Health
Change to nightly eating habits may help protect your heart, study suggests
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Abstaining from food three hours before bedtime could benefit heart health, according to a recent study by Northwestern University.
Extending an overnight fast for two hours, dimming the lights and not eating for three hours prior to sleep were shown to improve cardiovascular and metabolic health.
The results were observed among middle-aged and older adults, who are at a higher risk for cardiometabolic disease, as stated in a university press release.
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Time-restricted eating has recently surged in popularity due to its potential to improve heart health and aid in weight loss, the researchers noted.
“But most studies have focused on how long people fast, not how their fast lines up with their sleep schedule — a key factor in metabolic regulation,” the study authors wrote.
Catering time-restricted eating to a sleep cycle could improve heart health, research found. (iStock)
The nearly eight-week study, published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, examined 39 overweight and obese participants between 36 and 75 years old. The intervention group was made up of 80% women.
The participants completed either an extended overnight fasting intervention — 13 to 16 hours — or a “habitual fast” of 11 to 13 hours. Both groups dimmed the lights three hours before bedtime.
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People who finished eating at least three hours before going to bed saw “meaningful improvements” compared to participants who continued with their usual eating routines.
Those improvements included a 3.5% drop in blood pressure and a 5% drop in heart rate, as well as a “more natural drop” in both measures during sleep, which is “an important sign of cardiovascular health,” the researchers found.
People who did not eat three hours before bedtime saw a dip in blood pressure and heart rate. (iStock)
The fasting participants’ hearts also beat faster during the day when they were active and slowed at night during rest — a pattern that’s linked to better heart health.
Those who abstained from eating also had better daytime blood sugar control, meaning the pancreas responded “more efficiently” when challenged with glucose, “suggesting it could release insulin more effectively and keep blood sugar steadier.”
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First author Dr. Daniela Grimaldi, research associate professor of neurology in the division of sleep medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, commented on these findings in a statement.
“Timing our fasting window to work with the body’s natural wake-sleep rhythms can improve the coordination between the heart, metabolism and sleep, all of which work together to protect cardiovascular health,” she said.
Intervention participants experienced lower heart rates during rest. (iStock)
Grimaldi noted that she and her fellow researchers were “genuinely excited” about the consistent improvements shown.
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“Seeing that a relatively simple change in meal timing could simultaneously improve nighttime autonomic balance, blood pressure dipping, heart rate regulation and morning glucose metabolism, all without calorie restriction or weight loss, was remarkable,” she told Fox News Digital.
Grimaldi noted that the three-hour pre-sleep fasting window is “critical,” because that’s when melatonin rises and the body transitions toward sleep, “a period when eating disrupts metabolism.”
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Sleep expert Dr. Wendy Troxel, RAND Corporation senior behavioral specialist and a licensed clinical psychologist in Utah, emphasized the study’s high adherence rate, at nearly 90%.
“High rates of compliance suggest that this approach may be both feasible and sustainable in real life and could have a demonstrable impact on improving cardiometabolic health,” Troxel, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital.
The three-hour pre-sleep fasting window is “critical,” because that’s the time period when melatonin rises and the body transitions toward sleep, a researcher noted. (iStock)
The findings add to growing research linking sleep and circadian rhythms to cardiovascular health, she added. “In fact, the American Heart Association now recognizes healthy sleep as one of its Life’s Essential 8 pillars for heart health.”
Limitations and future research
Looking ahead, the researchers plan to expand the study to larger, multi-center trials to determine whether the benefits persist or “translate into reduced cardiovascular events or diabetes.”
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Future studies could also explore the potential benefits of extending time-restricted eating.
“We also want to test this specifically in people with hypertension or diabetes, [who] might benefit most,” Grimaldi shared. “And exploring how this combines with other behavioral interventions, like exercise or morning light exposure, could help us develop more comprehensive strategies for cardiometabolic health.”
The fasting participants’ hearts beat faster during the day when they were active and slowed at night during rest, a pattern that’s linked to better heart health. (iStock)
The high percentage of women poses a study limitation, as it limits the ability to draw “definitive conclusions” about gender differences, Grimaldi acknowledged.
“We need studies powered to examine sex differences,” she said. “Additionally, our 7.5-week intervention was long enough to show physiological changes, but not long enough to see effects on weight or long-term health outcomes.”
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Northwestern University reported that only 6.8% of adults in the U.S. had optimal cardiometabolic health from 2017 to 2018.
These conditions can lead to chronic illness, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Heart disease is the No. 1 global killer, according to the CDC.
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A new report by the American Heart Association (AHA) included some troubling predictions for the future of women’s health.
The forecast, published in the journal Circulation on Wednesday, projected increases in various comorbidities in American females by 2050.
More than 59% of women were predicted to have high blood pressure, up from less than 49% currently.
The review also projected that more than 25% of women will have diabetes, compared to about 15% today, and more than 61% will have obesity, compared to 44% currently.
As a result of these risk factors, the prevalence of cardiovascular disease and stroke is expected to rise to 14.4% from 10.7%.
