Fruit may be good for you,
but don't ditch the statins
ARTICLE SUMMARY
Source: Beforeitsnews.com
Publication: April 7th, 2016
A study that was performed had the conclusion that if a persons diet was high fresh fruit, they had a reduced risk of developing cardiovascular disease. The major problem with this study, is that it looked at persons who did not have cardiovascular disease. The study also did no comparison of having an enriched diet of fruit to taking statin medications.
Cardiovascular disease is a growing epidemic and many precautions are being taken. Statin drugs are one of them. They can be prescribed for patients with current disease or those who have an increased risk of developing the disease. Fruit tends to be type of food that if people do eat it regularly, are generally more healthy, but fruit can not take place of prescribed medications. Fruit can be an added treatment along with a medication prescription.
This study was researched on Chinese adults (ages 35-74) where they were asked questions about their health and diet, along with taking measurements of their BMI blood pressure. These "patients" were followed for seven years and looked to see if those who regularly ate fruit as part of their diet had a reduced risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, heart attack or stroke.
They compared these patients lives and cofounders and compared them and estimated that deaths that occurred may have been to those "patients" not eating fruit compared to those who did.
Of those that were in the study, only 18% of them ate fresh fruit on a daily basis. They then compared those "patients" to those who never or rarely ate fresh fruit, and concluded that 40% of them were less likely to have died from a cardiovascular event. Those who ate fresh fruit regularly had lower blood pressures and glucose levels at the beginning of the study.
With the conclusion of the study, the patients who consumed fruit moderately and didn't have any cardiovascular episodes were solely based on the fruit and not other cofounding events. Fruit is extremely healthy and can be the source, but there is no way for them to confirm this.
ARTICLE CRITIQUE
I think this paper was poorly written. The study was performed in different countries and was contradicting in each area. China is not known for eating fruit in high quantities daily and would not be a great place to study. With testing the Chinese culture, it could be concluded that small amounts of fruit were needed, rather than in the UK where they eat fruit daily. When they performed the study in China, they excluded people who were on blood pressure medicine already, but they did not take into account other types of medications that people were on and they were test subjects. They also didn't document those who were smokers or drank alcohol. They also weren't precise enough when saying that they wanted test subjects who would each fresh fruit daily and not fruit juice. Fruit juices have lots of sugar and will alter the testing. We can all conclude that fruit is healthy for us, but with this test, we cannot conclude that it will prevent cardiovascular events.
This article is difficult to follow because there are multiple agencies reporting and the information is contradicting. This study was a cohort and it would not be able to prove that eating fresh fruit daily would put you at a lower risk for cardiovascular disease. If patients who had a cardiovascular history read this, they could gather the idea that if they tried to add fruit daily to their diets, that they could potentially stop taking their medication for their blood pressure.
This study would have been better to perform within a smaller group and work off of that specific study. They started with too large of a volunteer group and the outcome was contradicting and they could not conclude that patients who ate fruit daily, were at a lower risk for developing cardiovascular disease.
Patients who are on any type of mediation, especially blood pressure medicine should never stop taking it unless they consult their prescribing physician. The patients who are interested in healthier eating should consult with their physician in order to conclude the best type of diet will be for them. Some patients are on restrictions due to being on other types of medications.
WORKS CITED
Fruit may be good for you, but don't ditch the statins. (2016, April 7). NHS Choices. Retrieved April 7, 2016, from http://beforeitsnews.com/health/2016/04/fruit-may-be-good-for-you-but-dont-ditch-the-statins-2624292.html