Fasting in the Treatment of Hypertension
Fasting is known to normalize blood pressure in hypertensive patients. This applies both to long-term water fasting and intermittent fasting. The most interesting question is how long does the positive effect last after conclusion of fasting course? We found an answer in the studies by Russian authors, who used fasting for the treatment of hypertension and coronary heart disease. 14-day fasting has been found to normalize blood pressure for as many as 3 to 6 months. That is fasting can really help patients with hypertension. We translated a small piece of this work (see below).
Source: Muravyov S.A. & Makarova G.A. “Сardiovascular pathology” In Therapeutic fasting: guide for doctors, edited by Alexey Kokosov, pp 82-95, Moscow: SpetsLit, 2007.
A total of 147 patients with hypertension were examined, including 33 patients with stage I hypertension and 114 patients with stage II hypertension. All patients underwent fasting therapy in the therapeutic department of the Tyumen City Hospital No. 3 (Siberia, Russia).
The age of the examined patients ranged from 20 to 65 years. The average age for patients with hypertension I stage 42 years, for patients with hypertension II stage – 47 years. Out of 147 patients there were 141 women and 6 men.
The water-only fasting therapy (RDT) was implemented according to the guidelines approved by the Ministry of Health. After the preparatory period, which lasted an average of 3,5 weeks, a water-only fasting period was prescribed. The patients did not eat and drank up to 1,5 liters of boiled or purified water per day. Cleaning procedures were carried out daily. The duration of the fasting period averaged 14 days. The refeeding period was carried out according to the juice-vegetable version and was equal in duration to the fasting period.
Daily monitoring of blood pressure confirms the good efficacy of RDT in the treatment of patients with hypertension I and II stages (see Table).
The same data as in the table are reported in Fig.1 and Fig.2.
