Ramadan: Is Fasting Good or Bad for Your Health?

Ramadan (Ramzan), the holiest month in the Islamic calendar is a time of self-reflection and self-purification, both physically and spiritually. Hence, Muslims living across the globe fast every day from dawn to sunset during the entire month of Ramadan. So, let's see if fasting is good or bad for your health.

Fasting is Good: Here's Why

• Restricting food intake during the entire day can help prevent a variety of health problems such as high cholesterol, heart disease, and obesity, suggest experts
• Ramadan not only helps in spiritually cleansing yourself, but it also acts as a fantastic detox for your body. By starving throughout the day, your body can gain a unique chance to detoxify your digestive system and flush out unwanted toxins from your body throughout the month
• Fasting regularly can also improve your mental health and wellbeing
• Partaking in fasting ultimately allows the gut to cleanse and strengthen its lining
• Fasting can also stimulate a process called autophagy, in which the cells self-cleanse and remove damaged, dangerous particles and unneeded substances from the body naturally

• Fasting can lead to low blood glucose levels (hypoglycemia), which causes reduced concentration and increased fatigue
• Weight loss during Ramadan fasting could easily be reversed once individual returns to his/her daily eating patterns
• Abstaining from food and drink from dawn until dusk can make you feel more tired and lethargic
• Most people who fast faint more often due to severe dehydration
• Dehydration, hunger or lack of sleep during the fasting period can eventually lead to headaches
• Smelling food or even thinking about delicious foods during fasting periods can trigger the brain into telling the stomach to produce more acid, thereby leading to heartburn