Ramadan fasting beneficial for BP independent of weight, other factors
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Fasting during the month of Ramadan can have beneficial effects on BP independent of weight changes, fat mass and total body water, results from an observational study found.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, sought to determine the health effects of the drastic change in lifestyle that millions of people undergo during Ramadan. The publication consisted of a systematic review of several previously conducted studies, as well as a longitudinal study conducted independently by the researchers in London.
“Although hundreds of millions of Muslims practice Ramadan fasting worldwide, the effect of this ritual on health is not adequately studied,” Rami Al-Jafar, MSPH, lecturer and PhD candidate in epidemiology and biostatistics at Imperial College London, and colleagues wrote. “Blood pressure could be acutely affected by such changes in dietary intake and timing, physical activity and sleep patterns, including among individuals with hypertension. Studies on the effect of Ramadan fasting on blood pressure, however, are inconclusive.”
LORANS study
The London Ramadan Study (LORANS) assessed the systolic and diastolic BP of 85 participants from April 25 to June 16, 2019, before and immediately after Ramadan. The mean age of the participants was 46 years and 53% were men. The fasting time was 15.5 hours per day, and BP was calculated three times in 30-second intervals at each of the two visits (before and after Ramadan), with the researchers calculating the average of the three measurements. The researchers measured fat percentage/mass, fat free mass and total body water for each participant and had participants fill out questionnaires to determine basic lifestyle choices.
Results of LORANS found that systolic BP after Ramadan fasting was lower by 7.29 mm Hg (95% CI, –4.74 to –9.84) and diastolic BP was lower by 3.42 mm Hg (95% CI, –1.73 to –5.09).
Systematic review
The researchers then conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of 32 additional studies from around the world to investigate Ramadan’s effects on systolic and diastolic BP outside of London. Among the cohort of 3,213 participants, 23.3% were healthy, 55.5% had type 2 diabetes, 3.5% had hypertension and 19.1% had chronic kidney disease.
“Although there were some previous reviews on this topic, each of them targeted studies on either healthy individuals or a specific disease group,” Al-Jafar and colleagues wrote. “Our meta-analysis covered studies on healthy and nonhealthy individuals and included subgroup analysis. We included our own study (LORANS) in which we recruited a multicultural community-based sample.”
Among participants in the systematic review, systolic BP was lower by 3.19 mm Hg (95% CI, –4.43 to –1.96; I2 = 48%) and diastolic BP by 2.26 mm Hg (95% CI, –3.19 to –1.34; I2 = 66%) after Ramadan.
The body undergoes a metabolic switch that starts between 8 and 12 hours of fasting, when the body switches from glucose to ketones for producing energy, resulting in an insulin drop that lowers BP, the researchers wrote.
According to the study, lower BP was observed largely in the healthy, hypertension and diabetes groups but not in patients with chronic kidney disease.
“Ramadan fasting appears to have a beneficial effect on BP independent of weight, total body water and fat mass,” Al-Jafar and colleagues wrote. “Our review supports the recommendations by Communities in Action organization (supported by the National Health Service) and the Saudi government, which describe Ramadan fasting as a safe religious practice with respect to blood pressure.”
Collapse
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts