Consuming Raw Vegetables, Fruits May Counteract Genes Linked To Heart Disease

On its website, ABC News  (10/12, Carollo) reports, “Eating a healthy amount of greens could have an effect on genes linked to heart disease, according to a new study” published in the journal PLoS Medicine.

HealthDay  (10/12, Preidt) reports that investigators “examined the link between the 9p21 gene variant and diet in more than 27,000 people of five ethnicities — Arab, European, Chinese, Latin American and South Asian.” The researchers found that “the risk of heart attack in people with the 9p21 gene variant who ate a healthy diet composed mainly of raw vegetables, fruits and berries was similar to that of people without the high-risk gene variant.”

WebMD  (10/12, Doheny) reports, “The study findings suggest that lifestyle does matter, no matter what your genes have dealt you, says Eric Topol, MD, professor of translational genomics at The Scripps Research Institute and director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute in La Jolla, Calif.”