Intermittent fasting linked to heart failure

[PuppetQueen]

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/intermittent-fasting-heart-disease-study-b2514804.html

This is concerning. I've been doing IF for about a year now, thinking that I was improving my health. I understand that this study identifies a correlation but not a causal relationship, but still, it seems that more research is warranted.

I wonder what rates of heart failure are like in populations that have practised IF for centuries, like Muslims fasting during Ramadan? Or perhaps countries with frequent famines...are those who survive the famines more prone to heart failure? And if so, is this because of the (involuntary) fasting between meals, or the result of malnutrition because when food is available it isn't necessarily particularly nutritious?

It doesn't state what the participants were eating in the eight hour window.

And it took just 2 days of data i.e no indication that any of the participants actually did IF on a long term basis.

It's not been peer reviewed so I would be very cautious about taking it too seriously.

Having read the original abstract, it doesn’t seem to even specify that these people chose TRE - it just says they used data from a survey of people between 2003-2018 and followed up their mortality, and plotted mortality vs their maximum gap of daily eating which means some / many of them could have been not eating due to poverty. It’s no secret that poverty is strongly linked to early death.

It is not true. Living on plant based diet and lower rather than higher calorie intake has always been the best diet for your health

It's an initial hypothesis , not been peer reviewed . Wouldn't worry just atm .

Correlation does not imply causation.