Here we go - DASH Diet reduces heart attacks, strokes

[kyrasdad]

DASH Diet reduces heart attacks, strokes (http://health.yahoo.com/news/ap/diet_heart_benefits.html)

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.

[j_the_p]

Blah blah blah...grains...blah blah blah...low-fat...blah blah blah...heart disease...blah blah blah...no red meat...

.........zzzzzzzzzzz............zzzzzzzzzzzzz.......... :yawn:

[pennink]

I have to say, I did this diet when my bp was skyrocketing and yes, it works. You do not lose weight, but your bp will drop REALLY low, really fast.

[vavcon]

This is how my mom eats. She has great blood pressure and is quite slender. If I ate that way, I'd be shoe-horning myself through doors...

[ruthla]

I was just coming here to post about this, and get everybody's opinions on it.

Here's my biggest question:

OK, so the women eating the DASH diet were healthier than those eating the SAD. But that's not saying much is it?

Was there a similar study looking at people eating LC and comparing THEIR overall health to those eating the SAD over a 25 year period? Were there enough people eating LC 25 years ago for such a study to even be done right now?

[Hammy]

I was a vegetarian for a year following the dash diet. I gained 30 pounds, PCOS and high blood pressure. I'll pass.

[pennink]

I really have to defend the DASH diet. It DOES lower bp. RADICALLY, if you follow it to the letter.

It's so difficult and tasteless though, that people can't keep it up. Most of the weight was water, and then you just don't know what to eat because it's so difficult.

Every bit of sodium must be tracked. I sat at restaurants with nothing to order except simple house salads with only oil and vinegar (and then vinegar had to be watched for gluten or something). I'd rather stick needles in my eyes.

[1000times]

I'd rather stick needles in my eyes.


LC Plan:
Atkins '72, IF
Man, I knew Atkins '72 was stricter than DANDR, but I never knew it was THAT strict! That's HARDCORE!!

:lol:

[serrelind]

OK, so the women eating the DASH diet were healthier than those eating the SAD. But that's not saying much is it?


That's exactly what I was thinking too. I've love to see a comparison of LC vs DASH. Or LC vs SAD. I'm confident LC would be superior to both.

[ruthla]

I do find it interesting how they're focused on the fact that these women ate a lot of whole grains and beans, and low fat, low animal intake, but seemed to ignore other aspects of the DASH diet.

I don't know the specifics of this diet, but it sounds like they're avoiding sugars, processed foods (and resultant chemical cocktails) and they must be minimizing trans fats as they minimize fats as a whole. I'll bet these are the factors that are increasing their cardiac health, not the macronutrient profiles.

[NoWhammies]

Well of course it is better than the "typical American diet". I could eat styrofoam blocks and that would be healthier than the "typical American diet", too.

I did the DASH diet for years - or something similar, and gained my way up to 308 lbs...but my numbers were great! Oh - and the doctors swore I was lying about what I was eating and the amount of exercise I was doing - even though I journaled and had witnesses.

[pennink]

Man, I knew Atkins '72 was stricter than DANDR, but I never knew it was THAT strict! That's HARDCORE!!

:lol:


you know I'm talking about the DASH diet, right? not atkins 72.

[1000times]

pennink I was implying that your diet plan of choice (Atkins '72) incorporated your preference of "sticking needles in [your] eyes" vs. the DASH diet. It was a kind of a joke, based on the fact that the 1972 version of Atkins is not as popular or well known as the NDR version.

[TBoneMitch]

Let's not forget that this is an epidemiological, i.e., statistical study.

They interviewed lots of people on their dietary habits, and looked at their medical records.

The data from these studies is not very reliable, hence the conclusions based on it is not very solid neither.

[pennink]

pennink I was implying that your diet plan of choice (Atkins '72) incorporated your preference of "sticking needles in [your] eyes" vs. the DASH diet. It was a kind of a joke, based on the fact that the 1972 version of Atkins is not as popular or well known as the NDR version.


ah, yes... sorry... blonde moment.

