Effects of long-term fasting and confinement on the cardiovascular activity

Fasting has been demonstrated to improve health and slow aging in human and other species; however, its impact on the human body in the confined environment is still unclear. This work studies the effects of long-term fasting and confined environment on the cardiovascular activities of human via a 10-day fasting experiment with two groups of subjects being in confined (6 subjects) and unconfined (7 subjects) environments respectively and undergoing the same four-stage fasting/feeding process. It is found that the confinement has significant influences on the autonomic regulation to the heart rate during the fasting process by altering the activity of the parasympathetic nervous system, which is manifested by the significant higher pNN50, rMSSD, and Ln-HF of heart rate variability (HRV) (p < 0.05) and slower heart rate (p < 0.01) in the confined group than that in the unconfined group. Furthermore, the long-term fasting induces a series of changes in both groups, including reduced level of serum sodium (p < 0.01), increased the serum calcium (p < 0.05), prolonged QTc intervals (p < 0.05), and reduced systolic blood pressures (p < 0.05). These effects are potentially negative to human health and therefore need to be treated with caution. Graphical abstract: Study of the effects of fasting and confinement on the cardiovascular activities [Figure not available: see fulltext.].