Does intermittent fasting reduce acid exposure in GERD patients?

Patients with suspected gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) may find it difficult to follow a time-restricted eating, reports a study. Additionally, there is weak evidence to suggest that intermittent fasting helps ease acid exposure.

The authors screened patients referred for 96-hour ambulatory wireless pH monitoring off proton pump inhibitor to examine GERD symptoms. They instructed eligible participants to maintain their baseline diet for the first 2 days of pH monitoring and switch to an intermittent fasting regimen (16 consecutive hours fast and 8 hours eating window) for the second 2 days.

Finally, the authors collected and analysed objective measures of reflux and GERD symptom severity.

Twenty-five participants with suspected GERD were included in the analysis. Of these, nine (36 percent) fully adhered to the intermittent fasting regimen, while 21 (84 percent) showed at least partial compliance. Mean acid exposure time was 3.5 percent on fasting days compared with 4.3 percent on nonfasting days.

Intermittent fasting resulted in a 0.64 decrease in acid exposure time (95 percent confidence interval [CI], ‒2.32 to 1.05). In addition, GERD symptom scores of heartburn and regurgitation decreased during periods of intermittent fasting (14.3 vs 9.9; difference, ‒4.46, 95 percent CI, ‒7.6 to ‒1.32).

“Our data show that short-term intermittent fasting improves symptoms of both regurgitation and heartburn,” the authors said.

“Intermittent fasting is popular in the media and has demonstrated potential benefits with weight loss and inflammatory conditions as well as alterations in gastrointestinal hormones,” they noted.