Download Group Question: Does diet affect Heart Disease? Are blueberries

Group Question: Does diet affect Heart Disease?
Are blueberries beneficial to a healthy heart?
Ahmet I, Spangler E, Shukitt-Hale B, el at. Survival and Cardioprotective Benefits of Long-Term
Blueberry Enriched Diet in Dilated Cardiomyopathy Following Myocardial Infarction in Rats.
PLoS One. 2009; 4(11): e7975.
The researchers use data from a 96 rat population based control study examining the effects of
a blueberry supplemented diet over a course of 12 months. All the rats were maintained on ad
libitum food with permanent access to filtered water. The left descending coronary artery was
ligated in 86 rats. A sham operation was performed on 10 rats without coronary ligation. These
10 rats served as the control. The sixty-four rats that survived the coronary ligation received the
blueberry supplemented diet. While there is further research needed, a blueberry diet did
improve one-year survival, lessened left ventricular (LV) remodeling, prevented LV wall
thinning, and arrested myocardial infarction (MI) expansion of rats after surgically induced
myocardial infarction.
Although this study has several strengths such as carefully selected controls and detailed
collection, it is the first experiment in accessing the health benefits of blueberries after a
myocardial infarction. The population size was based on 96 rats which is a decent number, but
a bigger population would elude more reliable results, considering many of the rats died over
the course of the 12-months. Another downfall of this study is that it does not clearly state
what consisted of the blueberry enriched diet, so we do not know it was a juice, supplement, or
fresh blueberries.
This study lends support to the hypothesis that a blueberry diet may have beneficial effects on
improving the survival years after a myocardial infarction. However, since this is such a new
study, it is still unsure what is exactly causing this affect. While it could be the antioxidant effect
of blueberries that improved conditions of the heart, like was stated in the news article, it could
very well be other components.