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I have
read about a lot of research done on the Ramadan fast on blood lipid
levels and, it has been shown that fasting reduced serum cholesterol
while raising the good cholesterol. This result was obtained in many of
the studies conducted and, one that I am quoting is titled:
Effect
of Ramadan Fasting on Lipid Peroxidation, Serum Lipoproteins and
Fasting Blood Sugar done in the Isfahan Universirty of Medical
Sciences on 50 healthy subjects.
One of the things frequently pointed out to be negative is the
dehydration that is caused by not taking any fluids from sun up to
sundown, but in actual fact this also has been proven to be of possible
benefit:
Quoting
from a magazine article: at this URL
http://www.saisamachar.com/saipranaam/nov02/health.htm
Abstinence from water during this period is not bad at all and in fact,
it causes concentration of all fluids within the body, producing slight
dehydration. The body has its own water conservation mechanism; in
fact, it has been shown that slight dehydration and water conservation,
at least in plant life, improve their longevity.
For the effects of fasting on the blood sugar, again a lot of research
has been done on this, and the results may differ with different
research but a consensus may be reached that it is generally
beneficial. In my clinic though I do not see it to be so, most probably
because we find that during Ramadan, many people will take to drinking
sweetened water and syrups! When I was studying in another Muslim
country which I will not mention, I was shocked to find out that my
landlord, a family of 4 adults, actually consumed one kilogram of sugar
in 2 days during Ramadan because of extra sweetmeats they
prepared! There were many other things I found rather weird and among
them, day became night, night became day, people stayed up to eat and
talk the whole night and in the day time they mostly slept! I think in
some places schools were closed and work was cut to a minimum. I am of
the opinion that all these practices actually negate the beneficial
effects of fasting and am happy to say it is not the custom here in
Malaysia where people would spend the earlier part of the night in
group prayers and then sleep, waking early for the pre dawn meal, more
prayers and Quran reading while in the day time it is work as usual.
Another
common problem is gastritis! I have mentioned about taking hot
chili and spices and said that it is not a very wise choice of food for
breaking the fast! Neither are caffeine drinks, especially if one is
sensitive to caffeine. I find that a cup of coffee or tea an hour or so
after breaking the fast is not too harmful for the average
person but for the sensitive person it is enough to cause a
digestive upset as well as insomnia or, in the case of tea, the tannin
content in the tea may cause constipation to a bowel that is already
sluggish from the reduced peristalsis caused by the fast! A very good
drink for breaking the fast would be a tea made from fresh ginger! What
I do is take fresh young ginger and crush it, and add hot water and
honey and a little limejuice, or lemon juice. It helps digestion and is
a very soothing drink to take after a fast. I know fresh young ginger
may not be too easy to find in the West though and ginger powder may
have to do but won' t taste as good! This drink is one my grandmother
used to make and I remember drinking it every fasting month when I was
a child. I have revived the tradition in my own home, and have also
found out that ginger heals many minor digestive complaints!
Other
simple solutions to hyperacidity may be Magnesium Trisilicate, which
can be bought at the pharmacy. It has the added advantage of being
mildly laxative which helps in the fasting month! Read labels and
do not buy anything that contains aluminium. We get enough from
aluminium foils and aluminium cans and do not need an extra dose of it!
Aluminium has been implicated in Alzheimer's disease and one should
avoid any antacid that contains aluminium and mind you, many actually
do.
There
is an effect of experiencing a high from eating even from 2 days of
fasting the Muslim way. I think this would be difficult to explain to
people who have not experienced this high! When we are eating every day
and eating very regularly, I think we sometimes get to the point that
the eating does not seem to be contributing to our energy. I have often
felt tired and even sluggish especially when there had been too many
dinner invitations, and the food was so delicious that one tended to
overindulge. I have found my own cure for this and that is to fast, and
to break my fast with light foods for at least 2 days! What we will
experience is that the first day of the fast is very difficult, I would
feel very tired and my whole body would ache, my head would ache and I
would not be in a very good mood! On the second day, I would feel less
tired, and my body would start to feel better, I would be mild mannered
and sweet, even though I would feel tired! And then when I have a
normal day on the third day starting with breakfast in the morning,
what would happen is that I would feel great! I would have a lot of
energy, I would be vivacious and full of life. My digestion would have
improved, food would taste great but a little bit would be enough and
after a meal there would be a surge of energy and a sense of well being
that would have been absent before the fast.
