Is there any effect of Ramadan fasting on acute coronary heart disease events?

We investigated whether Ramadan fasting, which concerns billions of Muslims in the world, has a negative effect on coronary heart disease patients.

Patients who were hospitalized at Emergency Center of Ankara Numune Hospital were evaluated retrospectively between the years 1991 and 1997. Patients with acute coronary heart disease events, who were hospitalized and those who died of this disease within the period of before, during, and after Ramadan were evaluated and the ratio of these cases in the total number of patients was determined along with mortality rates.

In all the years of the study the number of cases with acute coronary heart disease events was significantly lower in Ramadan than before or after Ramadan (P=0.03). But, the ratio of this population to all patients was not statistically significant between the periods (P>0.05). In conclusion, we speculate that Ramadan fasting does not increase acute coronary heart disease events. We believe that further prospective studies should provide an opportunity to examine the relation of fasting to coronary events.