Effects of Fasting on Blood Pressure in Normotensive Males

Muslims all over the world fast in the holy month of Ramadan. Fasting means abstinence from drinking any liquids, eating, smoking and taking anything parenterally. It is intermittent in nature from the start of dawn to end at dusk. Fasting has various physiological effects on different biological parameters of the human body. Previous studies that look at effect of Ramadan fasting on blood pressure have focused mainly on hypertensive patients and patients with already established heart disease (1,2). There is very limited data regarding the effect of fasting on the normal population (3,4). A few previous studies have advocated a hypotensive role of fasting (5).