DR MICHAEL MOSLEY: It’s not just about eating olive oil, nuts and fish…Living like you

It is 20 years since my father died prematurely from heart disease, and it still makes me sad to think that his premature death meant that he never got to see his grandchildren grow up.

He passed away aged 74, which these days feels quite young.

His is not an isolated tragedy; every year, more than 66,000 Britons have their lives cut short by heart disease — and most of them are men.

A new study by Aberdeen University found men not only have a 42 per cent higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease than women, but also tend to have first heart attacks much younger.

Men are more likely to smoke, have untreated hypertension (high blood pressure) and are generally not as good at looking after their hearts.

Meanwhile women, at least up to the menopause, are protected by their hormones, particularly oestrogen.

It is the traditional Mediterranean lifestyle and not just the food that’s protective and beneficial. So much so that scientists in Spain have now created something called the Mediterranean Lifestyle Index (or MEDLIFE) (Stock Image) 

According to the British Heart Foundation, even when women do develop fatty plaques in the arteries supplying blood to their hearts, it tends to be in more minor vessels, so less likely to lead to a fatal heart attack.

That said, because heart attacks are less common in women, they often get missed. Research suggests that women are 50 per cent more likely to receive a wrong initial diagnosis when having a heart attack (partly because their symptoms can differ too).

But if like me you know you are at higher risk of heart disease and a heart attack because of a family history, there are ways to reduce it.

A s regular readers of this column will know, I am a huge fan of the traditional Mediterranean diet, rich in olive oil, nuts and oily fish, with lots of fruit and veg.

Following this diet for more than ten years has helped me keep weight off and my blood pressure and blood sugar levels within a healthy range. And large trials show eating more of these sorts of food can cut your risk of heart disease, stroke and developing type 2 diabetes by almost half.

But it is not as simple as adding a bit more olive oil or oily fish to your life. While these foods are anti-inflammatory (and chronic inflammation helps drive heart disease), there is so much more to benefit from when looking at the Mediterranean lifestyle.

In fact, it is the traditional Mediterranean lifestyle and not just the food that’s protective and beneficial. So much so that scientists in Spain have now created something called the Mediterranean Lifestyle Index (or MEDLIFE) which takes into account other aspects of the Mediterranean lifestyle that are useful, including activity levels and socialising with friends.

Using the MEDLIFE, you score ‘points’ not just for consuming more olive oil, but also for socialising for at least a couple of hours at the weekend and spending less than one hour a day watching TV, for instance (Stock Image) 

Using the MEDLIFE, you score ‘points’ not just for consuming more olive oil, but also for socialising for at least a couple of hours at the weekend and spending less than one hour a day watching TV, for instance.

And you don’t have to live in the Mediterranean to get these benefits. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health recently examined the lifestyles of more than 110,000 middle-aged Britons, using data from UK Biobank (which collects in-depth health and genetic data on half a million volunteers). The participants were scored using the MEDLIFE index and monitored for an average of nine years.

Those with a higher MEDLIFE score not only had a lower risk of heart disease, but a 29 per cent lower risk of getting cancer and of dying prematurely.

Interestingly, the factors which predicted the lowest risk of death from heart disease were being physically active and sociable. That’s possibly because exercise and socialising are both good ways to reduce stress, which is known to increase the risk of heart disease.

But how do you know if you are at increased risk of a heart attack?

One helpful tool is the online Qrisk calculator used by GPs. Here you enter details such as your age, gender, height and weight, and (if you know them) your cholesterol and blood pressure.

When I did this, it told me that I had the heart age of 60 (I’m 66) and that my chance of having a heart attack in the next ten years is 9 per cent (the average for a healthy person of the same age, sex and ethnicity is 13 per cent). But genetics also play an important part. My dad had a heart attack in his 50s and when I ticked that box on the Qrisk calculator, my heart age jumped to 66 and my risk of a heart attack in the next ten years jumped to over 12 per cent.

If your Qrisk is over 10 per cent, the NHS recommends you see your GP and might need to be prescribed statins.

There are more personalised ways to identify heart risk, including a cardiac CT scan, which I tried myself a few years ago for a TV documentary. This revealed plaque (clumps of cholesterol) in my main coronary arteries and the cardiologist recommended I start on statins, to stabilise the clumps and minimise the risk of them breaking off and causing a heart attack.

I did just that — while sticking to my Mediterranean lifestyle rules — and a recent repeat scan shows the plaque seems to have shrunk.

These scans are available on the NHS (typically they’re offered to people with existing heart problems or a strong family history of heart disease — privately it can cost £1,000 plus).

As prevention is always better than cure, why not adopt a more laid-back Mediterranean lifestyle to protect your heart?

Pour olive oil on your veg, snack on nuts, go for a stroll with friends — and have the occasional nap. That doesn’t sound too bad, does it?

Banana ‘saboteur’ in your smoothie 

There are certain types of fruit – apples, pears, blueberries and black­berries – that are packed with flavanols, powerful plant compounds that have a range of benefits, including protecting cells from damage that could lead to cancer.

Then there are bananas, Britain’s most popular fruit, which are rich in fibre and vitamins.

You might think combining both in a smoothie will give you a big hit of health benefits. In fact it won’t, according to new research by Reading University.

Volunteers drank a smoothie made of mixed berries, or one with added banana (Stock Image) 

Volunteers drank a smoothie made of mixed berries, or one with added banana.

Blood and urine samples revealed that those who had the banana smoothie had 84 per cent lower levels of flavanols in their body. The researchers think this is because bananas have high levels of an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase, which seems to break down flavanols.

Do wrinkly rats hold key to long life?

Naked mole rats are weird-looking creatures and they fascinate scientists because they can live for more than 40 years – nearly ten times longer than similar-sized rodents – without developing diseases such as dementia, heart disease or arthritis.

Now it seems the key to their good health and longevity could be their naturally high levels of hyaluronic acid (a compound that’s also found in our skin and in fluid around our joints, which helps keep them lubricated). 

In high concentrations hyaluronic acid also has a powerful anti-inflammatory action. U.S. researchers successfully transferred the gene responsible for producing hyaluronic acid from naked mole rats to mice, and found the mice lived longer, healthier lives, reported the journal Nature.

Further studies are on the way, including a human trial using a drug that prevents the breakdown in the body of hyaluronic acid