Mediterranean diet may lower the risk of heart disease and diabetes

• The Mediterranean diet has many known health benefits, and experts are still learning about the benefits of this dietary pattern.

• One study found that following the Mediterranean diet may help reduce the risk of transitioning from one to multiple cardiometabolic diseases such as heart attack and stroke, especially over a shorter time frame.

• People can take several action steps to help reduce their risk for cardiometabolic multimorbidity.

The Mediterranean diet focuses on plant-based foods, uses olive oil and is high in fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

There is a lot of interest in the health benefits of this diet, especially when it comes to nutrition cardiovascular health.

A recent study published in The magazine for nutrition looked at how following the Mediterranean diet is associated with the risk of multiple cardiometabolic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes And heart attacks.

Researchers found that following the Mediterranean diet can reduce the chance that someone will progress from developing an initial cardiometabolic disease to cardiometabolic multimorbidity – multiple co-occurring conditions related to cardiovascular and metabolic health – over a 10 and 15 follow-up period year.

How the Mediterranean Diet Affects Cardiometabolic Health

As noted in this study, cardiometabolic diseases include conditions such as myocardial infarctionheart attack and type 2 diabetes. Having two or more of these conditions is called cardiometabolic multimorbidity.

This study aimed to find out whether following the Mediterranean diet could reduce the risk of first onset cardiometabolic disease and cardiometabolic multimorbidity.

Researchers used participant data from the European Prospective Cancer Study (EPIC)-Norfolk cohort study.

The study included 21,900 participants who did not have a heart attack, stroke or type 2 diabetes at baseline. Researchers measured participants’ adherence to the Mediterranean diet using two scores: pyramid-based score for the Mediterranean diet and the median-based score for the Mediterranean diet.

The median follow-up time was 21.4 years and researchers looked at the incidence of heart attack, stroke, type 2 diabetes and death.

They took into account covariates such as age, education, family history of heart attack or stroke, certain medication use and physical activity levels.

During the study, 5,028 participants experienced one cardiometabolic disease, and 734 participants experienced cardiometabolic multimorbidity.

Overall, following the Mediterranean diet had a demonstrated benefit. Looking at both types of Mediterranean diet scores, researchers found that following this dietary pattern was associated with a reduced risk of cardiometabolic multimorbidity over the 21.4-year follow-up.

Researchers then focused on how the Mediterranean diet affected the transition from early cardiometabolic disease to cardiometabolic multimorbidity.

At ages 10 and 15 years, the Mediterranean diet was associated with a reduced risk of this transition. Further analysis suggested that this observed risk reduction could be mainly related to experiencing a heart attack for the first time or developing type 2 diabetes.

However, over more than two decades of follow-up, researchers found no statistically significant risk reduction for this transition associated with the Mediterranean diet.

Who benefits most from a Mediterranean diet?

The researchers also conducted some additional analyzes to see how social class may have played a role in the risk association.

Workers seemed to get the most benefit from following the Mediterranean diet, over an average follow-up of just over 20 years.

This group saw a reduced risk of a first cardiometabolic disease and a reduced risk of a first transition to cardiometabolic multimorbidity. In contrast, blue-collar workers did not appear to have this reduction in transition risk.

Rigved Tadwalkar, MDa board-certified consultant cardiologist and medical director of the Cardiac Rehabilitation Center at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, who was not involved in this study, shared his thoughts on the study’s findings with Medical news today.

According to Tadwalkar, “the study provides strong evidence that following the Mediterranean diet can significantly reduce the risk of transition from an initial cardiometabolic event, such as heart attack or stroke, to additional cardiometabolic conditions, such as type 2 diabetes mellitus.”

Furthermore, he noted:

Study limitations: Do the results apply to everyone?

It is also critical to understand the limitations of this study. For example, the data focused primarily on people of European descent, which limits generalizability.

The participants were also adults aged 40 and over, so looking at younger demographics could be useful in future research.

Researchers did not identify any participants who had chronic coronary syndromes at baseline, which could ultimately have led to an overestimation of the effects of the Mediterranean diet. They also did not distinguish between stroke subtypes.

The researchers only measured participants’ adherence to the Mediterranean at baseline, which could have further influenced the results.

Additionally, participants also self-reported their dietary choices and exercise adherence, which may not have reflected their actual diet. Other lifestyle information was also self-reported. Furthermore, the scoring methods to measure adherence to the Mediterranean diet were not without risk of error.

The researchers also recognized some possible reasons why following the Mediterranean diet seemed to have the most effect on the transition from initial cardiometabolic disease to cardiometabolic multimorbidity in the 10- and 15-year follow-up periods.

First, baseline nutrition scores could decline in accurately reporting diet quality over time. So more research may be needed to look at the long-term effects of the Mediterranean diet on this health area.

They also mentioned some reasons for the differences between manual workers and non-manual workers. For example, their study did not look at the specific types of food items, and participants with lower socioeconomic status may have had less variety and less nutritious diets.

The results may also be due to how social class influenced other risk factors, such as management of cardiometabolic diseases and access to preventive care.

What can you do to protect your cardiometabolic health?

Despite the limitations, the research points to a possible way people can take action to reduce their risk of cardiometabolic multimorbidity. There are also other steps people can take to reduce their risk of cardiovascular and metabolic disease.

Christopher Berg, MDa board-certified cardiologist from the MemorialCare Heart and Vascular Institute at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, CA, who was not involved in this study, explained that “cardiometabolic multimorbidity is defined as an individual with two or more of the following cardiometabolic diseases: heart attack, stroke or type 2 diabetes.”

“An easy and straightforward way that people can take to reduce their risk of heart attack, stroke or type 2 diabetes is nicely summarized as the ‘American Heart Association’ (AHA)”Life is essential 8‘ he noted.

Berg summarized these recommendations, citing:

1. following a healthy diet, defined by the AHA as a Mediterranean diet, including a recommendation to avoid or minimize highly processed or ultra-processed foods

2. participating in physical activity, defined as more than 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity exercise, such as walking at a brisk pace

3. stop using tobacco

4. have a healthy amount and quality of sleep

5. maintaining a healthy weight

6. to manage cholesterol levels

7. to manage blood sugar

8. to manage blood pressure.

People can work together with their doctors and other specialists to achieve this.

Additionally, it may be important to address potential barriers that prevent people from following the Mediterranean diet so that more people can benefit from this healthy food option.

View the original article at Medical news today