Tag: Ramadan

  • Guest post: Withholding food and water from children for 15 hours a day

    Originally a comment by Theo Bromine on Mubarak dehydration month.

    I was wondering about the rules for kids, and found the following:

    1. Children before the age of seven should be encouraged to fast (without fasting the full day) and to love these acts of worship. They can pretend what it is like to fast for an hour, for example.

    2. After seven, it is recommended for the child to fast, but not necessarily for the full day nor everyday. The emphasis on fasting should be increased until the child reaches ten.

    3. At ten, the child should be expected to fast.

    Other sites quoted scholars saying that a child over 10 “should be made to fast and told to do so. And he should be smacked if he does not do it, so as to train him and make him get used to it, just as he should be made to pray and told to do it.” (Though some of them were quick to point out that the prescribed hitting was just for discipline and not supposed to actually hurt the child.)

    Here in Ottawa, it’s 15 hours from sunrise to sunset (and will get longer). If I found that my next-door neighbour decided to withhold food and water from their 10-year-old for 15 hours every day for a month, I think that would properly be considered child abuse. But if they are doing it because their imaginary friend told them to? Somehow that changes everything…

  • Happy fast-defiance!

    Maryam has plans for this matter of forced fasting (and deyhdrating) in Ramadan:

    24 JUNE 2016: FAST DEFYING PROTEST DURING RAMADAN

    On 24 June, from 17:00-19:00 hours, we will be organising an “eat-in” at the Saudi and Iranian embassies in London in solidarity with those defying fasting rules during Ramadan.

    This is hugely important given that there are many people across the globe who are arrested, beaten and fined for eating during the month; many others are pressured into fasting, including in Europe. Join us at the ‘eat-in’ if you can.

    Alternately, you can upload photos of yourself eating during fasting times or holding signs with messages of solidarity using hashtag: #IWillNotFast #لن_اص= م #روزه خوارى #Ramadan until the= end of Ramadan. Happy fast-defiance!

    More details on Facebook.

     

  • Suck it up

    In Pakistan and a number of other countries, it’s against the law to drink and eat in public (and “in public” means where anyone can see and report you, so I suspect it means at home too if you have windows). IBTimes reported last June:

    The death toll from a weeklong heat wave in Karachi, Pakistan, has risen to 1,233, officials told the Associated Press Saturday. Some 65,000 people flooded the city’s hospitals to be treated for heat stroke, and about 1,900 patients were still receiving medical care as the country began to cool off.

    Pakistan’s laws forbid people [to drink] and [eat] in public in daylight during Ramadan. As the heat wave has continued — and worsened — some Muslim religious leaders departed from tradition and encouraged followers to break the fast for health reasons.

    Of course it’s always that hot in the Arabian Peninsula…

     

  • The hot month

    I’ve heard from a couple of friends of Muslim background who say the dehydration issue is indeed a problem, and generally ignored.

    Deutsche Welle reported a year ago:

    More than 1,100 people have already died of dehydration in Pakistan’s scorching temperatures. The risk is made worse because devout Muslims don’t eat or drink anything between sunrise and sunset during Ramadan.

    It’s hot in Pakistan. Over the last few days, it’s been as hot as 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in the shade and thousands of people are being treated in hospitals. Most of the more than 1,100 casualties have been recorded in the port city of Karachi, Pakistani health authorities report. Military and civilian aid organizations have set up dozens of temporary camps to care for victims of dehydration, heatstroke and circulatory collapse.

    Faithful Muslims are currently observing Ramadan, which literally means “the hot month.” They don’t eat or drink anything between sunrise and sunset during this time, which puts them especially at risk in the current extreme heat. They are much more likely to suffer from dehydration.

    If the body’s fluid levels sink to dangerous lows, it can dry out. “Vessels contract and blood pressure plummets,” Dr. Ulrich Gerth from University Hospital Münster explained. “Blood levels get shaken up because of a lack of electrolytes and important organs don’t get enough blood flow anymore. This can lead to a comatose state and cause irreversible damage.”

    But hey, it makes them feel more spiritual.

    Until [Ramadan ends], devout believers try to right their fluid balance by drinking copious amounts of water after sundown. But that’s not healthy either. “It’s possible that the body cannot cope with this, depending on its overall condition,” Gerth told DW.

    Drinking too much at once can be damaging. It dilutes the body’s electrolytes too much, causing water to be drawn out of cells through their membranes. Gerth says this can lead to cerebral or pulmonary edema in people with existing health conditions.

    By now, temperatures in Pakistan have gone down at least a little. And a leading religious scholar in Karachi clarified again that Islam allows the elderly, sick or weak to interrupt fasting in extreme situations.

    “People shouldn’t risk their lives for a religious duty,” cleric Mufti Naeem said.

    Indeed they shouldn’t, but that means no one should go without water. Water should be excluded from Ramadan altogether.

    The situation in Pakistan remains strained, despite the sinking temperatures. Many hospitals are full beyond their capacities and authorities reckon more people will die.

    In Karachi, the past week was declared to be “work-free” for everybody, to alleviate the risk a little. But according to Gerth, that was just a drop in the ocean.

    “Working less in extreme heat is helpful for sure, but it only mitigates the problem,” he said. “It can’t replace regular hydration.”

    God hates human beings.

  • If you are unable to stand up due to dizziness

    Another NHS page on how to deal with the health risks of Ramadan; this one is much more forthright, so that’s good.

