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Nutrition, Vitamins & Supplements for Seniors
Mormons Have Less Heart Disease Due to Monthly
Fasting Says Study
Report to American Heart Association says people
who skip meals better off
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"Fasting has
always been a practice among God’s people. In our day it is a
commandment given by the Lord to all members of the Church. In
addition to occasional special fasts that we might have for
personal or family reasons, we are expected to fast once a month
on the first Sunday. We are taught that there are three aspects
to a proper fast day observance: first, abstaining from food and
drink for two consecutive meals or, in other words, 24 hours;
second, attending fast and testimony meeting; and third, giving
a generous fast offering. – Elder
Carl B. Pratt, “The
Blessings of a Proper Fast,” Ensign, Nov 2004,
Click to more. |
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Nov. 6, 2007 – Members of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS or Mormons) have lower rates of heart
disease than other Americans and a new study of older people indicates
it may be linked to their religious practice of skipping food for one
day a month. The Mormon religion also prohibits smoking and it was
previously assumed this was the reason they enjoyed healthier hearts.
In the 1970s, scientists recognized that Latter-Day
Saints (LDS) in Utah are less likely to die of heart disease than other
Utah residents and Americans overall. The religious prohibition against
tobacco use is usually credited for the health benefit, but researchers
wondered whether other religious teachings also may be important.
Fasting once a month soon came to the attention of the researchers.
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“People who fast seem to receive a
heart-protective benefit, and this appeared to also hold true in non-LDS
people who fast as part of a health-conscious lifestyle,” said Benjamin
D. Horne, Ph.D., M.P.H., study author and director of cardiovascular and
genetic epidemiology at Intermountain Medical Center and adjunct
assistant professor of biomedical informatics at the University of Utah
in Salt Lake City.
Researchers first examined the records of the
Intermountain Heart Collaborative Study registry comprised of patients
who had undergone coronary angiography, an X-ray examination of the
blood vessels of the heart to look for blockages, between 1994 and 2002.
The results were reported at the American Heart Association’s Scientific
Sessions 2007.
Of those patients, 4,629 men and women, average age
64, could clearly be diagnosed either with coronary artery disease (CAD)
– which is at least 70 percent narrowing or blockage detected in at
least one artery, or as free of significant CAD – less than 10 percent
narrowing or blockage.
As expected, CAD was less prevalent in patients who
identified their religious preference as LDS than those who stated
another or no religious preference. Sixty-one percent of LDS members had
CAD versus 66 percent of others.
“When we adjusted for smoking, or looked just at
the nonsmokers, we still found a lower rate of CAD in people having an
LDS religious preference,” Horne said. “We thought this was very
interesting, so we devised a survey about other behaviors associated
with LDS that might bring a health benefit.”
In the second part of the study, 515 patients
(average age 64) who underwent coronary angiography between 2004 and
2006, completed a survey that included religious preference as well as
several specific practices encouraged by the LDS church:
● not smoking;
● fasting (abstaining from food and drink for two consecutive
meals);
● not drinking tea, coffee or alcohol;
● observing a weekly day of rest;
● attending worship services; and
● donating time, goods or money to charity.
Of this group, those who fasted were significantly
less likely to be diagnosed with CAD (59 percent had 70 percent or
greater blockage) than those who did not fast (67 percent had 70 percent
or greater blockage).
“Fasting was the strongest predictor of lower heart
disease risk in the people we surveyed. About 8 percent of the people
who fasted did not express an LDS religious preference, and they also
had less coronary disease,” Horne said.
Patients who did not drink tea were also less
likely to be diagnosed with CAD, but once fasting was considered the
finding wasn’t significant, Horne noted.
Fasting was associated with lower odds of being
diagnosed with CAD by 39 percent. When the researchers compared only
those diagnosed with CAD with those who had minimal or no coronary
disease (less than 10 percent blockage), the impact of fasting was even
more striking, with the odds of a CAD diagnosis being lower by 45
percent.
While this doesn’t prove that fasting is the cause
of having healthier arteries, it does suggest that it is an important,
and new, hypothesis.
Horne said this association between fasting and
healthy arteries could be due to timing.
“When you abstain from food for 24 hours or so, it
reduces the constant exposure of the body to foods and glucose,” he
said.
“One of the major problems in the development of
the metabolic syndrome and the pathway to diabetes is that the
insulin-producing beta cells become desensitized. Routine fasting may
allow them to resensitize — to reset to a baseline level so they work
better.”
The researchers looked separately at people with
diabetes, who are not encouraged to skip meals, and found the same
association of fasting and healthier arteries in both those with
diabetes and those without diabetes. However, this is not sufficient
information to suggest that diabetics should skip meals.
“One exciting thing is that the study could be
replicated in the general population and in other locations in the
United States, including people without an LDS preference who fast for
various philosophical or health reasons,” Horne said. “However, it’s
important to state that this study does not provide evidence diabetics
should skip meals.”
The study is limited because it is not a randomized
or controlled trial, and it only includes people who had sufficient
symptoms to undergo coronary angiography, the gold standard assessment
for CAD. Also, there could be other factors associated with fasting that
are the actual causes of the reduced degree of coronary stenosis seen in
this study.
Editor’s Notes:
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
partly funded the study.
Statements and conclusions of study authors that
are presented at American Heart Association scientific meetings are
solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect
association policy or position. The American Heart Association makes no
representation or warranty as to their accuracy or reliability.
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