the health impacts of ramadan fasting

Ramadan is the holy month of obligatory fasting for all the healthy muslims who have reached puberty. in ramadan, fasting individuals consume two meals per day, the first of which is before down to prepare for fasting (sahur), and second meal is at sunset (iftar). fasting is a ritual and religious obligation with numerous beneficial health effects, especially in patients with diet-dependent diseases. fasting could significantly reduce peptic and duodenal ulcers in combination with h2 blockers and improve the lipid profile, especially through the regulation of total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein, and lo-density lipoprotein, which may be involved in the incidence of heart failure. furthermore, fasting could enhance the systolic and diastolic blood pressure more significantly compared to the use of drugs such as perindopril/indapamide. evidence suggests that ischemic stroke and cancer could also be improved by intermitted fasting via multiple pathways and factors such as bdnf, bfgf, grp78, hsp70, tyrosine kinase receptor b (trkb), fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (fgfr1), and ketosis. the present study aimed to systematically review the published literature regarding the effects of ramadan fasting on the mentioned diseases.