Intermittent Fasting and lung volume.....

Well, I have never heard of the Saudi Medical Journal, but those of you with an interest in intermittent fasting might find this new article interesting. Every year during Ramadan, Muslims practice a form of IF, not eating during daylight. This study looked at how this practice affected lung volumes and capacity in healthy people.

Evaluation of the effect of islamic fasting on lung volumes and capacities in the healthy persons

Objectives: To evaluate the changes in pulmonary volumes during and after Islamic fasting.

Methods: It is a cohort study conducted on 117 healthy subjects selected on a random basis from employees, professors and students of Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, between December 1999 and January 2000. All of them underwent spirometry 10 days prior to Ramadan, 2 times during Ramadan, and one time 10 days post-Ramadan. In first visit, in addition to spirometry they underwent medical examination to make sure they are healthy. All of their spirometries and background information were collected. Repeated measurements analysis of varience method was used to compare the measurements.

Results: Approximately 69% of subjects were male and the mean age was 23.9 years. Mean fasting time was 27.8 days. The mean difference in forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1%) was significant between the 4 visits (p=0.01). The mean FEV1% increased both during fasting and after Ramadan (p=0.017). The mean vital capacity and peak expiratory flow rate values increased during Ramadan significantly (p=0.043, p<0.001). p="0.02)," p="0.004)" p="0.047)" style="font-weight: bold;">Conclusions: As a whole, fasting increases lung volumes and might improve pulmonary function. This finding seems to be relevant to the changes in weight during Ramadan.

What does this mean?

I am not sure! Pubmed lists other studies that show that there is no change in lung function as a result of IF, so maybe the jury is still out. If you are interested in this way of eating however you might want to see if you perceive that it benefits your "wind".

Find out more about IF

I've posted a bit about IF before on this blog. Click here to see all IF posts. Alternatively check out these books:


Eat Stop Eat - an ebook which looks at lots of the science behind this way of eating and explains it in an easy to understand way.




Fast 5 (free introductory book)