The influence of religious fasting on basal tear secretion and tear break-up time

Muslims abstain from food and drink from dawn to sunset during the holy month of Ramadan. An extended strict fasting may influence tear secretion and quality. We investigated changes in basal tear secretion (BTS) and tear break-up time (BUT) at the beginning and at the end of fasting on 32 healthy male patients with a mean age of 22.3 +/- 2.9 years. Body weight and urine specific gravity were also determined to assess the extent of dehydration due to fasting. Each case lost 0.1-1.25 kg of body weight while urine specific gravity changes were statistically insignificant. Mean BTS amount was 19.9 +/- 10.9 mm at the initial examination and 19.7 +/- 11.5 mm at the end of fasting (p = 0.9). BUT values were 20.1 +/- 9.3 sec at the beginning of fasting and 23.5 +/- 14.9 sec at the end of fasting (p = 0.19). We found that religious fasting in the winter season does not seem to affect BTS and BUT values in healthy individuals.