The prevalence of cardiovascular disease and stroke in women is expected to rise to 14.4% from 10.7% by 2050. (iStock)
Not all trends were negative, as unhealthy cholesterol prevalence is expected to drop to about 22% from more than 42% today, the report stated.
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Dr. Elizabeth Klodas, a cardiologist and founder of Step One Foods in Minnesota, commented on these “jarring findings.”
“The fact that on our current trajectory, cardiometabolic disease is projected to explode in women within one generation should be a huge wake-up call,” she told Fox News Digital.
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“Hypertension, diabetes, obesity — these are all major risk factors for heart disease, and we are already seeing what those risks are driving. Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women, eclipsing all other causes of death, including breast cancer.”
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for women in the U.S. and around the world. (iStock)
Klodas warned that heart disease starts early, progresses “stealthily,” and can present “out of the blue in devastating ways.”
The AHA published another study on Thursday revealing one million hospitalizations, showing that heart attack deaths are climbing among adults below the age of 55.
The more alarming finding, according to Klodas, is that young women were found more likely to die after their first heart attack than men of the same age.
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“This is all especially tragic since heart disease is almost entirely preventable,” she said. “The earlier you start, the better.”
Children can show early evidence of plaque deposition in their arteries, which can be reversed through lifestyle changes if “undertaken early enough and aggressively enough,” according to the expert.
Moving more is one part of protecting a healthy heart, according to experts. (iStock)
Klodas suggested that rising heart conditions are associated with traditional risk factors, like smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle.
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Doctors are also seeing higher rates of preeclampsia, or high blood pressure during pregnancy, as well as gestational diabetes. Klodas noted that these are sex-specific risk factors that don’t typically contribute to complications until after menopause.
The best way to protect a healthy heart is to “do the basics,” Klodas recommended, including the following lifestyle habits.
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Klodas especially emphasized making improvements to diet, as the food people eat affects “every single risk factor that the AHA’s report highlights.”
“High blood pressure, high blood sugar, high cholesterol, excess weight – these are all conditions that are driven in part or in whole by food,” she said. “We eat multiple times every single day, which means what we eat has profound cumulative effects over time.”
“Even a small improvement in dietary intake, when maintained, can have a massive positive impact on health,” a doctor said. (iStock)
“Even a small improvement in dietary intake, when maintained, can have a massive positive impact on health.”
The doctor also recommends changing out a few snacks per day for healthier choices, which has been proven to “yield medication-level cholesterol reductions” in a month.
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“Keep up that small change and, over the course of a year, you could also lose 20 pounds and reduce your sodium intake enough to avoid blood pressure-lowering medications,” Klodas added.
“Women should not view the AHA report as inevitable. We have power over our health destinies. We just need to use it.”
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Nearsightedness (myopia) is skyrocketing globally, with nearly half of the world’s population expected to be myopic by 2050, according to the World Health Organization.
Heavy use of smartphones and other devices is associated with an 80% higher risk of myopia when combined with excessive computer use, but a new study suggests that dim indoor lighting could also be a factor.
For years, scientists have been puzzled by the different ways myopia is triggered. In lab settings, it can be induced by blurring vision or using different lenses. Conversely, it can be slowed by something as simple as spending time outdoors, research suggests.
Nearsightedness occurs when the eyeball grows too long from front to back, according to the American Optometric Association (AOA). This physical elongation causes light to focus in front of the retina rather than directly on it, making distant objects appear blurry.
The study suggests that myopia isn’t caused by the digital devices themselves, but by the low-light environments where they are typically used. (iStock)
Researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY) College of Optometry identified a potential specific trigger for this growth. When someone looks at a phone or a book up close, the pupil naturally constricts.
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“In bright outdoor light, the pupil constricts to protect the eye while still allowing ample light to reach the retina,” Urusha Maharjan, a SUNY Optometry doctoral student who conducted the study, said in a press release.
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“When people focus on close objects indoors, such as phones, tablets or books, the pupil can also constrict — not because of brightness, but to sharpen the image,” she went on. “In dim lighting, this combination may significantly reduce retinal illumination.”
High-intensity natural light prevents myopia because it provides enough retinal stimulation to override the “stop growing” signal, even when pupils are constricted. (iStock)
The hypothesis suggests that when the retina is deprived of light during extended close-up work, it sends a signal for the eye to grow.
In a dim environment, the narrowed pupil allows so little light through that the retinal activity isn’t strong enough to signal the eye to stop growing, the researchers found.
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In contrast, being outdoors provides light levels much brighter than indoors. This ensures that even when the pupil narrows to focus on a nearby object, the retina still receives a strong signal, maintaining healthy eye development.
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The team noted some limitations of the study, including the small subject group and the inability to directly measure internal lens changes, as the bright backgrounds used to mimic the outdoors made pupils too small for standard equipment.
Researchers believe that increasing indoor brightness during close-up work could be a simple, testable way to slow the global nearsightedness epidemic. (iStock)
“This is not a final answer,” Jose-Manuel Alonso, MD, PhD, SUNY distinguished professor and senior author of the study, said in the release.
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“But the study offers a testable hypothesis that reframes how visual habits, lighting and eye focusing interact.”
The study was published in the journal Cell Reports.
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