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Intermittent Fasting—Short- and Long-Term Quality of Life, Fatigue, and Safety in Healthy Volunteers: A Prospective, Clinical Trial

Background: Intermittent fasting (IF) is defined as an eating pattern without calorie restrictions, alternating between periods of fasting and eating. In the past decades IF has not only become a popular weight-reducing diet but is thought to improve Quality of Life (QoL) and fatigue. However, very...

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Autores principales: Anic, Katharina, Schmidt, Mona W., Furtado, Larissa, Weidenbach, Lina, Battista, Marco J., Schmidt, Marcus, Schwab, Roxana, Brenner, Walburgis, Ruckes, Christian, Lotz, Johannes, Lackner, Karl J., Hasenburg, Annbalou, Hasenburg, Annette
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9571750/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36235868
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu14194216
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author Anic, Katharina
Schmidt, Mona W.
Furtado, Larissa
Weidenbach, Lina
Battista, Marco J.
Schmidt, Marcus
Schwab, Roxana
Brenner, Walburgis
Ruckes, Christian
Lotz, Johannes
Lackner, Karl J.
Hasenburg, Annbalou
Hasenburg, Annette
author_facet Anic, Katharina
Schmidt, Mona W.
Furtado, Larissa
Weidenbach, Lina
Battista, Marco J.
Schmidt, Marcus
Schwab, Roxana
Brenner, Walburgis
Ruckes, Christian
Lotz, Johannes
Lackner, Karl J.
Hasenburg, Annbalou
Hasenburg, Annette
author_sort Anic, Katharina
collection PubMed
description Background: Intermittent fasting (IF) is defined as an eating pattern without calorie restrictions, alternating between periods of fasting and eating. In the past decades IF has not only become a popular weight-reducing diet but is thought to improve Quality of Life (QoL) and fatigue. However, very little evidence exists for the general population. Thus, we aimed to assess the impact of a 16-h fasting period per day over a three-month study period on QoL and especially fatigue in healthy people. Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study including healthy subjects. All participants fasted 16 h for at least five days a week while maintaining their normal lifestyle. In the study, we analysed blood samples as well as QoL through standardized questionnaires (WHO-5 questionnaire, Short Form Health 36). Furthermore, we measured the degree of fatigue with the Fatigue Assessment Scale (FAS) and Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) as well as compliance, activity records, and weight alterations. All endpoints were evaluated at baseline, after two weeks, four weeks, and three months of IF. Results: A total of 30 participants fasted for the entire study period. The results of the WHO-5 questionnaire (15.6 ± 4.6 vs. 18 ± 3.6, p < 0.0019) demonstrated a significant increase in QoL. For long-term QoL six out of eight domains measured by the Short Form Health 36 (SF-36) significantly improved (e.g., physical health: 92.3 ± 11.6 vs. 96.5 ± 6.3, p = 0.015; mental health: 75.5 ± 12.0 vs. 81.7 ± 9.0; p < 0.001 and body pain: 74.1 ± 31.8 vs. 89.5 ± 14.9; p = 0.008) after three months. Fatigue significantly decreased from 10.3 ± 3.2 to 8.4 ± 2.5; p = 0.002 for mental fatigue and from 12.6 ± 3.8 to 10.7 ± 3.3; p = 0.002 measured by the FAS. The mean FSS-Score at baseline was 3.5 ± 1.2 compared to 2.9 ± 1.1 (scale 1–7) after three months (p < 0.001). Notably, the proliferation marker IGF-1 was significantly reduced. No clinically significant changes in laboratory parameters were observed that would have endangered a participant’s safety. Conclusions: IF according to the 16:8 regime over a fasting period of three months significantly improved several aspects of the QoL and decreased fatigue in healthy people, while maintaining a good safety profile. The practicability of this diet was also demonstrated for shift workers and people with a high percentage of active labour. Apart from the improvement in QoL and fatigue, the significant reduction in IGF-1, which can act as an accelerator of tumour development and progression, might be an indicator of the potential benefits of IF for patients with cancer.
