Though a Mediterranean diet has long been thought to raise the levels of good cholesterol in the body, a study has suggested that some people who suffer heart attacks could have genetic markers which make their diet increase the risk of cardiac problems.
The team discovered that those with high levels of the ‘good’ cholesterol HDL, which is associated with a diet rich in olive oil, nuts and oily fish, has a higher risk of suffering further heart attacks. The people involved had higher levels of the protein CPR, associated with inflammation, which suggested that the protein determined whether high levels of HDL acted as a protection or increased the risk of a heart attack.
The results have been described as ‘counter-intuitive’ by lead researcher Professor James Corsetti of the University of Rochester in New York. However they do perhaps explain why a medication trialled by Pfizer designed to raise levels of HDL cholesterol had disappointing results.
In this study, 767 patients who had had a heart attack were followed for two years. About 20% of the patients who were at high risk of a second heart attack also had high levels of HDL and CRP.
The team have suggested that if doctors and researchers can identify those people who do not benefit from raised levels of HDL, they could properly test medications to raise HDL levels in the rest of the population.
Merke announced in 2011 that they were planning to test an HDL-increasing medication to see whether it reduced incidences of stroke and heart attack.