Does Ramadan Fasting Affect the Blood Coagulation System through A Session Soccer Match?

 Fasting during Ramadan is associated with modifications in athletes' metabolic, physiological, and psychological responses that may affect physical performance. The current study aimed to assess the changes in some risk factors of thrombosis in trained men following one soccer session in non-fasting and fasting conditions. 

The 11 amateur soccer players (age: 42 ± 16 years) and (body mass index:26.49 ± 2.86) played soccer matched (~100 min: 10 min warm-up, 90 min soccer match) on two occasions: 1 week before and on the fourth day of Ramadan. The blood samples were taken before and after the soccer game. Fibrinogen and D-dimer were analyzed by the Clauss clotting method and the turbid metric assay, respectively; plasminogen and alpha 2 anti-plasmin were analyzed by spectrophotometry, and Homocysteine was analyzed by the ELISA method. The Shapiro-Wilk, independent t-test, and dependent t-test were used to analyze the findings. (P ≤0.05). 

 The results demonstrated that one session soccer match increased homocysteine in both fasting (p = 0.006) and non-fasting (p = 0.042), Alpha 2-antiplasmin decreased in fasting (p = 0.031 and non-fasting (p = 0.001) and plasminogen decreased in non-fasting (p = 0.012). one session soccer match had not a Significant Impact on Fibrinogen and D-dimer in both condition and plasminogen in fasting(p≥0.05). Also, there was no significant difference between fasting and non-fasting conditions in Homocysteine, Alpha 2-antiplasmin, Fibrinogen, Plasminogen, and D-dimer in response to one session soccer match (p≥0.05).  

 Amazingly, one session soccer match throughout the fasting condition is parallel with the non-fasting state, and fasting did not produce adverse consequences in the coagulation system.