Ramadan observance could affect medication, study warns

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2004

PARIS (AFP) — Muslims who are on medication and who devoutly follow Ramadan may be causing health problems for themselves, a study in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) warns.

During Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, adult Muslims must refrain from taking oral drugs, as well as food and beverages, between dawn and sunset.

The researchers say that only a small handful of medical studies, none of them large-scale, has ever been carried out to find out what patients do about their daily drug regimen during Ramadan.

But the sketchy data available suggests that many acutely sick people insist on fasting, even if this is not obligatory.

In addition, many people decide to take all their pills with their meals in the morning or the...