Ramadan fast imposes difficult choice on diabetic Muslims

[TexasTowelie]

AMMAN, Jordan — For years, diabetic Shawkat al-Khalili ignored his doctor's orders not to fast during the holy month of Ramadan when most of the world's 1.6 billion Muslims abstain from food and water from sunrise to sunset.

Islam exempts the sick from fasting, but the 70-year-old al-Khalili said he couldn't bring himself to violate one of the five pillars of his religion, even after he lost a toe to diabetes.

Like the retired teacher in Amman, tens of millions of diabetic Muslims struggle each year with such stressful choices. Increasingly, physicians team up with preachers or look for new methods to educate and protect the faithful.

The stakes are rising, particularly in the Arab world, where diabetes is spreading rapidly because of growing obesity caused by a more sedentary lifestyle and easy availability of processed food.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/news/nation-world/world/article24580696.html#storylink=cpy

[Nay]

1. I can see why Type 1 diabetics should not fast, but Type 2, it's not clear why they can't.

First, latest studies show that T2 diabetics who eat two meals a day and no snacks manage their blood sugar better than people who eat 3 meals or graze all day. It's true that not eating can make you feel faint and pass out, so if fasting does that to a person, that person should not fast whether he is diabetic or not.

It is not clear in the article whether it's the fasting itself OR the gorging that happens each evening that is causing the long-term problems in the patients described in the article. Considering the article in the British papers last year that described a severe calorie restricted diet to cure T2, I suspect it's the gorging at the end of the day that puts an immediate strain on the system. The calorie restriction was very tough on the patients, but they managed physically.

I wonder what they think the problem is? They don't really say in the article.