Page 23 - MemoriaOBN-Eng

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P1. Nutrition

CIBERobn is the only structure that has been able to prove for the first time world-
Description
wide through the PREDIMED Study that when the Mediterranean diet is used as an
intervention agent, it has components that are capable of reducing cardiovascular

risk factors. The term “cardiovascular risk factors” does not refer to indirect or sur-

rogate markers, but rather to cardiovascular morbi-mortality giving more weight
to the results. The first part of this paper was finished in the New England Journal

of Medicine in 2013 with considerable scientific repercussion and media coverage.

Obesity and diabetes mellitus are closely related metabolic diseases that have
reached epidemic proportions in the 21st century.

It is therefore not unusual for pathologies associated with obesity, such as car-

diovascular diseases and cancer, to be the most common causes of death in the

Western world. In this context, it should be pointed out that the first step both in
prevention and in treatment of these diseases is to maintain a lifestyle healthy

based on an optimal diet and suitable physical activity.

For this reason, any hygienic and/or dietary measures employed to achieve a
healthy diet and lifestyle must always be a key ingredient to any prevention and

the first step in any treatment.

Preventive efforts made in Primary Care usually consist of “preventive” treatments

based on drugs (hypolipidemic agents, antihypertensives, etc.) instead of giving
priority to education to modify lifestyles.

Though the efficacy of such drugs is undeniable, the delay in primary preven-

tion is unfortunate because in addition to greatly increasing the pharmaceutical
expense, the desired effectiveness is not attained because such prevention is

usually too late in coming.

Eating habits play a crucial role in maintaining health both in individuals and in

society as a whole. Currently, the Mediterranean diet is considered the healthi- 13
est eating model.
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Findings of a number of European studies, EPIC cohort follow-up in Spain, Greece RT
PO
and the Netherlands, the SUN study in a university population, the HALE study in E
R
an elderly population and the Swedish study, as well as those observed in other AL
studies conducted in the United States (the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study and U
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the Nurses’ Health Study) or Australia (Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study) sug- A
gest that strictly following the conventional Mediterranean diet is associated with /
BN
lower overall mortality and lower mortality due to coronary heart disease.
O
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Until now, only one randomised clinical trial with a modified Mediterranean diet B
CI
model (enriched with alpha-linolenic acid and little olive oil) versus a control diet,
the Lyon Diet Heart Study, has been conducted. In this trial, it was concluded
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