New study shows popular dash diet reduces heart stress and damage

A recent study published in Journals of the American College of Cardiology has shown that a highly popular DASH diet greatly minimizes the effects of stress and damage to the heart. DASH—an acronym that stands for “Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension”—is a dietary program that encourages the consumption of foods such as whole grains, fish, poultry, nuts, low-fat dairy products, vegetables, and fruits.  And according to researchers from the Mayo Clinic, the diet emphasizes consuming the aforementioned foods in the following portions:

• 4-5 daily servings of vegetables and fruits
• 2-3 servings of low-fat dairy products
• 6-8 servings of whole grains
• No more than 1-ounce of fish, poultry, or lean meat a day

The Mayo Clinic further divulges that the diet stimulates the reduction of sodium in the body. They also labeled it as a lifelong approach to eating healthy that’s designed to prevent, as well as treat high blood pressure. A more in-depth study carried out by researchers from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard Medical School shows that the diet does so much more.  According to the lead author of the study, Dr. Stephen Juraschek, DASH was shown to reduce cholesterol and blood pressure, as well as lowering damage to cardiac heart muscles. But to conduct the study, Dr. Juraschek and his team collected stored specimens from four US medical centers preserved between 1997-1999. In the previous study conducted, Juraschek and his team enrolled 412 participants with elevated blood pressures and randomly assigned them to either undertake a controlled diet that mirrored a standard American diet, or the DASH diet. The participants in each group were then assigned a low, medium, or high sodium level. All of the participants had their snacks and meals provided for them, with a single meal per day eaten under the observation of researchers. The researchers then analyzed the specimens for three distinctive biomarkers in the blood that have been observed to show cardiovascular events in people without them suffering from any cardiovascular disease. The results showed that biomarkers linked to heart damage had reduced significantly by 18%; while those linked to heart damage and inflammation had dropped significantly by 13% According to Juraschek, this study is clear evidence that diet directly affects cardiac damage. The findings also show that dietary interventions can play a critical role in minimizing the risk of cardiovascular disease over a short time frame. Findings of the study come shortly after the US News & World Report ranked the DASH diet as the 2nd-best diet in the world after the Mediterranean diet in 2021. Therefore, the DASH diet could play a critical role in American healthcare as heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. In fact, according to statistics from the CDC, one American dies of heart disease every 36 seconds. While Juraschek has admitted that the diet encourages a high level of carbohydrate consumption, it still has multiple health benefits. Not only does it encourage weight loss, but it also has positive implications for an individual’s long-term health.