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Safety, health improvement and well-being during a 4 to 21-day fasting period in an observational study including 1422 subjects

Only few studies document longer periods of fasting in large cohorts including non-obese participants. The aim of this study was to document prospectively the safety and any changes in basic health and well-being indicators during Buchinger periodic fasting within a specialised clinic. In a one-year...

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Autores principales: Wilhelmi de Toledo, Françoise, Grundler, Franziska, Bergouignan, Audrey, Drinda, Stefan, Michalsen, Andreas
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6314618/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30601864
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0209353
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author Wilhelmi de Toledo, Françoise
Grundler, Franziska
Bergouignan, Audrey
Drinda, Stefan
Michalsen, Andreas
author_facet Wilhelmi de Toledo, Françoise
Grundler, Franziska
Bergouignan, Audrey
Drinda, Stefan
Michalsen, Andreas
author_sort Wilhelmi de Toledo, Françoise
collection PubMed
description Only few studies document longer periods of fasting in large cohorts including non-obese participants. The aim of this study was to document prospectively the safety and any changes in basic health and well-being indicators during Buchinger periodic fasting within a specialised clinic. In a one-year observational study 1422 subjects participated in a fasting program consisting of fasting periods of between 4 and 21 days. Subjects were grouped in fasting period lengths of 5, 10, 15 and 20±2 days. The participants fasted according to the Buchinger guidelines with a daily caloric intake of 200–250 kcal accompanied by a moderate-intensity lifestyle program. Clinical parameters as well as adverse effects and well-being were documented daily. Blood examinations before and at the end of the fasting period complemented the pre-post analysis using mixed-effects linear models. Significant reductions in weight, abdominal circumference and blood pressure were observed in the whole group (each p<0.001). A beneficial modulating effect of fasting on blood lipids, glucoregulation and further general health-related blood parameters was shown. In all groups, fasting led to a decrease in blood glucose levels to low norm range and to an increase in ketone bodies levels (each p<0.001), documenting the metabolic switch. An increase in physical and emotional well-being (each p<0.001) and an absence of hunger feeling in 93.2% of the subjects supported the feasibility of prolonged fasting. Among the 404 subjects with pre-existing health-complaints, 341 (84.4%) reported an improvement. Adverse effects were reported in less than 1% of the participants. The results from 1422 subjects showed for the first time that Buchinger periodic fasting lasting from 4 to 21 days is safe and well tolerated. It led to enhancement of emotional and physical well-being and improvements in relevant cardiovascular and general risk factors, as well as subjective health complaints.
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spelling pubmed-63146182019-01-11 Safety, health improvement and well-being during a 4 to 21-day fasting period in an observational study including 1422 subjects Wilhelmi de Toledo, Françoise Grundler, Franziska Bergouignan, Audrey Drinda, Stefan Michalsen, Andreas PLoS One Research Article Only few studies document longer periods of fasting in large cohorts including non-obese participants. The aim of this study was to document prospectively the safety and any changes in basic health and well-being indicators during Buchinger periodic fasting within a specialised clinic. In a one-year observational study 1422 subjects participated in a fasting program consisting of fasting periods of between 4 and 21 days. Subjects were grouped in fasting period lengths of 5, 10, 15 and 20±2 days. The participants fasted according to the Buchinger guidelines with a daily caloric intake of 200–250 kcal accompanied by a moderate-intensity lifestyle program. Clinical parameters as well as adverse effects and well-being were documented daily. Blood examinations before and at the end of the fasting period complemented the pre-post analysis using mixed-effects linear models. Significant reductions in weight, abdominal circumference and blood pressure were observed in the whole group (each p<0.001). A beneficial modulating effect of fasting on blood lipids, glucoregulation and further general health-related blood parameters was shown. In all groups, fasting led to a decrease in blood glucose levels to low norm range and to an increase in ketone bodies levels (each p<0.001), documenting the metabolic switch. An increase in physical and emotional well-being (each p<0.001) and an absence of hunger feeling in 93.2% of the subjects supported the feasibility of prolonged fasting. Among the 404 subjects with pre-existing health-complaints, 341 (84.4%) reported an improvement. Adverse effects were reported in less than 1% of the participants. The results from 1422 subjects showed for the first time that Buchinger periodic fasting lasting from 4 to 21 days is safe and well tolerated. It led to enhancement of emotional and physical well-being and improvements in relevant cardiovascular and general risk factors, as well as subjective health complaints. Public Library of Science 2019-01-02 /pmc/articles/PMC6314618/ /pubmed/30601864 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0209353 Text en © 2019 Wilhelmi de Toledo et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Wilhelmi de Toledo, Françoise
Grundler, Franziska
Bergouignan, Audrey
Drinda, Stefan
Michalsen, Andreas
Safety, health improvement and well-being during a 4 to 21-day fasting period in an observational study including 1422 subjects
title Safety, health improvement and well-being during a 4 to 21-day fasting period in an observational study including 1422 subjects
title_full Safety, health improvement and well-being during a 4 to 21-day fasting period in an observational study including 1422 subjects
title_fullStr Safety, health improvement and well-being during a 4 to 21-day fasting period in an observational study including 1422 subjects
title_full_unstemmed Safety, health improvement and well-being during a 4 to 21-day fasting period in an observational study including 1422 subjects
title_short Safety, health improvement and well-being during a 4 to 21-day fasting period in an observational study including 1422 subjects
title_sort safety, health improvement and well-being during a 4 to 21-day fasting period in an observational study including 1422 subjects
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6314618/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30601864
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0209353
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