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spelling pubmed-95717502022-10-17 Intermittent Fasting—Short- and Long-Term Quality of Life, Fatigue, and Safety in Healthy Volunteers: A Prospective, Clinical Trial Anic, Katharina Schmidt, Mona W. Furtado, Larissa Weidenbach, Lina Battista, Marco J. Schmidt, Marcus Schwab, Roxana Brenner, Walburgis Ruckes, Christian Lotz, Johannes Lackner, Karl J. Hasenburg, Annbalou Hasenburg, Annette Nutrients Article Background: Intermittent fasting (IF) is defined as an eating pattern without calorie restrictions, alternating between periods of fasting and eating. In the past decades IF has not only become a popular weight-reducing diet but is thought to improve Quality of Life (QoL) and fatigue. However, very little evidence exists for the general population. Thus, we aimed to assess the impact of a 16-h fasting period per day over a three-month study period on QoL and especially fatigue in healthy people. Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study including healthy subjects. All participants fasted 16 h for at least five days a week while maintaining their normal lifestyle. In the study, we analysed blood samples as well as QoL through standardized questionnaires (WHO-5 questionnaire, Short Form Health 36). Furthermore, we measured the degree of fatigue with the Fatigue Assessment Scale (FAS) and Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) as well as compliance, activity records, and weight alterations. All endpoints were evaluated at baseline, after two weeks, four weeks, and three months of IF. Results: A total of 30 participants fasted for the entire study period. The results of the WHO-5 questionnaire (15.6 ± 4.6 vs. 18 ± 3.6, p < 0.0019) demonstrated a significant increase in QoL. For long-term QoL six out of eight domains measured by the Short Form Health 36 (SF-36) significantly improved (e.g., physical health: 92.3 ± 11.6 vs. 96.5 ± 6.3, p = 0.015; mental health: 75.5 ± 12.0 vs. 81.7 ± 9.0; p < 0.001 and body pain: 74.1 ± 31.8 vs. 89.5 ± 14.9; p = 0.008) after three months. Fatigue significantly decreased from 10.3 ± 3.2 to 8.4 ± 2.5; p = 0.002 for mental fatigue and from 12.6 ± 3.8 to 10.7 ± 3.3; p = 0.002 measured by the FAS. The mean FSS-Score at baseline was 3.5 ± 1.2 compared to 2.9 ± 1.1 (scale 1–7) after three months (p < 0.001). Notably, the proliferation marker IGF-1 was significantly reduced. No clinically significant changes in laboratory parameters were observed that would have endangered a participant’s safety. Conclusions: IF according to the 16:8 regime over a fasting period of three months significantly improved several aspects of the QoL and decreased fatigue in healthy people, while maintaining a good safety profile. The practicability of this diet was also demonstrated for shift workers and people with a high percentage of active labour. Apart from the improvement in QoL and fatigue, the significant reduction in IGF-1, which can act as an accelerator of tumour development and progression, might be an indicator of the potential benefits of IF for patients with cancer. MDPI 2022-10-10 /pmc/articles/PMC9571750/ /pubmed/36235868 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu14194216 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Anic, Katharina
Schmidt, Mona W.
Furtado, Larissa
Weidenbach, Lina
Battista, Marco J.
Schmidt, Marcus
Schwab, Roxana
Brenner, Walburgis
Ruckes, Christian
Lotz, Johannes
Lackner, Karl J.
Hasenburg, Annbalou
Hasenburg, Annette
Intermittent Fasting—Short- and Long-Term Quality of Life, Fatigue, and Safety in Healthy Volunteers: A Prospective, Clinical Trial
title Intermittent Fasting—Short- and Long-Term Quality of Life, Fatigue, and Safety in Healthy Volunteers: A Prospective, Clinical Trial
title_full Intermittent Fasting—Short- and Long-Term Quality of Life, Fatigue, and Safety in Healthy Volunteers: A Prospective, Clinical Trial
title_fullStr Intermittent Fasting—Short- and Long-Term Quality of Life, Fatigue, and Safety in Healthy Volunteers: A Prospective, Clinical Trial
title_full_unstemmed Intermittent Fasting—Short- and Long-Term Quality of Life, Fatigue, and Safety in Healthy Volunteers: A Prospective, Clinical Trial
title_short Intermittent Fasting—Short- and Long-Term Quality of Life, Fatigue, and Safety in Healthy Volunteers: A Prospective, Clinical Trial
title_sort intermittent fasting—short- and long-term quality of life, fatigue, and safety in healthy volunteers: a prospective, clinical trial
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9571750/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36235868
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu14194216
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