Intermittent Fasting and Obesity-Related Health Outcomes – An Umbrella Review of Meta-analyses of Randomized Clinical Trials
Intermittent Fasting as we know is a novel dietary strategy that involves periods of eating alternated with periods of fasting.
This method improves glucose regulation, increases the resistance to stress, reduces inflammation and initiates the process of autophagy. Several clinical trials have established that Intermittent Fasting have various benefits since it helps not only manage obesity but also improves cardiometabolic parameters. Chanthawat Patikorn and colleagues thereby put forth a review titled “Intermittent Fasting and Obesity-Related Health Outcomes – An Umbrella Review of Meta-analyses of Randomized Clinical Trials” and the summary has been given below.
Objective:
The review aims to summarize the findings of various meta-analyses.
Method:
PubMed, Embase and Cochrane database of systematic reviews were analyzed. The meta-analyses of RCTs exploring the impacts of IF in adults were also included.
Findings:
Intermittent Fasting has showed supreme results with respect to weight loss and metabolic benefits in patients with Obesity.
The positive impacts of Intermittent Fasting were also observed for Body Mass Index, Body Weight, Fat Mass, LDL-Cholesterol, Total Cholesterol, Triglycerides, Fasting Plasma Glucose, Fasting Insulin, HOMA-IR and Systolic and Diastolic Blood Pressure mostly in adults with overweight or obesity. It has been observed that IF is not followed in clinical set-ups yet since it is not standardized, there is heterogeneity present, lack of awareness and a difficulty in adhering to that lifestyle.
Limitations:
The study focused on existing meta-analyses and no adverse outcomes were included. It did not directly evaluate the standard of all primary studies. Thereby it’s relationship with disease conditions such as cancer, cardiovascular events and mortality is still unknown.
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