Intermittent fasting can reduce acute COVID-19 complications, according to researchers from Intermountain Healthcare.
A study that was published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Nutrition, Prevention, and Health revealed that COVID-19 patients who practiced water-only intermittent fasting had lower mortality rates from the coronavirus, besides a lower risk of being hospitalized.
During the study, the scientists observed 203 patients in a registry at Intermountain Healthcare, who had tested positive for the coronavirus between March 2020 and February 2021 (before vaccines were publicly available). They noted that 73 of them had reported that they fasted at least once a month and the data showed that those who fasted regularly were at a lower risk of hospitalization and death.
Most of the patients fasted for religious reasons and had been doing it for more than 40 years on average.
The Director of Cardiovascular and Genetic Epidemiology at Intermountain Healthcare, Dr. Benjamin Horne, clarified that “intermittent fasting was not associated with whether or not someone tested positive for COVID-19, but it was associated with lower severity once patients had tested positive for it”.
He also mentioned that “intermittent fasting has already shown to lower inflammation and improve cardiovascular health”.
Fasting results in decreased inflammation, including hyper-inflammation caused by COVID-19, and the body starts to use ketones instead of glucose. Intermittent fasting also stimulates autophagy — a process in which damaged and infected cells are destroyed or recycled.
Dr. Horne acknowledged that while more research is necessary to determine why fasting is so advantageous, it could be attributed to how it affects the body.
The study also cautioned that fasting is not to be practiced as an alternative to the COVID-19 vaccine.