Category: Heart Disease

A nutritionally rich diet containing beneficially rated foods can lower the risk of heart disease by 52 percent.

People who eat more unprocessed or minimally processed plant-based foods are more likely to be immune from heart disease.

A study found that those who eat nutritious plant foods are at lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Research finds that a diet mainly from nutrient-rich plant foods but also containing small amounts of animal products such as nonfried fish, nonfried poultry, and low fat dairy can prevent heart disease.

A heart-healthy dietary pattern usually contains lots of green vegetables, whole grains, fruits, legumes, seeds and nuts, nonfried fish and poultry, low-fat dairy products, and olive oil.

It is also recommended to avoid or limit soft drinks, desserts, salty foods, high‐fat or processed products, sweets, and fried foods.

Dr Choi, the study’s first author, said:

“Earlier research was focused on single nutrients or single foods, yet there is little data about a plant-centered diet and the long-term risk of cardiovascular disease.”

The team studied 4,946 people over 32 years to see if there is any link between diet and the incidence of heart disease.

The quality of these people’s diets was scored based on the A Priori Diet Quality Score (APDQS) system.

The APDQS consisted of 46 food groups which are classified as:

• neutrally rated food such as refined grains, potatoes, shellfish, and lean meats,
• beneficially rated food such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, seeds, legumes, fish, vegetable oil, poultry, low‐fat milk, low-fat yogurt, coffee, and tea,
• adversely rated food such as high-fat red meat, fried potatoes, soft drinks, sauces, pastries, and salty snacks.

Those who scored higher consumed primarily nutritionally rich plant products from the beneficially rated food group and those with lower scores consumed more adversely rated foods.

The risk of developing heart disease reduced by 52 percent for those who scored in the top 20 percent (eating nutritionally rich plant-based diet and fewer adversely rated foods).

Those whose diet improved in quality had a 61 percent reduced risk of developing heart disease compared with those who ate more lower quality foods as time went by.

Dr Choi said:

“A nutritionally rich, plant-centered diet is beneficial for cardiovascular health.

A plant-centered diet is not necessarily vegetarian.

People can choose among plant foods that are as close to natural as possible, not highly processed.

We think that individuals can include animal products in moderation from time to time, such as non-fried poultry, non-fried fish, eggs and low-fat dairy.”

The study was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association (Choi et al., 2021).

Diet is not the only thing that can improve cardiovascular health, adopting this meal timing is also important.

Particular eating habits such as having an early breakfast or late dinner can make a positive or negative impact on cardiovascular health.

According to a study, an early eating schedule coupled with longer overnight fasting will benefit cardiometabolic health markers including reduced weight, lower blood pressure, and lower blood glucose levels.

Whereas skipping breakfast and late-night eating are associated with cardiometabolic risk factors such as weight gain, high blood glucose, hypertension, and  high levels of low-density lipoprotein  known as “bad” cholesterol.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the most common cause of death globally, taking  more than 18 million lives every year.

Over 40 percent of CVD deaths are related to poor dietary habits and unhealthy diets suggesting the importance of diet in developing or preventing heart related diseases.

Poor eating patterns like skipping breakfast, snacking, or late-night eating  are a consequence of the modern Western lifestyle.

Chrono-nutrition insights

Daily eating (light phase) and fasting at night (dark phase) synchronises the the peripheral clocks of different organs related to the cardiovascular system, such as blood pressure regulation.

In recent years, scientists have been attracted to a new filed called chrono-nutrition that examines the link between the timing of eating, circadian rhythms and health.

This study looked at the relationship between dietary intake patterns and heart disease.

They found that for every hour’s delay of eating the first meal there was a six percent increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

For instance, if you eat your breakfast at 8 a.m. you are 6 percent less likely to have a heart attack than a person who eats at 9 o’clock in the morning.

With regard to the last meal of the day, the risk was even higher.

The odds of cerebrovascular disease (ischemic stroke, mini stroke, and stroke) went up 8 percent for each extra hour in putting off the last meal of the day.

The risk of cerebrovascular disease was 28 percent higher for people who ate at 9 p.m. than those who had their last meal before 8 o’clock in the evening.

The risk was more prominent among women.

Overnight fasting

Moreover, the research team found that a longer period of overnight fasting (the gap between dinner and breakfast) reduced the odds of cerebrovascular disease.

This finding encourages the idea of having breakfast and the final meal of the day as early as possible.

The authors concluded:

“These findings suggest that, beyond the nutritional quality of the diet itself, recommendations related to meal timing for patients and citizens may help promoting a better cardiometabolic health.”

Related

• Eating within a ten-hour time frame is feasible for most people.
• The timing of meals greatly influences hunger and appetite.
• Eating at night increases the risk of depression and anxiety.
• Snacking late at night stops the body from burning fat.

