A study found that intermittent fasting was associated with a 91% higher chance of dying from heart disease.

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, conducted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, comprised data from over 20,000 adults. The researchers, lead by Victor Zhong of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, examined the data.

A startling discovery from research presented at a medical conference cast doubt on the safety of intermittent fasting, a popular weight-loss method that involves restricting food consumption to specific periods.
In a study conducted in Chicago on Monday, it was found that cutting mealtimes down to just eight hours a day increased the chance of death from heart disease by 91%.

Only an abstract was released by the American Heart Association, leaving scientists to speculate about specifics of the study procedure. The American Heart Association states that other specialists evaluated the report before it was published.

A new line of medications that aid in weight loss has brought scrutiny to lifestyle treatments for weight loss. The results of the study were questioned by several physicians who said that variations between the fasting patients and the comparison group, whose members ingested food throughout a daily period of 12 to 16 hours, may have skewed the results due to factors like underlying heart health.

“Time-restricted eating is popular as a means of reducing calorie intake,” Keith Frayn, emeritus professor of human metabolism at the University of Oxford, said in a statement to the UK Science Media Center. “This work is very important in showing that we need long-term studies on the effects of this practice. But this abstract leaves many questions unanswered.”

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, conducted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had information from over 20,000 adults. Victor Zhong of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine headed the team of researchers that examined the data.