Eat breakfast for a healthy heart

A new study appears to confirm that when you eat is just as important for health as what and how much you eat.
US researchers asked men to complete questionnaires about what they ate and when they ate it, then tracked their health for 16 years. Those who said they skipped breakfast were found to have a higher risk of heart attack or fatal coronary heart disease.
Lead author Leah Cahill, of the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), and colleagues, write about their findings in a July 23rd issue of the American Heart Association journal Circulation.
In a statement, Leah Cahill, who is a postdoctoral research fellow in the department of nutrition at HSPH, explains what may lie behind the findings:

"Skipping breakfast may lead to one or more risk factors, including obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, which may in turn lead to a heart attack over time."

For their study the researchers analyzed food frequency questionnaires completed by 26,902 male health professionals aged between 45 and 82 years and tracked their health for 16 years from 1992 to 2008. The men were free of heart disease and cancer at the start of the study.
Over the follow-up, 1,572 men experienced non-fatal heart attacks or died of coronary heart disease.
When they analyzed the data the researchers found men who said they did not have breakfast had a 27% higher risk of heart attack or death from coronary heart disease than men who said they ate breakfast.

Men who skipped breakfast had other risk factors

The men who said they skipped breakfast tended to be younger, single, smokers, who worked full time, did not do much exercise and drank more alcohol.
The researchers also found when they adjusted the results to take out the effect of body mass index, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, the links between skipping breakfast and higher risk for heart attack or death from coronary heart disease became much weaker: they were no longer statistically significant.
They note this suggests "eating habits may affect risk of coronary heart disease through pathways associated with these traditional risk factors."
They also found no links between how many times a day the men said they ate and risk of coronary heart disease.

Eating late at night linked to heart disease

They did find a link, however, between eating late at night and coronary heart disease. Compared with men who said they did not eat late at night, among those who did, there was a 55% higher risk of coronary heart disease.
But the authors note that, judging by the few men in the study who ate late at night, this was unlikely to be a major public health concern.
Leah Cahill says the message from the study, which reinforces previous research, is: "Don't skip breakfast." Eating a healthy meal at the start of the day is linked to lower risk of heart attacks.

Breakfast tips

Incorporate many types of healthy foods into your breakfast, Leah Cahill advises - as this is "an easy way to ensure your meal provides adequate energy and a healthy balance of nutrients, such as protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals."
If eating a bowl of cereal, try adding nuts and chopped fruit, or steel-cut oatmeal. This is a "great way to start the day," Leah Cahill adds.
Senior author Eric Rimm, associate professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School, says the team has spent decades looking at the effects of quality and composition of diet on health, and now this new study suggests overall dietary habits should also be considered in lowering risk of heart disease.
At a conference in 2012, UK scientists presented a study that explained why people who skip breakfast tend to find high calorie food more appealing later in the day: their brain circuits may be primed toward seeking it when fasting.

Stress Early In Life Can Affect Heart Function Early

Life stress early on such as that experienced by babies who are sick, appears to have an early impact on heart function, affecting the heart's ability to refill with oxygen-rich blood and relax.
A group of researchers from Georgia Regents University conducted a study using rat pups, separating them from their mothers for a couple hours everyday. Then, an extra stress was added to raise blood pressure.

The researchers saw a noteworthy fall in basic heart function. The rates of relaxation and re-filling stayed low in the separation model, however, reductions remained steady by ages two and six months, as the rats progressed to middle age.

The model as well as the controls had reductions in those functions that generally come naturally with age.

Surprisingly, the power with which the heart released blood stayed consistent with the added stressor, angiotensin II - a strong constrictor of blood vessels. Echocardiography was used to measure heart function.

Dr. Catalina Bazacliu, neonatologist at the Medical College of Georgia and Children's Hospital of Georgia at Georgia Regents University, said:

"We expected the heart's ability to relax and refill to lag behind in our model. We believe these babies may be at increased risk for cardiovascular disease and we are working to understand exactly what puts them at risk."

The authors are presenting their findings today at the Southern Regional Meetings in New Orleans.

The findings also show that the blood pressure of rats that are separated from their mothers rises more frequently in response to angiotensin II, their heart rates also increased.

Generally, a compensatory mechanism pushes the heart rate down a bit when blood pressure increases.

Previous studies have indicated persistent blood vessel changes in the early stress model, such as elevated contraction and decreased relaxation when similarly stressed.

Other longitudinal studies in humans have revealed long-term cardiovascular consequences, like babies born during the Dutch famine of World War II, maturing with elevated risks of:

• cardiovascular disease
• diabetes
• obesity
• other health related issues

In another related study by Bazacliu, she used a similar animal model showing that babies whose growth was limited in-utero by health issues such as preeclampsia - high blood pressure in mothers during pregnancy - were at an elevated risk for cardiovascular disease as adults.

These observations were seen whether the babies were born at full term or prematurely. Higher pressure during development decreases blood flow from mother to baby; decreased oxygen and nutrition to the baby is an example of environmental stress.

Bazacliu points out that although neonatal intensive care units are designed to save and treat premature babies, they can actually cause more stress. The NICU at the Children's Hospital of Georgia works to reduce the negative effects, such as enacting visiting hours, minimizing noise, and other family targeted techniques.

Bazacliu conclues, "All the procedures we must do, the separation from the mother, the environment, even though the babies need the help, it represents a stress."