Antonis A Manolis, Theodora A Manolis, Helen Melita, Antonis S Manolis
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引用次数: 2
Abstract
Background: Cardiovascular (CV) disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death globally. Besides lack of exercise, obesity, smoking, and other risk factors, poor nutrition and unhealthy/ unbalanced diets play an important role in CVD.
Objective: This review examined data on all issues of the CV-health benefits of a balanced diet, with tabulation of nutritional data and health-authority recommendations and pictorial illustration of the main features of a CV-healthy diet.
Methods: PubMed and Google Scholar were searched for relevant studies and reviews on diet and CV health.
Results: For a long time, there has been evidence, corroborated by recent findings, that pro-vegetarian diets have a beneficial influence on serum lipid levels, markers of inflammation and endothelial function, prooxidant-antioxidant balance, and gut microbiome, all probably contributing to reduced CV risk. Worries about the nutritional adequacy of vegetarian diets are circumvented by obtaining certain nutrients lacking or found in lower amounts in plants than in animal foods, by consuming a wide variety of healthy plant foods and through intake of oral supplements or fortified foods. Well-balanced diets, such as the Mediterranean or the Dietary-Approaches-to-Stop-Hypertension diets, provide CV-health benefits. Nevertheless, a broad variety of plant-based diets with low/minimal animal food intake may allow for a personalized and culturally adjusted application of dietary recommendations contributing to the maintenance of CV health.
Conclusion: Universal adoption of a balanced CV-healthy diet can reduce global, CV and other mortality by ~20%. This requires world-wide programs of information for and education of the public, starting with school children and expanding to all groups, sectors, and levels.
期刊介绍:
Current Vascular Pharmacology publishes clinical and research-based reviews/mini-reviews, original research articles, letters, debates, drug clinical trial studies and guest edited issues to update all those concerned with the treatment of vascular disease, bridging the gap between clinical practice and ongoing research.
Vascular disease is the commonest cause of death in Westernized countries and its incidence is on the increase in developing countries. It follows that considerable research is directed at establishing effective treatment for acute vascular events. Long-term treatment has also received considerable attention (e.g. for symptomatic relief). Furthermore, effective prevention, whether primary or secondary, is backed by the findings of several landmark trials. Vascular disease is a complex field with primary care physicians and nurse practitioners as well as several specialties involved. The latter include cardiology, vascular and cardio thoracic surgery, general medicine, radiology, clinical pharmacology and neurology (stroke units).