Breakfast cereal helps prevent heart failure

New research suggests that men who eat more whole grain breakfast cereals reduce their risk of heart failure.

Other research in the past has also suggested that the risk of hypertension, coronary heart disease, high blood cholesterol and mortality can be reduced with a diet rich in grain products.

Experts say the lifetime risk of heart failure is estimated at 20 percent (one in five) for both men and women aged 40 years and over.

Heart failure, occurs when the heart muscle becomes weakened by a poor blood supply and sufferers become breathless and find even mild forms of exercise an effort.

Wholegrain cereal is one that contains at least 25% oats or bran.

The researchers from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and Harvard Medical School, Boston, used data collected in the Physician’s Health Study I to analyse the association between breakfast cereal intake and new cases of heart failure in a large group of men (21,376) with an average age of 53.

The men's cereal intake was estimated by using a food frequency questionnaire and the incident of heart failure was assessed by annual follow-up questionnaires over a 19 year period.

The study authors, Dr. Luck Djousse and Dr. Michael Gaziano found that 1,018 of the participants experienced heart failure; this number included 362 of 6,995 participants who did not eat any cereal, 237 of 4,987 of those who ate one serving or less per week, 230 of 5,227 of those who ate two to six servings per week and 189 of 4,167 of those who ate seven or more servings per week.

The authors say that the data demonstrates that a higher intake of whole grain breakfast cereals is associated with a lower risk of heart failure and confirms the results of other studies.

The study is published in the current issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.