Fasting gives several advantages for both physical and mental health. One of them is it helps to relieve stress.
"Many things can reduce stress, including fasting," said Dr. Ronny Tri Wirasto, Sp.KJ., on Tuesday (28/4).
The psychiatrist and Chairman of the FKKMK UGM Mental Medicine Specialist Education Study Program revealed that fasting had a direct effect on relieving stress. Because when people are fasting, they tend to make the eating schedule better. The consumption of regulated food also influences the way of thinking becomes more organized.
Several studies have shown reduced levels of eating, including carbohydrates, fat, and others in specified amounts for several weeks, will enhance the ability to think. Ronny said the way people perceive stress is the ability to think. If we are well-thought, the emotions are more controlled, and it reduces stress.
"The one who manages emotions is the ability to think," he said.
By organizing the eating schedule through fasting, it will also maintain the hormone cortisol associated with the body's response to stress. Fasting can stabilize the hormone cortisol produced by the adrenal glands. To put in simpler words, it can reduce stress levels.
He explained hormone production was related to protein absorption. When we can manage the intake, hormones will also be more organized.
"So, what was previously a dynamic, up and down hormone, can be more suppressed, which later becomes calmer," he explained.
Ronny conveyed that the increased cortisol hormone is not according to the need to make one's threshold lower, so it is easily exposed or irritable such as irritability. The production of the excess cortisol hormone is also not good for the body. The reason is, this hormone can suppress the immune system.
"When stress hormone Corticotropin-Releasing Factor (CFR) will be overactivated, which affects macrophages, thereby reducing immunity," he said.
Author: Ika
Photo: Shutterstock
Translator: Natasa A