Fasting May Prevent Diabetes in the "At-Risk"

For those at serious risk of developing type two diabetes, taking up periodic fasting may significantly reduce risks, researchers suggest.

According to researchers from the Intermountain Heart Institute (IHI) at Intermountain Medicinal Center in Murray, Utah, cholesterol levels actually rise within a brief 24-hour period of fasting.

However, "we expect that the [additional] cholesterol was used for energy during the fasting episodes and likely came from fat cells," Dr. Benjamin Horne, lead researcher, said in a recent statement. "This leads us to believe fasting may be an effective diabetes intervention."

Horne and his colleagues spent the last several years studying the impacts of fasting, presenting their latest findings at the 2014 American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions in San Francisco.

According to preliminary results from their work, the IHI researchers have discovered that although brief fasting raises cholesterol, it may just be a sign that the body is tapping into reserve energy stored in fat cells. In more prolonged fasting situations, this cholesterol is burned through, decreasing "bad" cholesterol levels in a person over a six-week period of on-and-off fasting.

This could prove most beneficial for prediabetics, the researchers suggest, as prediabetics face blood glucose levels higher than normal, but not high enough to be classified as diabetes. According to Horne, prediabetes is largely caused by insulin resistance, where insulin production becomes so high that the pancreas can no longer produce the body's required levels of insulin, which causes blood sugar to rise.

"The fat cells themselves are a major contributor to insulin resistance, which can lead to diabetes," Horne explained. "Because fasting may help to eliminate and break down fat cells, insulin resistance may be frustrated by fasting."

The IHI researchers say that although they now have evidence of why exactly fasting can help prediabetics, they still do not know the optimal amount of fasting someone who is at risk for diabetes should undergo.

"How long and how often people should fast for health benefits are additional questions we're just beginning to examine," Horne said.

As the presented results have yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, it is recommended that they be viewed as preliminary findings.