Healthy Food & Healthy Living by Dr. Ayala

Is wellness contagious?

To assess the likelihood of disease development we often look at family members, such as parents and siblings that share our genetic makeup. 

Spouses usually don’t – they’re customarily not related to us – but do their health characteristics predict our own?

In sickness and in health

When one spouse becomes obese over time, the other spouse is chances of becoming obese nearly doubles. Studies suggest that the risk of hypertension, lipid abnormalities, and abnormal glucose tolerance also tend to match in couples.

A new study in Atherosclerosis including more than 33,000 couples from Japan and the Netherlands looked at several heart risk factors among the pairs. In both countries the couple members were found to have concordant blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, hypertension, diabetes and metabolic syndrome – the likelihood that these risk factors or abnormalities would similarly affect both spouses was significantly higher in the study participants.

Which isn’t a huge surprise. People often choose spouses who are like them and mating isn’t random. A smoker is more likely to marry another smoker, and a fitness enthusiast will more likely connect with a like minded athletically inclined.

But there’s much more to it, as people who live together share an environment, and therefore tend to share lifestyle and diet; with time the effects of these grow stronger, shaping our health trajectories. 

And then there’s the microbiome. We now know that couples share similar bacteria in their gut, and our microbiome composition is linked with chronic disease risk.

These studies help emphasize how central lifestyle choices are to the likelihood of many chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes – genetic makeup predicts just a small part, and your habits affect health outcomes much more.

Talk to the spouse

The authors suggest using these findings to better facilitate wellness goals: “Our study provides a basis for preventive strategies and interventions targeting spouses, rather than individuals. Future studies are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of couple-based interventions to simultaneously reduce the cardiovascular risk of both spouses.”

In much the same way, parents' behaviors affect kids’ emerging habits, and eating well and exercising spreads within families without a word being said.

Contagion goes both ways

Our social group shapes us, and we shape it in return. When you bear that in mind, rather than seeing behaviors within your close circle as permission to do the same, each of these should be examined. With positive behaviors, allow yourself to be reflexively led. With others, know that if you make a change for the better, it’s quite possible that you’ll not only help yourself, but you might also endow your close people with effortless health benefits. 

The ripple effects of eating well go even beyond those of driving carefully or having a positive attitude, as the mechanisms of contagion are multiple. 

Dr. Ayala

Further evidence that eating right lowers blood pressure

Most nutrition studies rely on people reporting about what they eat. The reliability of such reports is limited by people’s memory and dependability – even with the best intentions people often delude even themselves regarding their diet and weight. Nevertheless, when large sets of data, from many different studies, continue to point in the same direction, the connection between diet components and outcomes becomes more and more robust despite these limitations.

But proving a dietary connection through objective measurements offers extra support.

One of the most important risk factors all over the world is high blood pressure. Hypertension is a risk factor for heart disease, stroke and dementia. Hypertension worries are getting some extra attention these days – people with high blood pressure may be at greater risk of severe Covid-19. Abnormally high blood pressure is responsive to several lifestyle changes, chief among them are changes in the food we eat.

Certain plant foods contain bioactive molecules that are associated with lower blood pressure. Flavonoids are a large family of plant beneficial compounds, and they occur naturally in fruits, veggies, herbs, spices and plant-based drinks such as wine and tea. Flavan-3-ols are a major class within the flavonoid family, and are found in tea, berries, nuts and cocoa.

How to keep your blood pressure in check

A new study in Scientific Reports looked at a new nutrition marker that reflects plant food intake –  the flavan-3-ol and (–)-epicatechin biomarker – in more than 25,000 people, and its correlation with blood pressure. The researchers found that high flavan-3-ol intake was associated with a significantly lower blood pressure, both systolic and diastolic. People with higher the flavan-3-ol levels also had lower blood lipids.

Many studies already show a correlation between plant-centered diets and lower blood pressure. A review in JAMA Internal Medicine, analyzing 39 studies finds that vegetarian diets – emphasizing plant-foods such as veggies, fruit, grains and legumes – are associated with lower blood pressure. A Mediterranean diet is associated with improved blood pressure. The DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet – which emphasizes vegetables, fruit, and low-fat dairy, while limiting salt – has been successful in delivering on the promise of its name: It's proven to reduce blood pressure in randomized controlled trials.

So the findings of this study are not surprising. The news here is the confirmation of the outcome (lower blood pressure) by verifiable measurements of a plant biomarker.  

And this is a fine reminder that to maintain healthy blood pressure what you do eat (plant foods) is as important as what you limit in your diet (alcohol, salt, highly processed food), and that a simple regimen of tea, apples, berries and cocoa can have measurable benefits.

Food, however, is only one modifiable variable that affects your blood pressure. Exercise, and maintaining a healthy weight are also important. 

As is controlling stress.

In this election season, topped by a global pandemic, it’s ever more important to Keep Calm and Eat Your Plants.

Dr. Ayala