Intermittent fasting for rheumatic diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis of conflicting evidence from observational studies and randomized controlled trials
Liu R, Zhang C, Li Y, Huang C
PeerJ · 1 citation
How it was studied
- Design
- Meta-analysis (indexed by PubMed)
- Studied in
- People
- Main outcome
- Health markers and function
Who paid for it
- Funding
- Independent funding
- Government
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Grants
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (82574970)
Based on 1 listed funder(s) and full-text disclosure statement.
Publication
- Published
- 2026-04-27 · PeerJ · vol. 14 · p. e21185
- Publisher
- PeerJ, Inc.
- Cited
- 1 citation · more than 86% of similar papers · 2.3× the field average
- References
- 32 works
- Access
- Open access (journal) · CC-BY
- Research areas
- Dietary Effects on Health · Inflammatory Bowel Disease · Rheumatoid Arthritis Research and Therapies
- Keywords
- Observational study, Randomized controlled trial, Rheumatoid arthritis, Cochrane Library, Meta-analysis, Intermittent fasting, Clinical trial, Systematic review
- MeSH
- humans, arthritis, rheumatoid, rheumatic diseases, randomized controlled trials as topic, observational studies as topic, intermittent fasting
4 authors
From CN
- Ruofan LiuAnhui University of Traditional Chinese Medicine
- Chuanwei ZhangAnhui University of Traditional Chinese Medicine
- Yunfei LiAnhui University of Traditional Chinese Medicine
- Chuanbing HuangAnhui University of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Abstract
Background and objectives
Intermittent fasting (IF) has emerged as a dietary approach with potential therapeutic effects that is gaining recognition. Although several studies have explored the impact of IF on clinical symptoms in patients with rheumatic diseases, a quantitative synthesis of the existing evidence is lacking. This study aims to systematically evaluate the overall effects of IF on disease activity and inflammatory markers in patients with rheumatic diseases.
Methods
A systematic search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and The Cochrane Library for clinical studies examining intermittent fasting interventions in rheumatic diseases, with a search deadline of March 15, 2026. RevMan 5.4 software was utilized to perform a meta-analysis on the studies that met the inclusion criteria.
Results
A total of seven independent studies (yielding nine datasets) were included in the analysis, comprising 471 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and 85 patients with spondyloarthritis (SpA). The results indicated that observational studies, which provide a lower level of evidence, demonstrated significant improvements in disease activity scores associated with intermittent fasting (e.g., Visual Analog Scale (VAS), P P P = 0.04).
Conclusion
These findings suggest a positive effect of intermittent fasting on disease activity, as indicated by both observational studies and RCTs. However, the reliability of the conclusions drawn from RCTs is limited due to the small number of studies and considerable heterogeneity in the interventions. There is an urgent need for more rigorously designed RCTs to further validate these results.
Abstract via Europe PMC. Copyright remains with the authors or publisher (CC BY).
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