Exploring 5 Ways Intermittent Fasting Benefits Your Health

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When you think of fasting, you might envision going for days without eating and shy away from it. However, there’s another mode of fasting called intermittent fasting or time-restricting eating. It’s where you fit all of your meals and snacks into a restricted time period. For example, you might eat meals only within a 12-hour time slot, like 6 am to 6 pm. This type of fasting, being shorter, is more manageable than fasting for a day or more and also appears to have health benefits. There’s even evidence that intermittent fasting is good for your heart. Let’s look at some of the Intermittent Fasting Benefits and why it’s good for your heart.

Intermittent Fasting Reduces Inflammation

What is an enemy of heart health? Low-grade inflammation. In fact, low-grade inflammation is a driver of many health problems; some scientists think every health issue has an inflammatory component. Can intermittent fasting help? In a study published in Translational Medicine, one group followed a time-restricted eating schedule where they ate within an 8-hour period. They ate their meals at 1 p.m., 4 p.m., and 8 p.m. The other group did not. They matched both groups for calories and nutrients.

The results? The group who ate during restricted times experienced an improvement in several markers of health, including a drop in inflammatory markers. Their insulin sensitivity improved, they lost weight, and their adiponectin level rose. Adiponectin is a protein with anti-inflammatory benefits. Why is this important for heart health? Inflammation damages the inner walls of arteries, making the arterial wall more prone to plaque build-up and forming a blood clot that leads to a heart attack or stroke.

Intermittent Fasting Reduces Circadian Disruptions

Circadian disruptions also called ‘polyphasic sleep’, is a term that refers to the different sleep rhythms in humans. The normal schedule is to have a circadian phase of approximately 24 hours but this varies from person to person and also seasonally. However, some people are constantly disrupted because they do shift work, where they work when most people sleep or they suffer from frequent jet lag.

Why is this a problem? Studies show that circadian disruption is a contributor to poor metabolic health. In fact, studies show that shifts in circadian rhythms increase the risk of metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.

Not only do disrupted circadian rhythms cause a rise in blood sugar, but this disruption affects blood pressure too. For example, when your circadian rhythms are synchronized healthily, blood pressure drops at night. But if you’re working night shifts where you’re sleeping at the “wrong” times, you don’t get this nocturnal blood pressure dip, and this increases the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Intermittent Fasting Helps with Weight Control

One risk factor for cardiovascular disease is obesity and weight gain during adulthood. Time-restricted eating may help with weight control by reducing appetite. In one 5-week study, participants ate their meals within an 8-hour period. You might think they would experience hunger during the other 16 hours but quite the opposite. The subjects in the study felt less hungry. Plus, their insulin sensitivity improved and that makes it easier for the body to burn and shed body fat.

Intermittent Fasting May Lower Blood Pressure

One meta-analysis study found that overweight people who followed intermittent fasting for at least 1 month had a 9% lower systolic blood pressure. A study also found that longer periods of fasting lower blood pressure. In one study, blood pressure dropped and remained lower even after 4 days of reintroducing food. This has benefits for heart health and blood vessel health since hypertension is a leading risk factor for heart disease and stroke.

Intermittent Fasting May Help in Treating Type 2 Diabetes

Since intermittent fasting improves insulin sensitivity, it may be beneficial for people with type 2 diabetes and prediabetes since they suffer from insulin resistance. Low insulin sensitivity and insulin resistance are risk factors for cardiovascular disease. In fact, half of all people with type 2 diabetes die from cardiovascular disease. Type 2 diabetes increases damage to the inner walls of the arteries that carry blood to the heart. Intermittent fasting may improve blood sugar control and reduce this type of arterial injury.

Are the Heart Health Benefits Related to the Weight Loss?

One question researchers have about intermittent fasting is whether the benefits come from fasting itself or the weight loss that often goes with it. It’s not clear, but most research suggests that the benefits are greater than what you’d expect from weight loss alone. So, even if you don’t lose weight with intermittent fasting, you may still get benefits.

Other Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

As an aside, some research shows a decrease in DNA damage from cancer risk factors like oxidative stress, inflammation, and chronic cell damage. For example, in one study with mice, researchers found a decrease in the level of oxidative stress markers after 2 days of intermittent fasting. Another animal study also found a reduction in the growth of tumors from breast cancer.

The Bottom Line

It’s not for everyone. If you have certain health conditions, especially type 1 diabetes, or have periods where your blood sugar drops, intermittent fasting isn’t for you. But you may discover you enjoy this approach and you actually feel less hungry.

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