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

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Abstract

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.

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Study of the effects of fasting and confinement on the cardiovascular activities

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Acknowledgements

Wenjun Liu, from Beijing Ziyuan Fasting Training Center, Beijing, China, contributed to recruiting volunteers and organizing the experiments.

Funding

The work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under Grant Nos. 61571165 (to KW), 61601143 (to QL), 81770328 (to QL), and 81871444 (to CL); the Advanced Space Medico-Engineering Research Project of China under Grant No. 18035020103 (to ZD); and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation under Grant No. 2015M581448 (to QL).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computer Science and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), Harbin , Heilongjiang, China

    Yang Liu, Qince Li, Kuanquan Wang, Runnan He & Yongfeng Yuan

  2. Peng Cheng Laboratory, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

    Qince Li & Henggui Zhang

  3. State Key Laboratory of Space Medicine Fundamentals and Application, China Astronaut Research and Training Center, Beijing, China

    Zhongquan Dai, Hongyu Zhang, Chengjia Yang & Yinghui Li

  4. The State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Instrument Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China

    Chengyu Liu

  5. Department of Psychology, Beihang University, Beijing, China

    Qianying Ma

  6. School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Henggui Zhang

  7. Key Laboratory of Medical Electrophysiology of Ministry of Education and Medical Electrophysiological Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Institute of Cardiovascular Research, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, China

    Henggui Zhang

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  1. Yang Liu
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Correspondence to Kuanquan Wang or Henggui Zhang.

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Supplementary Information

Detailed data for all indicators assessed during the experiment are available in the supplemental material. Supplementary Table S1 contains the data of body weight. Supplementary Table S2 contains the data of blood pressures. Supplementary Table S3 contains the data of serum electrolytes. Supplementary Table S4 contains the data of QT/QTc intervals. Supplementary Table S5 contains the data of heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) indices.

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Liu, Y., Li, Q., Wang, K. et al. Effects of long-term fasting and confinement on the cardiovascular activity. Med Biol Eng Comput 59, 1901–1915 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-021-02380-4

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