vIndianz.com (26 Nov, 2009) — A recent study of adults aged 70 or older found that augmented servings of fruits and vegetables were considerably related with a decline of cognitive impairment, and that those eating three or more servings of vegetables per day had a 30 percent lesser danger of death from heart disease.
The study was led by Dr. Longjian Liu, MD, PhD, a lecturer at the Drexel University School of Public Health. The outcome of the study was first reported in the November 3, 2009 edition of Circulation, an American Heart Association journal. Dr. Xiaoyan Yin at the University of Pennsylvania was the coauthor for the report.
“The study highlights that a boost in vegetable intake and enhanced cognitive function has noteworthy effects on the decrease of death from heart disease, in addition to death from all causes in older adults,” said Liu. “Fundamentally, this shows that even as an older adult, you must still eat your vegetables.”
The study assessed data from the second national Longitudinal Study of Aging, which was the largest national study of community-dwelling adults aged 70 years or older at that time of participation in 1994 and 1996. The study examined participants’ diet behaviors and cognitive function (assessed using global cognitive function score) concerning the risk of mortality at the end of the follow-up in December 2002.
Of the 9,447 total participants, 4,879 participants—1,778 males and 3,101 females—completed the cognitive function measure. Within an average seven-year follow-up, 1,286 participants died. Males had a 30 percent mortality rate, which was considerably higher than the 24 percent mortality rate for females.
The study found that augmented servings of fruits and vegetables were drastically linked with decreased occurrence rates of cognitive impairment. Additionally, the study indicated that participants who ate three or more servings of vegetables every day had a 30 percent lower risk of death from heart disease, and a 15 percent lower risk of death from all causes, than those who had less than three servings of vegetables per day.
The researchers in addition found that those with a global cognitive function score of less than 12 (defined as cognitive impairment, of those who were in the first quartile of scores), had a 55 percent higher danger of death from heart disease, and a 51 percent higher all-cause mortality rate than those with a global cognitive function score higher than 12.
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- Obesity alone raises risk of fatal heart attack, study finds – USA Today
- Stress management important for heart, reducing cardiac events – eMaxHealth
- U.S. Heart Disease Costs Expected to Soar – BusinessWeek
- Heart trouble? Blood test to tell years in advance – Times of India
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- Heart trouble? Blood test to tell years in advance – Times of India
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