Effects of a Fasting-mimicking Diet on MRI-assessed Cardiac Structure and Function in Participants with Type 2 Diabetes

This paper reports a secondary analysis of the Fasting In diabetes Treatment trial. Adults with type 2 diabetes were randomly assigned to a monthly 5-day Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD) or to usual care for 12 months. MRI of the heart was performed at baseline, 6 months and 12 months, and the authors assessed left ventricular geometry, systolic function and diastolic function. Eighty-two participants were included, with a mean age of about 63 years.

The authors reported that left ventricular mass was lower in the FMD group than in the control group at 6 months, and that this difference was no longer present at 12 months. They reported higher values at 12 months for two measures of how the left ventricle fills between beats. They also reported that no other treatment effects were observed on the measures examined, and that the change in one filling measure tracked with the change in HbA1c.

This is a secondary analysis of imaging measures from a trial in people with type 2 diabetes, not a study of a general wellness population or of Prolon directly. The outcomes are structural and functional MRI readings, not heart attacks, heart failure or other clinical events. One of the reported differences was present at 6 months and absent at 12 months, and most of the measures examined showed no difference between the groups.