REDUCING INFLAMMATION AND CARDIOVASCULAR EVENTS THROUGH NUTRITION

It is not very often that I quote another article verbatim as the one below. 

 

A while ago, I was talking to my colleagues and when I mentioned that Inflammation may

 

be the cause of Heart Attacks, Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes, they laughed at me calling it

 

a crazy idea, did I not know that Type 2 Diabetes is due to Pancreatic Exhaustion, they 

 

chided me, ah well now we know the truth.. Inflammatory process via the Microbiome is 

 

one of the principal mechanisms of disease such as Cardiovascular and a whole lot of 

 

metabolic diseaes

 

The treatment thus has to be NUTRITIONAL rather than taking supplements or 

 

medications..

But where does one get Nutritional Education? 

Open minded Nutritional educators are few and far between, the knowledge gaps 

practice and the science are great and appropriateness not very transparent.

someone has to tell people how to MAKE the best nutritious meals and they dont come

pre packaged.




Written by
 
 
David Rakel MD, FAAFP

Reducing Inflammation (and CV Events) Through Diet

Chronic inflammation creates an environment where plaque is more likely to develop and become unstable, leading to rupture, stroke, and heart attack. Two studies this week provide insight into how nutrition can modify this risk factor.

The first, the EVADE CAD study, was designed to evaluate whether hs-CRP levels would be different after 8 weeks of a diet consisting of the American Heart Association (AHA) diet vs a vegetarian diet.1 The main difference between the two diets was the absence of animal protein in the vegetarian diet. All the food was provided to the 100 participants (50 in the AHA group and 50 in the vegetarian group). The vegetarian diet group had a 32% lower hs-CRP compared with the AHA diet group. This study was too short to evaluate the influence of inflammation on outcomes; however, this was provided in the second study.

The Women’s Health Study evaluated 25,994 healthy individuals for 12 years.2 The participants were divided into low (MED score of 0–3), medium (MED score of 4-5), and high (MED score of ≥6). A perfect MED score of 9 is defined in the table.

When the low vs high MED score cohorts were compared, there was a 28% reduction in CV events favoring those who had the highest score for the Mediterranean diet (≥6). This is comparable to the PREDIMED study that found a 30% reduction.3 The researchers then calculated the degree of influence of a number of mediators and found that inflammation was the greatest predictor of CV events at 29.2%.

The first study tells us that avoiding animal-based protein reduces inflammation and the second suggests that a Mediterranean diet reduces inflammation. This may be related to the Mediterranean diet’s lower intake of red meat, sugar, and dairy. And the PURE study found sugar to be the number-one risk factor for mortality across 18 countries. 

Most of our attention is given to blood pressure and lipids to reduce CV events. This may be because we don’t have an effective and safe drug for inflammation, but we do have a safe and effective intervention through diet. And if we are successful in changing this behavior, it will also have a positive effect on all the other major risk factors listed in the table.

Nutrition may be our most effective therapeutic agent in reducing CV events, the major cause of death. Health is much more about what we do than what we take, and inflammation may be one of the most effective biomarkers to evaluate what we do.

References

1. Shah B, Newman JD, Woolf K, et al. Anti‐Inflammatory Effects of a Vegan Diet Versus the American Heart Association-Recommended Diet in Coronary Artery Disease Trial. J Am Heart Assoc. 2018;7(23):e011367.https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/JAHA.118.011367
2. Ahmad S, Vinayaga Moorthy M, Demler OV, et al. Assessment of Risk Factors and Biomarkers Associated With Risk of Cardiovascular Disease Among Women Consuming a Mediterranean Diet. JAMA Netw Open. 2018; 1(8):e185708. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2717565
3. Estruch R, Ros E, Salas-Salvado J, et al. Primary prevention of cardiovascular disease with a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil or nuts. N Engl J Med. 2018;378(25):e34. https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa1800389