Fasting has long been associated with religious rituals, diets, andpolitical protests. Now new evidence from cardiac researchers atthe Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute demonstrates thatroutine periodic fasting is also good for your health, and yourheart. Today, research cardiologists at the Intermountain Medical CenterHeart Institute are reporting that fasting not only lowers one'srisk of coronary artery disease and diabetes , but also causes significant changes in a person's blood cholesterol levels. Both diabetes and elevated cholesterol are known riskfactors for coronary heart disease.
The discovery expands upon a 2007 Intermountain Healthcare studythat revealed an association between fasting and reduced risk ofcoronary heart disease, the leading cause of death among men andwomen in America. In the new research, fasting was also found toreduce other cardiac risk factors, such as triglycerides, weight,and blood sugar levels. The findings are being presented Sunday, April 3, at the annualscientific sessions of the American College of Cardiology in NewOrleans. "These new findings demonstrate that our original discovery was nota chance event," says Dr. Benjamin D.
Horne, PhD, MPH, director ofcardiovascular and genetic epidemiology at the IntermountainMedical Center Heart Institute, and the study's principalinvestigator. "The confirmation among a new set of patients thatfasting is associated with lower risk of these common diseasesraises new questions about how fasting itself reduces risk or if itsimply indicates a healthy lifestyle." Unlike the earlier research by the team, this new research recordedreactions in the body's biological mechanisms during the fastingperiod. The participants' low-density lipoprotein cholesterol(LDL-C, the "bad" cholesterol) and high-density lipoproteincholesterol (HDL-C, the "good" cholesterol) both increased (by 14percent and 6 percent, respectively) raising their totalcholesterol - and catching the researchers by surprise. "Fasting causes hunger or stress.
In response, the body releases more cholesterol, allowing it toutilize fat as a source of fuel, instead of glucose. This decreasesthe number of fat cells in the body," says Dr. Horne. "This isimportant because the fewer fat cells a body has, the less likelyit will experience insulin resistance, or diabetes." This recent study also confirmed earlier findings about the effectsof fasting on human growth hormone (HGH), a metabolic protein.
HGHworks to protect lean muscle and metabolic balance, a responsetriggered and accelerated by fasting. During the 24-hour fastingperiods, HGH increased an average of 1,300 percent in women, andnearly 2,000 percent in men. In this most recent trial, researchers conducted two fastingstudies of over 200 individuals - both patients and healthyvolunteers - who were recruited at Intermountain Medical Center. Asecond 2011 clinical trial followed another 30 patients who drankonly water and ate nothing else for 24 hours.
They were alsomonitored while eating a normal diet during an additional 24-hourperiod. Blood tests and physical measurements were taken from allto evaluate cardiac risk factors, markers of metabolic risk, andother general health parameters. While the results were surprising to researchers, it's not time tostart a fasting diet just yet. It will take more studies like theseto fully determine the body's reaction to fasting and its effect onhuman health. Dr.
Horne believes that fasting could one day beprescribed as a treatment for preventing diabetes and coronaryheart disease. To help achieve the goal of expanded research, the DeseretFoundation (which funded the previous fasting studies) recentlyapproved a new grant to evaluate many more metabolic factors in theblood using stored samples from the recent fasting clinical trial.The researchers will also include an additional clinical trial offasting among patients who have been diagnosed with coronary heartdisease. "We are very grateful for the financial support from the DeseretFoundation. The organization and its donors have made thesegroundbreaking studies of fasting possible," added Dr.
Horne. Members of the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Instituteresearch team included Dr. Horne, Jeffrey L. Anderson, MD, John F.Carlquist, PhD, J. Brent Muhlestein, MD, Donald L.
Lapp , MD,Heidi T. May, PhD, MSPH, Boudi Kfoury, MD, Oxana Galenko, PhD, AmyR. Butler, Dylan P. Nelson, Kimberly D. Brunisholz, Tami L.
Bair,and Samin Panahi. Source: Jess C. Gomez Intermountain Medical Center Additional References Citations. I am a professional writer from Beans, which contains a great deal of information about mens tungsten rings , wholesale baseball cap, welcome to visit!
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