Mediterranean Diet Linked to Reduced Risk of Peripheral Artery Disease, Study Confirms

A team of Spanish researchers discovered that a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra virgin-olive oil or nuts cuts the risk of developing peripheral artery disease (PAD).

The study led by Miguel Ruiz-Canela, Ph.D., of the University of Navarra, Pamplona Spain, through a randomized trial discovered that adherence to Mediterranean diet lowers the risk of peripheral artery disease (PAD), a condition in which the arteries in the legs get clogged due to which blood flow is restricted.  A previous study by the team revealed that a Mediterranean diet along with extra virgin oil or nuts reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke.

PAD occurs commonly in the legs. Data according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that there are over 8 million Americans living with this condition and 12-20 percent of them are older than 60 years.

Mediterranean diet offering potential health benefits isn't new. There were studies done earlier that linked this type of eating pattern to better health and extended lifestyle.  Spinach, cereals, olive oil, salmon, fruits, all part of the Mediterranean diet offer a remarkable variety of health benefits to people of all ages. Studies have proved that adherence to Mediterranean diet helps in improving cognitive functions and lower the rate of cognitive decline. This type of diet helps in improving the risk factors tied to diabetes, obesity and heart diseases.

The current study published in Journal of the American Medical Association, is the first to conduct a randomized trial to check the association between Mediterranean diet and reduced risk of PAD.

For this study, the researchers conducted a randomized trial on 7,477 subjects between 2003-2010. It followed men of ages 55-80 and women of ages 60-80. The average age was 67 years, in which 58 percent of  were women. The participants were eligible only of they did not have PAD or baseline cardiovascular disease but they had type 2 diabetes mellitus or three cardiovascular risk factors.

The selected subjects were randomly put into one of the three groups. The three groups included:

1.       Mediterranean diet with extra virgin olive oil

2.       Mediterranean diet supplemented with nuts

3.       Counseling on a low-fat diet. They were the control group.

On a quarterly basis all the subjects received a comprehensive dietary education program. After an average  follow up of 4.8 years, the researchers confirmed nearly 89 new cases of clinical PAD. Both the types of Mediterranean diets -  supplemented with nuts as well as olive oil, helped in lowering the risk of PAD in subjects when compared to the control group.

"To our knowledge, this is the first randomized primary prevention trial to suggest an association between a dietary intervention and [reduction in] PAD. These results are consistent with previous observational studies and relevant from a public health perspective," the authors concluded.