Adaptation to Intermittent Ramadan Fasting Takes Time, but Eventually Mood, Fatigue, and the Quality of Life Improve
No, it wasn't a button like this which made the subjects happy. |
But let's not go too fast, here. The subjects had volunteered to participate in the study and were non-randomly assigned to a fasting (FG) and a non-fasting (NFG) group (according to their individual plans | Nugraha. 2016).
Learn more about fasting at the SuppVersity
Examples of effects of intermittent fasting on different organ systems. |
Limit inflammation, reduced oxidative stress and cellular damage, improved circulating glucose, reduced blood pressure, alteration in IGF-1 levels, improve metabolic efficiency and body composition, including significant reduction in body fat and weight in obese individuals, reduced LDL and total cholesterol levels, prevention or reversal of type 2 diabetes, as well as slow its progression, improved immune function, and shift stem cells from a dormant state to state of self-renewal, improved pancreatic function, insulin and leptin levels and insulin/leptin sensitivity, normalized ghrelin levels, reproduction of some of the cardiovascular benefits associated with physical exercise, protection against cardiovascular disease, modulation of the levels of visceral fat, boost of mitochondrial energy efficiency and protection of striatal neurons against mitochondrial toxicity, elimination of sugar cravings as the body adapts to burning fat instead of sugar, promotion of human growth hormone production (HGH), lower triglyceride levels, elevated production of brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF), stimulation of neurogenesis and triggering of brain chemicals that protect against changes associated with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, enhanced dopamine overflow in striatum, attenuated age-related decrease in cardiac synaptic terminal norepinephrine uptake, attenuation of age-related loss of cortical dendritic spines, protection against seizure-induced hippocampal damage, memory impairment and focal ischemic brain injury, enhanced learning and motor function in models of aging, slow age-related loss of spiral ganglion neurons while aging, and the list will probably expand further in the years to come (Uher. 2016).
Figure 2: Mood and sleepiness show a similar pattern over the course of the trial (Nugraha. 2016). |
Table 1: Body composition before, during, and after Ramadan (Nugraha. 2016). |
Whether and to which extent you will benefit, however, may depend on your individual gene set with a 2009 study by Michalsen, et al. (see Figure 3) indicating that your individual GNB3 C825T polymorphism determines whether and how fast your mood benefits from fasting | Comment!
- Aksungar, Fehime Benli, et al. "Comparison of intermittent fasting versus caloric restriction in obese subjects: A two year follow-up." The journal of nutrition, health & aging (2016): 1-5.
- Fond, Guillaume, et al. "Fasting in mood disorders: neurobiology and effectiveness. A review of the literature." Psychiatry research 209.3 (2013): 253-258.
- Mattson, Mark P., Valter D. Longo, and Michelle Harvie. "Impact of Intermittent Fasting on Health and Disease Processes." Ageing Research Reviews (2016).
- Michalsen, Andreas, et al. "Hunger and mood during extended fasting are dependent on the GNB3 C825T polymorphism." Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism 54.3 (2009): 184-188.
- Michalsen, Andreas. "Prolonged fasting as a method of mood enhancement in chronic pain syndromes: a review of clinical evidence and mechanisms." Current pain and headache reports 14.2 (2010): 80-87.
- Nugraha, et al. "Effect of Ramadan fasting on fatigue, mood, sleepiness, and health-related quality of life of healthy young men in summer time in Germany: A prospective controlled study."Appetite - Available online 24 December 2016 | In Press, Accepted Manuscript
- Solianik, Rima, et al. "Effect of 48 h Fasting on Autonomic Function, Brain Activity, Cognition, and Mood in Amateur Weight Lifters." BioMed Research International 2016 (2016).
- Uher, Ivan, et al. "Intermittent fasting and its influence on health." Physical Activity Review 4 (2016): 184-191.
- Watkins, Ellen, and Lucy Serpell. "The psychological effects of short-term fasting in healthy women." Frontiers in Nutrition 3 (2016).