Emedinews:Insights on Medicolegal Issues:What is medical fasting?

• Various blood tests require a fasting of up to 12–16 hours so that a baseline normalcy of blood can be established.
• The patient is asked to remain in a fasting state for medical reasons: surgery or other procedures of diagnostic or therapeutic intervention that require anesthetic. The presence of food in a person's system can cause complications when they are anesthetized; medical personnel strongly suggest that their patients fast for several hours before the procedure.
• Some animal studies show that fasting every other day while eating double the normal amount of food on non–fasting days led to better insulin control, neuronal resistance to injury and health indicators similar to mice on calorie restricted diets.
• Patient refusal of nutrition and hydration in terminal illness: "within the contexts of adequate palliative care, the refusal of food and fluids does not contribute to suffering among the terminally ill" and might actually contribute to a comfortable passage from life: "At least for some persons, starvation does correlate with reported euphoria."
• In homeopathic medicine, fasting is seen as a way of cleansing the body of toxins, dead or diseased tissues, and giving the gastrointestinal system a rest. During fasts, water, fruit and vegetable juices are usually taken on choice.