Intermittent fasting increases longevity in patients undergoing cardiac catheterisation
While intermittent fasting may sound like another dieting craze, the practice of routinely not eating and drinking for short periods of time has shown again to lead to potentially better health outcomes.
In a new study by researchers at the Intermountain Healthcare Heart Institute in Salt Lake City, USA, researchers have found that cardiac catheterisation patients who practised regular intermittent fasting lived longer than patients who don’t. In addition, the study found that patients who practice intermittent fasting are less likely to be diagnosed with heart failure. “It’s another example of how we’re finding that regularly fasting can lead to better health outcomes and longer lives,” said Benjamin Horne, PhD, principal investigator of the study and director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology at the institute.
In the study, researchers asked 2,001 Intermountain patients undergoing cardiac catheterisation from 2013 to 2015 a series of lifestyle questions, including whether or not they practised routine intermittent fasting. Researchers then followed up with those patients 4.5 years later and found that routine fasters had greater survival rate than those who did not.
Because people who fast routinely also are known to engage in other healthy behaviours, the study also evaluated other parameters including demographics, socioeconomic factors, cardiac risk factors, comorbid diagnoses, medications and treatments, and other lifestyle behaviours such as smoking and alcohol consumption. Correcting statistically for these factors, long-term routine fasting remained a strong predictor of better survival and lower risk of heart failure, according to researchers.
While the study does not show that fasting is the causal effect for better survival, these real-world outcomes in a large population do suggest that fasting may be having an effect and urge continued study of the behaviour. —