2018
DOI: 10.1186/s12906-018-2136-6
|View full text |Cite
|
Sign up to set email alerts
|

Is fasting safe? A chart review of adverse events during medically supervised, water-only fasting

Abstract: BackgroundEvidence suggests that fasting, during which only water is consumed, results in potentially health promoting physiological effects. However, peer-reviewed research assessing the safety of water-only fasting is lacking. To address this, we conducted a chart review to describe adverse events (AEs) that occurred during medically supervised, water-only fasting.MethodsElectronic charts from patient visits to a residential medical facility from 2006 to 2011 were reviewed. Patients who were at least 21 year… Show more

Help me understand this report

Search citation statements

Order By: Relevance

Paper Sections

Select...
1
1
1
1

Citation Types

3
63
1
5

Year Published

2019
2019
2025
2025

Publication Types

Select...
9
1

Relationship

0
10

Authors

Journals

citations
Cited by 64 publications
(72 citation statements)
references
References 43 publications
3
63
1
5
Order By: Relevance
“…A recent publication that analysed retrospectively water-only fasting data found relatively more adverse effects, e. g. nausea, presyncope, dyspepsia, vomiting and palpitations [66], which we observed only in single cases. The use of different methodologies to assess and characterise AE limits the comparison with our study, which was prospective.…”
Section: Discussioncontrasting
confidence: 53%
“…A recent publication that analysed retrospectively water-only fasting data found relatively more adverse effects, e. g. nausea, presyncope, dyspepsia, vomiting and palpitations [66], which we observed only in single cases. The use of different methodologies to assess and characterise AE limits the comparison with our study, which was prospective.…”
Section: Discussioncontrasting
confidence: 53%
“…Instead of dismissing it as a fad and risk having the patients undergo intermittent fasting unsupervised, a clinician can discuss with the patient on the available evidence and any potential health implication. Given that supervised fasting is safe and with only mild to moderate and known reactions, should the patient persist, the clinician can consider working with the patient to study the time course, variability, and effect of the intervention in clinical practice, if time and cost permit [5]. In this way, clinicians can gain further insights to personalize weight management strategies for the patient and to mitigate any potential health risk.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Limitations of this study include a small sample size and the lack of a non-fasted control group (Dorff et al, 2016). Importantly, the safety of completely abstaining from food for periods of 2 or more days has been demonstrated in a medically-supervised setting with the majority of cancer patients experiencing minimal adverse reactions (de Groot et al, 2015;Bauersfeld et al, 2018;Finnell et al, 2018).…”
Section: Dietary Energy Restriction During Cancer Therapymentioning
confidence: 99%