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Welcome to Ramadan!
by Nemant 6y ago
Welcome to Ramadan!
- kylebenzle 6y agoGood point. Do practicing Muslims have lower cancer rates?
- tptacek 6y agoThey're only fasting for a month out of the year.
- Schiendelman 6y agoThat’s literally the fasting term in the study.
- mathattack 6y agoThe duration in the article is 4 months. The real issue is small sample size. (14 people)
- jp0d 6y agoThat's a really small sample size. Are they allowed to publish a study like this for such a small sample? Does anyone know if there is a minimum threshold size?
- dr_dshiv 6y agoAllowed to publish? First it's a pilot study. Second, it's actually not a small sample size if you reasonably anticipate big effects and have multiple measures for each of the people at multiple time points. It isn't an observational study, though believers might have wished for a matched control group - - the anticancer effects might have come from the Ramadan prayer vs fasting!
- hammeiam 6y agoFrom the title: "Intermittent fasting from dawn to sunset for four consecutive weeks..."
- oh_sigh 6y agoAlso, not just 14 people, but 14 people with a metabolic disorder.
- MattGaiser 6y agoSo do they have fewer early stages cancers diagnosed in the months after?
- Nemant 6y agoA lot of practicing Muslims also fast Mondays and Thursdays and the “3 white days” of the month[0] [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasting_in_Islam https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasting_in_Islam see “Days of voluntary fasting”
- tptacek 6y agoTIL! Thank you!
- kranner 6y agoYou'll have to account for increased rates of smoking in both Muslim-majority countries and Muslim populations in non-Muslim-majority countries. From https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1360407/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1360407/ > A fifth of the world's population is Muslim, and most Muslims live in areas where the prevalence of smoking is high and often increasing. But even among the many Muslims living in Europe, smoking prevalence (particularly among men) remains high. For example, in England in 2004 the overall prevalence of smoking was 40% in Bangladeshi men and 29% in Pakistani men compared with 24% among the male general population.
- erklik 6y agoThat's interesting. I believe smoking is discouraged in Islam, so I wonder why the uptake is higher. Guessing it's a general education issue?
- DaiPlusPlus 6y agoTobacco companies actively and aggressively advertise and market their products in LEDC countries: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1363897/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1363897/
- sharadov 6y agoSmoking not so much, alcohol is considered "haram", you see smoking to be a lot more prevalent.
- ibn_khaldun 6y agoSmoking, like alcohol and other vices are prohibited. It is in fact an unfortunate reality that is a matter of miseducation for those who are not victim to the statistical conflation of nationality as an indicator of belief.
- c8g 6y agoAs a Muslim and live in a country with 90% Muslim, I can tell, most of the people are Muslim, because they have a Muslim parent. Rape, corruption, addiction, sexual harassments, hate speech are common things here. No Muslim can do these. 5 times prayers (Salah) in a day is absolutely mandatory, absolutely no excuse for Muslim. But most people don't even care, including me :)
- Zenst 6y agoNothing stand-out from https://ourworldindata.org/cancer https://ourworldindata.org/cancer that would indicate that. Alcohol would also be a factor in play as that would increase the risk of some cancers, so the lack of you would of thought also be a factor with that lifestyle.
- esalman 6y agoI don't see any predominantly Muslim country listed high up here- https://www.wcrf.org/dietandcancer/cancer-trends/data-cancer-frequency-country https://www.wcrf.org/dietandcancer/cancer-trends/data-cancer... . Which is kinda surprising to me. My father never smoked and still got cancer. I am from a Muslim-majority country and I know of a bunch of other friends/family who suffered or perished from cancer.
- anticensor 6y agoNot significantly affected, as most Muslims eat too much when breaking the fast.
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- cocoland2 6y agoThis is not just pertinent to Ramadan. Every 2 days in the month , there is this Hindu thing of Ekadasi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekadashi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekadashi). Each of these depending on the month have a presiding deity! The rules are simple , the day before should be a light meal , on Ekadasi dawn to next day dawn (about 36 hours in all) fasting. On Dwadasi , break this fast by first having water , meditation and then a light meal (usually milk+milk products) and community feeding if possible . Other rules include not sleeping during day and so on. My parents do it still , very few follow this regimen though these days. I think very similar eating/fasting habits are pertinent during the lent as well. When i was younger , during Ramadan we used to go to break the fast post dusk. In my homestate in India , there is usually a gruel that is prepared with sooji (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombay_rava https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombay_rava) and lot of fruits. As a veggie , i would go there and eat :) . Sadly it has become a hog show now ,eating as much during dawn and dusk to keep the day full
- skohan 6y agoWhen I was in Nepal I talked to a guy who said he was not eating that day "to balance the body". The way he spoke about it made it seem like it must be a normal practice there which everyone understood and was aware of.
- PeterStuer 6y agoChristianity used to have a 40 day fasting period as well.
- dragonelite 6y agoFunny how a lot of old religions have some components of fasting in their teaching. For myself i go 5 days without food every season of the year, seem to be enough to keep my weight quiet stable. Without anything socially going on i have a daily 90 min eating window. And i allow myself some guilty pleasures on Fridays and Saturdays. Like going out and drinking beers with friends