Olive oil and heart disease

Written by Keith vonB

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States. Heart disease, also called cardiovascular disease is a collection of many different conditions or diseases that can affect the heart. There are many things we can do to help prevent heart disease, from changing our lifestyle by getting more exercise to the things we eat. Olive oil can be an important part of that healthy diet as it has been shown to have a positive effect on the risks associated with heart disease.

Monounsaturated oil and the Risk of Cardiovascular Disease

This study is about: olive oil

This American Heart Association report summarizes other research info on how monounsaturated oil (also called MUFA and is the primary oil in olive oil) reduces your risk of heart disease in total. They also explore how a high-MUFA diet can improve the other conditions that contribute to heart disease like lowering LDL and raising HDL Cholesterol, helping diabetes, lowering triglycerides and reducing blood clots.

References

AHA Science Advisory (Circulation. 1999;100:1253-1258.) "Monounsaturated Fatty Acids and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease"

Olive oil can decrease the "bad" effects of a high fat meal

This study is about: olive oil

This study shows that if your normal diet is olive oil, it may reduce the potential of a high-fat meal to cause a blood-clot. This is important because even if we eat a good diet most of the time, we all have meals that contain more saturated fat than normal - eg. a big steak, a meal containing alot of butter. If your normal diet contains a significant portion of olive oil then you can reduce the chance that the food may cause a heart attack (clot in the blood).

References

AJCN "Are olive oil diets antithrombotic? Diets enriched with olive, rapeseed, or sunflower oil affect postprandial factor VII differently"

Effects of the Mediterranean diet after having a heart attack (Lyon)

This study is about: mediterranean diet

References

AHA Lyon heart study article

Lifeclinic Lyon heart study article

Effects of the Mediterranean diet after having a heart attack (GISSI)

This study is about: mediterranean diet

Mediterranean diet and all-causes mortality after myocardial infarction: results from the GISSI-Prevenzione trial

This study was undertaken of 11,323 men and women who had a heart attack in Italy. They were given advice to increase the amount of fish, fruit, raw and cooked vegetables and olive oil in their diet. At certain times throughout the study their diet was evaluated and recorded.

They split up the group into quarters based on how closely they followed the mediterranean diet. The people in the top quarter, with the diet that most closely matched the mediterranean diet were 3 times more likely to survive then the bottom quarter, with the worst diet.

The Mediterranean diet is considered healthy because it provides nutrients such as antioxidant vitamin E, monounsaturated fatty acids, and polyunsaturated fatty acids from fish. It has long been known to prevent first heart attacks; this is the first study to show its protective effects against a second heart attack, too.