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Diet Reduces Heart Attacks, Strokes
Monday, April 14, 2008
CHICAGO - A large study offers the strongest evidence yet that a diet the
government recommends for lowering blood pressure can save people from heart
attack and stroke.
Researchers followed more than 88,000 healthy women for almost 25 years.
They examined their food choices and looked at how many had heart attacks
and strokes. Those who fared best had eating habits similar to those
recommended by the government to stop high blood pressure.
The plan, called the DASH diet, favors fruits, vegetables, whole grains,
low-fat milk and plant-based protein over meat.
Women with those eating habits were 24 percent less likely to have a heart
attack and 18 percent less likely to have a stroke than women with more
typical American diets.
Those are meaningful reductions since these diseases are so common. About
two in five U.S. women at age 50 will eventually develop cardiovascular
disease, which includes heart attacks and strokes. Women in the study were
in their mid-30s to late 50s when the research began in 1980.
Previous research has shown this kind of diet can help prevent high blood
pressure and cholesterol, which both can lead to heart attacks.
The new study appears in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine.
People might think, "I don't have high blood pressure, so I don't have to
follow it," said Simmons College researcher Teresa Fung, the study's lead
author. However, the results suggest, she said, that "even healthy people
should get on it."
About 15,000 women in the study had diets that closely resembled the low
blood pressure diet. They ate about twice as many fruits, vegetables and
grains as the estimated 18,000 women whose diets more closely resembled
typical American eating habits.
Although the study only followed women, Fung said men would probably get
similar benefits from the approach.
The study was limited because it merely tracked the women and their habits
for 24 years. That's a less rigorous method than randomly assigning equal
groups of women different diets and comparing results. But that would be
extremely difficult to do for such a long time.
Given that limitation, Dr. Laura Svetkey, director of Duke University's
hypertension center, said the study provides the best evidence yet of
important long-term benefits from a low blood pressure diet.
"It's nice to see research that really is aimed at helping people with
prevention in a very practical way," Svetkey said. She noted that the DASH
diet, which stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, is available
free on the National Institutes of Health Web site. The study was funded
with NIH grants.
Dr. Nieca Goldberg, medical director of New York University's Women's Heart
Program, said many patients would rather take a pill than adjust their
eating habits. But, Goldberg said, "I always point out to my patients, if
you make these changes in your lives, it could ... keep you off medication"
in the long run.
"There has to be a greater emphasis on the way we live our lives," she said.
Diet Reduces Heart Attacks, Strokes
Monday, April 14, 2008
CHICAGO - A large study offers the strongest evidence yet that a diet the
government recommends for lowering blood pressure can save people from heart
attack and stroke.
Researchers followed more than 88,000 healthy women for almost 25 years.
They examined their food choices and looked at how many had heart attacks
and strokes. Those who fared best had eating habits similar to those
recommended by the government to stop high blood pressure.
The plan, called the DASH diet, favors fruits, vegetables, whole grains,
low-fat milk and plant-based protein over meat.
Women with those eating habits were 24 percent less likely to have a heart
attack and 18 percent less likely to have a stroke than women with more
typical American diets.
Those are meaningful reductions since these diseases are so common. About
two in five U.S. women at age 50 will eventually develop cardiovascular
disease, which includes heart attacks and strokes. Women in the study were
in their mid-30s to late 50s when the research began in 1980.
Previous research has shown this kind of diet can help prevent high blood
pressure and cholesterol, which both can lead to heart attacks.
The new study appears in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine.
People might think, "I don't have high blood pressure, so I don't have to
follow it," said Simmons College researcher Teresa Fung, the study's lead
author. However, the results suggest, she said, that "even healthy people
should get on it."
About 15,000 women in the study had diets that closely resembled the low
blood pressure diet. They ate about twice as many fruits, vegetables and
grains as the estimated 18,000 women whose diets more closely resembled
typical American eating habits.
Although the study only followed women, Fung said men would probably get
similar benefits from the approach.
The study was limited because it merely tracked the women and their habits
for 24 years. That's a less rigorous method than randomly assigning equal
groups of women different diets and comparing results. But that would be
extremely difficult to do for such a long time.
Given that limitation, Dr. Laura Svetkey, director of Duke University's
hypertension center, said the study provides the best evidence yet of
important long-term benefits from a low blood pressure diet.
"It's nice to see research that really is aimed at helping people with
prevention in a very practical way," Svetkey said. She noted that the DASH
diet, which stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, is available
free on the National Institutes of Health Web site. The study was funded
with NIH grants.
Dr. Nieca Goldberg, medical director of New York University's Women's Heart
Program, said many patients would rather take a pill than adjust their
eating habits. But, Goldberg said, "I always point out to my patients, if
you make these changes in your lives, it could ... keep you off medication"
in the long run.
"There has to be a greater emphasis on the way we live our lives," she said.
