Ramadan is in its second week now,
and the required dawn-to-dusk
fasting often feels like a daily mini–
marathon. By late afternoon, hunger
and thirst have sucked me dry,
leaving me sleepy, slow-minded,
and sometimes short-tempered.
I know that the purpose of fasting is
spiritual—God will reward us in the
next life—but in this lifetime, fasting
sometimes makes me an ineffective,
irritable person. So I was excited to
learn that Harvard psychiatrist John
Ratey, MD, had spoken at a recent
Renaissance Weekend event about
how caloric restriction can improve
brain function.

I emailed Dr. Ratey to find out if
those benefits might extend to
religious fasting, and he sent me a
2006 paper on the brain functioning
of men during the Ramadan fast. The
researchers studied a small group of
healthy men during and after the
holy month, looking at their brain
activity via functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI). They
concluded that “all individual results
showed consistent and significant
increase of activity in the motor
cortex during fasting.”
Other research shows similar
results

That research builds on the work of
other scientists, including Mark
Mattson, PhD, who heads a
neuroscience lab at the NIH’s
National Institute on Aging. Mattson
has done important research on how
dietary restrictions can significantly
protect the brain from degenerative
diseases like Alzheimer’s or
Parkinson’s.

In a 2003 article, Mattson and others
reported that rats who were deprived
of food every other day, or restricted
to a diet at 30% to 50% of normal
calorie levels, showed not only
decreased heart rates and blood
pressure, but also “younger” brains,
with “numerous age-related
changes in gene expression.”
Mattson and his colleagues also
shared data from research on
humans, which shows that
populations with higher caloric
intakes—such as the United States
and Europe—have a greater
prevalence of Alzheimer’s than do
populations that eat less—such as
China and Japan. The authors
speculate that humans may have
adapted to conditions of feast and
famine; the stress of having little
food, they write, “may induce
changes in gene expression that
result in adaptive changes in cellular
metabolism and the increased
ability of the organism to reduce
stress.”

Although this research is relatively
new, with many questions left
unanswered, the authors conclude
that “it seems a safe bet that if
people would incorporate a spartan
approach to food intake into their
lifestyles, this would greatly reduce
the incidence of Alzheimer’s,
Parkinson’s and stroke.” (Of course,
how this recommendation translates
for individual people remains almost
a complete unknown; consult with
your own doctor before restricting
your diet in dramatic ways.)
But here’s the hard part: Although
we know eating too much leads to
all sorts of health problems, “it has
proven very difficult to successfully
implement prolonged dietary-
restriction regimens,” reports
Mattson and his team. Information
and doctor’s orders are rarely
enough motivation.

This last observation gave me hope,
because it seemed the authors were
overlooking the role of religion; it
can inspire people in ways
information or experts don’t. Would I
be undergoing this rigorous month of
fasting unless I believed strongly it
was the right thing for me to do?
Probably not. And the same goes for
millions of Muslims around the
world.

Science may only now be
discovering that some of these
religious practices, both ancient and
modern, offer nourishment not just
for the soul, but for the body as well.