Ramadan Intermittent Fasting and Its Beneficial Effects of Health: A Review Article

Abstract

During the Ramadan month, Muslims abstain from eating any food, drinking any liquid, smoking and sexual intercourse in this holy month as testimony of faith, charity, pilgrimage, and daily prayer during daylight hours. Food and drinks are allowed before dawn and after sunset these meals are called suhoor and iftar, respectively. the aim of this article is to review the health benefits of Ramadan fasting by addressing peer reviewed human and animal studies published in international academic journals. this article is reviewed 40+ published papers from the period of 1970 up to 2019. The papers were searched from different databases, including PubMed/Medline, science direct, plose one, scopus, directory of open access journals and the Cochrane library by using the following key system". This review article concluded that, Ramadan fasting significantly reduces the risk for cardio-vascular diseases and diabetics by decreasing body weight, total cholesterol, ldl cholesterol and increasing HDL cholesterol. other hand, Ramadan fasting have beneficial effects of metabolic markers. It also improves the effectiveness of immune system by decreasing pro-inflammatory cytokines, increasing level of complement proteins and phagocytic activity of polymorphs. It lowers the incidence of diabetes by decreasing insulin resistance, increasing insulin sensitivity, glucose uptake, decreasing lipolysis, and assisting in weight loss. According to the results of the current review, the health benefits of Ramadan fasting could be sustained by leading a healthy lifestyle and practicing optional fasting regularly after the holy month of Ramadan twice a week on mondays and thursdays.