For a month long fast, it is the same but, on an extended scale! There
are several differences in routine that happens when we fast and that
is that we have to sleep less, because of the pre dawn meal and
prayers. It would help to sleep early but usually what happens is that
after breaking the fast in the evening, there is so much energy that
one does not feel like sleeping early and would use the time for
reading and prayers or talking or doing a hundred and one things that
one did not feel like doing in the day time while fasting! This does
not always happen though, if one has taken too much food when breaking
the fast, what happens is an extreme lethargy and sleepiness and you
may find yourself sleeping right after breaking the fast so if you do
not want to go to sleep after breaking the fast, make sure you do not
fill your stomach to the brim! It is also not a commendable thing to
do!
The
Prophet's instructions on eating are very simple, "Eat when
hungry and do not eat until you feel full. There should be one third of
your stomach with food, one third with liquid and, one-third with air!"
The wonderful thing though that you will find is, that after some time,
you will not need so much sleep and can make do with less sleep. This
seems to be a result of eating less!
As I
have said previously, when fasting the stomach and intestines become
somewhat more sensitive than they are when we are eating all the time.
What this means is that foods we react to will have a greater amplitude
of the same reaction we have while not fasting. A far as supplements
are concerned, the more concentrated ones may not agree very much with
the digestion while fasting so for most people, it would be best to cut
down supplements to the minimum.
As for those on medications, here are the adjustments that may be
needed:
Diabetics on hypoglycaemics or insulin: When fasting the blood glucose
level will go down so if you take a dose during the pre dawn meal, you
may go into hypoglycaemia in the day time. Symptoms would include
vertigo, cold sweating and feeling faint. I usually advise my patients
to take their daily dose during the evening meal. Those who take 2 dose
a day will need adjustment of the predawn dose. A reduced dose may also
be needed. Monitoring blood glucose levels while fasting would help in
the adjustments, involve your doctor in the adjustments. As for
antihypertensives, it is probably ok to stick to the medication as
before, those taking medication 3 times a day may need to change
to longer acting versions of the drugs they are taking. Again talking
to your doctor is going to help make the adjustments.
Antibiotics:
Anybody who needs antibiotics while fasting should request for the
antibiotics with a daily or twice daily dose. It would be a bit
problematic to try to take 3 daily doses at night and
not possible to adjust the dosing! Some antibiotics can cause
crystals in the urine and cause pain when urinating because of the no
intake of water in the daytime. As such, please inform your doctor you
are fasting and ask the doctor not to give such antibiotics. Those who
are prone to urine infections may take urine alkalinizers, which are
sold over the counter in pharmacies. Cornsilk and barley drinks would
also be helpful to take.
I have
mentioned about constipation: Vegetables and other complex carbohydrate
foods are essential. Mild constipation can be dealt with by taking
fibre preparations like psyllium husks, and there are some fruits like
prunes and tamarind juice that can also help. Other than this there are
some mild preparations like Forlax that are very
safe to take when absolutely necessary. The other alternative is to go
for enemas. Constipation should not be allowed to continue, as it will
reduce the detox effect of the fast. The liver cannot unload its
accumulated waste products if the person is constipated. Avoid tea
because it contains tannin, which is astringent and tends to cause
constipation if you are constipated. Those taking NSAID, ie painkillers
may have much more gastric irritation on these and, if they have
sensitive stomachs should change to less irritating drugs which your
doctor will tell you about. It may cost more than the usual NSAID s
that you are taking. Eg, you may change from
diclofenac sodium a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory to a cox 2
inhibitor like meloxicam.
You
may however want to try alternative treatment and now may be a good
time to make the switch! The fasting time is also the best time to deal
with your drug and food addictions! Since smokers and caffeine drinkers
have to abstain while fasting, they will find that it gets much easier
to keep delaying the coffee or cigarettes until they don' t drink it or
smoke it and it is time to fast again! Those who are really heavy
smokers may need a little bit more help from the doctor by going
on a nicotine patch or some other aids to stopping smoking. Many have
asked me about taking injections. In general, injections according to
the clerics I have consulted are allowed while fasting, and there
should not be a problem with this. Having said this, painkillers are
still excreted to the stomach and taking such an injection on an empty
stomach may cause a gastric irritation.
