The Impact of Diurnal Fasting During Ramadan on Patients with Established Cardiac Disease: A Systematic Review

During the month of Ramadan, Muslims abstain from eating before dawn until after sunset for a month. This study reviews most recent literature on the effect of Ramadan fasting on the Cardiac patient specifically, excluding any study done on patients with no diagnosis of Cardiac disease to help cardiologists better deal with their patients who would wish to fast during Ramadan. As such, a Medline and Pubmed search was conducted to retrieve studies investigating the effects of fasting during Ramadan specifically on the cardiac patient with regard to incidence of cardiac disease and change in cardiovascular risk parameters. The search was conducted by combining the key word “Ramadan Fasting” with multiple cardiac diseases and cardiovascular risk parameters. Only studies reporting results on patients already diagnosed with a cardiac disease were included. fourteen were included. Most studies have shown, with a few exceptions, that Ramadan fasting has no adverse effects on incidence of cardiovascular disease or the number of hospitalizations due to cardiac disease events. Thus patients with controlled disease may fast with the consultation and monitoring of their physician.