How olive oil helps 'switch off' genes which lead to conditions including heart disease and arthritis

How olive oil helps 'switch off' genes which lead to conditions including heart disease and arthritis
By Jenny Hope
Last updated at 8:33 AM on 20th April 2010
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Olive oil's health-giving benefits stem from its ability to help 'switch off ' genes that inflame conditions ranging from heart disease to arthritis, claim researchers.
Their discovery shows how the much-praised Mediterranean diet can suppress chronic disorders.
Spanish researchers identified almost 100 genes whose inflammatory activity is dampened by consumption of olive oil, in particular extra virgin olive oil.
Spanish researchers have found a whole new use for olive oil, in particular extra virgin olive oil
Greeks are the biggest consumers of olive oil in the world - eating 20 times more than Britons - while Italians eat ten times as much.
Eating healthy mono-unsaturated fats such as olive oil is known to lower the risk of heart disease.
In Britain, which has one of the highest heart attack rates in the world, much higher levels of animal or saturated fats are eaten.

In the study, 20 patients with metabolic syndrome, which puts them at high risk of developing cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, were asked to eat breakfast foods covered in two types of olive oil.
One was extra virgin olive oil high in phenol compounds - natural antioxidants - while the other type of oil had low levels of phenols.
The volunteers had to avoid drugs, vitamins and other supplements for six weeks before the study started.
Dr Francisco Perez- Jimenez, from the University of Cordoba, said: 'We identified 98 differentially expressed genes when comparing the intake of phenol-rich olive oil with low-phenol olive oil.
'Several of the repressed genes are known to be involved in pro-inflammatory processes, suggesting the diet can switch the activity of immune system cells.'
Olive oil contains omega-6 fats, a form of 'healthy' polyunsaturates known to block the body's response to inflammation in chronic conditions such as heart disease and arthritis.
But the latest study, whose findings are published today in the science journal BMC Genomics, provides a gene-related explanation for some of the anti-inflammatory effect.
Dietitians say a Mediterranean diet also appears to improve vascular function - the flexibility of cells lining the walls of blood vessels, particularly in the heart and circulatory system.
Eating meat increases the risk of bladder cancer, according to research by scientists at the University of Texas.
Xifeng Wu, the 12-year study's lead author, said: 'People who eat a lot of red meat, particularly well-done red meat, seem to have a higher likelihood of bladder cancer.'

More than 10,000 Britons are diagnosed with bladder cancer every year.




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