Mouse Study Hints at How Mediterranean Diet Protects the Heart

By Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay ReporterLatest Diet & Weight Management NewsIs Breakfast the Key to Weight Control?Health Tip: If You Aren't Hungry, Don't EatDiabetes Drug Spurs Weight Loss in NondiabeticsObesity Crisis Has Scaled Even the HimalayasObesity, Overweight Rates Jump Worldwide, ReportWant More News? Sign Up for MedicineNet Newsletters!

MONDAY, May 19, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Study after study has shown that a Mediterranean-style diet rich in fish, nuts, vegetables and fruits seems to lower your risk of heart trouble.

Now, a new mouse study hints at why.

"When unsaturated fatty acids, found in olive, nuts and fish oils, are eaten together with a source of nitrate or nitrite, found in vegetables such as beetroot and those with green leaves, they form nitro fatty acids in the body," explained lead researcher Philip Eaton, a professor of cardiovascular biochemistry at Kings College London. Those fatty acids then lower blood pressure by inhibiting a particular enzyme.

The study is published online May 19 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

While the finding was made in animals and such results often can't be duplicated in humans, Eaton thinks it would also happen in people because they have the same enzyme.

Eaton noted that although the finding is new, there is evidence that drugs that inhibit the enzyme might lower blood pressure and some pharmaceutical companies are working on developing such medications.

For the study, the researchers' aim was to find out if inhibiting the enzyme was enough to lower blood pressure in the animals studied. They first created mice with a mutation that made the enzyme resistant to the effects of nitro fatty acids.

When they gave the mice an enzyme inhibitor, blood pressure decreased in wild mice but not in the mice with the resistant version of the enzyme. The inhibitor protected the wild mice from heart damage in a mouse model of high blood pressure, but did not protect the re-engineered mice. When they fed the mice the food in the Mediterranean diet that combine to make nitro fatty acids, the enzyme was again inhibited in the wild mice, but not the re-engineered mice.

"This study provides insights on the mechanics behind how eating vegetables aids in the reduction of risk of

Losing Weight at Any Age May Help the Heart

Latest Diet & Weight Management NewsIs Breakfast the Key to Weight Control?Health Tip: If You Aren't Hungry, Don't EatDiabetes Drug Spurs Weight Loss in NondiabeticsObesity Crisis Has Scaled Even the HimalayasObesity, Overweight Rates Jump Worldwide, ReportWant More News? Sign Up for MedicineNet Newsletters!

WEDNESDAY, May 21, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Healthy weight loss at any time in adulthood is good for your heart, a new study indicates.

"Our findings suggest that losing weight at any age can result in long-term cardiovascular health benefits, and support public health strategies and lifestyle modifications that help individuals who are overweight or obese to lose weight at all ages," according to lead study author John Deanfield, of University College London.

Researchers analyzed data from nearly 1,300 men and women in the United Kingdom who were followed since their birth in March 1946. The participants were classified as being either normal weight, overweight or obese when they were children, and at ages 36, 43, 53 and between 60 and 64.

The longer the participants had excess body fat in adulthood, the more likely they were to have heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes and narrowing of the arteries later in life, the findings showed.

The investigators also found that people who moved down in weight categories -- such as from obese to overweight, or from overweight to normal weight -- at any time during adulthood reduced their risk for these conditions.

This was true even if they regained weight later, according to the study published in the May 21 online edition of The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.

"Our study is unique because it followed individuals for such a long time, more than 60 years, and allowed us to assess the effect of modest, real-life changes in