Abstract
Objective: Many studies have evaluated the effect of Ramadan fasting on metabolic parameters. None of the previous studies compared the effect of fasting on people from different ethnic backgrounds. We conducted this prospective study to assess fasting Ramadan on Body Mass Index (BMI) and metabolic parameters in healthy volunteers from different ethnic backgrounds. Methodology: We studied the effect of fasting during Ramadan on body mass index, fasting lipid profile, blood glucose and HBA1c in 49 healthy Muslim volunteers. These individuals belong to three different ethnicities; Pakistanis, Sudanese and Emiratis. The blood samples and anthropometric measurements were taken on two occasions; one week before Ramadan and the second was collected with in two weeks after Ramadan. Results: There was a significant difference in body weight and BMI in all subjects of three nationalities at in of Ramadan fasting. There was no significant difference in fasting total cholesterol, triglyceride, HDL and LDL observed in Sudanese and Emiratis group, but subjects belong to Pakistani group showed statistically significant rise in total cholesterol by end of Ramadan. HDL has significantly reduced while total cholesterol has increased significantly in females compared to males. There were no reported hypoglycaemic events. Conclusion: Fasting Ramadan led to a statistically significant reduction in weight and BMI in all participants in same model of fasting. Total cholesterol has increased significantly in the Pakistani group compared to other population at the end of Ramadan. We observed a statistically significant increase in the HDL in females in comparison to males by the end of Fasting Ramadan.
Highlights
According to statistical estimates, Muslims numbers are growing all over the globe, different estimates put range between 1.7 to 2.08 billion individual, in the 2.08 case scenarios, The Muslims number might outweigh all other religious populations when taken separately [1]
We observed a statistically significant increase in the HDL in females in comparison to males by the end of Fasting Ramadan
Total number of volunteers included in the study were fifty five, 6 of them were withdrawn from the final analysis, 5 of them failed to give blood samples at the end of the study, and one volunteer was withdrawn from the study as he did complete fasting during Ramadan due to acute medical illness
Summary
Muslims numbers are growing all over the globe, different estimates put range between 1.7 to 2.08 billion individual, in the 2.08 case scenarios, The Muslims number might outweigh all other religious populations when taken separately [1]. The days and timing of this holy month is decided according to Islamic lunar calendar, which is eleven days shorter than solar calendar, so in every year timings of Ramadan is variable and come in different seasons in different countries. This geographic and seasonal variation determines the duration of fast in different parts of world and on average the time period between sunrise and sunset ranges from 12 to 19 hours, in 2014 the time of fasting varied from 9:59 hours in Sydney, Australia to 21:57 hours in Reykjavik, Iceland [3]. It goes without saying that the metabolic parameters should improve with this long abstinence from food intake, but it became an inappropriate habit; when people start eating from the sunset to, almost, sunrise time that justifies why the month of Ramadan is recently being called the month of Fast and Feasts
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