Eating several servings of nuts every week could help to reduce the risk of developing atrial fibrillation and heart failure, Swedish researchers say today.
Although previous studies have suggested that regular consumption of nuts is associated with a reduced risk of heart disease/stroke, it was not clear which aspects of cardiovascular disease nut consumption may be linked to.
An observational study, published in Heart, analysed the completed Food Frequency Questionnaire responses and lifestyle information from more than 61,000 Swedish, all of whom were aged between 45 and 83 years old.
Their cardiovascular health was then tracked for 17 years, to the end of 2014 or until death, whichever came first.
The research team found that people who ate nuts tended to be better educated and to have healthier lifestyles than those who did not include nuts in their diet. They were less likely to smoke or to have a history of high blood pressure. And they were leaner, more physically active, drank more alcohol and ate more fruit and vegetables.
During the monitoring period, there were 4,983 heart attacks, of which 917 were fatal. There were also 3,160 cases of heart failure; 7,550 cases of atrial fibrillation; 972 cases of aortic valve narrowing; 983 abdominal aortic aneurysms; 3,782 cases of ischaemic stroke; and 543 strokes caused by intracerebral haemorrhage.
Researchers, led by Dr Susanna Larsson, of the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, found that nut consumption was associated with a reduced risk of heart attack, heart failure, atrial fibrillation and abdominal aortic aneurysm, after taking account of age and sex.
But when several potentially influential known risk factors were accounted for, only associations with atrial fibrillation and with heart failure emerged.
They discovered that eating a serving of nuts one to three times a month was associated with a lowered risk of 3% of developing atrial fibrillation, while that rose the 12% when they were eaten once or twice a week. Eating them three times or more a week was associated with an 18% reduced risk.
The findings for heart failure were less consistent, but they noted that moderate weekly nut consumption was associated with a 20% lower risk.
The researchers say those who ate nuts had fewer cardiovascular risk factors to start with and this may have affected the findings – but the large size of participants and number of cardiovascular disease cases give further credence to the study.
“Nut consumption or factors associated with this nutritional behaviour may play a role in reducing the risk of atrial fibrillation and possibly heart failure,” they write.
“Since only a small proportion of this population had moderate (about 5%) or high (less than 2%) nut consumption, even a small increase in nut consumption may have large potential to lead to a reduction in incidence of atrial fibrillation and heart failure in this population.”
Larsson S, Dcra N, Björck M et al. Research: Nut consumption and incidence of seven cardiovascular diseases. Heart 17 April 2018; doi 10.1136/heartjnl-2017-312819
Link: http://heart.bmj.com/lookup/oi/10.1136/heartjnl-2017-312819
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