart disease and people who fast one day each month was also evident.
Evidence is mounting that by eating 40% less, one could extend one’s life by as much as twenty years. Dr Adam Carey, Director of the nutrition and fitness clinic, Core Performance, says that fasting allows one’s body to repair itself, and allows the body to break down damaged cells and metabolise them.
According to researchers in Utah, individuals who skip meals at least once a month are also 40% less likely to get clogged arteries, which is important for heart health. These studies suggested that occasional fasting coerces one’s body to burn fat. Fasting also gives the body a break from creating insulin to metabolise sugar, and may therefore aid in resensitising insulin-producing cells and make them perform better.
Researchers at the National Institute on Aging in Baltimore, US, say that according to their studies, fasting is also beneficial to brain health and may protect the brain from degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
Historically, human beings were evolutionarily designed to go through fat times and lean times when they ate very little and only drank water to fill their bellies. Nowadays, although we are still capable of living that way and of fasting regularly, we tend to eat too much and drink too little water. Drinking water is critical to overall health and top performance of our bodies and our brains.
Cardiac researchers from the Intermountain Medical Centre Heart Institute presented their findings of a study that expanded on a 2007 Intermountain Healthcare study, at the annual scientific sessions of the American College of Cardiology in New Orleans in April.
According to Dr. Benjamin D. Horne, PhD, MPH, director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology at the Intermountain Medical Centre Heart Institute, and the study’s principal investigator, “The confirmation among a new set of patients that fasting is associated with lower risk of these common diseases raises new questions about how fasting itself reduces risk or if it simply indicates a healthy lifestyle.”
[Source: Science Daily]
Studies done at the University of Southern California show that periodic fasting can also reduce one’s risk of developing cancer. It must be remembered though that no matter what kind of fast you undertake, or for what reason you fast, drinking water is always a must as the body can do without food for up to a few weeks but one must drink water regularly to maintain the balance of fluids in the body.
One should actually drink water more regularly when fasting, as we do get quite a bit of our replacement body fluids from the food that we eat. When fasting, we are not getting that additional fluid from water-rich foods, so it is important that we drink water more often.
So, to answer the question“does fasting benefit your heart,†the answer is a definite yes! It must be pointed out though, that all the experts agree that where a one-day water-only fast can be beneficial for the heart and for one’s health in general, they advise against a more extended water-only fast such as the Liver Detox Diet, the Lemon Detox Diet, or similar detox diets or fasts without prior medical consultation.
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