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Veggies Help Fight Genetic Heart Attack Risk
By
Rosanne Skirble
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VOA
Posted on
Monday, February 13, 2012 |
A new study finds that a diet high in fruits and
vegetables can reduce the danger of heart disease among
people at highest risk.
Scientists found healthier eating can turn off the risk
gene and mitigate the risk of heart attack.
Researchers studied a large group of more than 27,000
people whose genetic makeup, or genotype, includes a
unique gene associated with an increased risk of heart
attack. The scientists wanted to know whether diet could
modify this gene variant, known as 9p21.
Co-author and McMaster
University epidemiologist
Sonia Anand says
they found it could. “Among people with the high risk
genotype, their risk of heart attack was about 30
percent increased. However, when they consumed a diet
high in raw vegetables and fruits, this risk returned to
1.0 or that of someone who doesn’t have the high risk
genotype.”
The research - one of the largest gene-diet interaction
studies ever conducted on heart disease - included
people from five ethnicities - European, South Asian,
Chinese, Latin American and Arab - who were already
taking part in heart studies.
The results, published in the journal
PloS Medicine, show that a minimum of two
servings a day of raw fruits, vegetables and berries
seemed to protect people against the adverse effects of
the bad gene.
Although, Anand says, more is better. “My advice is to
consume as many servings of fruits and or vegetables per
day as a way to prevent heart disease, especially if you
may have a family history of early disease or a genetic
risk factor for heart disease.”
Health officials have long recommended this
heart-healthy diet to protect against heart disease and
other chronic diseases like stroke and cancer, but Anand
says that only a minority of those people act on it.
“Perhaps genetic information will motivate a larger
section of society to actually make positive behavior
changes.”
The next step in Anand's research is to study the
mechanisms that trigger or silence the gene-diet
interaction. A better understanding of how it works
could point the way to new treatments for people with
genetic heart attack risk.
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