The Mediterranean diet is associated with better cardiovasular health for women in mid-life but not men: A PREVENT dementia cohort cross-sectional analysis

Sarah Gregory, Georgios Ntailianis, Oliver Shannon, Emma Stevenson, Craig Ritchie, Katie Wells, Graciela Muniz-Terrera

Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular diseases (2023)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.numecd.2023.07.020

Summary

A Mediterranean diet is rich in fruit, vegetables, pulses, olive oil and oily fish. People who eat this diet have been shown to have better cardiovascular health such as lower blood pressure and lower body mass index (BMI). The aim of this study was to (1) understand if the Mediterranean diet was associated with better cardiovascular health in the PREVENT dementia cohort and (2) to see if this differed between men and women. Three different scores were created which represent how close an individual’s diet represented a Mediterranean diet. Associations between these diet scores and measures of cardiovascular health, which included: blood pressure, BMI, waist-to-hip ratio, cholesterol, triglycerides and fasting glucose were then tested. The study found that higher Mediterranean diet scores were associated with lower blood pressure, lower BMI and lower cardiovascular risk scores and found these results were particularly consistent for women. This suggests the importance of considering sex and gender in the development of nutritional recommendations to improve cardiovascular health.

Insulin resistance, age and depression’s impact on cognition in middle-aged adults from the PREVENT cohort

Bauermeister, S.D., Yehuda M.B.Reid, G., Gregory, S., Howgego, G., Ritchie, K., Watermeyer, T., Muniz-Terrera, G., Koychev, I.

British Medical Journal (2023)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0271678X231173587

Summary

This study sought to look at the relationship between pre-diabetes (that is resistance of the body tissue to insulin), depressive symptoms and performance on memory tests in 40-59 year olds. Blood samples were analysed to check how responsive the body tissues were to insulin. Scores on a depression symptoms scale was used to assess levels of depression. Results from two computerised tests were used to determine memory and thinking skills. The results found those with evidence of insulin resistance reported higher depression symptoms. Higher insulin resistance in older middle-aged adults may be particularly detrimental to some aspects of memory and thinking as performance was impaired in those aged 50-60 years. The findings show that there are interrelationships between depression, resistance to insulin and cognitive impairment.