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Nutrition: Diets
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Total 23 results found since Jan 2013.
Reported link between diet drinks and dementia and stroke is weak
Conclusion
The researchers used data from a large ongoing cohort study to look for links between consumption of sugary and artificially sweetened drinks and risk of stroke or dementia.
This cohort study benefits from the large overall sample size, long period of data collection, careful and valid diagnostic assessments, and adjustments for a number of confounders. However, care must be taken when interpreting these results – particularly if latching on to the maximal tripled risk figures reported in the media.
There are several points to consider:
Small numbers
The new number of strokes and dementia in this study was sma...
Source: NHS News Feed - April 21, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Heart/lungs Neurology Source Type: news
Mediterranean diet cuts heart and stroke risk
Conclusion
The results of this randomised controlled trial appear to confirm previous studies that there are benefits to following a Mediterranean diet. The trial has many strengths, including its large size, long period of follow-up, thorough assessment of medical outcomes (including reviewing medical records and having contact with the family doctor), and careful attempts to assess whether the diets were being followed.
As this is a randomised controlled trial, it should also balance out other health and lifestyle differences between the groups that may influence cardiovascular risk. This avoids the limitations of m...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 26, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Heart/lungs Source Type: news
Following UK dietary advice may cut heart disease risk
Conclusion
This study showed that following dietary recommendations closely for 12 weeks can reduce blood pressure by a significant amount, which is likely to cut the chances of having a heart attack or stroke for an average healthy middle-aged person. The diet also affects cholesterol levels, but the overall effect of this may be modest.
The study appears to have been carefully conducted to avoid biasing the results. The researchers gave butter or margarine spread and cooking oil to people in both groups, for example, and asked everyone to fill out food diaries, as well as taking urine samples for nutrient analysis.
Thi...
Source: NHS News Feed - March 19, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Heart/lungs Source Type: news
Med diet best for heart disease (but some junk food won’t hurt)
Conclusion
This study showed 3% fewer people with CHD, at high risk of major cardiovascular events, who reported eating the healthiest Mediterranean-style diets, had either died, or had a non-fatal heart attack or stroke over a three-year period than those with less healthy diets. Western diet scores were not related to major cardiovascular events.
The study was large, worldwide and its methods quite robust, all boosting the believability of the findings.
It is possible that unmeasured factors explain all or part of the findings, but the study made a concerted attempt to minimise the chance of this through adjusting for i...
Source: NHS News Feed - April 25, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Food/diet Source Type: news
Long working week 'may increase risk of irregular heartbeat'
Conclusion
This study draws together data from a large group of people to investigate whether working hours could be linked to AF.
It found people who work 55 or more hours a week had an increased risk of developing an irregular heartbeat.
But before we jump to any conclusions, there are several important things to consider:
The number of people who developed AF during this study was small: only 1.24%. That's the absolute risk of AF. Even if working more than 55 hours a week does increase your risk of AF by around 40%, it would only be increasing it to something like 1.74% – which is still very small.
Only a small ...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 14, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Lifestyle/exercise Source Type: news
One in 10 men aged 50 'have the heart of a 60-year-old'
"One-tenth of 50-year-old men have a heart age 10 years older than they are," BBC News reports. This is the finding of an analysis of 1.2 million people who used the NHS Heart Age Test.
The principle behind the test is that you can "age" your heart through unhealthy behaviour such as smoking and being obese.
Underlying conditions like high blood pressure and high cholesterol, which often have no noticeable symptoms, can also age the heart.
An obese smoker in their 50s who has high blood pressure and high cholesterol could have the heart of a 60- or 70-year-old.
The quick and simple test tells you the...
Source: NHS News Feed - September 4, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Source Type: news
Any type of physical exercise is good for the heart
Conclusion
This study shows that all physical activity, in any form, is good for us. This includes both recreational and non-recreational activities.
Don't be misled by some of the media: non-recreational activities like housework are not "better" than recreational activities like playing sports or going to the gym.
The fact that reduced risk was seen with non-recreational activity across all countries, but only seen with recreational activity in high-income countries was probably just because fewer people in lower-income countries play sports or go to the gym.
The researchers estimate that 8% of all deaths and...
Source: NHS News Feed - September 22, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Lifestyle/exercise Source Type: news
Statins cut heart deaths in men by 28% finds study
Conclusion
This new analysis found that men without cardiovascular disease who were prescribed a statin were less likely to go on to develop heart disease or have a major cardiovascular event.
