Intermittent fasting is can have negative health effects. Courtesy | Max Pixe
Intermittent fasting is not a good option for everyone, and women especially should approach it with their own medical history in mind.
Intermittent fasting limits the hours when people eat. Popular methods include an eight-hour eating window and restricting yourself to one meal a day.
There are negative side effects to intermittent fasting — particularly for women’s hormonal cycle.
“DHEA, a hormone that fertility clinics prescribe to improve ovarian function and egg quality, was significantly lower in both premenopausal and postmenopausal women at the end of the trial, dropping by about 14%,” according to the University of Illinois.
Intermittent fasting can also be detrimental to those who are diabetic.
Jenna Anding, a professor in the Texas A&M University Department of Nutrition, said in a news article published by the university that intermittent fasting could harm medicine intake.
“One thing to consider is that if a person takes certain medications that can lower their blood sugar, then fasting could result in hypoglycemia,” Anding said. “On the other hand, some types of medication require that they are taken with food to optimize absorption. If this does not occur, then the absorption of the medication may be lessened, and the person will not get the intended benefit.”
Anding also said intermittent fasting would not be effective without a healthy diet.
In the same article, senior lecturer for Nutrition and Food Sciences at Texas A&M Karen Geismar said immunocompromised people should not do intermittent fasting.
“People with a history of eating disorders, women who are pregnant or lactating, or individuals with diabetes should not use intermittent fasting,” Geismar said. “Also, people who are already not eating enough, perhaps due to illness, should probably not try this diet since it can reduce calories even more.”
Women are also likely to be harmed by intermittent fasting if they tend toward an iron deficiency.
“Results show that short-term (2 days) fasting significantly decreases iron concentrations in serum and hair, as well as levels of ferritin, hemoglobin, hematocrit, red blood cells, and total iron binding capacity,” a National Institutes for Health study reads.
The same study also linked food restriction to depression. Like other dietary regimens, intermittent fasting can also be associated with eating disorders, Hillsdale dietitian Denise Lovinger said in a podcast.
Binge-eating is a particularly common eating disorder associated with intermittent fasting, because people restrict and then binge eat during a short window.
“It is common to experience a rebound effect following severe caloric restriction, during which binge-eating occurs,” according to a study by researcher Jordan Schueler of Texas A&M University.
Schueler went on to say that intermittent fasting may have lasting effects on people’s relationship with food. People who wish to lose weight should be careful of the ways intermittent fasting could harm their health.
