Benefits of Fasting

Ramadan is the time of religious fasting for muslims. It means one month of fasting and then breaking the fast with your family and friends. More and more people are fasting not only during Ramadan. Fasting has long been only associated with religious rituals and diets. Research even shows routine periodic fasting is also good for your health. Many people don't know about the impacts of fasting on the body, so here some effects of fasting on your body:

1. Brain function
 
Short-term fasting might trigger autophagy, the progress when cells recycle waste material, downregulate wasteful processes, and repair themselves. Fasting can increase levels of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), which is a protein that interacts with the parts of the brain that regulate memory, learning, and higher cognitive function. Low levels of BDNF might be connected to Alzheimer's.

2. Fasting Helps Weight loss
 
It decreases caloric intake and lowers weight gain. Moreover, it might decrease the risk of metabolic disease. In addition, It can increases fat burning while sparing lean mass.

3. Fasting Improves Insulin Sensitivity
 
Intermittent fasting helps to improve insulin sensitivity and to reduce insulin resistance.
Fasting causes hunger or stress. In response, the body releases more cholesterol, allowing it to utilise fat as a source of fuel, instead of glucose. The fewer fat cells a body has, the less likely it will experience insulin resistance, or diabetes. It can lower the risk of coronary artery, too.

4. Cholesterol, triglyceride and ghrelin
 
Fasting raises good and bad cholesterol.
Triglyceride levels decrease which reduces the risk of heart diseases.
Fasting increases the level of ghrelin (the hunger hormone) to encourage overeating.

5. Fasting Promotes Longevity
 
Believe it or not, the less you eat the longer you will live. Studies have shown how the lifespan of people in certain cultures increased due to their diets. However, we don’t need to live amongst a foreign community to reap the benefits of fasting. One of the primary effects of ageing is a slower metabolism, the younger your body is, the faster and more efficient your metabolism. The less you eat, the less toll it takes on your digestive system.

6. Fasting Helps Clear The Skin and Prevent Acne
 
Fasting can help clear the skin because with the body temporarily freed from digestion, it’s able to focus its regenerative energies on other systems.

Not eating anything for just one day has shown to help the body clean up the toxins and regulate the functioning of other organs of the body like liver, kidneys and other parts.

7. Fasting Improves Immune System
 
Intermittent fasting improves the immune system because it reduces free radical damage, regulates inflammatory conditions in the body and starves off cancer cell formation.

In nature, when animals get sick they stop eating and instead focus on resting. This is a primal instinct to reduce stress on their internal system so their body can fight off infection. We humans are the only species who look for food when we are ill, even when we do not need it.