Study Shows Mediterranean Diet Can Cut Death Rate In Cardiovascular Patients

29 Aug 2016 --- Eating a Mediterranean diet could be extremely beneficial for patients with a history of cardiovascular disease, and helps them live longer. Consuming high quantities of vegetables, nuts, fish and olive oil could be the key to living longer, according to the results from the observational Moli-sani study, presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Conference in Rome at the weekend.

Speaking at the International Heart Disease Conference, leading expert Professor Giovanni de Gaetano of the Department of Epidemiology and Prevention at the I.R.C.C.S. Neuromed Institute in Pozzilli, Italy, presented the findings.

"The Mediterranean diet is widely recognized as one of the healthier nutrition habits in the world," he said head. "In fact, many scientific studies have shown that a traditional Mediterranean lifestyle is associated with a lower risk of various chronic diseases and, more importantly, of death from any cause.”

"But so far research has focused on the general population, which is mainly composed of healthy people," he added. "What happens to people who have already suffered from cardiovascular disease? Is the Mediterranean diet optimal for them too?”

Patients with a history of cardiovascular disease like coronary artery disease and stroke were among those enrolled in the project, a prospective epidemiological study that randomly recruited approximately 25,000 adults living in the Italian region of Molise. 

This project started in March 2005 and involves around so many residents, Molise is effectively turned into a large research lab. The aim is to learn about environmental and genetic factors underlying cardiovascular disease, cancer and degenerative disorders. 

"Among the participants, we identified 1,197 people who reported a history of cardiovascular disease at the time of enrolment into Moli-sani," said Dr Marialaura Bonaccio, lead author of the research.

The type and amount of food consumed by participants was recorded using the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer (EPIC) food frequency questionnaire and adhering to the Mediterranean diet was appraised with a nine-point Mediterranean diet score (MDS). All causes of death were assessed by linkage with data from the office of vital statistics in Molise.

During a median follow up of 7.3 years there were 208 deaths. A two-point increase in the MDS was associated with a 21 percent reduced risk of death after controlling for age, sex, energy intake, egg and potato intake, education, leisure-time physical activity, waist to hip ratio, smoking, hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia, diabetes and cancer at baseline.

When considered as a three-level categorical variable, the top category (score 6-9) of adherence to the Mediterranean diet was associated with 37% lower risk of death compared to the bottom category (0-3).

"We found that among those with a higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet, death from any cause was reduced by 37% in comparison to those who poorly adhered to this dietary regime,” adds Professor de Gaetano. 

The types of food making up the Mediterranean diet were looked at more closely. 

"The major contributors to mortality risk reduction were a higher consumption of vegetables, fish, fruits, nuts and monounsaturated fatty acids - that means olive oil," added Dr Bonaccio.

Professor de Gaetano concludes: "These results prompt us to investigate the mechanism(s) through which the Mediterranean diet may protect against death. This was an observational study so we cannot say that the effect is causal. We expect that dietary effects on mediators common to chronic diseases such as inflammation might result in the reduction of mortality from any cause but further research is needed."