News

Healthy Diet is a Powerful Weapon to Fight Heart Disease

The team’s findings suggest that while the DASH and fruit/vegetable diets each reduced risk scores by about 10 percent over an eight-week period, the DASH diet conferred additional benefits for women and black adults compared to the Western diet. The results are published in the

“While physicians and patients rely on the extensive data available when choosing appropriate pharmacologic therapy to prevent atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, there’s limited evidence to inform expectations for risk reductions from established lifestyle interventions,” said corresponding author Stephen P. Jurashcek, MD, PhD, a clinician-researcher in the Department of Medicine at BIDMC.

Advertisement


Does Hypertension Diet Prevent Heart Disease

“Our study suggests that the benefits associated with these diets may vary by gender and race. While a diet rich in fruits and vegetables produced reductions in risk for women and black participants, the effect with the DASH diet was twice as large in women and four times as large in black adults.”

To determine the effect of the different diets on an individual’s risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, Juraschek and colleagues acquired data from 459 adults aged 22 to 75 who participated in the original DASH trial between 1994 and 1996. Approximately half of the participants were women and the remaining half were black. They were randomized to one of three diets for eight weeks.

The control diet was high in total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol. The fruit and vegetable diet provided more produce, but did not otherwise significantly differ from the control diet. The DASH diet also provided more fruit and vegetables, but emphasized more whole grains, lean proteins, nuts, and low-fat dairy while reducing fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sugar.

First published in 1997, the DASH trial demonstrated that, among adults with elevated blood pressure and hypertension, the DASH diet not only reduced systolic blood pressure but also reduced HDL cholesterol levels, compared to the control diet. As a diet high in fruits and vegetables was shown to reduce systolic blood pressure to a lesser degree, it also improved HDL cholesterol levels as well.

When Juraschek and colleagues compared the data, they found that both the DASH diet and the fruit and vegetable diet had lowered participants’ 10-year risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease by about 10 percent overall. However, the effect was not consistent across demographics. The DASH diet reduced the 10-year risk score among women by nearly 13 percent, compared to just over 6 percent among men. Moreover, DASH reduced the 10-year risk score by nearly 14 percent among black adults versus just 3 percent among non-black adults.

“The findings could have major implications for clinical practitioners and policy makers alike,” said first author Sun Young Jeong, MD, MPH, an internal medicine resident at BIDMC.

“Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in women, and hypertension is also more strongly linked with heart failure and death in women than men. We also know women are less likely to receive risk factor modification therapies, such as statins, so our finding that DASH may be more efficacious among women is relevant for lifestyle counseling in this group.”

“Similarly, disparities in access to healthy foods have been a major focus of policy efforts to promote higher intake of fruits and vegetables among Black adults,” said Juraschek, who is also an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

“Our study suggests that the DASH dietary pattern may offer black adults more prevention benefits than the emphasis on fruits and vegetables alone. This is particularly relevant as dietary pattern has been identified as one of the most important mediators of hypertension risk among black adults.”

Source: Eurekalert

Source link
#Healthy #Diet #Powerful #Weapon #Fight #Heart #Disease

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *