Mediterranean diet may lower CVD risk in familial hypercholesterolemia patients: Study

Written By : Medha Baranwal |Medically Reviewed By : Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli Published On 2021-04-22T22:34:00+05:30 | Updated On 22 April 2021 10:34 PM IST

Brazil: Higher adherence to Mediterranean diet may improve lipid levels and inflammation in familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) patients, finds a recent study in the journal Nutrition, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Diseases.

FH is characterized by high atherosclerosis and elevated LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) risk. However, the impact of different dietary patterns on atherosclerosis biomarkers has been poorly studied in FH. The study by Raul D. Santos, Heart Institute (InCor) University of Sao Paulo Medical School Hospital, Sao Paulo, Brazil, and colleagues aimed to verify the association of adherence to a Mediterranean diet with biomarkers of dyslipidemia and low-grade inflammation in molecularly proven FH adults from Brazil (BR) and Spain (SP) in this cross-sectional study.

For the purpose, the researchers assessed adherence to the Mediterranean diet by a validated score and generalized estimating equations were used to evaluate its association with plasma LDL-C, apolipoprotein-B (ApoB) and high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) concentrations.

A total of 92 (mean age 45 years, 58.7% females) and 98 FH individuals (mean age 46.8 years, 60.2% females) were included respectively from BR and SP.

Key findings of the study include:

FH causing variants did not differ between countries. LDL-C, ApoB and hs-CRP concentrations were higher in BR than in SP: 179 and 161 mg/dL; 141 and 103(88-134) mg/dL; and 1.6 and 0.8 mg/L respectively.
Most of BR had low adherence (n=77, 83.7%), while the majority of SP were divided into moderate (n=35, 35.7%) and strong adherence to the Mediterranean diet (n=37, 37.8%).
There was a significant inverse association of adherence to the Mediterranean diet score with higher LDL-C, ApoB, and hs-CRP after adjusting for socio economic parameters, caloric and fatty acid intakes as well as pharmacological lipid lowering therapies.

"Higher adherence to a Mediterranean diet was associated with better dyslipidemia and low-grade inflammation profiles in FH," wrote the authors.

Reference:

The study titled, "Adherence to a Mediterranean Diet, Dyslipidemia and Inflammation in Familial Hypercholesterolemia," is published in the journal Nutrition, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Diseases.

DOI: https://www.nmcd-journal.com/article/S0939-4753(21)00174-5/fulltext

Nutrition Metabolism & Cardiovascular Diseasesfamilial hypercholesterolemiaMediterranean dietDyslipidemiainflammation

Source : Nutrition, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Diseases

Medha Baranwal

MSc. Biotechnology

Medha Baranwal joined Medical Dialogues as an Editor in 2018 for Speciality Medical Dialogues. She covers several medical specialties including Cardiac Sciences, Dentistry, Diabetes and Endo, Diagnostics, ENT, Gastroenterology, Neurosciences, and Radiology. She has completed her Bachelors in Biomedical Sciences from DU and then pursued Masters in Biotechnology from Amity University. She has a working experience of 5 years in the field of medical research writing, scientific writing, content writing, and content management. She can be contacted at editorial@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751

Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli

Dr Kamal Kant Kohli-MBBS, DTCD- a chest specialist with more than 30 years of practice and a flair for writing clinical articles, Dr Kamal Kant Kohli joined Medical Dialogues as a Chief Editor of Medical News. Besides writing articles, as an editor, he proofreads and verifies all the medical content published on Medical Dialogues including those coming from journals, studies,medical conferences,guidelines etc. Email: drkohli@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751