I should have said, "i'd rather eat steak and salads 7 days a week"

but truthfully, the diet works for your blood pressure. Any weight lost that's not water weight has got to be from pure starvation. You do end up eating too many boring grains, but even oatmeal, breads etc, all have sodium. It was alienating. I couldn't eat anywhere but at home.

[teaser]

WebMed covered this study too:

"High blood pressure and high cholesterol are both risk factors for cardiovascular disease. However, little is known about the DASH diet's effect on heart attack and stroke. Fung and colleagues studied the eating patterns of 88, 517 female nurses aged 34 to 59 to determine if sticking to a DASH diet affected a woman's risk of such diseases. The women did not have CVD or diabetes when the trial started"

The women started this study with no pre-existing diabetes or heart conditions. They started in middle age, and it seems to me, the older you are without developing diabetes, the less likely you are to get it in the future.


Abstract 2369: Adherence To A Dash-style Diet And Risk Of Coronary Heart Disease And Stroke In Women
Teresa Fung1; Stephanie Chiuve2; Marjorie McCullough3; Kathryn Rexrode4; Frank Hu5
1 Simmons College, Boston, MA
2 Channing Laboratory, Boston, MA
3 American Cancer Association, Atlanta, GA
4 Brigham and Women’s Hosp, Boston, MA
5 Harvard Sch of Public Heatlh, Boston, MA

The DASH diet has been shown to lower blood pressure but little is known about its long-term effect on cardiovascular endpoints. Therefore, we prospectively assessed the association between a DASH-style diet adherence score and risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke in the ongoing Nurses Health Study cohort. Female nurses (N=88,517) aged 34 –59 without history of cardiovascular disease or diabetes in 1980 were included. Diet was assessed 5 times during 22 years of follow-up beginning 1980 using validated food frequency questionnaires during follow-up. A DASH score based on 8 food and nutrient components (fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and legumes, low-fat dairy, red and processed meats, sweetened beverages, and sodium) was calculated. Lifestyle and medical information was collected biennially with a questionnaire. Cox proportional hazard model was used to adjust for potential confounders. We documented 1867 cases of incident nonfatal myocardial infarction and 883 CHD deaths and 1977 cases of stroke. After adjustment for age, smoking, and other cardiovascular risk factors, the RRs of CHD across quintiles of the DASH score were 1.0, 0.99, 0.85, 0.86, and 0.71 (95% CI 0.62– 0.82), p for trend < 0.0001. Magnitude of risk reduction was similar for non-fatal myocardial infarction and fatal CHD. The DASH score was also significantly associated with lower risk of stroke (multivariate RRs across quintiles of the DASH score were 1.0, 0.94, 0.91, 0.88, and 0.79, p for trend =0.001). Cross-sectional analysis in a subgroup of women with blood samples showed the DASH score was significantly associated with lower plasma levels of C-reactive protein (p for trend = 0.008) and Interleukin-6 (p for trend = 0.04). In conclusion, adherence to the DASH diet is associated with a lower risk of CHD and stroke among middle-aged women during 22 years of follow-up.

I think this was the study. Looks like

Fruit, vegetable, whole grain, low fat milk, beans and nuts vs Meat, processed meat and koolaid and soda pop.

[paleodude]

I followed this diet beginning in 1989 and went vegetarian in 1991. My blood pressure didn't go down. My triglycerides went up over 250 and my fasting glucose was about 132. I developed cataracts in both eyes by age 46 and had a persistent cough, which I thought was either do to mild allergies or a side effect of the beta blocker I was taking.

Well, it turns out the nearly 10 year cough was due to acid reflux. Some people don’t get the typical heart burn symptoms.

Now if I were to eat a large carb meal I would get drowsier than if I had taken an Ambien or Lunesta.

[Kiko2]

The DASH diet puts down blood pressure with <satistically significant numbers>. But that's it. People I know on a serious LC diet sees their blood pressure problem GO away... but we do not have <statistically significant numbers> here to demonstrate it it...