The study was published in the journal Nature Communications (Palomar-Cros et al., 2023).

Adding this ingredient to your diet could halve the risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke.

Eating chili peppers regularly could cut down the risk of dying from heart disease, stroke, and any cause of death, research finds.

Chili pepper is a popular ingredient commonly used in the traditional Mediterranean diet and many other cultures.

An Italian study found that consuming chili peppers four times a week or more can reduce the risk of dying from a stroke by 50 percent, heart attacks by 40 percent, and any cause of death by 23 percent.

The study examined 23,000 Italians and followed their health and eating habits for more than eight years.

Dr Marialaura Bonaccio, the study’s first author, said:

“An interesting fact is that protection from mortality risk was independent of the type of diet people followed.

In other words, someone can follow the healthy Mediterranean diet, someone else can eat less healthily, but for all of them, chili pepper has a protective effect.”

The protective action of chili peppers on health could be due to its high capsaicin and flavonoid content.

Several studies have shown a positive link between frequency of eating chili peppers and health benefits.

Capsicum species come in different varieties such as serrano, Italian chilli peppers, cayenne, and jalapeño.

They contain phytochemicals such as quercetin and luteolin, which are natural antioxidants with an anti-inflammatory function.

The chili pepper family also contains capsaicinoids and carotenoids like beta carotene.

Therefore, all these active compounds and possibly their collaboration together could have a positive effect on human health.

The study was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (Bonaccio et al., 2019).

A monthly dose of the vitamin was found to lower the incidence of cardiovascular events, including heart attacks.

Supplementation of vitamin D in older people might lower their risk of cardiovascular events, particularly myocardial infarction, a study has found.

A once-a-month supplement of vitamin D3 containing 60,000 international units (IU) could decrease the rate of major cardiovascular events, especially heart attacks.

This is the biggest clinical trial examining whether vitamin D supplements can change the incidence of major cardiovascular events in older adults.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) refers to heart and blood vessel disorders and is a leading cause of death worldwide.

The CVD incidence including coronary heart disease and stroke in aging populations continues to increase with higher prevalence in men than women.

Participants in this study were 60 years and older and received one tablet of 60,000 IU vitamin D3 at the start of each month for five years.

During this period the rate of hospital admissions and death related to major cardiovascular events including heart attacks, strokes, and coronary revascularisation (treatment to improve blood flow to the heart) among participants was recorded.

The total incidence in the vitamin D group was nine percent lower than those taking placebo tablets.

The heart attack rate was reduced by 19 percent and coronary revascularization by 11 percent while the intervention had no effect on stroke-related incidence.

Overall, these findings indicate that vitamin D supplements may lower the rate of major cardiovascular events.

The authors wrote:

“This protective effect could be more marked in those taking statins or other cardiovascular drugs at baseline.

In the meantime, these findings suggest that conclusions that vitamin D supplementation does not alter risk of cardiovascular disease are premature.”

Vitamin D is found in foods such as oily fish including salmon, trout, mackerel, and sardines, and fish liver oils but most people get their vitamin D from the action of sunlight on the skin.

Related

• Higher levels of vitamin D in the brain are linked to better cognitive function with age.
• Vitamin D deficiency may double heart disease risk.
• Depression, tiredness and weak muscles can all be signs of vitamin D deficiency.
• Higher levels of vitamin D are linked to reduced belly fat.
• Chronic headaches could be a sign of vitamin D deficiency.

The study was published in The BMJ (Thompson et al., 2023).

Indulge in this tasty food once a week to reduce your risk of heart disease.

Eating chocolate more than once a week has been found to lower the chance of heart disease, a review of 50 years of studies shows.

The research suggests that chocolate consumption benefits heart health, particularly improving blood pressure and the functions of the endothelium (the inner lining of the heart and blood vessels).

Dr Chayakrit Krittanawong, the study’s first author, said:

“Our study suggests that chocolate helps keep the heart’s blood vessels healthy.

In the past, clinical studies have shown that chocolate is beneficial for both blood pressure and the lining of blood vessels.

I wanted to see if it affects the blood vessels supplying the heart (the coronary arteries) or not.

And if it does, is it beneficial or harmful?”

Researchers analysed six studies on 336,289 participants with a follow-up of nearly nine years.

People who ate chocolate more than once a week had a reduced coronary artery disease risk of 8 percent when compared to those who ate chocolate less than once a week.

During the nine year follow-up, 4,667 participants had a heart attack and there were 14,043 cases of coronary artery disease (CAD).

CAD is the most common type of heart disease, which occurs when the arteries become narrowed and hardened and so they can’t supply blood to the heart muscle properly.

