Fasting can lower diabetes risk: Study

Do you know that 10 to 12 hours of fasting triggers body to begin scavenging for other sources of energy to sustain itself?

The body pulls LDL (bad) cholesterol from the fat cells and uses it as energy.

This natural biological process can help pre-diabetes combat risk for developing diabetes, a study says.

"Fasting has the potential to become an important diabetes intervention," said lead researcher Benjamin Horne from the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Murray, Utah.

Researchers analysed participants with pre-diabetics, including men and women, between ages 30 and 69.

"During actual fasting days, cholesterol went up slightly among them. But over a six-week period, cholesterol levels decreased by about 12 percent in addition to weight loss," researchers added.

Cholesterol was used for energy during the fasting episodes and likely came from fat cells.

The fat cells themselves are a major contributor to insulin resistance which can lead to diabetes.

"Because fasting may help eliminate and break down fat cells, insulin resistance may be frustrated by fasting," Horne said.

Prior research done by Horne and his team focused on healthy people during one day of fasting and showed that routine, water-only fasting was associated with lower glucose levels and weight loss.