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It is well-known that Muslims undergo a month-long journey of fasting in the month of Ramadan. They abstain from food and drink for a month from dawn till dusk. Although the purpose of Ramadan is to excel in spirituality and gain nearness with God, there are untold physical benefits of this religious tradition as well.
Fasting during Ramadan is in fact an intermittent fasting which has been a popular subject these days for health professionals, and many people in the media have been discussing the benefits of it as well.
In 2018, scientists made a remarkable discovery that fasting for up to 72 hours fully engages the process of autophagy and cellular homeostasis, helping the body rid itself of dysfunctional or dead cells and recycling them to generate newer and healthier cells at a faster speed. This self-preservation system helps the body fight infectious diseases from viruses and harmful bacteria, and combat cancer.
Even starving the body for a brief period can kick start stem cells into producing new white blood cells that boost our immune system. “It gives the ‘OK’ for stem cells to go ahead and begin proliferating and rebuild the entire system,” said Professor Valter Longo, Professor of Gerontology and the Biological Sciences at the University of California.
Further Prof. Longo said, “And the good news is that the body got rid of the parts of the system that might be damaged or old, the inefficient parts, during the fasting.”
What prolonged fasting does is that it breaks down the glucose and fats stored in your body along with a substantial amount of white blood cells. This in turn leads to the rapid regeneration of the new immune system cells.
During the study, researchers also found that prolonged fasting resulted in the reduction of the enzyme PKA, which is linked to aging and a hormone which increases the risk of cancer and tumour growth. (Study by Valter Longo of the University of Southern California, Leonard Davis School).
Another study, this time in 2012, found that fasting might improve the outcome for those cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Chemotherapy, a brutal treatment for those suffering cancer, targets and kills cancerous tissue. Unfortunately, in this process healthy tissues are also eliminated. As a result of this, researchers in recent years have been on the hunt for a finer, more targeted treatment.
In search of this, researchers in an animal study found that short-term starvation — or fasting — can aid in the treatment of cancer. The study found that in mice with cancer, fasting prior to chemotherapy led to more tumour shrinkage than chemo would on its own. In some cases, they found that such a combination apparently even eliminated some forms of cancer.
Researchers suggested that fasting combined with chemotherapy could extend the survival of those cancer patients in an advanced stage by limiting growth of the tumour and suppressing the side effects of the treatment.
In the study, the fasting mice were allowed to drink water but were not given food for a minimum of two days. When mice with various forms of cancer were subjected to two rounds of 48-hour fasts prior to their chemotherapy, their tumours shrunk more than in those mice who were not subjected to a round of fasting.
Those mice that were put on a fasting-chemo plan showed a 40 per cent greater reduction in their metastases. Fasting also protected the healthy cells from the toxicity of the chemotherapy and by doing so it could, in the future, enable doctors to enhance the power of chemotherapies without having to resort to increasing the toxicity of drugs which have a brutal effect on patients.
Some professors, such as Mary Helen Barcellos-Hoff of the New York University Langone Medical Centre, are even of the opinion that fasting is a potential tool in preventing cancers as it makes the human body less hospitable to the disease. (Fasting cycles retard growth of tumours and sensitize a range of cancer cell types to chemotherapy, Science Transitional Medicine, Vol. 4, Issue 124, March 2012).
Besides the health benefits that have been mentioned in the various studies above, there are many more general physical benefits that science has proven:
- Within days of beginning your fasts, there are increased levels of endorphins in your blood resulting in a higher level of alertness and better mental wellbeing.
- During this month of fasting, toxins stored in your body’s fat are dissolved and removed, resulting in a natural process of detoxification.
- The use of fat as a source of energy during fasting results in weight loss.
- Fasting has shown to improve brain function so make good use of this time.
- Fasting can even help clear the skin and prevent acne. As a result of reduced digestion, the body can focus its regenerative energies on other systems.
Muslims do not fast merely for these medical benefits which are secondary, they just gain these benefits while trying to attain the true purpose of Ramadan which is the obedience and nearness of their God.
There is a very important lesson taught to Muslims through fasting, i.e. rich people eat the best food throughout the year and do not realize the sufferings and starvation of their less fortunate brothers.
However, under the commandment of Islam, even highly affluent people have to fast and then they recognize the pain of hunger and assess the condition of their poor brothers.
This results in the progress and protection of the community that is in fact the welfare of every individual.
Hira Aftab
Outreach and Community Relations
Lajna Imaillah Canada, Bradford West Chapter