If CAD advances, the blood flow to the heart will suddenly become clogged and cause a heart attack.

Dr Krittanawong said:

“Chocolate contains heart healthy nutrients such as flavonoids, methylxanthines, polyphenols and stearic acid which may reduce inflammation and increase good cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein or HDL cholesterol).”

Dr Krittanawong pointed out that the study didn’t investigated what amount of chocolate and what type of chocolate can boost heart health.

“Chocolate appears promising for prevention of coronary artery disease, but more research is needed to pinpoint how much and what kind of chocolate could be recommended.

Moderate amounts of chocolate seem to protect the coronary arteries but it’s likely that large quantities do not.

The calories, sugar, milk, and fat in commercially available products need to be considered, particularly in diabetics and obese people.”

The study was published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology (Krittanawong et al., 2020).

A vitamin found in this superfood can protect against heart disease by preventing cholesterol plaque build-up in the arteries.

Carrots are a humble vegetable, but in a way they are a superfood due to their richness in beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A.

Vitamin A is essential for the immune system, reproduction, skin and mucus membranes, eyes and healthy vision, and heart health.

Nevertheless our body needs an active enzyme to make vitamin A from carrots or any other food high in beta-carotene.

Beta-carotenes is converted to vitamin A with the help of an enzyme known as beta-carotene oxygenase 1 (BCO1).

The enzyme regulates the cholesterol circulation and is found in the intestine and the liver.

It has a high ability to choose beta-carotene for forming vitamin A and this conversion would lower “bad” cholesterol in the blood.

In this way, beta-carotene prevents atherosclerosis, which is narrowing of the arteries.

Atherosclerosis can lead to cardiovascular disease and heart attack, the biggest cause of death in the world.

Higher beta-carotene concentration has also been linked to a lower rate of metabolic syndrome, which is a combination of high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity.

However, due to genetic variations some people have more BCO1 activity and some less so these individuals need another source of vitamin A than beta-carotene.

Dr Jaume Amengual, the study’s first author, said:

“People who had a genetic variant associated with making the enzyme BCO1 more active had lower cholesterol in their blood.

That was our first observation. “

In their second study they looked into whether beta-carotene or vitamin A affects atherosclerosis.

Dr Amengual said:

“The main findings of the mice study reproduce what we found in humans.

We saw that when we give beta-carotene to mice, they have lower cholesterol levels.

These mice develop smaller atherosclerosis lesions, or plaques, in their arteries.

This means that mice fed beta-carotene are more protected against atherosclerosis than those fed a diet without this bioactive compound.

Moreover, the team tried to find out where in the body lipoproteins (particles that carry cholesterol in the blood) are produced.

Dr Amengual said:

“We narrow it down to the liver as the organ in charge of producing and secreting lipoproteins to the bloodstream, including those lipoproteins known as bad cholesterol.

We observed that in mice with high levels of vitamin A, the secretion of lipids into the bloodstream slows down.”

A high amount of beta-carotene in the blood normally would be beneficial to health.

However, there is a chance that BCO1 is not active enough therefore we can’t make vitamin A from eating high beta-carotene foods.

According to Dr Amengual, around 50 percent of the population have the enzyme with the less-active form.

Consequently, their body can’t produce enough vitamin A from plant-based foods so they need to get this vitamin from animal sources like cheese and milk.

The fist study was published in The Journal of Nutrition (Amengual et al., 2020) & the second study was published in the Journal of Lipid Research (Zhou et al., 2020).

Eating these 6 foods will protect you from heart disease, stroke, and death.

People who miss six key foods from their diet are more likely to face heart disease, heart attacks, and strokes.

Nuts, whole-fat dairy, fruits, vegetables, fish, and legumes are the key foods to reduce cardiovascular disease and death risk, global research has found.

Diets containing higher amounts of these key foods together are associated with reduced risk of major cardiovascular events including heart attack (myocardial infarction) and stroke, and death.

The study also suggests a moderate daily amount of whole grains (e.g. one slice of bread) or unprocessed meat (e.g. 85 grams of red meat or poultry) can be part of a healthy diet.

Past studies on Western diets reveal the negative impact of calorie-dense foods and ultra-processed foods on people’s health.

This study focused on the positive impact of healthy foods on heart disease and premature deaths from cardiovascular events.

It is estimated that cardiovascular disease kills 18 million people each year, 32 percent of all global deaths.

Reports show that 85 percent of these death were related to heart attacks and strokes.

The research team tailored a diet score to measure health outcomes using available data from 245,000 people in 80 countries.

Professor Salim Yusuf, the study’s senior author, said:

“Previous diet scores—including the EAT-Lancet Planetary Diet and the Mediterranean Diet tested the relationship of diet to CVD and death mainly in Western countries.

