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New Italian research highlights nutritional factors that may result in dramatically reduced risk of peripheral vascular disease. PVD, which is associated with atherosclerosis, inflammation, diabetes and smoking, affects older individuals. Symptoms such as leg pain and eventual loss of sensation to lower extremities are caused by impaired circulation in large peripheral arteries.

Higher Vitamin E and olive oil intake were found to correspond with reduced PVD risk of more than 60 percent. Another factor linked to lower PVD risk was high HDL cholesterol. The study was conducted in Rome.

The researchers speculated that higher intake of Vitamin E and olive oil could indicate overall superior dietary habits. The study was published in the journal Atherosclerosis, and assessed the diets of 1251 older individuals.

The Centers for Disease control has published a study pointing to obesity as the major cause of a huge increase in adult diabetes in the six year period from 1997-2003. Diabetes diagnoses in adults aged 18-79 rose 41% during that time period.

Currently about 65% of American adults are overweight or obese. In 2002 the obesity rate for US children was pegged at 16 %. This could increase with the release of new data on obesity in children due out this fall. Development of a very severe form of type one diabetes in children has been linked to obesity.

Symptoms of impulsiveness, inattentiveness and hyperactivity in ADHD teenagers showed remarkable improvement in a small new British study involving 20 children. After only three months on Omega 3 fish oils, the teenagers’ inattentive behavior dropped from 94% to 17%. Impulsive behavior plummeted from 89% to 28%.

The subjects, aged 12-15, received 500 mg daily of EPA as well as DHA. Some observers have noted that ADHD children improve on a gluten and casein free diet. Long chain fatty acids such as Omega 3 are not well absorbed in individuals whose intestinal villi have been damaged because of gluten and casein intolerance. Supplementation may be restoring fatty acid related metabolic functions to near normal levels in these individuals.

Dr. Madeleine Portwood, who conducted the study, has documented similar improvements in very young children with fish oil supplements. Her current work includes a large trial of fish oil supplements involving 270 children.

A big nutritional study published in the Annuals of Neurology points again to the value of the “Mediterranean Diet,” with its ample portions of antioxidant rich fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as Omega 3 fish oils. The study, which involved 2258 elderly New Yorkers, showed a 40% decrease in Alzheimer’s risk among those whose diet most resembles the traditional diet of Mediterranean people.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, teenagers in Spain, eating an “anti-Mediterranean” fast food diet, were found by researchers to have poor protein absorption because of something called the “Maillard reaction.” Fast food culture fosters the Maillard reaction by combining high cooking temperatures with sugars, fats and proteins. The (Maillard) chemical reaction has been known to cause cross-linking of protein, leading to oxidative stress, inflammation, and, eventually; disease, decreased mineral absorption and premature aging. Diminished protein absorption is the new element in this picture.

Fast food’s emphasis on high fructose corn syrup accelerates these reactions, as does the simultaneous consumption of products such as hamburgers and colas.

In a twist that points back to the anti-Alzheimer’s effect of the Mediterranean diet, fast food induced Maillard reactions not only promote diabetic disorders, asthma, arthritis and atherosclerosis, they are linked to higher rates of neuro-degenerative disorders (such as Alzheimer’s).

A compound in grapeseed extract reduces damage to blood vessels walls by 85 percent, according to findings presented last month at a biological conference on oxidative stress in Santa Barbara. Hardening of arteries begins with oxidative stress, leading to inflammation, and ultimately damage to the arterial wall. Grapeseed extract is an anti-inflammatory compound.

Linus Pauling contended nearly 20 years ago that atherosclerosis occurs when the body has insufficient nutrient precursors of collagen, which the body uses to repair arterial lesions. Pauling said the malnourished body attempts to repair arterial lesions by filling them with cholesterol, effectively using a “bubble gum” approach. Eventually, cholesterol deposits impair arterial flexibility, resulting in stroke or heart attack.

Grapeseed extract protected guinea pigs from cholesterol buildup in other recent research (see our post 6/25/05). Vitamin C and grapeseed extract may work synergistically to provide integrity to veins and arteries throughout the body, thus preempting the need for cholesterol deposits in the lesions.

These new findings are significant for the effort to reduce atherosclerosis, a condition responsible for more than half the deaths in developed countries. Do these studies point to dietary deficiencies of nutrients from fruits and vegetables as a causative factor in heart disease in developed countries ?