DASH Diet Reduces Heart Failure Risk in Women

Boston (HealthKnowItAll) - Results of a new study indicate that women following the DASH diet are also helping their hearts.

The DASH diet is well known as one that helps reduce chronic high blood pressure, but in a study it also was proven to reduce risk of heart failure.

The diet consists of high consumption of fruits and vegetables and grains, staying away from foods that contain salt.

For their study the researchers analyzed more than 38,000 Swedish women who at the beginning of the study period did not have heart problems.

During the study period, more than 400 women developed heart failure, and 28 of them actually died.

Researchers noted that those following the DASH diet were more than 30% less likely to develop heart failure than those women who did not follow the diet.

“The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension [DASH] diet may contribute to prevention of heart failure in some cases because it effectively reduced blood pressure and low density lipoprotein (LDL, or “bad”) cholesterol levels in clinical trials,” wrote Emily B. Levitan, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
in Boston, and colleagues.