Stopping eating at least 3 hours before bed may help improve heart health

• Over the last few years, research on cardiometabolic health has increased.
• Previous research shows that people can improve their cardiometabolic health by making healthy lifestyle choices, such as eating a healthy diet and getting enough quality sleep.
• A new study says that aligning overnight fasting with the body’s natural circadian rhythm may help improve cardiovascular and metabolic health markers.
• The researchers saw the most benefit from fasting at least 12 hours, as part of a time-restricted eating plan.

Over the last few years, there’s been an increase in research regarding cardiometabolic health, which combines a person’s cardiovascular system and metabolic system.

Cardiometabolic health takes into account certain risk factors derived from both systems, such as obesity, high blood pressure, increased glucose levels, and low HDL cholesterol, which can increase a person’s chances of developing several serious health conditions, including type 2 diabetes, heart attack, stroke, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and dementia.

Previous research shows that people can improve their cardiometabolic health by making healthy lifestyle choices, such as eating a nutritious and heart-healthy diet, moving more, managing stress, not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, and getting enough quality sleep.

“Cardiometabolic health is strongly related to brain health, and what is emerging is that sleep health may mediate some of these effects,” Phyllis Zee, MD, PhD, director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine and the chief of sleep medicine in the department of neurology at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, told Medical News Today.

Zee is the lead author of a new study published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, part of the American Heart Association, that found aligning overnight fasting, as part of a time-restricted eating plan, with the body’s natural circadian rhythm may help improve cardiovascular and metabolic health measurements both while at sleep and when awake during the day.

“As our life span increases, so should our healthspan, and critical to this is cardiometabolic and brain health. So, research to improve cardiometabolic health has implications for prevention of disease, as well as improvements in quality of life.”
— Phyllis Zee, MD, PhD