geoffrey modest medical blogs

  a recent article based on 2 long-term large observational studies found that consuming olive oil was associated with decreased total and cause-specific mortality (see   mortality dec with olive oil JACC2021  in dropbox, or doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2021.10.041)    Details: -- databases:      -- 60,582 women in the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS), from 1990-2018      -- 31,801 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS), from 1990-2018          -- all were free from baseline cardiovascular disease or cancer          -- diet was assessed by semiquantitative food frequency questionnaires every four years, consisting of >130 food items, and questioning how often, on average  in the preceding year , participants consumed specific foods as well as the types of fats, oils, and brand or type of oil used in cooking    ...

another article came out of the PREDIMED study (prevention with mediterranean diet study), where 6705 people without prevalent afib were randomly assigned to one of 3 diets: mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil, mediterranean diet plus mixed nuts, or control group (low fat diet). in this post-hoc analysis they looked at the development of atrial fibrillation (see   afib olive oil dec risk circ 2014   in dropbox, or DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.113.006921). [i sent out blog on 1/9/14 on primary CAD prevention and one on 1/8/14 on diabetes prevention from this study -- i appended excerpts below since they give details of diet]. the findings in the current study were:     --new cases of afib, after 4.7 years:         --med diet with supplemented extra-virgin olive oil: 72 cases, afib rate of 6.8 per 1000 person-years (and, there was a dose-response curve with higher olive oil consumption=less afib)     ...