Last Updated: 2009-05-11 16:01:01 -0400 (Reuters Health)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Adhering to the DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) reduces the rate of heart failure in middle-aged and elderly women, according to the findings from a large study.
In the Archives of Internal Medicine, Dr. Emily B. Levitan and associates note that the DASH diet "features high intake of fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy products, and whole grains, resulting in high potassium, magnesium, calcium, and fiber consumption, moderately high protein consumption, and low total and saturated fat consumption."
Although the DASH diet is recommended for the prevention and treatment of hypertension, they add, "Trials of the diet have not been of sufficient duration to determine the overall effect on cardiovascular events."
Their study included more than 36,000 women enrolled in a large mammography study in Sweden; women with a history of cancer, heart failure, heart attack or diabetes were excluded.
Levitan from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and her team scored consistency in following the DASH diet by ranking the intake of its individual components.
During 7 years of follow-up, 443 subjects developed heart failure.
When patients in the top quarter were compared with those in the bottom quarter of diet scores and adjusting for confounders -- other variables that could influence outcome -- the investigators found a 37 percent lower rate of heart failure. The benefit was even greater for women with DASH scores in the upper 10 percent, who had a 51 percent reduced risk of heart failure compared with those in the lowest quartile.
Based solely on the diet's effect on blood pressure, the researchers estimate that the DASH diet would lower the rate of heart failure by about 12 percent.
They propose that further benefit derives from the effects of phytochemicals (health-protecting compounds in fruits and vegetables), decreased oxidative stress, and reductions in circulating fatty acids and glucose.
SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, May 11, 2009.
Dr. Sears comments:
Just take the whole grains out of the DASH diet, and you have a super anti-inflammatory diet.