These findings from the five-year randomised controlled trial are useful – there's been a lot of debate about whether giving statins to people without any cardiovascular disease is helpful.
But it's harder to draw conclusions from the longer term results, as these were from a non-randomised observational period. Potential confounding factors – such as the men's attitude to medicine, risk and health – may have influenced the res...
Source: NHS News Feed - September 7, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Source Type: news
Does fish in Mediterranean diet combat memory loss?
This study assessed all the components together rather than focusing on oily fish alone, as the media suggests – in fact, the word 'fish' does not appear once in the Neurology article.
Additionally, the 19% reduction in risk quoted by both The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail is incorrectly attributed to "people who adhere to a Mediterranean-style diet". This figure actually only applies to non-diabetic people. The risk reduction for the entire study sample was a more moderate 13% reduction in odds. However, both newspapers covered the main methods of the study well.
What kind of research was this?
Thi...
Source: NHS News Feed - April 30, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Neurology Source Type: news
Does coffee make you live longer?
Conclusion
This study, conducted on a large number of people across Europe, was backed up by similar findings in the US. It appears to show some association between people who drink higher amounts of coffee and a reduced risk of death.
But the "potentially beneficial clinical implications" need to be considered carefully for a number of reasons:
Although the analyses were adjusted for some confounding variables, there may be a number of other factors that differ between the groups that account for the differences in death, such as socioeconomic status, family history, other medical conditions, and use of medic...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 12, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Source Type: news
Heart attack survivors 'gain from high-fibre diet'
Conclusion
This was a well-designed study. Although it was a cohort study and so cannot prove causation, attempts were made to analyse the results while taking multiple factors into account.
Its strengths include that it used data from a large number of people and measured dietary habits over the previous year, which may be a more accurate assessment than snap-shot 24-hour food questionnaires. However, there will still be room for bias in people's recall and estimates of portion size.
There were a few limitations to the study:
it was not able to take into account people who suffered from a heart attack and died before ...
Source: NHS News Feed - April 30, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Food/diet Source Type: news
Some types of vegetarian diet can raise heart disease risk
Conclusion
This large pooled cohort study seems to demonstrate an association between a healthy plant-based diet and reduced risk of coronary heart disease, and an increased risk of heart disease with an unhealthy plant-based diet.
This adds to the evidence base supporting the possible benefits of healthy plant-based diets in protecting against certain illnesses. However there are some limitations to the research:
The cohort included only health professionals from the US so might not be representative of wider populations in the UK or elsewhere.
The study can't provide information on the benefits or otherwise of this d...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 18, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Source Type: news
Benefits of artificial sweeteners unclear
Conclusion
The study authors suggest artificial sweeteners may not aid weight loss, despite marketing claims to the contrary, and could actually increase the risk of type 2 diabetes. However, the results need to be treated with caution, as this review had numerous limitations:
The randomised controlled trials had great variability and few participants, increasing the possibility of the results occurring by chance. They were also judged to be at a high risk of bias – for example, the participants could not be blinded to the intervention, and adherence (drop-out) rates were not provided.
We do not know whether there w...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 19, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Obesity Source Type: news
No evidence Nordic diet prevents heart disease
Conclusion
This was a well-designed randomised controlled trial that took place across several Nordic locations. The study took careful clinical measures of elements of metabolic syndrome at several points during the trial, and used food diaries at regular intervals to check compliance to the assigned diet.
However, it provides no reliable proof that the ‘healthy’ Nordic diet is any better than the ‘average’ Nordic diet at improving components of metabolic syndrome and, in turn, no proof that it reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Importantly, this study found no significant results for its main aim (which...
Source: NHS News Feed - May 31, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Lifestyle/exercise Heart/lungs Source Type: news
Healthy diet could cut risk of Alzheimer's disease
ConclusionThe study found people who ate a healthy diet – with plenty of green vegetables, wholegrains, legumes and less red meat – may be less likely to get Alzheimer's disease. However, we should be wary of saying that their diet actually protected them from Alzheimer's, as it is a complex disease with many potential causes.The main limitation is that observational studies cannot prove causation, even when researchers take care, as they did here, to include factors that we know affect disease risk. It's also notable that the researchers excluded dementia, other than Alzheimer's disease, from their calculations. It wo...
Source: NHS News Feed - March 31, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Neurology Source Type: news