Other
issues I have seen raised about fasting is physical activities and
sports. Naturally these activities will cause the person to sweat and
become dehydrated so what happens when you sweat and cannot drink any
fluids? I have done exercise and aerobic dancing while fasting and am
none the worse for it. What I do is to have these activities in the
late afternoon, about an hour or so before the time for breaking the
fast. In this way there is not much of a delay in replenishing the
water in the body. There is a possibility of feeling a bit dizzy while
exercising, this is not harmful and is due to the lower blood pressure
of the faster.
As
for bathing, many fasters avoid bathing after 12 noon when fasting
because they say it is makruh, ie not recommended and will reduce the
rewards of the fasting since it refreshes the tired body and therefore
makes the suffering less! But practically speaking, bathing every
day and scrubbing with a sponge will very much help the body to detox
since all the fasting is going to move toxins into the organs of
elimination which are the large intestine including the liver, the
kidneys, the lungs and the skin via the sweat glands and the skin
cells! By removing the dead skin cells, which contain the toxin,
we allow the skin to send more of the stuff it wants to remove via the
skin! So one of the benefits of the fast will be a lovely clear
complexion! Not to worry if in the beginning the skin throws out
pimples and other eruptions, this does sometimes happen before the skin
clears! But the skin will not clear unless you do not eat that foods
that aggravate eruptions, like nuts and chocolates!
Another tip I would like to share is to carry a drinking bottle, make
sure it is one that is not easy to spill, when you go for the tarawih
prayers. This way you can drink in between the prayers and rehydrate
yourself better. You will notice your throat get very dry while saying
the tarawih, if you have neglected to bring your drinking water along!
There
is a little bit I would like to address about the emotional and mental
effects of fasting. There are my own observations and bits and pieces I
have heard or read somewhere and cannot make references to ..this is
the reason I cannot write scholarly papers, a lot of what I say is mere
heresay and anecdotal! A talk I attended just before the fast made a
point about the fast. Now this advise is by some holy person and as
usual I cannot remember who but, something clicked when I heard the
advise. The advise is, stop what you do as a routine in your life,
forget about that extra ironing that you do, vacuum the house less,
spend less time on the computer, CHANGE your routine in whatever way
you can and, do beneficial things you never had the time for! Read that
motivational book that you have bought a few months ago and never had
the time for, read the Quran and make sure you ponder over the
meanings. MAKE ROOM in your life for new things by removing from it the
stuff that is keeping away the new things that are needed in your life.
Your mind is clear when you fast, because the energy spent on digesting
food, is now not being expended and is available to your brain. The
emotional support you get from the sense of togetherness, the breaking
of the fast with the family, the increased consciousness about keeping
away the negative, makes this an ideal time to reflect, to think and to
grow in our realisations besides the extra prayers that we do. I always
need my inward looking time and it is quite easy to be caught in group
activities and forget to look inwards at this time, but it would be a
waste not to use this time for that inner spring cleaning!
I
have had some questions asked to me and will address them now before
ending this series on the Muslim fast and our body.
One
person asked me what to do if one is underweight and will lose a
lot of needed weight when fasting! Some people have very high
body metabolism and tend to lose weight even when eating well. The ones
I know who are like this are very healthy in other ways except that
they look like they have not eaten for weeks! I would suggest to
take extra high calorie meal replacements after the usual meals as a
drink in between the 2 main meals and to take another supper snack an
hour before sleeping. Take more fat, nuts are a good source of fat and
snack on dried fruits and nuts at night. Please make sure you know your
cholesterol levels before undertaking to eat more fat. There are some
pretty thin individuals who may have raised cholesterol levels and
raised ldl cholesterol (bad cholesterol) and low hdl (good cholesterol).
Another person asked me what I think of the traditional way some people
take extra large meals with lots of goodies during the fasting month,
much more than they usually eat and this person said he actually gained
weight in the fasting month! I think this is a very unhealthy way to
fast and would be harmful in the long run as well as it negates many of
the benefits, both physical, emotional and spiritual.
Ramadan Mubarak! May you have the best fast possible and emerge from
the fasting month renewed and victorious over your nafs, healthier in
mind body and soul!
Suriya Osman
Medical Doctor, Sufi Healing teacher and Homeopath
email me at
Dr.Suriya@holisticleaders.com
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