- A pro-inflammatory diet has been linked to a biomarker commonly associated with heart failure.
- Foods such as red meat, white flour, sugar and seed oils are known as pro-inflammatory foods.
- In a large observational study, pro-inflammatory foods were associated with higher amounts of the biomarker in the body.
Pro-inflammatory foods can lead to chronic inflammation and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Now, scientists have linked them to a biomarker normally found in heart failure patients.
You are what you eat. This old adage still holds true when we talk about inflammation.
Red meat, seed oils, white flour and other highly processed foods are important pro-inflammatory foods. Eating too much of these things, which is common in the standard
While an occasional hamburger probably won’t kill you, consistently eating a diet high in pro-inflammatory foods can lead to chronic inflammation, a major risk factor for other serious health problems like.
Researchers have now uncovered another clue to how pro-inflammatory foods and increased CVD risk are linked by isolating a specific blood biomarker associated with heart failure.
In a large observational study of nearly 11,000 Americans, those who ate more pro-inflammatory foods had greater amounts of the biomarker in their blood, indicating the potential for future CVD. of
The findings suggest “a strong association between pro-inflammatory diets and increased heart failure biomarkers, with implications for dietary modifications in cardiovascular risk management,” the study authors wrote.
“This is consistent with current data and research showing how important nutrition and diet are, especially with heart failure and cardiovascular disease,” Alyssa Kwan, MS, RD, a clinical dietitian in cardiology at Stanford Medicine who does not was associated with research, Healthline said.
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Building on studies like these, the authors wanted to specifically investigate whether a diet high in inflammation-causing foods would affect a biomarker known as NT-proBNP.
NT-proBNP is commonly associated with heart failure. While even healthy individuals have some level of the biomarker in their blood, when it is detected at higher levels it means that the heart is under stress and may be indicative of heart failure.
“These are blood-based biomarkers that mostly reflect cardiac wall stress. When does cardiac wall stress occur? “If you have too much fluid on board, that can lead to pressure and volume stress on the heart, which can then lead to increased release of these biomarkers,” Dr. Matthew Feinstein, MD, an associate professor of cardiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, which was not affiliated with the research, told Healthline.
The study authors found that diet was a factor associated with the presence of NT-proBNP in the bloodstream.
Researchers included 10,766 American adults in their study through
Study participants participated in the NHANES between 1999 and 2004 and were almost equally divided between men and women. The group was predominantly white (76.87%), but also included individuals of color (10.76%) and Mexican Americans (3.23%).
The researchers investigated the participants’ levels of biomarkers while comparing them to an index used to quantify diet in terms of its pro- or anti-inflammatory potential, known as
Using the DII, researchers can assign an individual a composite score based on a large number of variables related to the effect of their diet on inflammation.
Study participants who had a higher DII score had higher levels of NT-proBNP in their bodies. In those without heart failure, a single one-unit increase in DII score was associated with a “significant elevation” of the biomarker of 8.57 pg/mL.
When the researchers compared those with the highest DII scores to those with the lowest, they found an increase of nearly 40 pg/mL between the two groups.
Feinstein told Healthline that the findings are significant but subtle and do not show that a pro-inflammatory diet was directly leading to heart failure.
“What are we discovering here? Perhaps, it is reasonable to say that what we are discovering here is a marker of subclinical cardiac congestion and wall stress. This is not necessarily heart failure, but a component of pre-heart failure,” he said.
In patients who already had heart failure, the study did not find any significant association between DII score and biomarker levels.
So a pro-inflammatory diet is definitely bad for you. But how do you start eating the right foods and help reduce inflammation?
“Decades of research have shown that certain dietary patterns (such as the Mediterranean diet, which is high in fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats) tend to be beneficial for inflammatory markers,” Kristin Kirkpatrick, MS RD, a dietitian with. Cleveland Clinic, and co-author of Regenerative Health, told Healthline.
Top anti-inflammatory foods include:
- berries
- Fatty fish
- Broccoli
- avocado
- Green tea
- peppers
- GRAPE
- India’s saffron
- Dark chocolate
- Extra virgin olive oil
“We know that a high intake of Omega-3 is actually anti-inflammatory. So this includes oily fish like salmon and sardines, but also other foods like chia and flax seeds. “These are all anti-inflammatory things that we want to see people eat more of,” Kwan said.
And if you’re not quite sure how to get started with a healthy, anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle, Kirkpatrick offers some great tips:
“Get nutritious bread for your money. It’s not the cookies, fast food, or sugary soda we have every now and then that can contribute to inflammation—it’s when these foods become the most frequently consumed foods. So – if the focus is on nutritious foods most of the time, along with regular physical activity, adequate sleep and stress management, then the risk of inflammation can be reduced,” she said.
Researchers have linked a pro-inflammatory diet to a biomarker commonly associated with heart failure.
In a study of nearly 11,000 Americans, those who scored higher on a dietary index for inflammatory foods had more of the biomarker in their blood.
The biomarker does not mean that a person has heart failure, but it can indicate increased stress on the heart muscle.
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