Intermittent Fasting: Good for the Heart

According to a new study, intermittent fasting may protect the heart by controlling inflammation.

Intermittent fasting involves eliminating food and beverage consumption during specific days or hours. There are different ways to incorporate intermittent fasting into your life. Some people restrict food and beverage in take for 24 hours at a time, a couple days a week and others find it easier to restrict hours. For example, a 16-hour fast may have someone not eating or drinking after 6 pm and resuming a normal diet at 10 am. There are no hard and fast rules to an intermittent fasting diet.

The results of the study were published in September in the European Heart Journal Open and showed that while intermittent fasting did not lower LDL, the "bad cholesterol", it did improve scores on insulin resistance, which can increase blood sugar and lead to Type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions that can increase a person's risk for heart attack and stroke.

Intermittent fasting was ultimately found to increase a person's lifespan and decrease the risk of heart failure.