%0 Journal Article
%T The Adoption of Mediterranean Diet Attenuates the Development of Acute Coronary Syndromes in People with the Metabolic Syndrome
%A Christos Pitsavos
%A Demosthenes B Panagiotakos
%A Christine Chrysohoou
%A Ioanna Papaioannou
%A Lambros Papadimitriou
%A Dimitrios Tousoulis
%A Christodoulos Stefanadis
%A Pavlos Toutouzas
%J Nutrition Journal
%D 2003
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1475-2891-2-1
%X During 2000¨C2002, we randomly selected, from all Greek regions, 848 hospitalised patients (695 males, 58 ¡À 10 & 153 females, 65 ¡À 9 years old) with a first event of acute coronary syndrome and 1078 frequency matched, by sex, age, region controls, without any suspicious for cardiovascular disease. Nutritional habits were evaluated through a validated questionnaire, while the metabolic syndrome was defined according to the NCEP ATP III criteria. Mediterranean diet was defined according to the guidelines of the Division of Nutrition/Epidemiology, of Athens Medical School.Of the 1926 participants, 307 (36.2%) of the patients and 198 (18.4%) of the controls (P < 0.001) met the ATP III criteria. This was related with 2fold adjusted coronary risk (odds ratio = 2.35, 95% 1.87 ¨C 2.84) in subjects with the metabolic syndrome as compared with the rest of them. No differences were observed concerning the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome and sex of subjects, after adjustment for group of study (P > 0.1). Eighty (26%) of the patients and 70 (35%) of the controls (P < 0.01) with the metabolic syndrome were "closer" to the Mediterranean diet. Multivariate analysis revealed that the adoption of this diet is associated with a 35% (odds ratio = 0.65, 95% 0.44 ¨C 0.95) reduction of the coronary risk in subjects with the metabolic syndrome, after adjusting for age, sex, educational and financial level and the conventional cardiovascular risk factors.Consequently, the adoption of Mediterranean diet seems to attenuate the coronary risk in subjects with the metabolic syndrome.The metabolic syndrome is a condition that promotes atherosclerosis and increases the risk of cardiovascular events [1-3]. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 47 million Americans, or about one in five people, have this condition [1]. Contributors to the development of the metabolic syndrome may include genetics, a sedentary lifestyle, a Western diet (high in refined carbohydrates,
%K metabolic syndrome
%K risk
%K coronary
%K Mediterranean
%K diet
%K physical activity
%U http://www.nutritionj.com/content/2/1/1