Fasting as we all know brings many health benefits. Although these health benefits can motivate an individual to fast, Muslims, regardless of their health benefits should fast because Allah commanded it in the Quran. The following includes a list of scientifically proven health benefits:
1.Fasting can lower risk of diabetes
Fasting can be an alternative to calorie restriction approach for… diabetes risk reduction.
(Barnosky et al., 2014)
2.Fasting can assist in lowering fat
short-term fasting actually increases your metabolic rate by 3.6-14%
(Mansell, 1990)
3.Fasting can reduce oxidative stress (aging)
Fasting extends lifespan and increase resistance to age-related diseases”
(Mattson and Wan, 2005)
4.Fasting is good for brain health
Fasting may increase the growth of new nerve cells, which should benefit the brain function.
(Lee et al., 2000)
5.Increase of Human growth hormone
Two days of fasting induced a 5-fold increase… in growth hormone rate.
(M L Hartman., 1992)
Bibliography
(M L Hartman., 1992)M L Hartman, J D Veldhuis, M L Johnson, M M Lee, K G Alberti, E Samojlik, M O Thorner; Augmented growth hormone (GH) secretory burst frequency and amplitude mediate enhanced GH secretion during a two-day fast in normal men. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1992; 74 (4): 757-765. doi: 10.1210/jcem.74.4.1548337 (Mansell, 1990)Mansell, P. (1990). Enhanced thermogenic response to epinephrine after 48-h starvation in humans. American Journal of Physiology – Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, 258, p.1.(Barnosky et al., 2014)Barnosky, A., Hoddy, K., Unterman, T. and Varady, K. (2014). Intermittent fasting vs daily calorie restriction for type 2 diabetes prevention: a review of human findings. Translational Research, 164(4), pp.302-311.(Mattson and Wan, 2005)Mattson, M. and Wan, R. (2005). Beneficial effects of intermittent fasting and caloric restriction on the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular systems. The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, 16(3), pp.129–137.(Lee et al., 2000)Lee, J., Duan, W., Long, J., Ingram, D. and Mattson, M. (2000). Dietary Restriction Increases the Number of Newly Generated Neural Cells, and Induces BDNF Expression, in the Dentate Gyrus of Rats. Journal of Molecular Neuroscience, 15(2), pp.99-108.