The PURE Healthy Diet Score included a good representation of high, middle, and low-income countries.”

The PURE Healthy Diet Score concentrated on natural foods that are nutritious and have health benefits and are also consumed worldwide.

Dr Andrew Mente, the study’s first author, said:

“We were unique in that focus.

The other diet scores combined foods considered to be harmful—such as processed and ultra-processed foods—with foods and nutrients believed to be protective of one’s health.

There is a recent increased focus on higher consumption of protective foods for disease prevention.

Outside of larger amounts of fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes, the researchers showed that moderation is key in the consumption of natural foods.

Moderate amounts of fish and whole-fat dairy are associated with a lower risk of CVD and mortality.

The same health outcomes can be achieved with moderate consumption of grains and meats—as long as they are unrefined whole grains and unprocessed meats.

Dietary recommendations

• Fruits: 2 to 3 servings daily; a serving example includes 1 apple, banana, or pear.
• Vegetables: 2 to 3 servings daily; a serving example includes 1 cup leafy vegs, or 1/2 cup other vegs.
• Dairy: 2 servings daily; a serving example includes 1 cup milk or yogurt, or 1.5 oz (43 g) cheese.
• Nuts: 1 serving daily; a serving example includes 1 oz (29 g) tree nuts or peanuts.
• Legumes: 3 to 4 servings weekly; a serving example includes 1/2 cup beans or lentils.
• Fish: 2 to 3 servings weekly; a serving example includes 3 oz (85 g) cooked fish.
• Whole grains: 1 serving daily; a serving example includes 1 slice (40 g) bread, or ½ cup (75–120g) cooked rice.
• Unprocessed meats: 1 serving daily; a serving example includes 3 oz (85 g) cooked red meat or poultry.

The study was published in the journal European Heart Journal (Mente et al., 2023).

These popular drinks can cause heart problems, mood disorder, psychosis, stroke, and death.

Energy drinks are popular fizzy drinks advertised as products to reduce mental fatigue, increase concentration, and improve endurance during exercise.

However, energy drinks are more likely to cause cardiovascular adverse effects, neurological issues, gastritis, psychiatric disorders, stroke, and death.

A report presented by Professor Milou-Daniel Drici at ESC Congress, points out that energy drinks can cause life threatening conditions such as irregular heartbeat, angina (chest pain caused by reduced blood flow to the heart muscles).

Professor Drici said:

“So-called ‘energy drinks’ are popular in dance clubs and during physical exercise, with people sometimes consuming a number of drinks one after the other.

This situation can lead to a number of between energy drinks and poor health including angina, cardiac arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat) and even sudden death.”

He added:

“Around 96% of these drinks contain caffeine, with a typical 0.25 litre can holding 2 espressos worth of caffeine.

Caffeine is one of the most potent agonists of the ryanodine receptors and leads to a massive release of calcium within cardiac cells.

This can cause arrhythmias, but also has effects on the heart’s abilities to contract and to use oxygen.

In addition, 52% of drinks contain taurine, 33% have glucuronolactone and two-thirds contain vitamins.”

According to a number of studies, energy drinks can cause all kinds of abnormal heart rhythms, including atrial fibrillation.

QT prolongation, myocardial infarction known as a heart attack, acute coronary vasospasm, sudden cardiac arrest and death have been seen among healthy people due to consuming high quantities of energy drinks.

Long-term consumption of energy drinks can cause changes in the heart muscle, a similar effect caused by alcoholic drinks.

Professor Drici and team looked at adverse events related to energy drinks reported by the French agency for food safety between 2009 and 2012.

Within this time 95 cases were related to cardiovascular symptoms, 74 psychiatric, 57 neurological, and 46 heart rhythm disorders.

Professor Drici said:

“We found that ‘caffeine syndrome’ was the most common problem.

It is characterised by a fast heart rate (called tachycardia), tremor, anxiety and headache.

Rare but severe adverse events were also associated with these drinks, such as sudden or unexplained death, arrhythmia and heart attack (myocardial infarction).

Our literature search confirmed that these conditions can be related to consumption of energy drinks.”

Another study has found that energy drinks can cause an abnormal heartbeat and increased blood pressure in young and healthy people within a few hours of drinking.

However, a dosage of caffeine under 400 milligrams should not cause any electrocardiographic changes.

Instead, they think the heart rhythm disturbances are caused by an ingredient or combination of ingredients in the energy drinks.

B-vitamins, amino acid taurine (an amino acid), and glucuronolactone (found in plant gums and connective tissues) are other ingredients commonly used in energy drinks.

The study was published in the journal Nutrients (Erdmann et al., 2021).