14 DAY TRIAL // According to a new investigation conducted in Israel, it would appear that three types of diets may be playing a very important role in promoting a healthy heart, by helping reverse blockages in arteries. Mediterranean, low-fat and low-carbohydrate diets were deemed to be the most effective in terms of their health benefits for the circulatory system, the team of experts writes in the latest issue of the respected journal Circulation. The main way through which these diets work is by preventing the deposition of fatty tissue inside arteries, the team adds, quoted by the BBC News.
The investigators conducted their experiments on 140 people, who were surveyed on average for two years. The team, based at the Ben-Gurion University, learned that thickness of the arterial walls had been reduced by about 5 percent during the course of the treatment. While these early results are indeed promising, the scientists warn against people looking at them as “magic bullets” for poor heart health. They add that these diets would most likely have positive side-effects when combined with other therapies, but people – especially those with a history of heart conditions in their families – should not rely on these approaches alone in order to protect their hearts.
The Israeli group says that the progressive condition known as atherosclerosis is one of the signs of aging, which becomes clearly visible in people as they become older. The disease makes artery walls thicker, by agglomerating them with fatty deposits. A direct consequence of this is an increased risk of strokes and heart attacks, which in turn carry with them long-lasting health implications. The new study was conducted mostly on middle-aged, overweight men, who were asked to select one of the three diets, and stick to it for about two years. They also recorded the foods they ate in specialized diaries, which were turned over to investigators when the trial period expired.
The thickness of their arterial walls after the end of the study was measured using 3D imaging techniques, and was oriented at one of the most important blood vessels in the human body, the carotid artery. This particular blood pathway transports blood from the heart to the brain, and plays a crucial role in the functions that the cortex keeps as a person ages. Similar measurements were also collected at the beginning of the research, and the researchers then compared the two datasets, looking for any differences. “It was very interesting to see that these very different diets had a similar effect. Some people suggest that low-carbohydrate diets are more likely to clog arteries, but we did not see that,” says expert Iris Shai, the lead researcher on the study.