The interest in fasting has grown significantly in recent years.
Researchers, however, lack knowledge about how long breaks between meals affect the health of older people, according to Forskning.se.
A new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in the Journal of Internal Medicine now sheds light on exactly this issue.
The study shows that long breaks between meals can be associated with a faster development of chronic diseases. The connection is, according to the researchers, most evident among people who have passed 78 years of age.
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Decades of research
The research team has analyzed large amounts of data from a national Swedish study on aging.
The study includes nearly 3000 participants with an age of at least 60 years.
The health of the participants was followed systematically over a long period of up to 15 years. Researchers calculated the time between meals based on the participants' own information about their daily eating habits.
Several diseases in play
The study shows a clear connection in people with a daily break of 14 to 24 hours without food.
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This group experienced a faster development of diseases compared to participants with a fasting window of under 12 hours.
The pattern applies to the total number of chronic conditions as well as cardiovascular diseases and neuropsychiatric diseases.
The research can, however, not yet establish that the eating pattern itself is the direct cause of the faster disease development.
The researchers point out that the new results differ from previous studies of fasting in much younger people.
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This article is made and published by Ida-Marie Palm Varbæk, who may have used AI in the preparation.