Researchers from Intermountain Healthcare have found that intermittent fasting can lessen the severity of acute COVID-19 problems.
According to research that was written up in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Nutrition, Prevention, and Health, COVID-19 patients who engaged in water-only intermittent fasting had decreased coronavirus death rates as well as a lower likelihood of being admitted to the hospital.
The researchers looked at 203 Intermountain Healthcare patients who had tested positive for the coronavirus between March 2020 and February 2021. (before vaccines were publicly available). Data revealed that those who routinely fasted had a decreased risk of hospitalization and death, and they noticed that 73 of them had stated that they did so at least once every month.
Most of the patients who fasted did so for religious reasons and had been doing so for, on average, more than 40 years.
Intermittent fasting was not connected with whether or not someone tested positive for COVID-19, but it was associated with decreased severity once patients had tested positive for it, according to Dr. Benjamin Horne, director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology at Intermountain Healthcare.
Aside from that, he said that “intermittent fasting has already proved to decrease inflammation and enhance cardiovascular health.”
Inflammation, especially COVID-19-induced hyper inflammation, is reduced by fasting, and the body begins to utilize ketones instead of glucose. Additionally, intermittent fasting promotes autophagy, a process through which diseased and damaged cells are recycled or destroyed.
Dr. Horne stated that although additional investigation is required to ascertain why fasting is so beneficial, it may be related to how it impacts the body.
The research also advised against using fasting as a substitute for the COVID-19 vaccination.
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