effect of Ramadan fasting on patients with chronic disorders from Bahrain

ABSTRACT

This pilot study was conducted to assess the effect of fasting on patients with chronic disorders during the month of Ramadan 1415 Hrs. Fifteen patients, 13 Bahraini, 2 non-Bahraini, 7 males and 8 females, whose mean ages were 57.2 +/- 11.5 years were randomly selected for the study. Among these were 5 patients [3 M, 2F] with hypertension; 8 [4M, 4F] with NIDDM and 2 [1M, IF] had both hypertension as well as diabetes. All the patients were taking regular medicines for their illnesses, and 6 out of 15 were smokers. Initial physical examination such as body weight, blood pressure, pulse rate and laboratory measurements such as fasting blood glucose level were done at the beginning of Ramadan, then at 2 and 4 weeks intervals. Analysis of the data showed that systolic and diastolic blood pressure, pulse as well as body weight showed a decreasing pattern while fasting blood glucose levels kept on fluctuating. However no statistical significant differences were observed between the pre and post fasting values. A conspicuous increase in the fasting blood glucose levels was observed at the end of second week of fasting [p = 0.0703, marginally significant] in diabetics [Table III]. This could be either due to poor compliance of medications or body's metabolic adjustment in the initial phase. These glucose levels later on decreased but were still higher than the initial values seen at the beginning of Ramadan but again not significantly different [p = 0.3589]