Impact of supervised beego, a traditional Chinese water-only fasting, on thrombosis and haemostasis

Abstract

Beego is a traditional Chinese complete water-only fasting practice initially developed for spiritual purposes, later extending to physical fitness purposes. Beego notably includes a psychological induction component that includes meditation and abdominal breathing, light body exercise and ends with a specific gradual refeeding program before returning to a normal diet. Beego has regained its popularity in recent decades in China as a strategy for helping people in subhealthy conditions or with metabolic syndrome, but we are unaware of any studies examining the biological effects of this practice. To address this, we here performed a longitudinal study of beego comprising fasting (7 and 14 day cohorts) and a 7-day programmed refeeding phase. In addition to detecting improvements in cardiovascular physiology and selective reduction of blood pressure in hypertensive subjects, we observed that beego decreased blood triacylglycerol (TG) selectively in TG-high subjects and increased cholesterol in all subjects during fasting; however, the cholesterol levels were normalised after completion of the refeeding program. Strikingly, beego reduced platelet formation, activation, aggregation and degranulation, resulting in an alleviated thrombosis risk, yet maintained haemostasis by sustaining levels of coagulation factors and other haemostatic proteins. Mechanistically, we speculate that downregulation of G6B and MYL9 may influence the observed beego-mediated reduction in platelets. Fundamentally, our study supports that supervised beego reduces thrombosis risk without compromising haemostasis capacity. Moreover, our results support that beego under medical supervision can be implemented as non-invasive intervention for reducing thrombosis risk, and suggest several lines of intriguing inquiry for future studies about this fasting practice (http://www.chictr.org.cn/index.aspx, number, ChiCTR1900027451).

Innate immune remodeling by short‐term intensive fasting

“…(C, D) GSEA analysis of dataset from PMA-and F.T.-stimulated neutrophilsare decreased. This is consistent with our recent report on the reduction of blood clots risk by beego(Fang et al, 2021).…”

“…Interestingly, short-term intensive fasting enhances immune function, but does not aggravate prolonged inflammation which could cause subsequent harm to those with chronic inflammation. In our recent study, we monitored the hematological profile seven days and in some participants 14 days of intensive fasting after 7-day refeeding process, and the composition of their leukocyte's populations were more balanced after intensive fasting (Fang et al, 2021). Nevertheless, it would be helpful to examine the short-term and long-term effects of ) that challenge the effectiveness of timely developed drugs and vaccines, strengthening immunity through both medical and non-medical interventions, including but not limited to fasting, may be helpful for surviving this disease (Bartleson et al, 2021;Hannan et al, 2020).…”

“…Intensive fasting was done in the way as described earlier (Fang et al, 2021). To facilitate the intensive fasting, psychological induction such as meditation was conducted with the subjects during the fasting period.…”

“…The samples were analyzed on the automatic five categories hematology analyzer (Siemens). Blood routine test and laboratory biochemical analysis were performed in the way described previously (Fang et al, 2021). Briefly, whole blood without anticoagulant was incubated at 4°C overnight and then centrifuged at 500 g for 20 min at room temperature.…”

“…As a result, beego improved cardiovascular physiology and selectively reduced blood pressure in hypertensive subjects. Additionally, beego may coordinate and limit thrombosis risk by reducing platelet formation, activation, aggregation, and degranulation, while retaining normal hemostasis through sustained levels of coagulation factors and other hemostatic proteins (Fang et al, 2021). These studies suggest that, under medical supervision, beego can be implemented as a noninvasive intervention to reduce thrombosis risk.…”