A study bears a surprising result: intermittent fasting increases the risk of death from heart disease

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A recent study found that people who follow intermittent fasting may be at a higher risk of heart-related death.

The study was conducted by researchers led by Dr. Victor Wenzhong, professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Shanghai University, and was presented at the American Heart Association's Epidemiology and Prevention - Lifestyle and Cardiovascular Health sessions held from March 18 to 21, and Newsweek wrote about it.

The researchers analyzed data from more than 20,000 adults across the United States.

Scientists found that those who ate only during 8 hours of the day (i.e., fasted 16 hours a day) following a specific eating schedule were 91% more likely to die from cardiovascular disease compared to those who followed a normal schedule.

This result is unexpected, as previous studies have found that intermittent fasting improves blood pressure, blood glucose levels, and cholesterol.

Intermittent fasting

Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern that alternates between periods of fasting and eating.

There are several methods for intermittent fasting, but the most common include the 16/8 method, which involves fasting for 16 hours a day and restricting food intake to 8 hours, and the 5:2 method, which involves eating normally for 5 hours during the weekdays and restricting calorie intake. Calories to 500-600 calories for two non-consecutive days.

"Restricting daily eating time to a short period, such as 8 hours a day, has gained popularity in recent years as a way to lose weight and improve heart health," Chung said.

For its part, Jiao Tong University School of Medicine in Shanghai, China, said in a statement, “The long-term health effects of time-restricted eating, including the risk of death from any cause or cardiovascular disease, are unknown.”

The researchers found that for people with cardiovascular disease, eating between 8 and 10 hours a day increased the risk of death from heart disease or stroke by 66%, and that intermittent fasting did not reduce the overall risk of death from any disease. .

The researchers also found that people with cancer who eat more than 16 hours a day have a lower risk of death.

"We were surprised to find that people who followed a specific 8-hour eating schedule were more likely to die from cardiovascular disease," Chung said.

"It shows that compared to the typical eating time range of 12 to 16 hours per day, shorter eating duration was not associated with living longer."

“It is important for patients, especially those with heart disease or cancer, to be aware of the association between 8-hour eating and an increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease,” Chung said. “The results of our study encourage a more careful and personalized approach to dietary recommendations.” .

Chung added, "Although the study identified an association between an 8-hour eating window and cardiovascular death, this does not mean that time-restricted eating causes cardiovascular death."

Some limitations of this study include the fact that subjects self-reported their dietary schedule, which means that these data may be influenced by patient memory.

The analysis also did not include factors such as the duration of eating, or even the cause of death.

Be careful of the results

The research study has not been published yet, so it is too early to judge the reliability of the results.

However, one must be cautious about the results, and not jump to general conclusions that intermittent fasting is harmful to health, as the majority of current studies confirm its benefits.

This is what experts are calling for. Duane Mellor, a nutritionist and lecturer at Aston Medical School, Aston University - who was not involved in the study - said: “It is impossible to determine whether how a person restricts the time to eat is related to the risk of health outcomes as the study suggests, because "It's not clear, given that the data is so limited based on two days of diet recall, why they would do that."

Mellor explained: "They may be restricting the time they eat. Some people may do so for health reasons, while others do so because of stressful work environments or poverty, which are risk factors for death from cardiovascular disease."

"We have to be very careful not to make alarmist headlines and stories based on such limited information. What you eat and your general lifestyle are probably more important than if you ate all your food in less than 8 hours two days a year," he added.

For his part, Baptiste Laurent, an associate professor of medical statistics at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was not involved in the study, said, “The results presented in this conference abstract are very striking, and indicate that those who follow a time-restricted diet may have twice the risk of death.” "Cardiovascular disease. This would challenge the commonly perceived health benefits of this popular diet."

He added that the information available is very limited.

The full research has not yet been published, and these results are too brief to draw any conclusion. For example, it is not clear whether the results reported take into account the underlying difference between the comparison groups - for example, whether people who follow this diet tend to be If you are older, or more at risk for cardiovascular disease, then it would be understandable that an association between intermittent fasting and an increased risk of death would appear.

Source: Websites + Newsweek