Wellness - Mediterranean Diet Improves Life Span

[sharon sanders]

[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif] Mediterranean Dietary Pattern and Prediction of All-Cause Mortality in a US Population[/FONT][FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Results From the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif] <nobr>Panagiota N. Mitrou, PhD</nobr>; <nobr>Victor Kipnis, PhD</nobr>; <nobr>Anne C. M. Thi?baut, PhD</nobr>; <nobr>Jill Reedy, PhD</nobr>; <nobr>Amy F. Subar, PhD</nobr>; <nobr>Elisabet Wirf?lt, PhD</nobr>; <nobr>Andrew Flood, PhD</nobr>; <nobr>Traci Mouw, MPH</nobr>; <nobr>Albert R. Hollenbeck, PhD</nobr>; <nobr>Michael F. Leitzmann, MD, DrPH</nobr>; <nobr>Arthur Schatzkin, MD, DrPH</nobr> [/FONT]

[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif] Arch Intern Med. 2007;167(22):2461-2468. [/FONT]
<!-- ABS --> <!--startindex-->[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif] Background The Mediterranean diet has been suggested toplay a beneficial role for health and longevity. However, toour knowledge, no prospective US study has investigated theMediterranean dietary pattern in relation to mortality.[/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Methods Study participants included 214 284 men and166 012 women in the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-AARP(formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons)Diet and Health Study. During follow-up for all-cause mortality(1995-2005), 27 799 deaths were documented. In the first5 years of follow-up, 5985 cancer deaths and 3451 cardiovasculardisease (CVD) deaths were reported. We used a 9-point scoreto assess conformity with the Mediterranean dietary pattern(components included vegetables, legumes, fruits, nuts, wholegrains, fish, monounsaturated fat?saturated fat ratio,alcohol, and meat). We calculated hazard ratios (HRs) and 95%confidence intervals (CIs) using age- and multivariate-adjustedCox models.[/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Results The Mediterranean diet was associated with reducedall-cause and cause-specific mortality. In men, the multivariateHRs comparing high to low conformity for all-cause, CVD, andcancer mortality were 0.79 (95% CI, 0.76-0.83), 0.78 (95% CI,0.69-0.87), and 0.83 (95% CI, 0.76-0.91), respectively. In women,an inverse association was seen with high conformity with thispattern: decreased risks that ranged from 12% for cancer mortalityto 20% for all-cause mortality (P = .04 and P < .001,respectively, for the trend). When we restricted our analysesto never smokers, associations were virtually unchanged.[/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Conclusion These results provide strong evidence for abeneficial effect of higher conformity with the Mediterraneandietary pattern on risk of death from all causes, includingdeaths due to CVD and cancer, in a US population.[/FONT]


[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/167/22/2461[/FONT]
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