    Some common health complications that can arise from fasting and how to prevent and deal with them.

    The following advice has been provided following consultation with medical experts and Islamic scholars.

    Um…they’re the Health Service; they shouldn’t be consulting religious “scholars” on health issues.

    They start with heartburn. They have some suggestions for how to minimize it,

    Then they tackle diabetes. They say people who take insulin regularly shouldn’t fast at all; it’s too risky.

    People who have their diabetes under control using tablets should seek careful advice from their GP before starting a fast.

    Regular self-monitoring of your blood glucose is strongly advised. Low blood sugar levels (a ‘hypo’) are dangerous, and if untreated may lead to fainting or fits.

    Feeling dizzy, sweaty and disoriented may all suggest a hypo. If a person with diabetes has these symptoms, they should immediately have a sugary drink, or place sugar or a sugar-rich sweet below their tongue.

    In other words…people with diabetes shouldn’t fast, period. But they don’t say that. I guess that would be the “Islamic scholars” contributing.

    Then there’s advice on headaches, then they get to dehydration.

    Dehydration

    Dehydration is common during a fast. The body continues to lose water and salts through breathing, perspiring and urinating.

    If you don’t drink sufficiently before a fast your risk of dehydration is increased. This risk is higher in older people and in those taking tablets such as diuretics.

    If you are unable to stand up due to dizziness, or you are disoriented, you should urgently drink regular, moderate quantities of water – ideally with sugar and salt – or Dioralyte or Lucozade.

    If you faint due to dehydration, your legs should be raised above your head by others, and when you awake, you should urgently rehydrate as outlined above.

    In other words…you shouldn’t go without water. It’s a really bad idea. But they don’t say that; the scholars again no doubt.

    Then they do constipation, stress, and weight control.

    I wish they could just give medical advice, and say they don’t advise doing it at all, and skip consulting the “scholars.”

  • Starving and dehydration can be good for you!

    The NHS has advice on Ramadan fasting and health.

    Fasting during the month of Ramadan can be good for your health if it’s done correctly.

    When the body is starved of food, it starts to burn fat so that it can make energy. This can lead to weight loss. However, if you fast for too long your body will eventually start breaking down muscle protein for energy, which is unhealthy.

    Dr Razeen Mahroof, an anaesthetist from Oxford, says there’s a strong relationship between diet and health.

    “Ramadan isn’t always thought of as being an opportunity to lose weight because the spiritual aspect is emphasised more generally than the health aspect,” he says. “However, it’s a great chance to get the physical benefits as well.”

    So it’s a good thing for health, according to the NHS. It goes on to explain how the body deals with a fast, and says consolingly that you’re unlikely to starve during Ramadan because it’s only sunrise to sunset.

    As the Ramadan fast only lasts from dawn till dusk, the body’s energy can be replaced in the pre-dawn and dusk meals.

    This provides a gentle transition from using glucose as the main source of energy, to using fat, and prevents the breakdown of muscle for protein.

    Dr Mahroof says the use of fat for energy helps weight loss. It preserves the muscles and eventually reduces your cholesterol level. In addition, weight loss results in better control of diabetes and reduces blood pressure.

    “A detoxification process also occurs, because any toxins stored in the body’s fat are dissolved and removed from the body,” says Dr Mahroof.

    After a few days of the fast, higher levels of endorphins appear in the blood, making you more alert and giving an overall feeling of general mental wellbeing.

    Oh, cool – so it actually is a healthy thing to do, and you feel better during it.

    A balanced food and fluid intake is important between fasts. The kidneys are very efficient at maintaining the body’s water and salts, such as sodium and potassium. However, these can be lost through perspiration.

    To prevent muscle breakdown, meals must contain enough energy food, such as carbohydrates and some fat.

    “The way to approach your diet during fasting is similar to the way you should be eating outside Ramadan,” says Dr Mahroof. “You should have a balanced diet with the right proportion of carbs, fat and protein.”

    And that’s it. No real warning about dehydration – just what looks like advice to avoid sweating.

    That seems irresponsible to me.

  • The sickness unto death

    More on the joys of Ramadan.

    For most of Australia’s 496,000 Muslims, the start of Ramadan today is a holy  month of fasting by day and feasting by night. But for the estimated 22,000  Australian Muslims with diabetes, it can be a time of fluctuations in blood  sugar levels that can be dangerous, even deadly.

    So they should just not do it.

    But no one should do it – it’s not healthy for anyone. Fasting and bingeing is a really terrible way to eat. Predators in the wild have to do that because that’s how it is (and lots of them starve to death), but it’s not something to do as a religious offering.

    ”I’ve seen people die one or two minutes before the fast is ending,” said a visiting endocrinologist from Saudi Arabia, Dr Al Saeed. ”They developed hypoglycemia but refused to break their fast. They became unconscious and  died.”

    The Koran specifically exempts those who are sick or suffer from a chronic condition such as  diabetes from fasting. Yet 43 per cent of people with type 1 diabetes and 79 per cent of patients with type 2 diabetes fasted through  Ramadan, reported the Diabetes Journal.

    That is scary.

    During Ramadan last year, Ms Hana broke her fast once when she started to feel  dizzy. Before fasting, she sought medical advice on how to manage her diabetes. But her parents, who live in Tripoli, Lebanon, insisted on fasting every year, even though it made their diabetes worse.

    That’s scary, frustrating, infuriating, pathetic. Taking risks for a good reason is one thing; doing it for a crappy one is another.