A Cochrane review of trials run before January 2015 found high dietary fiber intake associated with lower LDL and total cholesterol and lower diastolic blood pressure. The trials were small, lasted no more than 12 weeks and tracked no cardiovascular events or deaths, so the case is unsettled.
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Heart & Blood
Heart disease, blood pressure, cholesterol and stroke.
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Heart & Blood
How to prevent cardiovascular disease - WHO
A WHO summary notes cardiovascular disease causes a third of deaths worldwide. It rates as convincing the evidence that fruit, vegetables, fish oils, linoleic acid, potassium and activity lower risk, and that saturated and trans fats, sodium, excess weight and heavy drinking raise it.
Heart & Blood
Vegetarians and Vegans Have Lower Risk of Heart Disease
Among 592 African-American participants in Adventist Health Study-2, those eating a vegetarian or vegan diet had lower blood pressure, half the diabetes risk and 44% lower hypertension risk than pesco- and non-vegetarians, and were 43% less likely to be obese than non-vegetarians.
Heart & Blood
Added sugar linked to cardiovascular disease death
In NHANES data with 15-year follow-up and 831 cardiovascular deaths, adults in the highest fifth of added sugar intake were 103 percent more likely to die of cardiovascular disease after adjustment than those in the lowest fifth, a JAMA Internal Medicine study reports.
Heart & Blood
Sedentary behavior and low physical activity linked to heart failure in men
A Kaiser Permanente study in Circulation: Heart Failure followed more than 82,000 men aged 45 and older for over a decade and found those reporting high sedentary time and low physical activity had 2.2 times the risk of heart failure of the most active, least sedentary men.
Heart & Blood
High sodium not linked to hypertension if potassium intake is high
Among 1,285 adults aged 25 to 64, those with a high sodium-to-potassium ratio had systolic and diastolic blood pressure 8 and 7 mmHg higher than those with a low ratio. The authors conclude that high sodium intake is not linked to higher blood pressure when potassium intake is high.
Heart & Blood
Trans fat increases risk of coronary heart disease
Among 85,095 women in the Nurses' Health Study, those in the highest quintile of trans fat intake had 50 percent higher coronary heart disease risk over eight years, and women using margarine more than ten years had 67 percent higher risk. The study was observational, so cause is not established.
Heart & Blood
Cutting out Meat Boosts Heart Attack Victims' Chances for Survival
Researchers scored the diets of 4,098 heart attack survivors in two Harvard cohorts. Over nine years, those eating the least red and processed meat and sugar and the most whole grains, fruit and vegetables had a 40% lower risk of dying from heart disease than those who changed nothing.
Heart & Blood
Sugar also bad for the heart
A review in Internal Medicine argues that excess sugar intake is more likely than saturated fat or salt to lead to atherosclerotic disease, and recommends that people at high cardiovascular risk restrict sugar as well as saturated fat and salt.
Heart & Blood
Low salt diet helps cardiovascular health
In 17 men and women averaging 62 years old with moderately elevated systolic blood pressure, four weeks of dietary sodium restriction improved markers of vascular endothelial function, which the authors attribute to better nitric oxide availability and less oxidative stress.
Heart & Blood
Component of Animal Products Increases Risk of Heart Disease
A New England Journal of Medicine study of 4,007 people found those with the highest levels of a byproduct of dietary choline, abundant in animal products, were 2.5 times as likely to suffer a heart attack, stroke or death. The authors note a vegetarian or high-fiber diet cuts choline intake.
Heart & Blood
Fish oil helps prevent cardiovascular disease
Large epidemiological studies and randomized trials suggest oily fish, fish oil and omega-3 fats may help healthy people avoid cardiovascular disease and help coronary patients manage it. A 2003 report found plant-derived ALA appears less potent than the EPA and DHA in fish.
Heart & Blood
Vegetarian diet linked to lower risk for ischemic heart disease
Among 44,561 people in the EPIC-Oxford study followed about 11.6 years, vegetarians were 32 percent less likely to develop ischemic heart disease than non-vegetarians. They also had lower BMI, non-HDL cholesterol and systolic blood pressure.
Heart & Blood
Virgin olive oil may help hypertension
In 24 young women with mild hypertension, two months on a diet with polyphenol-rich olive oil lowered systolic pressure 7.91 mm Hg and diastolic 6.65 mm Hg from baseline and improved markers of endothelial function. A polyphenol-free olive oil diet served as comparison.
Heart & Blood
Butter on bread linked to high risk of myocardial infarction
Following 33,636 Swedish women for nearly 12 years, researchers found those in the top fifth for butter on bread were 34 percent more likely to have a heart attack, while the highest intake of total dairy tracked with 23 percent lower risk and cheese with 26 percent lower.
Heart & Blood
Nutrients and stroke risk
Reviewing the epidemiological evidence in Current Opinion in Lipidology, Karolinska researcher S.C. Larsson finds magnesium and potassium intake may help prevent stroke and high sodium may raise risk. Effects of most fats, cholesterol, calcium and single vitamins remain uncertain.
Heart & Blood
How to prevent or reverse coronary heart disease (I)?
The first part of a review of dietary factors in coronary heart disease: most coffee studies found no significant association, and Norwegian data tied unfiltered boiled coffee to more deaths, while each extra 10 g of daily fiber tracked with 14% fewer coronary events.
Heart & Blood
Plant-based diet cuts risk of coronary heart disease
Plant polyphenols are the most abundant antioxidants in human diets. Ginter and Simko report that the polyphenol-rich Mediterranean diet tracks with lower coronary heart disease, as do the plant- and fish-heavy diets of Scandinavia, Switzerland and Austria.
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