The impact of Ramadan fasting on immune system function during COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Recently, the infection transmitted by the latest coronavirus (COVID-19), was associated with significant increase in morbidity and mortality, reflecting major public health issue. However, Ramadan fasting throughout an outbreak may be a new phenomenon for many of Muslims worldwide. The aim of this review was to determine the impact of Ramadan fasting on immune system function during COVID-19 pandemic. This review gathered the contemporary information throughout PubMed, Scopus, and Science Direct databases from relevant articles, to provide understanding of the potential impact of Ramadan fasting on the immune system during pandemic viral infection. The results of this review show many justifiable concerns arise to the consequences of refraining the body from essential nutrients and fluids for prolonged periods of time through a day. Especially this practice might intricate the health status of selected groups including the elderly and people having chronic diseases. On the other hand, many studies suggest that intermittent fasting boost the immune response of the body towards infections. Furthermore, there is no conclusive evidence regarding the relationship between fasting and increasing or decreasing the risk of catching a virus or improving oxidative stress status as well. Therefore, Muslims who practice fasting during pandemic face a circumstance in which no concrete scientific evidence proves the safety or danger of this religious practice. We conclude that there are proven benefits of fasting in augmenting the immune response; however, this summoned by many factors including general health status of the person who fasts, lifestyle, and epidemiological circumstances.