In the news: Pro-inflammatory Diets May Increase Long-Term CVD Risk

Pro-inflammatory Diets Up CVD Risk Long-Term

Inflammation plays an important role in the develop-ment of cardiovascular disease (CVD). While research has shown that diet influences inflammation, whether dietary patterns that promote inflammation can increase the long-term risk of CVD is still unknown.

In a new study, Harvard researchers sought to shed light on this question. Their findings suggest that reducing the inflammatory potential of the diet may be an effective strategy for preventing CVD(1).

The researchers prospectively followed 74,578 women from the Nurses’ Health Study (1984–2016), 91,656 women from the Nurses’ Health Study II (1991–2015), and 43,911 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (1986–2016) who were free of CVD at baseline.

Diet was assessed by food frequency questionnaires every 4 years. The inflammatory potential of diet was evaluated using a food-based empirical dietary inflammatory pattern (EDIP) score that was pre-defined based on levels of 3 systemic inflammatory biomarkers (CRP, IL-6 and TNF-alpha).

The 3 cohorts provided 5,291,518 person-years of follow-up. A pooled analysis of the cohorts adjusted for potential confounding variables, showed that the highest dietary inflammatory potential (highest EDIP score vs. the lowest score) was associated with: