Plant Sterols Shown to Decrease Heart Attack Risk in Men

by | Oct 8, 2013 | 2013, Heart Attack, Men's Health, Polyphenols

Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. Those with the highest intake of plant sterols had a 29% reduced risk of a first heart attack compared to those with the lowest plant sterol intake. No benefit of plant sterol intake and reduced heart attack risk was seen with women.

There are an estimated 350,000 heart attacks each year in the United States, with a 40% first heart attack survival rate (1) and a cost of about $1 million per heart attack survivor (2). Cardiovascular disease is a major contributor to precipitating a heart attack, with known risk factors to include smoking, physical inactivity, and poor diet as well as medical conditions such as overweight, high blood pressure, elevated blood glucose, and blood lipid abnormalities (3, 4).

Now a new study (5) suggests that increased intakes of plant antioxidants called sterols may help with heart attack risk in men. In the study, researchers compared food intake of 1,005 patients aged 29 to 73 who had suffered a heart attack (219 men, 786 women) with 3,148 patients (723 women, 2,425 men) who had not suffered a heart attack (control group), all whom had participated in the Northern Sweden Health and Disease Study (6). Patients completed an 84-item food frequency questionnaire (7) known to reliably assess sterol intake (8).

The researchers observed a statistically significant benefit of plant sterol intake on the first heart attack risk in men. Specifically, those with the highest intake of plant sterols had a 29% reduced risk of a first heart attack compared to those with the lowest plant sterol intake (< 150 vs. > 340 milligrams/day, p = 0.006). No benefit of plant sterol intake and heart attack risk was seen with women. The researchers noted the small differences between the lowest and highest intakes of plant sterols and suggested that “even moderate changes in the dietary intake of naturally occurring plant sterols could have an important effect on the risk of developing a first heart attack.”

The researchers cited previous research suggesting that plant sterols’ role in heart health may be related to their positive effects on cholesterol levels (9) and blood vessel thickness (10). They concluded that “a high absolute intake of naturally occurring plant sterols is significantly related to a lower risk of a first heart attack in men in northern Sweden” and that “the results from this study show that intake of plant sterols may be important in prevention of heart attack.”

Source: Klingberg, Sofia, Lars Ellegård, Ingegerd Johansson, Jan-Håkan Jansson, Göran Hallmans, and Anna Winkvist. “Dietary intake of naturally occurring plant sterols is related to a lower risk of a first myocardial infarction in men but not in women in northern Sweden.” The Journal of nutrition 143, no. 10 (2013): 1630-1635.

© 2013 American Society for Nutrition

Posted October 7, 2013.

Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Hauppauge, NY. You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.PitchingDoc.com

References:

  1. Zheng ZJ, Croft JB, Giles WH, Mensah GA. Sudden cardiac death in the United States, 1989 to 1998. Circulation 2001;104:2158–63
  2. “How Much Would A Heart Attack Cost You?” posted April 23, 2010 on CBS.com
  3. WHO. Prevention of cardiovascular disease: guidelines for assessment and management of cardiovascular risk. Geneva: WHO; 2007.
  4. Yusuf S, Hawken S, Ounpuu S, Dans T, Avezum A, Lanas F, McQueen M, Budaj A, Pais P, Varigos J, et al. Effect of potentially modifiable risk factors associated with myocardial infarction in 52 countries (the INTERHEART study): case-control study. Lancet. 2004;364:937–52
  5. Klingberg S.  Dietary intake of naturally occurring plant sterols is related to a lower risk of a first myocardial infarction in men but not in women in northern Sweden.  J Nutr 2013 Oct;143(10):1630-5. doi: 10.3945/jn.113.178707. Epub 2013 Aug 7
  6. Hallmans G, A ° gren A ° , Johansson G, Johansson A, Stegmayr B, Jansson JH, Lindahl B, Rolandsson O, So¨ derberg S, Nilsson M, et al. Cardiovascular disease and diabetes in the Northern Sweden Health and Disease Study Cohort: evaluation of risk factors and their interactions. Scand J Public Health Suppl. 2003;61:18–24
  7. Johansson I, Hallmans G, Wikman A, Biessy C, Riboli E, Kaaks R. Validation and calibration of food-frequency questionnaire measurements in the Northern Sweden Health and Disease cohort. Public Health Nutr. 2002;5:487–96
  8. Klingberg S, Winkvist A, Hallmans G, Johansson I. Evaluation of plant sterol intake estimated with the Northern Sweden FFQ. Public Health Nutr. 2013;16:460–7
  9. Klingberg S, Ellega°rd L, Johansson I, Hallmans G, Weinehall L, Andersson H, Winkvist A. Inverse relation between dietary intake of naturally occurring plant sterols and serum cholesterol in northern Sweden. Am J Clin Nutr. 2008;87:993–1001.
  10. Wang P, Chen YM, He LP, Chen CG, Zhang B, Xue WQ, Su YX. Association of natural intake of dietary plant sterols with carotid intima-media thickness and blood lipids in Chinese adults: a cross-section study. PLoS ONE. 2012;7:e32736.