Intermittent Fasting Linked to a 91% Higher Risk of Cardiovascular Death

Research highlights:

• A study of more than 20,000 adults found that those who followed an 8-hour time-restricted eating schedule, a type of intermittent fasting, had a 91% higher risk of dying from an infectious disease. cardiovascular disease.
• People with heart disease or cancer also had an increased risk of cardiovascular death.
• When compared to a standard schedule of eating over 12 to 16 hours per day, restricting food intake to less than 8 hours per day was not associated with longer life.

An analysis of more than 20,000 U.S. adults found that people who followed a time-restricted eating plan, restricting their eating to less than 8 hours a day, had lower cardiovascular risk than those who ate for 12 to 16 hours a day. They were found to be more likely to die from the disease. According to preliminary research presented at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology and Prevention | Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Science Session 2024, held March 18-21 in Chicago. This conference will provide the latest science on population-based health and wellness and lifestyle influences.

Understand time-restricted eating

Time-restricted eating, a type of intermittent fasting, involves restricting your eating times to specific times each day. This ranges from 4 to 12 hours in a 24-hour period. Researchers note that many people on time-restricted diets follow a 16:8 eating schedule, meaning they eat all their food within eight hours each day and fast for the remaining 16 hours. did. Previous research has shown that time-restricted eating improves several indicators of cardiometabolic health, including blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol levels.

Research results and implications

“Restricting your daily eating time to short periods of time, such as eight hours a day, has become increasingly popular in recent years as a way to lose weight and improve heart health,” said Victor Wenze, lead study author and professor.・Dr. Zong said. He is also the Dean of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China. “However, the long-term health effects of time-restricted eating, including the risk of death from any cause or cardiovascular disease, are unknown.”

Study details and limitations

In this study, researchers investigated the potential long-term health effects of following an 8-hour time-restricted eating plan. They extracted information on the dietary patterns of participants in the 2003-2018 Annual National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) who died in the U.S. from 2003 to December 2019 from national data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This was compared with data on people. Mortality index database.

The analysis revealed the following:

• People who followed a pattern of eating all their meals in less than eight hours a day had a 91% higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.
• An increased risk of cardiovascular death was also seen in people with heart disease and cancer.
• For people with pre-existing cardiovascular disease, eating for more than eight hours but less than 10 hours per day was also associated with a 66% higher risk of death from heart disease or stroke.
• Time-restricted eating does not reduce the overall risk of death from any cause.
• Eating more than 16 hours per day was associated with a lower risk of cancer death in cancer patients.

“We were surprised to discover that people who restricted their time and followed an eight-hour eating schedule were more likely to die from cardiovascular disease. This type of diet has short-term effects. However, in our study, shorter eating times were not associated with longer lives compared to the typical eating range of 12 to 16 hours per day. This is clearly shown,” Zhong said.

“It is critical for patients, especially those with pre-existing heart disease or cancer, to be aware of the association between the 8-hour meal window and increased risk of cardiovascular death. “We encourage a more careful and individualized approach to dietary recommendations, ensuring they are consistent with individual health status and the latest scientific evidence,” he continued. “Although this study confirmed an association between an 8-hour eating window and cardiovascular death, this does not mean that time-restricted eating caused cardiovascular death.”
Research details and background:

• The study involved approximately 20,000 U.S. adults with an average age of 49.
• Study participants were followed for a median of 8 years and up to 17 years.
• This study included data from NHANES participants who were at least 20 years of age at enrollment from 2003 to 2018 and completed two 24-hour dietary recall questionnaires within the first year of enrollment. .
• Approximately half of the participants identified as male and half identified as female. 73.3% of participants self-identified as non-Hispanic white adults, 11% self-identified as Hispanic adults, 8% self-identified as non-Hispanic black adults, and 6.9% of adults. identified themselves as a separate racial category, including mixed. -Adults of all races and adults of other non-Hispanic races.

Limitations of this study include its reliance on self-reported dietary information, which may be influenced by participants’ memory and recall, and may not accurately assess typical dietary patterns. There is a gender. Factors that may influence health other than daily meal times and cause of death were not included in the analysis.

Future research will explore the biological mechanisms underlying the association between time-restricted eating schedules and adverse cardiovascular outcomes and whether these results are similar in people living in other parts of the world. The authors noted that this may be investigated.

Expert perspectives and future research directions

“Overall, this study suggests that while time-restricted eating may be effective in the short term, it may have negative effects in the long term. Once the study is published in its entirety, It will be interesting and useful to learn more about the details of the analysis,” said Christopher D. Gardner, Ph.D., FAHA, Lemborg Farquhar Professor of Medicine at Stanford University. , State of California, and Chair of the Society’s 2023 Scientific Statement Writing Committee, Popular Meal Patterns: Alignment with the American Heart Association’s 2021 Dietary Guidance.

“One of those details concerns the nutritional value of the meals specific to different subsets of participants. Without this information, the nutritional It is not possible to determine whether density is an alternative explanation. Second, it must be emphasized that the classification of time-restricted diets into different bins was determined based on only 2 days of dietary intake. “There is,” he said.

“It is also important to compare demographics and baseline characteristics across groups categorized into different time-restricted eating windows. For example, the group with the shortest time-restricted eating windows is the most Was it unique compared to those following it? How did other eating schedules fare in terms of body weight, stress, traditional cardiometabolic risk factors, or other factors associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes? This additional information will help us better understand the potential independent contribution of the short-term restriction eating patterns reported in this interesting and provocative summary.”