The new study conducted in mice, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), which reflects the CadenaBBC, has found that those eating habits cause irreversible damage to arteries.
The best option for a healthy life is to eat a balanced diet, according to research findings.
Diet and strokes
Scientists from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, USA, decided to investigate the impact on the cardiovascular system of low-carb diets after hearing reports of people who had suffered heart attacks while subjected to these regimes.
“Our research suggests that, at least in animals, these diets may be having adverse cardiovascular effects,” the BBC stated Dr. Anthony Rosenzweig, who led the research.
The researchers divided the mice into three groups each with feeding different diets: standard diet mice, a Western diet that was high in fat and a diet low in carbohydrates and high in protein.
The low-carb diet, the authors say, did not affect cholesterol levels but showed a significant difference in the impact on atherosclerosis-the buildup of fatty deposits in artery walls, a condition that can cause heart attacks and strokes.
After 12 weeks, the mice who consumed the low-carbohydrate diet had lost weight but 15% developed more atherosclerosis than animals that were fed a normal diet mice. Among mice of the Western diet was found 9% more atherosclerosis.
Adverse effects
Scientists do not know why there is this effect, but it is believed that low-carb diets could affect how the bone marrow cells are able to effectively clean the fatty deposits in arteries.
“Being able to understand the mechanisms responsible for these effects and the potential restorative processes that may counteract vascular disease, may eventually help doctors to provide the best treatment to their patients,” says Dr. Rosenzweig.
“Everything seems to indicate that a moderate and balanced diet combined with regular exercise, is probably best for most people,” says the researcher.