Olive oil polyphenols are know for beneficial properties that reduce cardiovascular risk factors. Consumption is a cornerstone of the Mediterranean diet for its ability to produce health high-density lipoprotein profiles (HDL). However, data on polyphenol effects of HDL quality are scarce. This study assessed whether polyphenol-rich olive oil consumption could enhance the HDL main function, its cholesterol efflux capacity, and some of its quality-related properties, such HDL polyphenol content, size, and composition. The results once again show extra-virgin olive oil’s capacity for improved health. This article also give you some healthy advice from Today’s Practitioner editor as to how to tell your patients to buy good quality extra-virgin olive oil. By Alvaro Hernaez et al, published by the American Heart Association, Sept. 2014.
By now you’ve heard that niacin is no longer recommended for reducing heart attacks and strokes. After 50 years of being a mainstay cholesterol therapy, niacin should no longer be prescribed for most patients due to potential increased risk of death, dangerous side effects and no benefit in reducing heart attacks and strokes, writes Northwestern Medicine® preventive cardiologist Donald Lloyd-Jones, M.D., in a New England Journal of Medicine editorial published July 16. The study is no doubt controversial among physicians who rely on niacin for cardiovascular patients. Read the slideshow for a review of the study.
This interventional study measured the acute effect of dark chocolate on walking distance autonomy (WDA), artery dilatation and NOX2‐mediated oxidative stress in a population affected by moderate‐severe. Previous studies with antioxidant infusion provided evidence that oxidative stress is implicated in impairing WDA, while its inhibition was associated with maximal walking distance (MWD) improvement. In PAD patients dark but not milk chocolate acutely improved walking autonomy with a mechanism possibly related to an oxidative stress‐mediated mechanism involving NOX2 regulation.
New genetic research provides compelling evidence that low levels of vitamin D have a causal role in the development of high blood pressure (hypertension). The findings, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology (June 26, 2014), suggest that vitamin D supplementation could be effective in combating some cases of hypertension. “In view of the costs and side effects associated with antihypertensive drugs, the potential to prevent or reduce blood pressure and therefore the risk of hypertension with vitamin D is very attractive”, said study leader Professor Elina Hyppönen from the University of South Australia.
Lifestyle modification is a cornerstone of hypertension (HPT) treatment, yet most recommendations currently focus on diet and exercise and do not consider stress reduction strategies. Yoga is a spiritual path that may reduce blood pressure (BP) through reducing stress, increasing parasympathetic activation, and altering baroreceptor sensitivity; however, despite reviews on yoga and cardiovascular disease, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and anxiety that suggest yoga may reduce BP, no comprehensive review has yet focused on yoga and HPT. By Anupama Tyagi, MA, PhD(c) and Marc Cohen MBBS(Hons), PhD, BMedSc(Hons), FAMAC, FICAE, published Alternative Therapies in Health Medicine, Vol. 20, No. 10.
The biggest threat to global health and wellness can be narrowed down to six, preventable non-communicable diseases: respiratory illness from tobacco use, harmful alcohol use, salt intake, high blood pressure and blood sugar, and obesity. According to a May 2014 Lancet study, if nations could reduce target levels for these lifestyle related diseases in the next 25 years, 37 million early deaths would be prevented. But by not reaching these targets, an additional 10.5 million deaths would occur as compared to the 28.3 million who died in 2010. And while experts say this could be possible, critics say apathy from leadership is the biggest obstacle to achieving the desired target.
Resveratrol has been much in the news as the component of grapes and red wine associated with reducing “bad cholesterol,” heart disease and some types of cancer. Also found in blueberries, cranberries, mulberries, peanuts and pistachios, resveratrol is associated with beneficial health effects in aging, inflammation and metabolism. Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have now identified one of the molecular pathways that resveratrol uses to achieve its beneficial action.
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